You've all come to know and love the Virtual Director Sportif competition that just opened it's 5:th season here on the Cafe. Now the time has come to step things up a notch with a full yearlong competition focused on the women's calendar. Those of you who have already played the VDS will recognize the fundamentals of the game and those who haven't, will find that it is very simple. It takes one minute to learn and a lifetime to master.
Why would you want to play?
Well, first of all to test your cycling-knowledge and win bragging-rights against your, clearly inferior, friends and competitors at the PdC. For those of you that suck something awful at the men's game, and you know who you are, this is the perfect chance to redeem yourself in a much more challenging game.
There will also be some moderately swanky prizes for the Top 3 teams and a spectacular special-prize for the player who manages the best combined result in the men's and women's VDS.
The biggest bonus though comes from the extra insight you get by playing the WVDS. Picking and following a women's team is by far the most fun way to learn more about the riders and teams.
Throughout the season there will be updated standings after every race so you can follow your teams inevitable demise progress all the way.
Read on to learn more about the rules and how to enter.
The basic rules of the game:
- - One team per player, no exceptions
- - Final deadline: Team must be submitted before February 23, the day of the first race
- - Your team must consist of exactly 15 riders chosen from the list of available riders.
- - You are allowed to spend no more than 150 points on riders
- - You are not allowed to spend more than 100 points on riders costing 25 points or more.
- - Riders score points by placing in selected races according to the points system.
- - The team with the highest score at the end of the World Championships wins.
Calendar & Scoring
To simplify things the scoring is basically the same as in the men's VDS and the race-categories are also roughly the same:
- Cat 1: Major Stageraces
- Cat 2: World Cup & World Championships
- Cat 3: Top Stageraces
- Cat 4: Top One-day races
- Cat 5: Other One-day races
- Cat 6: National Calendar races
- National Championships (Road & Timetrial)
Cat. 6 differs a bit from the men's competition in that it consists of smaller races, often national race-series that may not attract many foreign teams but nonetheless often boast very strong startfields. One thing to note is that due to the financial realities, races have a tendency to come and go. There is a pretty good chance that one or two of the listed races will not happen and should that happen those race will not be replaced. You can find the full calendar and the scoring system here. In that list you will also find handy links to race websites and race previews from last year that contain nuggets of info to help you pick your team. The rider list is also laced with links to help you find out more about the riders and help you follow them throughout the season. All of this, as well as all of the technical knowhow that makes this possible, is courtesy of a lot of hard work by Monty.
How to submit your entry.
Simply download this WVDS entry spreadsheet. On the left you have a full list of available riders and on the right is the form to enter your team data in. To select a rider click an empty box and select the rider from the dropdown list that appears at the arrow. Fill the 15 spots, make sure you are within budget and haven't spent more than 100 pointson 25-65 point riders. Then give your team a cool name, enter your PdC logon-name and email, save the spreadsheet renaming it after your team-name and email it to:
womensvds(at)yahoo.com (at=@)
Entries need to be in by Wednesday, February 23, Noon US Pacific time. If you for some reason you can't get the spreadsheet to work for you, email a list of the riders you want and we'll fix it. Should there be a problem with your team we will contact you through the email on the entryform and give you a chance to correct it. Changes can be made until Feb 23 but to avoid me having a mental breakdown let's keep the changes to a minimum. Please wait until you are reasonably sure of your choices to submit your team. Grazie.
So, pretty please, with sugar on top, build a f***ing team.