BassNBrew
Footballguy
Congrats on cleaning up on Sussie @BobbyLayne
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
***Official 2025 Tour de France*** - Come Dope with Us! This Year Prizes!!! (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter Sand
- Start date
BassNBrew
Footballguy
Any thoughts on starting a new thread for Le Tour?
Im going to round up some prizes for the Tour and would like to see if we can get more people involved.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
Can’t we just change the title here?
Sand
Footballguy
Give me a title and I'll change it.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Sure why not - pretty sure @Jaysus or @grateful zed or @Sand used to fire one up for most of the board’s lifetime (but maybe not the past couple? not sure)
Always in favor of making cycling/Velogames more accessible & growing interest. Last thing we need is gatekeepers - the more the merrier eh.
That’s sort of the whole point of sports, right? A shared experience that connects people with one another. The Lions have picked up a ton of bandwagon fans the past few years. I think it’s amazing, never thought I’d see the day. Best thing about road games is taking over a city’s downtown area for a couple days lol. Awesome way to meet cool peeps.
Jealous of anyone who has spent a couple days following a stage race, especially one of the grand tours. So fun to be in Europe doing something like that - you might meet new friends from xx different countries in a day (& they all speak four languages hehe.) Best thing about travel is being exposed to different cultures.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
Come dope with us?
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Dries De Bondt to be investigated by UCI Ethics Commission after admitting to helping non-teammate Carapaz at Giro d'Italia.
#pikachuface
João Almeida became just the third rider to win three one-week stage races in the same season. There have been 60 seasons (1966-2025) since Tirreno-Adriatico joined the schedule.
#pikachuface
João Almeida became just the third rider to win three one-week stage races in the same season. There have been 60 seasons (1966-2025) since Tirreno-Adriatico joined the schedule.
- Sean Kelly, in 1986 at age 30, won Catalonia/Basque Country/Paris-Nice
- Sir Bradley Wiggins, at age 32 in 2012, won Paris-Nice/Romania/Critérium
- Almeida, at age 26, won Basque Country/Romania/Switzerland
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
the battle with UAE is gonna be fun to watch
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
@cheeseypoof
Totally forgot we were supposed to do the Replacements contest (prior to 2024 it was the Stage Hunter contest)
I don’t see it on the Velogames site but maybe it will pop up after George opens up the TdF contest
But…if it was still a thing I think it would have been available for the Giro so maybe it’s defunct
Totally forgot we were supposed to do the Replacements contest (prior to 2024 it was the Stage Hunter contest)
I don’t see it on the Velogames site but maybe it will pop up after George opens up the TdF contest
But…if it was still a thing I think it would have been available for the Giro so maybe it’s defunct
BassNBrew
Footballguy
It was available for the Giro. We were too busy scouting Tro-Bro Léon
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
that brotato chip race is awesome. i'd never seen it before. they are on some ratty goat tracks. it's a fun watch.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
League Code: 37515764
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
First iteration in! Photo taken. 
cheeseypoof
Footballguy
Yes, it appears after the contest starts. Per the rules this is how it works:
Team directors can make up to seven rider replacements during the contest, split into three different "transfer windows" during the race.
The three deadlines for rider replacements are as follows.
| Transfer Window | Transfers Allowed | Replacements Active From | Transfer Deadline (CEST) |
| Grand Departure | 2 | Stage 4 | 13:15 on Tuesday 8th July 2025 |
| Rest Day 1 | 3 | Stage 11 | 13:30 on Wednesday 16th July 2025 |
| Rest Day 2 | 2 | Stage 16 | 11:15 on Tuesday 22nd July 2025 |
cheeseypoof
Footballguy
Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
At what cost do you leave him off? 40+?Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
cheeseypoof
Footballguy
Good question. Just playing with various combos now. If you take him him, which is what I'm leaning towards, you'll have to choose very well with your other riders.At what cost do you leave him off? 40+?Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
I have him. How can you not? And I have two 4 pointers currently. And don’t like one of my 12 pointers….Good question. Just playing with various combos now. If you take him him, which is what I'm leaning towards, you'll have to choose very well with your other riders.At what cost do you leave him off? 40+?Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
Sand
Footballguy
He should be at about 55.Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Still 54 riders to be added to the Startlist (at 130, full race will be 184)
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
watch the stuff from the 1950s - they wore spare tubes for their tires tied across their chest, like a WWII machine gunner wearing criss-cross bandoliers
feed zone? stop at a roadside cafe/store, grab whatever you want, stuff it in your shirt, leave without paying & hop back on the bike
hilarious footage out there on YT
BassNBrew
Footballguy
Not sure if that will be as much of an issue with all the strong $6 ridersGood question. Just playing with various combos now. If you take him him, which is what I'm leaning towards, you'll have to choose very well with your other riders.At what cost do you leave him off? 40+?Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Not sure if that will be as much of an issue with all the strong $6 ridersGood question. Just playing with various combos now. If you take him him, which is what I'm leaning towards, you'll have to choose very well with your other riders.At what cost do you leave him off? 40+?Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
It's interesting - 4 (& often 6 when it comes to GT) are usually worthless
OTOH, when you look at the top Velogames teams, they often have 1-2 guys who contributed nothing
Or they lucked out and got a Top 5 + assist points from one of their cheap riders
This year will be very interesting to see where we are at after Bastille Day - first rest day doesn't come until after Stage 10
The team leading our league after Stage 9 might drop big time in the second half of the Tour because if you invest in a sprinter or a decent hilly rider, you won't have as much left over for Climbers and GC guys (which is where the bulk of GT points generally come from, although this year's Giro was an exception)
Stages 1-9:
- 4 flat stages
- 4 hilly stages
- flat ITT
Week 2 - Stages 11-15:
- 1 flat stage
- 1 hilly stage
- 2 mountain
- mountain ITT - pure climbing
- mountain
- flat
- mountain
- mountain
- hilly
Veteran riders are unhappy because Stage 21 is usually a ceremonial ride and then a bunch sprint to finish, this year they'll have to work a bit
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
FYI - if you were wondering why Richard Carapaz dropped out of the TdF today
Sand
Footballguy
Probably a blessing in disguise. With his current form he is definitely in the running for the Vuelta.
BassNBrew
Footballguy
Gonna be a tough year. I'm already losing guys before the neutral kms in stage one.
BassNBrew
Footballguy
Not sure if that will be as much of an issue with all the strong $6 ridersGood question. Just playing with various combos now. If you take him him, which is what I'm leaning towards, you'll have to choose very well with your other riders.At what cost do you leave him off? 40+?Pogy at 32 will make team building interesting if he's a stable on your teams, like he is for me. HahaFirst iteration in! Photo taken.
It's interesting - 4 (& often 6 when it comes to GT) are usually worthless
OTOH, when you look at the top Velogames teams, they often have 1-2 guys who contributed nothing
Or they lucked out and got a Top 5 + assist points from one of their cheap riders
This year will be very interesting to see where we are at after Bastille Day - first rest day doesn't come until after Stage 10
The team leading our league after Stage 9 might drop big time in the second half of the Tour because if you invest in a sprinter or a decent hilly rider, you won't have as much left over for Climbers and GC guys (which is where the bulk of GT points generally come from, although this year's Giro was an exception)
Stages 1-9:
Stage 10 (July 14) is the first mountain stage - meaning yellow could be a roulier, punchy rider or a sprinter with some climbing ability
- 4 flat stages
- 4 hilly stages
- flat ITT
Week 2 - Stages 11-15:
Week 3 - Stages 16-21
- 1 flat stage
- 1 hilly stage
- 2 mountain
- mountain ITT - pure climbing
Also they added a new route to Stage 21, five categorized climbs - two Cat 4s in the first 50 km, and the loop around Paris has 3 laps around another Cat 4 (so 5 climbs total
- mountain
- flat
- mountain
- mountain
- hilly
Veteran riders are unhappy because Stage 21 is usually a ceremonial ride and then a bunch sprint to finish, this year they'll have to work a bit
I think there will be a lot of avenues to place high. The field is loaded already and I think some other decent riders will appear.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
the $6 rider pool is deep
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
I have five 6 credit riders in my current build
BassNBrew
Footballguy
@BobbyLayne
Velogames Stage Hunter Fantasy Sixes is a "Fantasy Predictor" contest, fusing elements of both traditional fantasy cycling contests and more basic prediction games. Make an initial selection of six riders, keeping to a 100 credit budget. Riders score points for their real-life performances on the road. Between each stage, make up to three rider transfers to keep your team competitive and target upcoming stages' terrain.
WHAT IS VELOGAMES STAGE HUNTER FANTASY SIXES?
Velogames Stage Hunter Fantasy Sixes is a "Fantasy Predictor" contest, fusing elements of both traditional fantasy cycling contests and more basic prediction games. Make an initial selection of six riders, keeping to a 100 credit budget. Riders score points for their real-life performances on the road. Between each stage, make up to three rider transfers to keep your team competitive and target upcoming stages' terrain.
culdeus
Footballguy
Interesting, have an unique opportunity to travel with some bros and do a tdf stage in front of the race next year. I still ride some but don't seriously follow the pros much. Would be a complete lifestyle switch for a bit, but they are like. If you get tired we swap you to an ebike. I dunno.
BassNBrew
Footballguy
Sounds lke fun
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
Do it!
Tick
Footballguy
I watched a video that helped me understand team dynamics a little better - it was saying that the TdF is so important that it's basically what teams are formed to compete in, but it means that really strong riders have to be support guys for a month. The interesting part was them saying something along the lines of "You're free to compete for 11 months of the year, but in July you're support." It makes things like Jorgenson winning the past two Paris-Nice make more sense. Wout can focus on sprinting in monuments for most of the year, but in July he's providing a wind break.
Tick
Footballguy
Startlist for Tour de France 2025
Competing teams and riders for Tour de France 2025. Top competitors are Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and João Almeida.
www.procyclingstats.com
Some reactions to this page:
- What's WT vs. PRT in parentheses after team names?
- Does the check mark mean they have a full 8 members, or that they've finalized their team, or something?
- If a team has fewer than 8 members listed, does that just mean they haven't submitted the lineup, or does it mean something weird like an individual rider has qualified from that team, but the rest of the team didn't qualify so he's riding alone?
- Is that even a thing? Or is qualification just by teams, then they choose their lineups? If Pogacar somehow quit UAE today, would he be out of the TdF?
- Is Evenepoel on an underpowered team? Seems like such a concentration in Visma and UAE, a bit in Red Bull, and not that much in Soudal. Feels like Remco should move to Alpecin or something.
- Why is INEOS Grenadiers? Like what are they racing to accomplish? It feels like every stage recap has a point 2/3 in where we hear, "INEOS is pushing the pace, trying to break up the peleton" - then we never see them again.
- Seems a bit like Lidl Trek is pretty well set up other than a leader - like this would be a good spot for Remco. They try to tell us that Jonathan Milan is their GC guy but he doesn't seem to show up in the standings ever.
DA RAIDERS
Footballguy
World team/pro racing team? I’m not sureStartlist for Tour de France 2025
Competing teams and riders for Tour de France 2025. Top competitors are Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and João Almeida.
Some reactions to this page:
- What's WT vs. PRT in parentheses after team names?
- Does the check mark mean they have a full 8 members, or that they've finalized their team, or something?
- If a team has fewer than 8 members listed, does that just mean they haven't submitted the lineup, or does it mean something weird like an individual rider has qualified from that team, but the rest of the team didn't qualify so he's riding alone?
- Is that even a thing? Or is qualification just by teams, then they choose their lineups? If Pogacar somehow quit UAE today, would he be out of the TdF?
- Is Evenepoel on an underpowered team? Seems like such a concentration in Visma and UAE, a bit in Red Bull, and not that much in Soudal. Feels like Remco should move to Alpecin or something.
- Why is INEOS Grenadiers? Like what are they racing to accomplish? It feels like every stage recap has a point 2/3 in where we hear, "INEOS is pushing the pace, trying to break up the peleton" - then we never see them again.
- Seems a bit like Lidl Trek is pretty well set up other than a leader - like this would be a good spot for Remco. They try to tell us that Jonathan Milan is their GC guy but he doesn't seem to show up in the standings ever.
Yes
They haven’t finalized the team. Teams qualify/are invited. They can bring anyone they want at that point
If pogi quit, he couldn’t ride
Money is king. Some teams are stacked
Some teams aren’t.
ineos has money, they need a leader. All teams are always trying to get publicity. See breakaways.Lidl is a very good team. They are having a really good season. Skelly might have the goods. We’ll see how he’s recovered from the crash.
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
There are 18 World Tour teams. They compete on the UCI WT circuit (as well as the Pro Tour.) Much like the English football system, teams get relegated from the WT to the PT if they don’t earn enough points to finish in the top 18. Getting relegated can potentially devastate a team because of the sponsors backing out or budgets being reduced.
ETA - most races have always had 18 WT teams and 4 PT squads, but this year they expanded to 23. Riders are not happy (less safe.)
The next level down is CT Continental Tour.
On mobile so not sure what you mean. PCS usually puts an asterisk next to riders competing for the Youth (white) jersey, e.g., cyclist 25 and under at the start of the race.
When the assign bib #s - July 2nd or so - I’d call it final(ish.)
Everyone will start 8. Not unusual for teams to lose 3-4 riders during the 23 days. During pandemic I believe an entire team abandoned on a grand tour stage.
It’s an annual rite of summer to speculate where Remco goes next (he’s under contract with SQS through the end of 2026.) INEOS & Red Bull are often mentioned.
He is a great time trialer & decent as a GC leader, but as a climber & high mountain rider he’s not comparable to Tadej, Jonas or peak Primoz. IMO
They’re trying to work out a co-sponsorship (NOT a merger) with Total Energies. With a fresh infusion of cash maybe they can sign Remco and build a proper team around him as the podcaster Geraint Thomas is nearing the end of a great career.
When they were SKY they were the bullies of the peloton. They’re clearly a Tier 2 team behind UAE, JLaB, Lidl Trek and even Astana, but still have good riders, but lacking the results they’re used to seeing. They’re based out of the England National Cycling Centre (though a private entity) and like a lot of UK sports teams/figures the attention & discussion they receive doesn’t quite match their current standing,
Between Mads and Jonathan they can dominate some hilly stages or reduced sprints. Good but not great GC leaders, but all things considered having a kickass year.
edit typos
Last edited:
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Startlist is up to 160
Didn’t do a full cross check with Velogames but many of the 34 additions since Saturday were already on the rider list (Amirail, Barguil, Durgridge, Turgis, etc all)
Julien Bernard (Lidl Trek - Quinn Simmons added) & Javier Romo (Movistar - Will Barta added) were among the 4 removed
Didn’t do a full cross check with Velogames but many of the 34 additions since Saturday were already on the rider list (Amirail, Barguil, Durgridge, Turgis, etc all)
Julien Bernard (Lidl Trek - Quinn Simmons added) & Javier Romo (Movistar - Will Barta added) were among the 4 removed
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Competitors for United States in Tour de France 2025:
‘murica
| # | Rider | Team | Age |
| 1 | Quinn Simmons | Lidl - Trek | 24y + 58d |
| 2 | Matteo Jorgenson | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 26y + 5d |
| 3 | Neilson Powless | EF Education - EasyPost | 28y + 305d |
| 4 | Will Barta | Movistar Team | 29y + 183d |
| 5 | Sepp Kuss | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 30y + 296d |
‘murica
Sand
Footballguy
Good - Quinn deserved a slot. I expect him to be very aggressive.
Jaysus
Good times!
And, yes, I have already made changesTook a screenshot of my first draft, I fully expect it to be my best squad
cheeseypoof
Footballguy
Same here.And, yes, I have already made changesTook a screenshot of my first draft, I fully expect it to be my best squad
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
champ
BobbyLayne
Footballguy
Same here.And, yes, I have already made changesTook a screenshot of my first draft, I fully expect it to be my best squad
I’ve been limiting myself to one change per hour
BassNBrew
Footballguy
LOL...I'm now down two riders. Doesn't bode well for Pogi.
Similar threads
