Fantasy Cycling Teams - 1998

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Last modified: Tuesday, 8 May, 2018
 

As has become our custom, Lisa & I will be adding to our interest in this year's professional cycling season by following the fortunes of our own fantasy cycling teams. We've been doing this since 1997. We select our teams on the basis of each rider "costing" his total UCI ranking points earned last season divided by fifteen and rounded to the nearest five, with a minimum cost of twenty points and a maximum of 200.  We allow each team 550 points on this basis, with nine riders to be selected. No more than two riders in each team can be selected from the same real life trade team.  Throughout the season we score our riders performances in all the major races according to the points system adapted from one used by Roger Hughes in his Fantasy Cycling League. The tables below summarise the fortunes of our teams throughout the season.

As you can see, after leading our private contest for the entire season, my Nightowlers were pipped at the final post by Lisa's Ready Steady Riders, thanks entirely to Chris Boardman retaining his hold on the 1-hour world record throught the season.

In spite of being so far down the league rankings, we enjoyed taking part tremendously. Roger's running another edition of the league this year and we'll both be back; with rather different line-ups. Lisa has her eye on Jacky Durand who delighted viewers of the Tour de France with his commitment to attacking riding, and I'll likely be ditching messers Chiappucci, Rous, Fondriest, and Sciandri and adding another rider to my line-up who might actually score some points for me!

See below for Ready Steady Riders' results.
 

N i g h t o w l e r s
Rider	Period Scores								Total Score	Cost	Score /Cost
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Allex Zülle	34	16	57	0	0	1	19	0	127	140	0.907
Johan Bruyneel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	20	0.000
Claudio Chiappucci	8	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	9	35	0.257
Mario Cipollini	2	0	22	12	14	0	0	0	50	75	0.667
Maurizio Fondriest	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	30	0.000
Viacheslav Ekimov	0	8	10	1	0	25	0	4	48	95	0.505
Rolf Sørensen	21	8	0	0	0	25	0	0	54	80	0.675
Max Sciandri	0	0	0	6	0	13	0	0	19	50	0.380
Didier Rous	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	25	0.000
Total	65	32	89	19	14	64	20	4	307	550	0.558
Postion	112	236	218	218	377	91			364

R e a d y   S t e a d y   R i d e r s
Rider	Period Scores								Total Score	Cost	Score /Cost
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Udo Bölts	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	6	8	65	0.123
José María Jimenez	0	0	0	17	0	7	74	0	98	60	1.633
Mikel Zarrabeitia	22	6	0	2	0	0	0	0	30	50	0.600
Jan Svorada	5	0	3	4	10	0	1	0	23	75	0.307
Bjarne Riis	0	0	2	5	8	0	0	0	15	80	0.188
Chris Boardman	0	0	0	12	12	3	0	27	54	85	0.635
Bo Hamburger	0	31	3	6	11	0	6	0	57	45	1.267
François Simon	0	0	6	0	7	0	0	0	13	30	0.433
Laurent Brochard	0	0	21	0	0	0	0	0	21	60	0.350
Total	27	37	35	46	48	12	81	33	319	550	0.580
Postion	303	210	328	51	323	365			352

See above for Nightowlers' results.