ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING SUMMER GRAND TOUR
Regretfully, there will be no contest based on the upcoming Grand Tour this season.
As the majority of returning visitors will be aware, the equivalent contest from last season was cancelled with just a couple of days notice until scoring started.
As a “one-man show” without a heavyweight legal team or large amounts of cash reserves, the safest approach for me and my family is to continue to run my games with the approval of rights holders or, perhaps more accurately, at least without their specific disapproval.
In short, running a game this year would incorporate a bunch of extra risk regarding potential expenses and hassle, with no guarantee of being to make it until Saturday without incident.
WHAT NOW?
Be assured, however, that this does not represent an existential threat to Velogames going forward - this site is my main geeky hobby after all!
The rest of the Velogames schedule will run as planned.
Entries will open in the next few days for Fantasy Giro Rosa as part of an expanded Fantasy Women’s Cycling schedule, while an extended Fantasy Summer/Autumn Classics campaign begins in late July.
Keep an eye out for other additions to the schedule as the end of the year approaches as I continue clawing back and adding to the number of race days lost in the schedule.
HOW YOU CAN HELP?
Firstly, you can help by sharing your positive experiences with the Velogames platform across social media, especially regarding how it promotes wider engagement with the focused races.
I still fundamentally believe that all fantasy sports games (including independent ones like mine) add to the overall engagement in an event.
I personally do not see any other fantasy cycling games as a threat - each contest usually has different enough team selection and scoring rules to make them attractive in their own right, and I feel a healthy fantasy cycling ecosystem across the entire season of races can only benefit the community - and rights-holders - in the long term.
If you agree with the above, now's the time to make it known on Twitter and elsewhere!
Secondly, you might be aware I have been running the site with no network ads being served for the last 12 months.
Therefore (alert for blatant plug coming!), if you have enjoyed previous Velogames contests and want to support the site going forward, I’d be grateful if you could consider donating to the campaign set up to support the (ad-free) future of Velogames Fantasy Cycling.
But most importantly compared to all of the above, the best support anybody can continue to provide is to enter teams in each Velogames contest and enjoy the trials and tribulations of being a Velogames fantasy directeur sportif!
Yours (again) in fantasy cycling,
George
George Chapman
Velogames Fantasy Cycling