Overview

Each player takes the role of a Directeur Sportif of a professional cycling team riding in the 2024 Tour.

The aim of the contest is to select the best possible team of nine riders, while operating within the conditions set on team selection.

The better your racers perform during the race, the more points they will accumulate for your fantasy squad.

The contest includes an additional Replacements contest, where each director will be awarded a total of seven rider transfers they can use at three different points during the race - to cover rider dropouts and to keep their team competitive throughout the contest.

The Replacements contest is in addition to, and not a replacement of, the main Leaderboard competition, as detailed further below.

Overview - Main Leaderboard Competition

The Main Leaderboard competition represents the same contest that regular Velogames directors will be familiar with, and remains the primary competition leaderboard on the site.

In the Main Leaderboard contest, directors must select a team of nine riders ahead of the race start.

These nine riders will then proced to accumulate points for the director's team, in line with the full scoring system (which remains unchanged from previous years).

The winner of the Main Leaderboard competition will be declared as the highest-scoring team director after the Final End-of-tour classification points are awarded at the end of the race.

Overview - Replacements Contest

The Replacements contest is a "side game" contest held within the Velogames Fantasy Grand Tour games.

Each team director will be allocated seven rider replacements to use during the race, at three different intervals, which are the end of Stage 3 (where directors can make 2 rider replacements), the end of Stage 9 (where directors can make 3 rider replacements), and the end of Stage 15 (where riders can make 2 rider replacements) - in order to keep their team competitive throughout the contest.

Team directors will therefore be able to replace abandoned and poorly-performing riders from their team selection, or tactically target upcoming blocks of stages.

Newly-added riders to the team will score points for the team within the stage following when they were added to the team, until (and if) they are subsequently transferred back out of the team.

The winner of the Replacements contest will be the team director who has amassed the most points throughout the full 21 stages of the contest, taking into account their active nine riders that were in the team during each stage.

The Replacements contest leaderboard will be published as an additional leaderboard within the overall standings section of the website, and also as an additonal scoring tab within each Mini League on the site.

Important Notice

Velogames Fantasy Cycling is not an official partner of, nor claims any association with, any professional cycling race organisation, any international sporting body or any professional cycling team.

Team Entry

You must use the Official Entry Form to submit your team. The Entry Form will be made available once the game is open for entries.

Only one team is allowed per player. Multiple team entries by a single player in a single contest is not allowed and could lead to teams being disqualified from the game. If multiple teams are found, only the last team entered by the player will be accepted as the official entry.

Team Names

Users are expected to refrain from entering abusive or vulgar team names or manager names. If vulgar or offensive team names or manager names are identified, Velogames reserves to right to ask these to be changed, to automatically edit the offending text or to summarily remove the offending team from the game. Velogames Fantasy Cycling exists to celebrate the sport of professional cycling and provide safe, clean fun to participants, so let's all keep it that way.

Entry Deadline

The deadline for entries to be submitted is 12:30 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on Saturday 29th June 2024. That is 11:30 in the UK, and 06:30 on the US East Coast. Make sure to check how your own time zone differs from Central European Summer Time to make sure you meet the entry deadline!

Team Selection Criteria

In order that each player creates a balanced team, the following two important constraints are placed on team selection:

Team Budget

Teams are given 100 credits to select their riders. Credits are the Velogames currency. Each rider is given a value in credits, based on their prospective points-scoring abilities. The velocredits values are based on past results and recent form, with an emphasis towards those riders who have been successful in past editions of the race.

Rider Classes

Riders are split into 4 Rider Classes, which reflect their supposed strengths, weaknesses and role within their team. These categories are All-Rounder, Climber, Sprinter and Unclassed Riders.

Each team must contain 2 All-Rounders, 2 Climbers, 1 Sprinter, 3 Unclassed Riders and 1 Wild Card. The Wild Card selection may be from any rider category, and allows a team manager to specialise somewhat in the team they pick.

There are no other team selection criteria apart selecting 9 riders, staying within the 100 velocredit limit and making sure that the correct composition of Rider Classes is selected.

Initial Team Selection

Use the game entry form to select your starting team of nine riders, which will be your eligible team for the Main Leaderboard.

You can make unlimited changes to your team up until the entry deadline of 12:30 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on Saturday 29th June 2024.

To make these team changes, simply click the Change Riders button on your team roster page and use the resultant dropdown menu to reselect your squad.

Only the last team entered by each player will be activated as an official entry.

Automatic Rider Replacements for non-starting riders

It is the responsibility of each directeur to manage their own team line-up as the entry deadline approaches.

Velogames will provide an indicator on each team roster page in the run-up to the start of the race, showing the status of each rider regarding whether or not they are on the most recent start-list.

If, for any reason, a rider does not start the race, they will be replaced in each Velogames team with a suitable replacement, determined by Velogames. Where possible, this replacement be a a rider from the same pro team as the non-starting rider, at a similar credit value. Where such a rider is not available, another rider of similar credit value (or the next available lesser price bracket) will be selected, based on the order of riders in the Velogames database. The decision of Velogames regarding which replacement riders are substituted in is final!

No automatic substitutions will be made for riders who drop out after the race begins - they are only used to ensure that each team starts the race with a full squad of nine riders.

Team Changes

Team Changes - Main contest

Once you have selected a team of 9 riders and they have started the first stage of the race, your team for the Main contest leaderboard is set for the duration of the tour - any subsequent rider replacements for the Replacements contest (see below) made during the tour will not contribute to your score in the Main contest leaderboard.

The 9 riders that you start the tour with will be the only riders who will score you points for the Main contest leaderboard during the contest.

Team Changes - Replacements contest

Newly-introduced in 2024, the Replacements contest replaces the Stage Hunter competition and allows for a total of seven rider changes to be used by each team director for the duration of the contest, which can be made in three different blocks of rider changes.

Rider replacements allow directors to make tactical changes to their line up, in order to keep their team competitive, target upcoming stages and react to unfortunate events such as rider abandons and poorly-performing initial selections.

Rider replacements can be made at three different points during the race.

Changing one rider in and one rider out counts as one rider replacement, two riders in and two riders out count as two rider replacements, and so on.

Each team director has a maximum of 7 rider replacements to use during the Replacements contest, which can be made at the following points of the tour.

Transfer deadlines - Replacements contest

Team directors can make up to seven rider replacements during the contest, split into three different "transfer windows" during the race.

There is a deadline ahead of each eligible stage when team rosters are locked, and any rider replacements made in the preceding transfer period are activated.

The three deadlines for rider replacements are as follows.

Note that all times listed above are local time (CEST), which is one hour ahead of British time and six hours ahead of US Eastern Time. It is the responsibility of directeurs to make sure they submit their selections on time!

Scoring

Your riders score points for their real-life performances in the race, based on the Scoring System. You can also follow the Scoing System link in the main navigation menu for the detailed scores.

Scoring - Main Leaderboard

Your intially-selected team of nine riders all score points towards the Main leaderboard, in line with the Scoring System.

Your riders will score points for Daily Stage Performance (stage result, positions in intermediate sprints and mountain summits, being in the breakaway, and team assists for a teammate winning the stage), Daily Classification Standings (position in the general classification, mountains classification and points classification at the end of each day, plus team assist points for the position of the rider's team in the teams classification) and Final End-of-Tour classifications (final standings in the general classification, mountains classification, points classification, and team assist points for the team's performance in the overall teams classification).

Your intially-selected team of nine riders all score points towards the Main Leaderboard, in line with the Scoring System.

At the end of the event, the team whose nine riders have amassed the most points is declared the winner of the Main Leaderboard.

Scoring - Replacements contest

During each stage, your currently-active team of nine riders will all score points towards the Replacements contest leaderboard, in line with the same Scoring System active for the Main competition.

Your riders will score points for Daily Stage Performance (stage result, positions in intermediate sprints and mountain summits, being in the breakaway, and team assists for a teammate winning the stage), Daily Classification Standings (position in the general classification, mountains classification and points classification at the end of each day, plus team assist points for the position of the rider's team in the teams classification).

Importantly, all nine riders active in your team at the end of the race will also score points based on the Final End-of-Tour classifications (final standings in the general classification, mountains classification, points classification, and team assist points for the team's performance in the overall teams classification).

Official Results

Scores become "confirmed" for Velogames purposes at 23:00 CET during the evening on the day of each stage.

If a rider is removed from the race standings after this deadline, for any reason, the points gained for that stage will stand.

Immediate disqualifications or declassifications (such as for irregular sprinting) will be taken into account when deciding the allocated points, as long as these penalties are announced before 23:00 CEST.

Back-dated disqualifications and reversal of results (even for doping offences) will not be taken into account after the 23:00 CET deadline, and the rider will keep his points.

This rule certainly should not be viewed as an acceptance of doping. The technical and gameplay issues surrounding back-dated scoring adjustments are difficult. Also, it is not fair to excessively punish players who have selected a rider in good faith, even if that rider is subsequently exposed as a cheater.

Neutralised and Cancelled Stages

If the race is neutralised for any reason by riders or race organisation, then no stage points (finish, sprints, summits, breaks or stage assists) will be distributed following the point of neutralisation.

If sprint, summits or breakaway points have been gained prior to neutralisation, these points will be added as normal.

Classification points (including team and overall classification assists) will be added to team totals as normal at the culmination of the stage.

Daily classification points will also be awarded as normal in the event of a complete stage cancellation.

Update Schedule

A scoring update will be made on the evening of each stage.

A supplementary scoring adjustment could be made if there are changes in the official published results before the official 23:00 CET scoring deadline.

The aim is to make a daily update. In instances where it is not possible to update the site on a daily basis, a full update will be made as soon as possible to keep the scoring information up-to-date.

Prizes

Entry into the contest is free-to-play, and no prizes are on offer except eternal pride for the winner!