fantasy doping draft

[Netserk]

Tonton, please give Berzin his real flag

 

[Netserk]

Okay, the version of Michael Rogers I pick is Tour de France 2014

The most experienced version available and perhaps the most teflon coated one? After his clen ban was lifted, he went to the Giro with only a single race day in his legs and eventually won two stages, the latter on the legendary Zoncolan. After beating Valverde in RdS he was ready to help Contador win the Tour de France, but after he crashed out and instead won a stage. Although not as good a TTer as he was with Quick-Step, T-Mobile and Sky (though I'm not sure he ever went 100% in one for Tinkoff), he is still a decent climber, but more importantly, he is an excellent capitaine de route and will strengthen my team's race intelligence.

61

Ivan Basso
62

Piotr Ugrumov
63

Pavel Tonkov
64

Andreas Klöden
65

Fabian Cancellara
66

George Hincapie
67

Paolo Savoldelli
68

Peter Sagan
69

Michael Rogers

 

[infeXio]

Re:

This is quite a fascinating thread

Okay, the version of Michael Rogers I pick is Tour de France 2014

The most experienced version available and perhaps the most teflon coated one? After his clen ban was lifted, he went to the Giro with only a single race day in his legs and eventually won two stages, the latter on the legendary Zoncolan. After beating Valverde in RdS he was ready to help Contador win the Tour de France, but after he crashed out and instead won a stage. Although not as good a TTer as he was with Quick-Step, T-Mobile and Sky (though I'm not sure he ever went 100% in one for Tinkoff), he is still a decent climber, but more importantly, he is an excellent capitaine de route and will strengthen my team's race intelligence.

61

Ivan Basso
62

Piotr Ugrumov
63

Pavel Tonkov
64

Andreas Klöden
65

Fabian Cancellara
66

George Hincapie
67

Paolo Savoldelli
68

Peter Sagan
69

Michael Rogers

It was Roche who beat Valverde in RdS 2014 though, wasn't it?

 

[vedrafjord]

Yep his first stage race victory at age 31, which says all you need to know about the wisdom of dedicating his career to stage racing.

Amazing teams so far folks - I love the write ups. Hitch, would it be cheeky to ask for a Rasmussen write up? Pretty sure there was none at the time, which led me to think he hadn't been picked. After all, his is probably one of the craziest stories of all the guys here.

 

[vedrafjord]

Re: Re:

I'm also surprised that a couple of the craziest doms of this period haven't been chosen yet. Two in particular keep coming to mind...

I'm thinking: one Spanish, and one from a country that I can't say because it's as good as giving his name if I do?

 

[hrotha]

Well, many teams are not that balanced, so it's no surprise many crazy doms weren't picked.

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

This is quite a fascinating thread

It was Roche who beat Valverde in RdS 2014 though, wasn't it?

Rogers did as well. He sucked his wheel and then outsprinted him for 2nd.

Well, many teams are not that balanced, so it's no surprise many crazy doms weren't picked.

I think my team is quite balanced.

 

[hrotha]

Hard to say, really. We need sceptic to edit the full rosters into the OP!

 

[the sceptic]

I'l' go with Thor Hushovd 2011 tour de france.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

I'l' go with Thor Hushovd 2011 tour de france.

OOOOOO, AAAAAA, thank you the sceptic. We love Big Thor Hushovd!


Thor Hushovd is really big, Paul.

 

[LeakyBoat]

Can we create a "Best of the Rest" team? Then the rest of us will have someone to cheer when this show hits the road.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Can we create a "Best of the Rest" team? Then the rest of us will have someone to cheer when this show hits the road.

There's only one pick left of the draft - ciranda's final rider - and then we have 10 teams of 9. Wildcards are a possibility, I guess, to build the size of the péloton.

 

[Netserk]

I thought we'd just have a small peloton?

 

[mortand]

I've been thinking of making a team with all breakaway specialists. Riders who's already been picked are obviously not eligible, so no Sella or VDB unfortunately. I have three riders from specific GT editions in mind for now, but perhaps others can contribute too?

A wild card for this team to liven up the non-GC stages (if there's any of those) would be cool.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

I'm also surprised that a couple of the craziest doms of this period haven't been chosen yet. Two in particular keep coming to mind...

I'm thinking: one Spanish, and one from a country that I can't say because it's as good as giving his name if I do?

Surprisingly no on the Spaniard, but he's a good choice too. My picks would be a German and an Australian, almost as much for their Teflon coating as their riding.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Netserk already signed the most teflon of all Germans and the most teflon of all Australians though. Though at the height of T-Mobile we were hardly short of crazy doped German domestiques, I agree.

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

Netserk already signed the most teflon of all Germans and the most teflon of all Australians though. Though at the height of T-Mobile we were hardly short of crazy doped German domestiques, I agree.

There's another Teflon Aussie but he's not riding anymore - he's directing. Then there's the craziest of all the crazy Germans. The thing is we all got so used to him being crazy for crazy's sake many have forgotten that he was awesome Dom at his best.

 

[ciranda]

My last pick is Claus Michael Møller, Vuelta 2001. Really complete rider who for various reasons did not get all the results and opportunities he was worth. He competed mostly in Iberian races and held his own against the best in the Vuelta and other races. Surprise choice some might say, but I'm like Oleg Tinkov with my team and Møller is one of my favorites. I thought about Oscar Freire too but my team is more about the mountains.

Early on Møller moved to the Basque Country to race and did really well but still had to wait to turn pro until winning the only ever amateur Vuelta in 1995. He had an offer from Banesto but signed for Castellblanch because he wanted to do the real Vuelta the same year. First year was for adjustment but from 1997 he was in the elite for mountains and time trials. In the Vuelta a Espana that fall Møller was in fourth place after the first round of mountains including Sierra Nevada when he crashed out of the race.

More bad luck and a strange ban for testosterone later he was the strongest rider in the second half of the Vuelta 2001 with a beautiful stage win on stage 15 to Alto de Aitana. Two weeks after the Vuelta he dominated Subida al Naranco against all of the spanish elite. Møller had changed teams to Milaneza-MSS the previous year and so had obligations in the Portuguese races. He immediately won the Senhora do Graca stage in the Volta a Portugal and finished second overall with Jose Azevedo as gregario. In 2002 he focused on the Volta and won but it's complicated being in condition for that and the Vuelta as well so his performance there suffered.

In 2003 it was all about the Vuelta and I like to argue that if Møller had not been sick during the race he would have battled Heras all the way to the last mountain time trial. He got sick around the first mountain stage. After a six day antibiotics cure he was never the less good enough to immediately get fourth in the long time trial and ninth the day after to Sierra de la Pandera. GC was long gone but it's not unreasonable to think that without illness he would have been a real challenger to Heras.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Startlist summary (feel free to add in your team names if you haven't already got one):

Equipo Libertine Seguros-Banesto p/b ONCE (LIB)

1 Miguel INDURAIN LARRAYA

2 Joseba BELOKI DORRONSORO

3 Fernando ESCARTÍN COTÍ

4 Laurent JALABERT

5 Zenon JASKUŁA

6 José María JIMÉNEZ SASTRE

7 Andrey KASHECHKIN

8 Melcior MAURI PRAT

9 Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE

Team Hitch-UN Postal p/b Amgen (HCH)

11 Lance ARMSTRONG

12 Mark CAVENDISH

13 Tony MARTIN

14 Vincenzo NIBALI

15 Richie PORTE

16 Nairo QUINTANA ROJAS

17 Michael RASMUSSEN

18 Carlos SASTRE CANDIL

19 Andy SCHLECK

Team Sceptic (TSC)

21 Jan ULLRICH

22 Mario CIPOLLINI

23 Damiano CUNEGO

24 Aitor GONZÁLEZ JIMÉNEZ

25 Igor GONZÁLEZ DE GALDEANO ARANZABAL

26 Chris HORNER

27 Thor HUSHOVD

28 Levi LEIPHEIMER

29 Santiago PÉREZ FERNÁNDEZ

Team Green Monkey (TGM)

31 Alberto CONTADOR VELASCO

32 Paolo BETTINI

33 Johan BRUYNEEL

34 Cadel EVANS

35 Ivan GOTTI

36 Wilfried PEETERS

37 Emanuele SELLA

38 Tom STEELS

39 Alex ZÜLLE

Gewiss-Saunier Duval p/b Zlev (GSD)

41 Marco PANTANI

42 Laurent DUFAUX

43 Floyd LANDIS

44 Iban MAYO DÍEZ

45 Isidro NOZAL VEGA

46 Alessandro PETACCHI

47 Riccardo RICCÒ

48 Stefan SCHUMACHER

49 Óscar SEVILLA RIBERA

Team Burning (BUR)

51 Bjarne RIIS

52 Danilo DI LUCA

53 Serhiy HONCHAR

54 Bobby JULICH

55 Luc LEBLANC

56 Gilberto SIMONI

57 Richard VIRENQUE

58 Bradley WIGGINS

59 Erik ZABEL

Team Netserk (NSK)

61 Ivan BASSO

62 Piotr UGRUMOV

63 Pavel TONKOV

64 Andreas KLÖDEN

65 Fabian CANCELLARA

66 George HINCAPIE

67 Paolo SAVOLDELLI

68 Peter SAGAN

69 Michael ROGERS

Zamasailo-Piantazione di Gomma (ZAM)

71 Gianni BUGNO

72 Djamolidine ABDOUJAPAROV

73 Claudio CHIAPUCCI

74 Franco CHIOCCIOLI

75 Juan José COBO ACEBO

76 Denis MENCHOV

77 Ezequiel MOSQUERA MIGUEZ

78 Yaroslav POPOVYCH

79 Tony ROMINGER

La Vie Pas Claire p/b Tonton (VPC)

81 Evgeni BERZIN

82 Christopher FROOME

83 Alexander VINOKOUROV

84 Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE

85 Abraham OLANO MANZANO

86 Leonardo PIEPOLI

87 Santiago BOTERO ECHEVERRY

88 Armand DE LAS CUEVAS

89 David MILLAR

Team Ciranda (CIR)

91 Roberto HERAS HERNÁNDEZ

92 Oscar CAMENZIND

93 Dario FRIGO

94 Tyler HAMILTON

95 Claus Michael MØLLER

96 Oliverio RINCÓN QUINTANA

97 Joaquim RODRÍGUEZ OLIVER

98 Raimondas RUMŠAS

99 Frank VANDENBROUCKE

 

[Libertine Seguros]

First suggestion for a wildcard team: TEAM HAZUKI p/b COLOMBIANA.

Álvaro Mejía ('93 Tour)
José Rujano Guillén ('05 Giro)
Félix Cardeñas ('03 Vuelta)
Juan Mauricio Soler ('07 Tour)
Rigoberto Urán ('14 Giro)
Chepe González ('97 Giro)
Julio Alberto Pérez Cuapio ('02 Giro)
Fredy González ('03 Giro)
Victor Hugo Peña ('06 Giro)

 

[42x16ss]

Team SingleSpeed p/b Fuentes Gynaecology:

Stefano Garzelli ('00 Giro)
Guiseppe Guerini ('98 Giro)
Christophe Moreau ('00 TdF)
Jose Luis Rubiera ('02 TdF)
Enrico Zaina ('96 Giro)
Michele Bartoli ('98 Giro)
Neil Stephens ('97 TdF)
Jens Voigt ('04 TdF)
Robbie McEwen ('05 TdF)

 

[TheGreenMonkey]

Grand Tour winners not selected,

Greg Lemond 1990 Tour de France
Oscar Pereiro 2006 Tour de France
Stefano Garzelli 2000 Giro d'Italia
Michele Scarponi 2011 Giro d'Italia
Ryder Hesjedal 2012 Giro d'Italia
Marco Giovannetti 1990 Vuelta a Espana
Angel Casero 2001 Vuelta a Espana
Joan Jose Cobo 2011 Vuelta a Espana

That makes 8 GT winners not selected, so not quite a team but if people want to add this as a wildcard team I will add 1988 Tour winner Pedro Delgado who managed some good GT performances after 1990.

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

Grand Tour winners not selected,

Greg Lemond 1990 Tour de France
Oscar Pereiro 2006 Tour de France
Stefano Garzelli 2000 Giro d'Italia
Michele Scarponi 2011 Giro d'Italia
Ryder Hesjedal 2012 Giro d'Italia
Marco Giovannetti 1990 Vuelta a Espana
Angel Casero 2001 Vuelta a Espana
Joan Jose Cobo 2011 Vuelta a Espana

That makes 8 GT winners not selected, so not quite a team but if people want to add this as a wildcard team I will add 1988 Tour winner Pedro Delgado who managed some good GT performances after 1990.

I think Delgado had a good Giro in '94, so might be a good choice for road captain.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Re:

Grand Tour winners not selected,

Greg Lemond 1990 Tour de France
Oscar Pereiro 2006 Tour de France
Stefano Garzelli 2000 Giro d'Italia
Michele Scarponi 2011 Giro d'Italia
Ryder Hesjedal 2012 Giro d'Italia
Marco Giovannetti 1990 Vuelta a Espana
Angel Casero 2001 Vuelta a Espana
Joan Jose Cobo 2011 Vuelta a Espana

That makes 8 GT winners not selected, so not quite a team but if people want to add this as a wildcard team I will add 1988 Tour winner Pedro Delgado who managed some good GT performances after 1990.

Cobo is on Zamasailo-Piantazione di Gomma

You could make a team of World Champion and Olympic champions as well. I think there are just enough not already selected.Or sprinkle in some TT champions if the RR champs don't have a good GT version of themselves.

 

[observer]

Another round for jersey selection!