Last year's sweepstake was loads of fun with Friendly Llama taking out the inaugural title. We're back again this year with just a few changes...

All riders will be graded A, B or C. 'A' grade will be GC contenders or those who could be reasonably expected to place in the top 5 based on form and/or past performances. 'B' grade will comprise of riders who will be serious contenders for the green jersey or KOM, maybe a few super-domestiques, and the balance of the top 20 point scoring riders in last year's sweepstake. 'C' grade will be everyone else.

You need to pick a team of 9 riders. Your team can have as many C grade riders as you want but only a maximum of 3 B grade and 2 A grade riders.

Point scoring will be 200 points for 1st place with one point off for every subsequent place. As with last year, consistency and getting as many riders as possible to the finish is the key.

Additional point scoring:

Before the start pick one rider you think will win each of the jerseys in the final classification (GC, points, KOM, young rider), which team will win the teams classification, and who will take the lanterne rouge. Points will be awarded as such, 200 if your pick is 1st, 100 for 2nd and 50 for 3rd.

Each night (before the start of each stage) lock in your pick to win the stage (like we did for the Giro). 200 points if your pick comes 1st, 100 for 2nd and 50 for 3rd.

When the peloton reaches Paris all the points will be tallied up and winners determined.

PM me with your picks if you want them to stay secret or post them in this thread if you want them out in the open for everyone else to critique and copy. Good luck... see you all in Paris!!

Bottle of bubbly for first place, bottle of wine for 2nd and 3rd (I will want confirmation that you're over 18 to get your prize).

Vorb startlist:
JohnL (still to pick KOM, young rider and lanterne rouge)
Oli (still to pick lanterne rouge)
Phunk (still to pick GC, KOM, Points, young rider, team, lanterne rouge)
Tugboat
Scotty (still to pick young rider, lanterne rouge)
Joel
Compact
Dented
istepinyards
ThingOne (still to pick GC, KOM, Points, young rider, team, lanterne rouge)
pb
happybaboon
Grant
noel_whiteside
RimTape (still to pick team classification winner)
Nandyhand
thencameyou
Disoriented
Buds
jimc
Monolith
Flynnster
wgtngrl
Sifter
taylormade
Spyder
nostromo
andrewb

OMG EXCITEMENT

Cheers in advance tugboat

I don't have Sky to watch the race, but you know what, this is much more exciting

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

Or points for picking druggies/druggy teams

I was also thinking, if someone in your nine is busted for drugs you're out.

I'd go with that add a bit more to it all

Cheers Tugboat. Was great last year, and the bottle du plonk was excellent. Looking forward to another go.

Looking forward to this Tugboat, should make it way more exciting watching each stage finish...

Scotty wrote:

Compact wrote:

I was also thinking, if someone in your nine is busted for drugs you're out.

I'd go with that add a bit more to it all

Well my thinking is, in that situation would you pick a guy even if you thought he might be slightly suss.

And no, not being a wanker with the drugs thing, just being a realist.

I think I've got my squad sorted already...

Im going to add my $0.02c here, I dont agree with this.
The way Tuggy has constructed the points scale, you would be a fool to pick someone who was suss anyway in your nine, because the points are only allocated for any riders that make it to Paris. As he said at the top, consistency is the key here, getting all your riders to the finish. It would be much the same to say if any of your riders step off through injury, you're out.

Just to clarify... if a rider in your "9" doesn't make it to Paris you will still retain the points up until when they abandon. But of course the more riders who do make it to the finish the better chance you have of scoring big.

That said, if one of your riders is busted for doping then all points for that rider will be stripped

I thought they feign an injury if they're going to be busted

I like the idea, but for those of us who won't be able to keep up with every day to submit stage winners, can we just do a post stating who we think will take each stage, then change it as the tour goes if required?