From The Commish

Draft Day 2012

Remember

1.      Draft is at 1 O’clock. 

2.      Bring beer.

3.      I have MPLS Wi-Fi so you may want to bring a laptop.

Advice

1.      Check the scoring rules.  You need UCI points.  You want riders that win races and place high.  You cannot score UCI points for breakaways, helping teammates or being hardcore (Johnny Hoogerland=hardcore, Johnny Hoogerland= very few UCI points)

2.      Let’s face it, the draft lottery should be renamed “The Phillip Gilbert Sweepstakes”.  He had a crazy amount of points last year and he will be the #1 overall.

3.      Don’t forget about the American races.  They carry points equal to a Paris-Nice or a Tour de Suisse.  We get good TV coverage of those races so at the least you want to have a dog in the hunt.

4.      Along with #3, remember this league is all about making cycling more fun to watch and follow. Pick riders you like.  In addition, you pick a country and a pro tour team.  That means in every race, even if your club riders are not doing well, at the least you can route for riders from your pro team or country.

5.      There are transfer periods where you can add or drop riders.  You may want to draft some riders who you think will be good early in the season and then drop them later.  However, be aware that the grand tours give the most points and the top contenders probably won’t be available later in the season.

Resources

1.      UCI point rankings from the last few seasons can be found at the link provided on the blog.  Select season in the dropdown then click world tour to get rankings from the last few years.

2.      The point system is under UCI links.

3.      The schedule is a blog post.