Became rich when Gilbert ditched the others in his solo ride to Ronde glory? Bit your nails as Dumoulin nearly crapped all over his GT chances and your stakes in the Giro? Bet your house on Froome to winning two Grand Tours in a year? Had a sneaking suspicion that Sagan wouldn't win the Green Jersey in the Tour? You didn't?? Well, 2018 offers you the opportunity to act on your feelings, instead of just talking about them.
The PCM Daily Grand High Wizard Contest is back with your hosts, Jandal and myself, asking for and pitting your predictions against each other for imaginary points and a trophy we've not managed to design yet. Last year saw Raziz walk away with the crown having taken the lead in the month of June and never relinquishing it since. Can he retain it? Can former champion Marco get over a poor season and get his hands back on the trophy? Or will there be a new name up in glittering lights at the end of the season? Join in and you could be the one!
Feel free to comment in the thread if you are interested. We will start off the game with the Tour Down Under, the first race in the UCI World Tour calendar, which is a couple of weeks away. The Rules and the World Tour calendar for 2018 are given below.
The game is divided into three sections:
• Grand Tours
• Monuments & World Championships
• World Tour Races and Classics
Grand Tours
Pick 5 riders for the GC. If your selection finishes in any of the top 5 positions, you get points. Taking the example of the 2016 Vuelta, if you guessed the finishing positions as Quintana, Froome, Contador, S. Yates and Chaves, you get points for Quintana, Froome, Contador and Chaves.
Further, for the GTs, you select the winners of each classification (one rider only). If you get it right, you get points.
Scoring
• GC – 40, 20, 15, 10, 5 for 1st to 5th positions, respectively (exact guesses not required).
• Getting the top 5 correct doubles your points for the GC.
• 40 points for correctly guessing each of the other classifications.
• Getting all winners correct, i.e. GC, KOM, Points and Young Rider, doubles your overall points for that GT.
• A total of 600 points to be won per race.
Monuments and World Championships
Pick 3 riders for the race. If your selection finishes in any of the top 3 positions, you get points. Taking the example of last season’s LBL, if your selection was Rui Costa, Albasini and Barguil, you get points for Costa and Albasini.
Scoring
• 40, 20, 10 for 1st to 3rd positions, respectively (exact guesses not required).
• Getting the top 3 correct doubles your points for that race.
• A total of 140 points to be won per race.
World Tour Stage Races and Classics
Rules are the same as the monuments, just the points are less.
Scoring
• 20, 10, 5 for 1st to 3rd positions, respectively (exact guesses not required).
• Getting the top 3 correct doubles your points for that race.
• A total of 70 points to be won per race.
Besides these, there will one (or more) bonus question for each race, which will be worth some points (to be decided at the time of asking). Also, you are encouraged to provide a ‘Story of the Race’ comment to your guesses. This is to make things interesting and get the others in on your thought process. Any other comments for the upcoming races are welcome.
SEASON LONG PREDICTIONS
There will be set a questions updated at intervals with a previously mentioned deadline. These questions will carry extra points and will reward the players for their farsightedness. Keep following the next post in this thread to keep track of the Season Long Predictions as they are posted. We will, off course, let everyone know when a new set of questions are posted.
WHAT'S NEW
Well...nothing! We got lazy in the off-season and decided to rest on our laurels. The nomination for the forum awards really got to our heads...
In reality, we felt we hit the sweet spot with our format last season. So we decided not to increase the clutter. Change is good but not for the sake of it.
FORMAT FOR ENTRIES
For GTs
Rider 1:
Rider 2:
Rider 3:
Rider 4:
Rider 5:
KOM:
Points:
Young Rider:
Bonus:
For Other Races
Rider 1:
Rider 2:
Rider 3:
Bonus:
Post your entries in this format in the thread itself. This will help keep things transparent.
Questions will be posted in Sets at regular intervals during the season. The points associated to every question will be mentioned in the Set. Send in your answers as a reply in the thread. The deadline for entries of each Set will also be mentioned when they are posted.
Questions
Set 1
1.Who will win UCI WT Rankings?
2.Who will win the CQ Rankings?
3.Who will win Giro d’Italia?
4.Who will win Tour de France?
5.Who will win Vuelta a Espana?
6.Who will win Milan-San Remo?
7.Who will win Ronde Van Vlaanderen?
8.Who will win Paris-Roubaix?
9.Who will win Liege-Bastogne-Liege?
10.Who will win Il Lombardia?
11.Which World Tour team will win the least this season?
12.Which World Tour stage race will see the narrowest margin of victory in the GC? (TDU is not included)
13.Who will be the highest placed U25 rider in any GT?
14.Predict a rider to retire at the end of the year (not already announced).
15.Predict a transfer for next year (not already announced).
The following races are being considered here for the classics set - Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo, E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Ronde Van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold Race, La Fleche Wallone, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Eschborn-Frankfurt.
1. Which WT team will be most successful in the Classics? (Wins get highest priority, then 2nd places, and so on.)
2. Which country will be most successful in the Classics? (Wins get highest priority, then 2nd places, and so on.)
3. Which race will see the biggest margin of victory?
4. Which race will have the lowest number of finishers?
5. Which will be Philippe Gilbert's best race?
Please consider only the races mentioned above for your answers. All answers with ties will be considered for all questions.
The following races are being considered here for the Grand Tours set - Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana.
1. Who will be the highest finishing home rider in any GT?
2. Who will be the highest finishing U25s eligible rider in any GT?
3. Who will be the highest finishing Colombian in any GT?
4. Which country will have the most stage wins combined in the GTs?
5. What will be the most stages won by a single rider in a single GT (just number)?
Please consider only the races mentioned above for your answers. All answers with ties will be considered for all questions.
Questions 1,2 and 4 carry 25 points each.
Question 3 and 5 carry 15 points.
I did Phil for Ronde and Matthews for green from the opening lines Will naturally be back, need to get myself back to the podium after my cohost robbed me on the line last year and also defend the "points jersey" for most race wins
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
And this time playing full-season 
