Wrath of le Tour - Final Results!

The Tour de France has finished and the withdrawal from your favorite announcers, I am sure, has already begun. Weekend (or even weekday) mornings may never feel as productively unproductive for the rest of the year. The last three stages of le Tour offered up some predictable racing, but the suspense was there as Bardet attempted to fall off the podium. The fantasy cycling was about as predictable. 

The big winner of the 11th annual Wrath of le Tour goes to Faire le Pont managed by Jeff Cook-Lundgren.  Jeff took the lead on stage 7 and never looked back. Jeff had an impressive team with an average fantasy ranking of 24th place. Froome, Aru, Kittel and Quintana were his big money riders and all scored their fair share of points. The most impressive picks came in cherry picking his high value low cost riders. Guillaume Martin, Tiesj Benoot, Bauke Mollema and Damiano Caruso were all value picks that scored well above their cost. Congratulations Jeff on your first ever win in the Wrath of le Tour fantasy cycling competition. A decade of hard work has finally paid off!!!

Second place in 2017 goes to Matt Damon managed by Matt Kurke. Matt was one of the three brave souls that did not select Chris Froome. He did have four riders in the top 10 which is an impressive feat. Things were looking up for Matt when Arnaud Demare was one of the top sprinters left in the peloton. His lack of form in the mountains or swapping out his low pick of Gianluca Brambilla might have been enough to make up the 104 point deficit to the top spot on the podium. 

Third place goes to the returning champion For old time sake managed by Kelin Dunfee. Kelin made a late charge for the podium by making some nice overall picks. Kelin's affinity to the stage hunter and sprinters worked out well. However, one can only wonder what might have been if Cavendish would have found his form of old rather than the barriers in 2017.

The lanterne rouge in 2017 goes to first time competitor Lion of Flanders managed by Lee Cox. Lee was hit hard by Porte's abandon. The other riders he selected are have excellent palmarès, however 2017 just wasn't their year for fantasy cycling. Welcome to the big time Lee. We hope to see you back next year!

Thanks to everyone for participating and hope to see you all next year!

Team rosters and scoring
Stage by stage scoring
Rider scores

Stage 19 Podium
1 - Matt Damon - Matt Kurke - 159
2 - JIOs - Jess Braun - 151
3 - For old time sake - Kelin Dunfee - 114

Stage 20 Podium
1 - J's Racing  - Vicki J. - 259
2 - The Bikers Must Be Crazy - Alex Hooke - 241
3 - Lion of Flanders - Lee Cox - 191

Stage 21 Podium
1 - JIOs - Jess Braun - 204
2 - RathOfLeTour - Justin Rath - 189
3 - For old time sake - Kelin Dunfee - 181

Podium for overall picks
1 - Faire le Pont - Jeff Cook-Lundgren - 3209
2 - Matt Damon - Matt Kurke - 3172
3 - For old time sake - Kelin Dunfee - 2397

***FINAL RESULTS***

GC - Team Name - Manager - Score
1 - Faire le Pont - Jeff Cook-Lundgren - 7425
2 - Matt Damon - Matt Kurke - 7321
3 - For old time sake - Kelin Dunfee - 5745
4 - Les Têtards - Charlie Sawyer - 5118
5 - Team Undertow - Ryan Buus - 5052
6 - JIOs - Jess Braun - 4902
7 - Rule #5 - Ian Hill - 4596
8 - J's Racing  - Vicki J. - 4503
9 - Santa Barbara Sandbaggers - Alex Kurt - 4353
10 - El Pistolero's Last Stand - Scott Bromelkamp - 4347
11 - RathOfLeTour - Justin Rath - 4080
12 - The Bikers Must Be Crazy - Alex Hooke - 4022
13 - Team Bullseye - Steve Knutson - 3982
14 - Flo Ridas - Lizzy Sander - 3763
15 - WADA mean, I'm clean. - Jared Smith - 3659
16 - Lion of Flanders - Lee Cox - 3281

Top Scoring Riders (points - rider)
2237 - FROOME Christopher
1617 - URAN Rigoberto
1530 - BARDET Romain
1370 - ARU Fabio
1349 - MARTIN Daniel
1246 - BARGUIL WARREN
1193 - YATES Simon
1129 - LANDA Mikel
1013 - MEINTJES Louis
1006 - MATTHEWS Michael

Most valuable riders (value - cost - points - rider name)
246. - 2 - 493 - MARTIN Guillaume
169. - 3 - 508 - GROENEWEGEN Dylan
138. - 9 - 1246 - BARGUIL WARREN
137. - 4 - 548 - CARUSO Damiano
134. - 12 - 1617 - URAN Rigoberto
124. - 7 - 874 - BOASSON HAGEN Edvald
115. - 3 - 346 - FEILLU Brice
108. - 5 - 544 - BENOOT Tiesj
103. - 13 - 1349 - MARTIN Daniel
102. - 11 - 1129 - LANDA Mikel