I've just entered my fantasy team for the Tour De France this year. I think my friends and I have had a team in the https://ifarm.nl/tdf2018/ league since 2003 (missing a couple of early years). I even won once!
It made me think of where the joy is in fantasy teams.
Certainly this league (run by E.F. Tjong Kim Sang) has balance (most teams end up fairly evenly split between sprinters and climbers), and so it has the pain of choice. You are forced to leave out cyclists that you are sure will perform. It also has the pain of regret. There is no changing your team once the race has started (well after the end of stage 2). If your number one rider is injured - so be it!
But there is the drawback of a lack of involvement - we can't make changes, so there is little reason to keep abreast of things till the end of the tour - three weeks.
Most fantasy leagues include the ability for limited swapping out of players - substituting for form or injury. That keeps the interest going, it allows early mistakes to be remedied.
Methinks our cycling league was limited by time factors, the work involved to run things is already considerable (thank you!), and having teams change each day would have just caused more.
Still - I wonder if I shouldn't try to set up a new version. And see if my "learned" gamecrafting skills can bring more fun.
Next year lads. Next year.
