Attempt at Cycling Rankings and Slight Rule Change

Well, Bussman is lazy, so I'm giving this a go.

There is no way of knowing who will actually compete in these damn races so I'm going to use last years results for the Giro bowl and the tour of france based on our scoring matrix to come up with a ranking. I have considered changing the points because it is so tough for these guys to string together multiple stage victories, and therefore, most end up with only 3 points. Instead of increasing points, I've decided that while these events are on going you are allowed to drop/add a cyclist prior to each stage. If you want to pick one guy and hope he wins, cool. But if you want to get into the nitty gritty and try to predict who will win each stage (from what I've learned so far, this is an extremely predicatable sport from stage to stage) then you can really rack up well earned points.

Also, there is no penalty in the UFL for doping. If your rider is the closest thing to a winner one of these races can declare on the day a stage ends, or the day the race ends, then they win the points. I'm not waiting around while they decide who did the best job of hiding their drug use.

Here goes absolutly nothing, except a lot of time:



1. Alberto Contador (ESP) (25) (Not invited to 2008 Tour de France, but would have been favorite, so I leave him ranked #1)
2. Carlos Sastre (ESP) (28)
3. Mark Cavendish (GBR) (18)
4. Riccardo Riccò (ITA) (12)
5. Daniele Bennati (ITA) (9)
6. Emanuele Sella (ITA) (9)
7. Stefan Schumacher (6)
8. Lance Armstrong (Did not compete in either race last year and is unlikely to compete in the Giro d'Italia, however, he is likely to be competitive in the tour and win at least 2 stages in the mountains.)

Rest Tied with 1 Stage victory each last year
Marzio Bruseghin (ITA) (3)
Pavel Brutt (RUS) (3)
Matteo Priamo (ITA) (3)
Gabriele Bosisio (ITA) (3)
Alessandro Bertolini (ITA) (3)
Franco Pellizotti (ITA) (3)
André Greipel (GER) (3)
Jens Voigt (GER) (3)
Vasil Kiryienka (BLR) (3)
Marco Pinotti (ITA) (3)
Alejandro Valverde (3)
Thor Hushovd (3)
Samuel Dumoulin (3)
Luis León Sánchez (3)
Leonardo Piepoli (3)
Kurt Asle Arvesen (3)
Óscar Freire (3)
Simon Gerrans (3)
Cyril Dessel (3)
Marcus Burghardt (3)
Gert Steegmans (3)
Sylvain Chavanel (3)