Season Fantasy Challenge #3 | Update from Tour of Oman to Gent-Wevelgem

Recently, I started a challenge called the "Season Fantasy Challenge," where I participate in two year-long fantasy cycling competitions on Zweeler and FirstCycling. My ultimate goal is to achieve the best possible results. Following an intense period of racing, here's the second update, which covers the first significant block of races.

If you want to learn about both competitions I've entered, you can do so by reading the opening column.

Zweeler - https://en.zweeler.com/results/14951

FirstCycling - https://firstcycling.com/fantasy.php?k=sta

Goal: Top50
Ranking on last update (7/2): 68th
Current Ranking: 350th

Should there be a cause for concern? No, not really. Yes, the current standings see me in 350th place, but this was a result of the Volta a Catalunya, where despite having Groves, Coquard and Strong scoring in the sprints, I had no-one for the GC. This past week I've been as high as inside the Top30, but the nature of the game sees wild swings quite frequently. Inside the "modest" standings for the time being, but position 350 is in no way where I'm looking to end this season.

Luckily, things are looking good. The lack of points in Catalunya certainly a bust, but since the last update I've had Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert, Mads Pedersen, David Gaudu and Enric Mas for example step up their game. Pogacar's points have boosted me, whilst I get a sense of ease for van Aert kicking off his competitive block, as he started his season late and for a big scorer, I need as much as I can get from him! Pogacar has already been proving himself worthy in the points per price.

So will van Aert soon, I hope. The cobbled classics are underway but I can dream of a lot here. With Pogacar, van Aert, Ganna, Pedersen and Madouas among my team, a lot of points are coming in. Ganna's strong performances have been worth quite a lot, whilst Pello Bilbao's consistency continues to see him as a valuable weapon. The likes of Mas and Vlasov have been showing themselves already but their points lay further in the season. Jakobsen and Bennett aren't scoring luxurious points but are doing the job well.

Groves, Coquard and Groves were on display in Caalunya scoring decently. De Lie is a low scorer but mostly because many races early in the year where he won were not in the competition's calendar. Matthews has been sick but his races also lay later in the year. Gerben Thijssen is in the same situation as De Lie, performing really well this year but because of calendar, very little points are actually being taken.

With 0 points there are Juan Ayuso who hasn't yet started his season due to injury and is sounding like a horrible choice for the time being. Tobias Johannessen is yet to score as well due to injuries and is out of form. Patrick Bevin has been completely absent so far, whilst Guillaume Martin has been recently active in Catalunya but he isn't battling for GC positions and that harms my ambitions.

Goal: 1st place
Ranking on last update (7/2): 5th
Current Ranking: 18th

A lot has happened since. Unlike Zweeler, in FirstCycling there has been a steady lost of positions throughout the past few weeks. Nothing abrupt, but the points have fallen more towards other managers. This is actually relatively surprising as when taking a look back at the results, in the World Tour races I've actually been scoring really well. Over this last update for example I've finished 3rd at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, 2nd at the Volta a Catalunya and 9th at Gent-Wevelgem.

As races that give out more points I'd expected to be more further ahead. However as it is clear, those are only a few of the many races that swarm the calendar. In fact, I haven't finished on the Top10 of any other race, and the closest was the Classic Brugge-De Panne where I was 13th. There's a clear pattern that the World Tour races are the ones where I perform better. Most likely they are the most predictable for me, although outside Catalunya I wouldn't say the results of the others were controlled in any way.

Going deep into the details there is another very clear detail. Although I sit 18th in the overall rankings, I'm only the 44th best scorer in one-day races, but the 6th in stage-races. There is an absolutely huge difference here, and it's also become very clear that I'm nailing the stage-races better. The unpredictability factor of the one-day races is being a pebble in my shoe. In fact if I look around, the best-placed manager to have scored less points in the one-day races than me is currently in 26th place - our very own Nuno Silva, as a coincidence!

The upcoming weeks will, maybe unfortunately for me, include many classics. Three monuments in fact and several others. I think in the Grand Tours it may change in a more positive way, the gap to 1st place is almost of 1000 points and it's looking complicated. In the women's calendar calendar I continue to put in the work and filling all teams but in the standings I'm currently 52nd.

A lot of racing has taken place since the last update, the results have been as following:
UAE Tour WE: 77
Muscat Classic: 99
Tour of Oman: 122
Clasica de Almeria WE: 115
Vuelta a Murcia: 114
Figueira Champions Classic: 149
Clasica de Almeria: 66
Vuelta a Andalucia: 43
Volta ao Algarve: 56
Setmana Ciclista Valenciana: 125
Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var: 56
Tour du Rwanda: 45
UAE Tour: 79
Gran Camiño: 30
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: 3
Faun-Ardèche Classic: 161
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad WE: 97
Faun Drôme Classic: 114
Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne: 22
Omloop van het Hageland: 14
Le Samyn Dames; 119
Le Samyn: 202
Strade Bianche Donne: 23
Strade Bianche: 130
GP Jean-Pierre Monseré: 27
Paris-Nice: 38
Tirreno-Adriatico: 175
Istrian Spring Trophy: 104
Ronde van Drenthe: 50
Tour de Taiwan: 77
Nokere Koerse WE: 62
Nokere Koerse: 117
GP de Denain: 195
Bredene Koksijde Classic: 29
Tour de Normandie Féminin: 59
Milano-Sanremo: 112
Trofeo Alfredo Binda: 14
Volta a Catalunya: 2
Classic Brugge-De Panne: 13
Classic Brugge-De Panne WE: 83
E3 Saxo Classic: 78
Gent-Wevelgem ME Juniors: 137
Gent-Wevelgem ME U23: 84
Gent-Wevelgem: 9
Gent-Wevelgem Junior WE: 113
Gent-Wevelgem WE: 115
GP Industria & Artigianato: 121
La Roue Tourangelle: 178