It's all been building to this moment. You've binged Tour de France: Unchained on Netflix and wonder, will this year’s Tour be dominated by Jonas and team Lease A Bike (Jumbo) yet again, or will Pogačar’s team UAE regain the top step? Will there be an upset in the GC by the likes of Primož Roglič, Jai Hindley, or Carlos Rodriguez? Will Jasper “Disaster” Phillipsen see any serious challengers in the sprint, perhaps by Mark Cavendish in his quest to beat Eddy Mercx’s record number of Tour wins? Two things are for sure, we’ll miss seeing Thibaut feeding croissants to his pond fish, and we have high expectations for Orla Chennaoui’s race day fits in the commentator’s box.

Bienvenue to friends, old and new. Whether you've been a long time watcher of the Tour, or just recently watched Tour De France: Unchained and fell in love with the characters and emotions of our sport, the chance at glory in the TBD Tour De France Fantasy league can be yours. Block your calendars off until at least 11:30AM every day between June 29 through July 21, the biggest bike race is here.

THE GAME:

The Official Fantasy Tour De France game by Tissot.

THE PRIZES:

First Place (most points): A jersey of your choice from our kit sponsor Castelli.
Best Team Name (as voted on by an unscientific internet poll): TBD team bottles
Lantern Rouge (least points): TBD team bottles

*To win prizes, participants must join the TBD league and have a fully formed roster by the start of the Tour. TBD reserves the right to change prizes without notice.

Don’t want to wait till July to see if you win a prize? You can get your own TBD team bottles while supporting grassroots youth cycling programs by purchasing one today!

The rules:

Full rules are on the TDF Fantasy website, but in summary, you get 120 credits to build a team by “buying” riders. You can make 8 changes (transfers) during the race. But! If you sell a rider worth 8 credits, you can only buy someone worth 8 credits. That's it. That's the whole game. If you’re looking for something more exciting or complicated, might I recommend watching David Gaudu win the video game version of the Tour De France with his own virtual avatar on Pro Cycling Manager on twitch.

A few quick tips:

• You must have a full race roster to score points! Remember to double check your team before the game starts to account for any last minute changes to teams.

• Select a road captain every day - they will score double points. This should be someone who could potentially win, or at least come in top 10 on the stage. A stage result gets more points than leading the GC on the day.

• Log in to the site now to take the quiz and score points that you can use to make more transfers during the race.

• Use your transfers wisely! Don’t start trading on the first or second day because there are always more abandons than you expect.

The game is open (finalized roster to come soon!), so go ahead and start building the squad of your couch Directeur Sportif dreams. Do you want to bet on a reliable, consistent GC contender to lead your squad, or a dark horse contender? A farmer's son from Belgium, or a former fish factory worker? Maybe you prefer a tactical rider, a chess player on a bike to a romantic rider, lost in the modern world? Are you the type of DS who plays with their heart, who will sing songs of victory and defeat with their riders, or are you a strategic DS, pouring over VeloViewer for every detail about the route?

Don’t really follow professional bike racing on a regular basis? That’s okay too! If you google, “who is likely to win the tour de france” you’ll come across several online prediction lists for GC contenders. Then, you’ll also want to pick a good sprinter and climber and perhaps an all arounder. I often look at ProCyclingStats to help me pick riders. Or, just choose folks based on vibes! You do you!

Here’s a fun little stage summary that could help you in selecting your team or leaders for each day.

Whichever tactic you use to go for the fantasy leader’s jersey, remember, the peloton never stops moving, and if you're in the peloton you're alive.

If the above link doesn’t work (blame the TDF site designer), join the fantasy TDF game, and search leagues for the ToBeDetermined.CC x Castelli TDF 2024 League (league no.57641).

Huge thanks as always to our sponsors Castelli Cycling.