The Rules...

It’s that time of the year again for our Tour de France 3rd Place pool.

For those who are new to the pool, why do we pick who finishes third and not first?  Because there’s a greater pool of riders who could finish in 3rd place.  There’s a handful (5 maybe this year) who could win the tour, but at third…  It could be a pool of 20 or so riders.  Especially with the course this year.

This pool is for bragging rights only, no money will change hands. 

So if you win, brag all you want.  Tell your friends how amazing you are at picking the person who finishes third!


Here’s what you do:

Pick 5 riders you think could finish third.  Put them in order of who you would pick first in the "draft" and email them to me no later than July 3rd at 7PM PDT (The tour starts on 04 July this year).

On July 3th at 10PM PDT, anyone who's sent me a list, I will put their names in a hat and draw the "draft order".  I will then pick the riders from your lists as they are available. 

Example - Manny, Tom, and Mat is the draft order, and they all have Froome as their first choice, Contador as their 2nd, and Nibali as their third.  Manny gets Froome, Tom gets his Contador, and Mat gets Nibali. 

Makes sense?

Once the picks are set, I will post the picks on this blog.

Then you just have to cheer on your guy until the end, and hope they finish third.

Finishing order -

If your rider makes it to Paris then the finishing order follows the finishing order of the race.

If your guy finishes third, you win!  Brag to all your friends, talk smack!

If none of our riders finishes third, then the next closest ranking descending from 3rd (4th, 5th, 6th, etc.) becomes the top position.  Not necessarily the winner.  You can brag, some, but no smack talk.
 
If your rider drops out of the race at any time, that becomes your finishing place.  So, if there are 10 of us participating in the pool, and your rider is the first to drop out of the race, your finishing position is 10th.

If your rider finishes 1st or 2nd, you are regulated to the bottom of the finishers, but still ahead of those who's riders have dropped out. 1st place below 2nd. Consider this when picking…

There you have it.

Get your lists in ASAP!  If you want to join and I haven't emailed you an invite, leave a email address in the comments and I'll contact you!

Happy riding!