The rules

The new TourChampion game is up for those who want to check how much they really know about cycling. The website we play at is Belgian, ergo everything is in Dutch. No worries though, I'll guide you through it all.
What to do first? Go to www.tourchampion.net

1. Yes, I've participated before!

If you participated for the Giro edition (or the Vuelta or Tour last year), you simply go to the website above. Fill in your email address and the password you got last time into the box on the right. You'll then be taken to a page with a paragraph of red text at the top. Ignore it, and click on the blue logo on the left (doesn't matter if you choose the other one). You'll be taken to yet another page, where there will be two options for you. Choose the second one (Ik heb al eerder meegedaan met TourChampion). Fill in your email address yet again. The site'll say "Account activated" (in Dutch, mind you). You fill in your email address for the third time, plus the password you get in your inbox, et voila. You can start picking your team. Go to step 3.

2. No, I'm a newbie!

- Go to wm.tourchampion.net

- At the top of your screen there's a bunch of menu's, the fourth one is "Aanmelden" (signing up). Click it!

- Leave it at the first of the two options (Ik heb nog geen inloggegevens voor TourChampion)

- Fill in the questionnaire, knowing that
Voornaam: First name
Achternaam: Surname
E-mail address: fill in a real one, they're gonna send you your password
Geslacht: Sex (vrouw = woman)
All the other options are optional.

- Go to the email (watch it, mine ended up in my spam folder). There you'll find your user name (your email address) and your password (wachtwoord), and a link back to the game. Click it!

- On the right there's a box called "Snel inloggen" (fast sign up). Fill in your user name and password.

3. Let's pick a team!

- The site will ask you to make up a teamname. Mine's "Team Juliette". Make smt up and click whatever button is next to it (I forgot).

- You'll now see the page where you get to pick your riders. Now, the rules! You have to pick 9 riders, no two can ride for the same team (so, you can't have both Cancellara and Voigt, since they're both CSC'ers. damn)

* Your first rider is an A-rider - he will go for the GC
* Your next two riders will be B-riders - master domestiques
* Your next three will be C-riders - sprinters and TT'ers
* Your next three will be D-riders - everyone else
Don't worry, the game decides which rider fits into which category. Some riders are in weird categories, you'll just have to live with that.

- Go insane until you've picked a team. The site automatically saves who you've picked, and you can change it til next week, so you've got time to ponder.

- The GC will be calculated on the time of your best three. So if your A-guy wins, but your second and third best are both 30 minutes behind, you won't get far.

- The points and mountain jerseys are just the total of all your points for that category.

- The three links next to the rider's name mean "change" (wijzig), "empty" (legen) and of course, random. So if you wanna change a rider in your team, you click "wijzig". If you wanna leave the list of names, click on the red text that says "terug naar mijn ploeg" (back to my team). If you click on a rider's name, there will sometimes be extra info under the picture.

* Kopman = team leader
* Knecht = domestique (it means something akin to butler actually)
* Goede klimber = good climber
* Goede sprinter = good sprinter
* Goede tijdrijder = good TT'

4. How you doin'?

- Want to know how you're doing? Click the menu at the top that says "Klassement" (standings). There's a lot going on.

- We'll start with the box on the left that says Klassementen TourChampion. There's three drop down menu's.

i. algemeen klassement (GC), puntenklassement (points standing), bergklassement (KoM)
ii. all the different stages
iii. totaal stand (total standing), deze etappe (this stage)
So if you pick "puntenklassement, stage 2, totaal stand" you'll get the complete points standing after stage 2.

- The box on the right has four menu's

* Gedetailleerde score per ploeg = detailed score per team - this tells you to click a team name in the standings on the left if you want detailed scoring info.
* Waar staat mijn ploeg? = where's my team at? If you're logged in you'll see your team in the standing. If you're not logged in OR if you wanna find a different team, fill it in here.
* Subleagues. You can make a subleague there. I'll make one for 606. "Toevoegen" means to add.
* Dagklassement = the day's standings.

I think that's it. Drop your teamname here and I'll make us a subleague. I'll (try to) post our GC and such every day.

Time left to register @25 June 22h24 CET:
8 days, 16 hours, 34 min