Fantasy Giro d’Italia - 2026 (Velogames) - £5 Money League / SET & FORGET Style Game

[bluelionman]

So, the first Grand Tour (road cycle race) of 2026 is here - IT ACTUALLY STARTS ON FRIDAY - MAY 8 th

So, as per usual I am running my £5 ‘Winner Takes All’ Set & forget (no transfers) Classic style league hosted on Velogames.

This is a fantasy cycling game and in the Classic version which I create my leagues in they have no transfers whatsoever once the race starts (there is an amnesty until start of game/race). So, you need luck as well as judgement in selecting your riders as your time is spent picking your 9 riders within the 100 credits budget but once the deadline (start of race) is reached you can do nothing more. Just sit back, hope your chosen riders outscore those in other entrants’ teams and hope they do not crash out, get disqualified or retire through illness/injury. That’s it!

The deadline for entries to be submitted is 12:45 CEST (Central European Summer Time) on Friday 8th May 2026. That is 11:45am in the UK and 06:45am on the US East Coast.

Velogames is a free web site that runs separate fantasy games on professional cycle races such as the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta à Espana to name just the three Grand Tours (but they also do games on many other smaller tours and races).

Their classic Grand Tour fantasy cycle racing games are perfect for those of you that don’t have much time but like to have a go, as the only time you need to spend on it, is at the beginning selecting a team before the start of the race (as there are no transfers at all in Velogames classic fantasy cycling Grand Tour games).

So please click on this link to check their website out and familiarise yourself with the rules and how points are awarded:

VELOGAMES Fantasy Cycling - Italy 2026 (Giro d’Italia)

The game is free and you can be in up to 10 mini leagues.

However, to make it interesting I always make my Velogames cycle racing leagues a fiver (£5) to join to create a prize for my league’s eventual winner. All entry fees go back out as the prize for topping my league at the end of the race.

The name of this (money) league is:-

League Name: WINNER TAKES ALL
League Code: 500962419

I think it’s self-explanatory how the money gets paid out - more teams in the league, more money for the winner.

So, click the link, pick a team and then join my private money league before the deadline using the above details. Then just get me your entry fee ASAP! If you don’t know the score regards paying me just PM (Private Message) me from here (the TFP forum) or hit me up on Discord - username ‘bluelionman’ on both my blm fantasy games server and The Fan Pub server.

Anyone who has not paid the entry fee before the start of Stage 2 will be highlighted on this thread and cannot then win the prize pot. I will do my best to get them removed from the league but it may take some time as I have to contact the guy behind the Velogames website to get this done.

Now you can just sit back and enjoy 3 weeks of cycle racing - though TV coverage in the UK is no longer on Discovery plus so not sure there will be any free highlights to watch easily this year. I have found the following article where you can read about your watching options in the UK:

Where can you watch Men’s Giro d’Italia 2026 in the UK?

Otherwise just go online to Velogames to see how your team is doing compared to the others in my mini league by visiting the Velogames web site and logging in. They update the scores daily after each stage so you can see day by day how your team of riders is fairing. Looks like I will be stuck trying to find limited highlights each night on YouTube as I do not subscribe to TNT or HBO Max.

All the best and I really hope to see a few new teams in my league this year along with those of you whom had a go last year. Please feel free to forward this information (link bottom of this post) on to anyone you think might be interested in joining.

Oh and just to be clear my ‘Winner Takes All’ money league is strictly one (1) entry per person!

Best regards,

bluelionman (aka Noel Symonds)

Fan Pub Founding Member

PS When entering please use your full name and Capital Up your initials as I keep final standings table screen shots for posterity and maintain a winners history for my cycling games here:

Velogames / Cycle Racing Tours - WINNER TAKES ALL - Winners History (all time)

[bluelionman]

To let people know state of play I will bold and put a blue biking man next to entries I have received payment for:

Giro d’Italia - WINNER TAKES ALL (6)

Peloton Plodders - Noel Symonds

Sofia Loren - Jon Cartwright

Bikes n` Bolognese - Russell Owen

juangainza - Juan Gainzarain

Giro Cycling Bears - Douglas Hay

Sonova - David Sneddon

[bluelionman]

How dissapointing - 2 stages in and my goose is cooked.. 1 rider out and a scond losing over 8 minutes on GC.

Jay Vine - out
Adam Yates - out of running

Edit: It gets worse, Adam Yates didn’t start Stage 3 so also abandons the Giro.

So I am now 2 riders down that I spent 26 credits on - so over a quarter of my teams budget.

It will be a miracle to not finish last from here now! Hope I have better luck in le Tour come July.

[bluelionman]

I can confirm I got 6 paid entries for the Giro this year, so that’s £30 in the prize pot for the eventual winner!

[Rustyboots]

Anyone looking for free to air coverage of the Giro- there is a one hour highlights show on Dmax every night, (freeview channel 39), at 7 pm.

[Rick_Spangle]

…and channel 159 on Sky

[bluelionman]

Thanks for letting me know @Rustyboots, I watched my first one last night. Shame there not Freeview On Demand also.

[bluelionman]

Well that Giro was a procession for Jonas Vingegaard but at least in the fantasy version we have a new winner this year Russell Owen (Rustyboots).

For his superb rider picking earning the fantasy maglia rosa (as winner) Russell bags a nice £30 for his efforts. My team performance was shocking meaning I came dead last this year. I will surely hope to have a better showing in ‘le tour’ next month (but wouldn’t bet on it)!

Giro 2026 - Winner Takes All - Final Table

(Click on picture twice to enlarge it)

My cycling tours fantasy games all time winners history can be viewed here:

Velogames / Cycle Racing Tours - WINNER TAKES ALL - Winners History (all time)

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If anyone reading this likes a low maintenance fantasy game then my cycle racing money leagues are just the ticket as there are no transfers or anything once a race starts. So you pick your team of riders beforehand and that’s it - let it ride as there’s nothing else to do. I try to run leagues on all 3 Grand tours and the occasional minor tours here and there when I see them in time and they are free to play on Velogames.

Watch this forum for details of my Tour de France ‘Winner Takes All’ money league towards the end of June and join in.

[JonCartwright]

Great team picked by Russell, avoiding the obvious Vingegard and getting value elsewhere

[Rustyboots]

Thanks for the congrats Noel and Jon. As always, Noel’s comms and payout were swift, even though he had been in Germany and had loads of football payouts to sort through, so thanks for that.

I’m still not entirely sure how I managed to win this one- I lost 2 riders very early on in the Giro, then came the Pellizzari meltdown and consequently dropping out of GC contention. I only had 1 stage win, (Arrieta), throughout the whole tour, and even my sprinter, (Andresen), was a big disappointment….and of course, I punted on NOT having Vingegaard in my team!

The Velogames is a great game for anyone who has a passing interest in cycling, you don’t need to be an expert as cycling can be pretty random- as my Eulalio selection proved. Food for thought for Tour de France- dare we go without Pogacar and/or Vingegaard in our teams?!