FSA Directeur Sportif Dilemmas – Podium Cafe

Dear Chris,

I need your advice in selecting my team for the 2022 FSA Directeur Sportif competition. For my double-protected rider, I am tempted to go with the guy I root for the most, whose name I don’t want to disclose for competitive reasons, but let’s just say it rhymes with “slander pool.” However, in my head I know I should probably pick a guy who, again, I don’t want to say his name, but let’s just say he’s from a country that would like you to remember that it is not Slovakia. Head or heart… what is the right way to go? Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

Hypothetical Internet Advice-Asking Person

p.s. Thank you for all you do, which inspires me so much in my everyday life.

p.p.s. There is something that looks different about you… have you lost weight?

*****

Dear HIA-AP,

Wow, thank you for your kind words! And to your question, the answer is twofold:

1. Going with your heart is the right idea, because the point is to have fun, and it’s much more fun when you can gamble your theoretical fantasy sports hopes and dreams on someone you were going to root for anyway. If he does well, great, and if he doesn’t, then you were going to be sad anyway.
2. Having said that, the right idea is to pick the best riders who will score the most points, and your heart is simply a filter through which you are putting information which will then yield the wrong information. This is math, not poetry. Get a grip.

I hope this helps you.

Best,

Chris

*****

Dear Chris,

Thank you for your answer to my question asking whether I should pick one choice or the other, by saying that I should pick both of them, which is prohibited under the rules. That is super helpful to me. Although I guess it raises the question of why it is we are limited to picking just one rider who costs more than *%#@…

*****

Huh, I guess the email got cut off there for some reason. Anyway, you can see how hard it is to even get started picking your FSA Directeur Sportif squad, which YOU HAVE 10 DAYS LEFT TO DO… and I hope things are going well. But for me, I am still hung up on this very same threshold question.

It’s not the only threshold question people face, however. Feel free to chime in here on what you see as the philosophical dilemmas of making an FSA DS team might be. Some others off the top of my head:

• Do I weight my spending on the top end and fill up the end of the roster with one-pointers? Or do I go cheaper at the top and spend more on the middle tier?
• Do I spend heavier on classics guys whose point chances are spread around the calendar, or grand tour riders who get, at most, two bites at the apple?
• Do I insert a theme into my team, like all French dudes, because the point is to have fun and I’m not going to win anyway?
• Do I buy the hype on young guys with alleged high ceilings, or do I go with proven veterans because a bunch of losing lottery tickets is worth less than the $10 you spend on them?

These are real-life FSA DS dilemmas. Are you facing similar concerns? Or others not listed here? Have you resolved any such dilemmas in a way that you wish to share?

Onward… hope it’s all going well. For anyone who doesn’t know full well what I am talking about, for sure go to the game opening post and fill yourselves in. I also recommend taking a look at LooseHorse’s Rider Injury Update, which you might want to consider before hitting the “Submit” button. Good luck!