At FCYCLE.com, you are given the opportunity to play team director for a pro-caliber cycling team! You hand-pick riders for your team and then choose riders for each stage of the race. As the days go on, your team will accrue points based on your riders’ actual performances and your team will be ranked against other users’ teams.

It’s a fairly simple concept, but there are some quirks, rules and recommendations that you should probably read before participating.

1. CREATE YOUR TEAM.
Follow the link from your dashboard to the team creation page. Choose an available race from the drop-down list or enter league details to join a friend’s league. You may have up to five teams participating in the same race at the same time. However, you may not manage multiple teams in the same league.

2. POPULATE YOUR ROSTER.
Once your team has been created, follow the build roster link from your dashboard to choose your riders. Each rider has been assigned a point value based on team role and past performance. Your team will have a set number of points to choose fifteen of these riders. You must choose a full compliment of 15 riders or your team will not be scored!

We recommend selecting a well-rounded group of riders. A team full of sprinters will not score points during the mountain stages and the same rule holds true for climbers on flat stages. In the long run, managers who best blend all-arounders, sprinters and mountain climbers will fare better than unbalanced teams.

3. SET YOUR LINE-UP.
You will need to select nine of your 15 riders to participate in each stage in the race. You set line-up for each stage individually by following the set lineups link from your dashboard. You can move between stages by clicking corresponding stage links toward the top of the page. Only selected riders will earn points during a stage!

Smart managers tailor their stage line-ups to the type of stage being contested. Stack your line-up with sprinters for the long, flat stages and climbers for the steep grades. All-arounders can fit in just about anywhere. Of course, this is a fantasy sport - go with your gut and take a few risks, you never know who could sneak away with a surprise win!

4. MODIFY YOUR LINE-UP.
Check back often for updates on rider performance. You may want to adjust your stage line-ups if one of the riders on your bench is performing beyond expectations. Riders earn points for every stage they complete atop one of the three major competitions: general, points and mountain. If one your riders is placed well in one of those categories, add him to your line-up so you can take advantage of those points!