Agree with Radunion on the "what is the off season"?
It starts after the last WT race, Hanghzou in this case.
Then the season "starts" with Down Under.
Yes, there are more real races in between, but... more on that later. No, now... forget them, most of them. Many of our fantasy tours are just more fun to race. Vuelta a Tachira for example is real, and not a completely obscure race either, but the profiles usually are just "inferior" to our fantasy profiles. In my opinion. So I'd say... .ignore most of them, especially the long ones. And especially southland which has just the most idiotic profiles ever. Tour du Faso... some dirt roads usually, but only some, but still, how to sensibly simultate them here? Another pavé tour? Ignore it? Make it a series of *? Plus it's usually ______________________..... that's usually not even interesting for sprinter teams. I'd be for cutting it.. same for Tachira as I said, most of the time IMO the the profiles are just not very exciting. Yeah, that's the case for some important races too... but at least they are important, so of course ride them. But those rather unimportant 2.2, sometimes not even that (Southland if I'm not wrong was even only national something last year, or not even UCI sanctioned anymore) or sometimes still 2.1 but still just very local.... ignore them. I think we had Bolivia, Costa Rica both ones.. Chiapas too? Other stuff... but mostly the profiles were... boooring. Hainan.... pff... who'll design? Not me, but if somebody wants... of course a design like last year is worthless... in China on google maps etc the roads are consistently x00 meters off... chinese paranoia... there is a chinese site with the roads in the right place now I think, some chinese google earth like thing, but only for china.... tried to check that one out ones, had no idea how to use it... Until then, have fun with finding the roads on google earth through the clouds and all. The wild +15-10+18-5+16-8 like last year though is not worth having again... nothign to do with reality, if we want real races at least let's have them done properly.
Stage races:
IMO important first to get the main ones "fix"
After Hangzhou IMO the main, fix tours are/should be:
October
22-26 Pavé cat 2? Or even 3?
Then attention, 28 National championships (or chips as Buhmann likes to say..
) So one day off before and after for the main tours!
- 30.10-02.11. Tour du Jura. But, ATTENTION, the designer has left RSF. ZL stopped... he might begin again later, but for the moment he said he doesn't really plan to restart, right now no more RSF-fever (will never understand people like that) no idea if he wants to still draw it... if not, yes, we could get a new designer. Or we could just forget it, in a way another pure climbers tour is a bit much if we have the Andes in November... let's wait and see. Don't really care, but no fantasy tour should be fix and save forever as a general rule. Nice to keep them, but in a way we could say, like in reality the Coppa Placci and x other races... sometimes they just disappear, even if they have a long history. A comeback in a year wouldn't be out of the question either. cat 2 if it's there? Or up to 3?
Here a well designed Hainan, 20-28 in reality, could be changed to 19-27 for the NC, why not?
November:
- Main: Andes. 14 days or 14 stages + rest day. so max 15 days. cat 3
December:
-Dec tour, hopefully 14 days incl. rest day again. cat 3
January: IMO it would be worth thinking about taking the runner up in the december competition as first tour of the year here, fix in the calendar...But there are pro and cons, I know
+ Reward for one more dec tour designer. We usually have close decisions, and usually there is more than 1 tour that actually would be fun to ride.
+ Better than Tachira and other early january alternatives
- Another main fix tour that closes the calendar for a bit shorter, but still longish 7-10 days fantasy tours...
- Another 2 weeks stage race that not everybody can ride.
Probably more.
Btw, in 2013 Down Under starts later, 20.01.
So... main stage races.... I'm for NoPik correcting his first post (that actually is very cool) at least the main real races on the right dates, see Down Under, 20-27, and put Hangzhou in.
Parallel "minor" races: Here I'd say let Leso do more or less what he wants... Would be nice if he doesn't "throw money" after the chicken who avoid the december tour and then score money like crazy in 2-3 parallel tours... The way leso did it last year IMO was ok, let the parallel tours overlap too... so last year there were 3 parallel tours to the dec tour, but only possible to ride 2. Good. Same for the January runners up tour, if that happens, and same for the Andes as well. But I wouldn't oppose a lot of smaller tours in the offseason in general. Not everybody can ride the main ones, let's have some 3-6 day tours, shorter ones as well, that more people can ride. And even in the time without main tour, why not have 2 parallel ones. Early november, late november early december for example.
ONe day races: The old classics. The "real weather, copyrighted by RSF, and they seem to enforce it, not even reality seems to dare to use real weather anymore, makes it a bit complicated. I like the NoPik solution to put them many of them at the end of october, Brescia, Bolkov, Mosella, Flèche Jurassienne... some could be parallel to Pavé/Tour du Jura.. Have to chose then... want the "classics" or the tours... sucks, grr, want both, but... If leso thinks it's too much... ok, cut a few... Flèche Jurassienne for example, the designer would survive it if the race dies... it doesn't bother him either if it survives of course.. So yeah, end of october or cut. Problem Letzebuerg at New Years... no clue.
Anyway, my opinion again: Let's first agree on the "MAIN" fantasy stage races, then bombard leso with our demands once we more or less have a consensus.
Edit: Forgot the Sachsen Pavé.. another problem due to the "real weather". Move it to January? In Sachsen? Brrr.....Ok, like Letzebuerg, no real clue what to do. later is difficult too....
Most logic would actually be: change position with the Pavé tour... the Pavé tour is pure absolute no connection with real roads fantasy... so that could be in early January.. .while end of october probably would work with Sachsen? Or... ignore the weather for Sachsen. Or move it into the real season... but when... see no real date where it would fit. Mmh, the september hole for the World Championships? But too close to the Pavé tour, plus too late this year anyway...
Possible dates: Right after Down Under should be ok, I suppose Bessèges and stuff start later too next year, or before Down Under. But that depends on our (or lesossies) preference for what should happen there. 
So let's just see if we find races we like (other guys still welcome with proposals of course, and let's try to distribute them as evenly as possible from November to January. Without forcing it and trying to reach the numbers I proposed above, just stuff that seems really good. (Volcano IMO really good because it's for sprinters in theory, but could be difficult to time it right with the downhill, plus classics where sprinters have a chance are few anyway, in the fantasy season)
And then you write so much because of the mistake