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PCM.daily Tips & Tricks Section
How to win from a Breakaway
By: Rocksteady | Average Rating: 4.36 | Game version: PCM11
Important: There is no way to guarantee a breakaway victory. It takes time and lots of attempts but I think these tips can help. Also note; these tips are for winning in all day breakaways, not late attacks by the favorites.
Tip 1: Start from the right place. As soon as the race starts, get your riders to the front so they can be there when the attacks start. I like to use the dot 87 to get out of traffic before I attack or follow an attack.
Tip 2: Choose your breakaway rider and group wisely. Don't waste your best rider when a group of 20 is already up the road, they will most likely get pulled back very quickly. Also, don't try to get in the breakaway with anyone near the top of GC or a favorite(your team or the AI). The best chances to win from breakaways (in my experience) are riders with upper 60s in as many stats as possible. Any higher and they tend to be pulled back by the group, any lower and others in the group will beat them (although this does depend on the race). Also, form is very important, especially in early season races. Form is more important than Stats for me when choosing my breakaway riders.
Tip 3: Making the Peleton hurt helps. Sending a rider high on GC in the first break, causing the Peleton to chase hard, can make it easier for you to get your preferred rider in the next break. I do this especially on flat stages when I don't have a sprinter. Your GC contender won't have any trouble staying with the pack afterward and your breakaway rider can gain time very quickly once the peleton stops chasing.
Tip 4: Gauge your efforts. My best successes come from attacking away from the break about halfway through the stage and riding on dot 65 for the rest of the stage. Dot 65 will get you to the end of the stage with very little energy left if you attack on your own after the 1/3 to 1/2 of the stage is done. If you attack too late, once the break and peleton begin to chase in earnest, you will never make it. You need to attack and get a big advantage before they start to turn on the gas. Attack to early and you will run out of green bar making it very difficult to win unless you are very close to the finish.
Tip 5: Gauge your opposition. If you can't get away from the rest of the breakaway group, deterime where you can take advantage of their weaknesses. This might mean pulling hard on the climbs to drop the sprinters or just sitting on the back if you have the best sprint in the group.
Tip 6: Once you can see that your break will succeed (the Sherwin rule of 1Min/10km is a good check, though you will need more if it is a hill/mountain finish), don't waste energy covering every attack. This is where it is important to gauge your opponents. I don't use the "inspect" button to gauge form, but others like it so that is optional. I find it best to attack only if I know I can go the rest of the stage at full speed.
i wont ever break from a small group unless im at least 15k from the finish or under. the best breakaway stages for me tend to be hilly ones with downhill finishes (guys like arroyo, chavennel, voeckler, and nibali are almost untouchable in a downhill attack with less than 10k to go from a small group) if its an uphill finish and i dont think i can win the sprint, i will attack to break away from the group and then DOT up the hill at a very high rate but always saving a little energy in case my rivals sprint catches up to me.
I was in the first mountain stage of the Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca. I tried in the first breaks but eventually got in a break with my rider, 72climbing and 6? timetrial. He was with about 5 others. There are two big climbs on the stage. The second topped around 20ks from the finish. I went to the front for most the climb and right at the top it was only me and Sutherland, team leader of another team, and we aurvived by 1'40. With like 8kms left i let him come forward and sprint followed him. With 3kms he opened the sprint and with 2kms left i staeted sprinting and easily beat him taking the leaders jersey by wele
