I would try role-playing on blank days but last time everyone was hating on me for a crappy story, I admit. I'm more cautious now.

It did have an effect on Josiah, though He wasn't so good that day because he didn't sleep after being in the hospital too long

Cool statictics. Something like this throughout the season is always nice.

Very nice race. Cook will be top favourite for Valkenburg in this shape.

Yeah I figured.

Yeah it was a nice race, I certainly don't feel unlucky having such a fantastic rider like Cook to watch.

I certainly would keep the other riders going, it can be the way with first come first serve. Guys sign up in droves and then when things get going they lose interest.

Two more observations
1. I want to control a top-class rider and for realism's sake he won't be a Kiwi though riding for F-G would be nice.
2. The rivalries are heating up with 'Franny' VD...V! and the Cookie Monster's last posts.

Sure is
If you want control over a top-class rider, it can be a Kiwi, I don't think that should be a problem. what is a problem, however, is that you have 4 riders and they're all about equally strong (with different specialties, though). If you want a top-class rider, you'd have to let me know which rider would slowly evolve to the top, but the others would stay in the background a bit more
Or you could come in with another in season 2, your call!

Ok Can Josiah and Ronnie develop to be high/v. High at everything if I remain active? I mean Shonak has 2 toppers but he is more active, but I am looking to improve. Lachy can be a top 15er maybe one or two top tens in the hills, and Tanē to change into a breakaway specialist.

What do you mean? I have only Vague who brings in top results. Other two riders sometimes get a Top 20 result, rest is pure pack-filling.

Like Shonak said, he has one topper only
I'll take a look at Bennett and Hira, sure.
Though remember that CX is very different from road cycling. You have very very few breakaway specialists. In CX usually the strongest riders are actually the breakaway specialists. Sven Nys, Niels Albert, Wout Van Aert. Because they breakaway and don't get caught. It's damn hard for a lesser rider to break away from the rest since the race only lasts 1 hour. There is no effect like a peloton to sit back for a few hours and then reel in the attackers. CX is full gas from the start most of the time.

I know, I meant a pack filler, but I want my pack filler to do something And Hira can be sub-top like now and Bennett be top


@Shonak confused you with Selwink, thought you had Grampa

Alright, I understand.

You could give your pack filler a fast start attribute and see how long he keeps himself in the first groups.

Yeah, especially since most of your riders have 'slow start' as a weakness now, jandal I actually think one of your riders would've already won a race if they didn't have to fight back to get to the front of the race most of the time

Thanks

Ian can you do that, give Tanē a fast start, keep the sprint an Explosiveness high but lower some others? Thanks

Actually, can you scrap all the slow starts. You're right. If Ronnie didn't have to claw back a minutes bad start last week he might have been with Cornelis again. I'm sick of it!

@jandal: unfortunately, that's not how it works. A weakness doesn't disappear overnight. How can you slowly start to diminish or even completely erase it? By the role-playing. The team can do explicit training on explosiveness for example. Or if you'd post a new training for Hira, for example, stating he is putting his eggs on his start now, because he's losing too much because of it, I would gradually decrease his weakness.

It works like that

Yeah I know, I was wondering if you could do majorly effective training mid-season.

You have several options. The entire team (except the Australian rider, of course, who isn't yours) could decide to skip 2 weeks of races to go training specifically. Or they could just work on it gradually, I think by the end of the season, their bad start would be gone (still wouldn't mean a great start, but it would be better) for some. Maybe there are riders that just can't kill their weakness, some are just not explosive enough because their strengths lay elsewhere.

Maybe if you'd put everything on a fast start, their other capacities would diminish, that's a risk.
You have to think what would be best for your rider, keeping his strengths and weaknesses in mind. They don't necessarily need a flying start to perform well, just a regular start could be enough.

It's up to you, and I take it into account, but don't expect it to change in only 2 races, hope you understand

Besides that, there are also races where a bad start doesn't mean the end of the world, other races the start is very important. It depends from course to course.

Ok Ronnie to skip races that aren't WC and don't suit him at all for next week. The rest will train gradually (see game thread) and Ronnie too after this week. However just a regular start is good. Hopefully the next weakness isn't too bad, but you did kill Stijn.

I'd just like to say that I haven't been posting for a while for a couple reasons, (mostly my holiday) but I'll be back and active from tomorrow.

Here a small reminder of the calendar. We're now 10 races in the season. That's about 1/4th of the season, hooray!

Next up are some interesting new races, and a very important week for the Coca-Cola Trophy. So be on the look-out if you're eying the Trophy at the end of the season.

Preview up... I think somewhere tomorrow, I'll do my best. Else Sunday. If I can do some good work today and tomorrow, I might take Sunday off (or half the day anyway), so maybe I could post the preview tomorrow and even the next race on Sunday! Guess I'll have to see how it pans out!