Welcome to the weirdest story you will probably see in the forums. Inspired by the neutral story from pcm2009fan (thanks a lot), I will run a the reports of the races of a fantasy season with lots of tweaks.

First things first, what does it make this story "fantasy"? The main point is I will be using a completely redone database in which every attribute of every rider will be 55. The stats of the riders will change accordingly to their results every end of season. Second, there are only 90 riders in the database. That means the 10 teams composing the UCI World Tour will have to bring the same riders to every race. Third, the calendar of the season will consist of 50 racing days for the first season.

Obviously, the races will be run as stage races and classics. It is impossible to run the career mode with my database setup. They will have random fitness set.

Follow the story and have a say on the transfer dealings between the teams at the end of season and on where the riders spend their attribute points. Off we go!

Season 2009	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&rowstart=0#post_452920]Calendar[/url]	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&pid=463782#post_464388]Recap[/url]
Season 2010	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&pid=463782#post_464734]Calendar[/url]	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&rowstart=300#post_484960]Recap[/url]
Season 2011	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&rowstart=300#post_485090]Calendar[/url]	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&rowstart=500#post_531488]Recap[/url]
Season 2012	[url=pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=20408&rowstart=500#post_532180]Calendar[/url]	Recap
Season 2013	Calendar	Recap

Well, good idea probably isn't the best way to put it, but boy am I interested to see how it turns out! Good Luck!

Also, won't this make the races really boring since nobody will attack succesfully? Or am I overthinking it?

2009 Calendar

Paris - Nice	01/03/2009 - 08/03/2009
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya	23/03/2009 - 29/03/2009
Ronde van Vlaanderen	05/04/2009
Paris - Roubaix	12/04/2009
Amstel Gold Race	19/04/2009
Tour de Suisse	06/06/2009 - 14/06/2009
Tour de France	04/07/2009 - 26/07/2009
Road World Championship	27/09/2009
Giro di Lombardia	17/10/2009

Surprinsingly, people do attack. I am already at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and on stage 3, there are "big" gaps in the GC (fourth is more than 1 minute back).

The downside of me being in the Volta Catalunya is I don't have many pictures from Paris Nice, but I hope the reports are interesting anyway.

2009 squads

BMC Racing Team


HTC - High Road


Lampre - ISD


Leopard Trek


Liquigas - Cannondale


Omega Pharma Lotto


Saxo Bank Sungard


Sky Procycling


Team Garmin-Cervelo


Team Radioshack

Stage 1: Amilly – Amilly (ITT)



This years Paris – Nice starts with a flat prologue in the small city of Amilly, in the south of Paris. The 9 kilometres on the stage will not allow for big differences among the riders.



Xavier Tondo (Radioshack) was the first to set a good time, and it was very early in the stage. He was only the 10th rider on the track. His time: 11’ 40’’



Borut Bozic (Sky) came right behind Tondo to improve his time by just 1 second. That was a very good time and difficult to beat for the rest of the riders



When everything looked set for a Slovenian win, his team-mate Laurens Ten Dam stormed the finish line with a time of 11’ 38’’. It was a nice 1-2 for Sky. They should be ready to take control of the pack from now on.

Stage Results

1	Laurens Ten Dam	SKY PROCYCLING	11'38
2	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 1
3	Xavier Tondo	TEAM RADIOSHACK	+ 2
4	Oscar Freire	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
5	George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
6	Cameron Meyer	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	s.t.
7	David Millar	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	+ 3
8	Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
9	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	s.t.
10	Steven Kruijswijk	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.

Points

1	Laurens Ten Dam	SKY PROCYCLING	25
2	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	22
3	Xavier Tondo	TEAM RADIOSHACK	20
4	Oscar Freire	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	18
5	George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	16

Teams

1	SKY PROCYCLING	34'58
2	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	+ 6
3	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
4	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
5	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	s.t.

Why you make everyone 55 you get unrealistic results now...

It's a different idea but I'm curious to see how it works out!

Anyway constant game crashes forced me to stop storywriting again but now I can follow yours instead

I've got to say this is really different, and I find it very interesting.

But why didn't you get the correct jerseys? It looks like a simpler work than you did with the DB.

Looks really interesting. Nice idea.

Wow, I didn't expect so much interest



I like very much to know how the AI of the games work, so what best than to start my story discovering the result of a level playing field? Besides, you can clearly see the effect of fitness and randomness in races.



I think single races don't crash so much as careers, so I hope it is not a big issue. My game seldom crashes while doing this.



I need to work that out, I decided to try my hand at stage making before jerseys. Can you recommend a set of 2011 jerseys that look good?

The shirt database is the place to go

Oh and yeah I just meant that's why I've stopped updating my story, but you'll be fine especially in stage race mode

Cool, I'll have them ready for the tour of flandes

Stage 2: St. Brisson-sur-Loire - La Chapelle St-Ursin



The Paris – Nice starts its way south with a flat stage meant for the sprinters, the only two small climbs are too far from the end to count, but they will give us the first mountain jersey in the season. The wind could be dangerous though, as it was blowing hard yesterday in the prologue.



The break of the day was made of three riders: Tiago Machado (Radioshack), Dries Devenys (BMC) and Joost van Leijen (Lampre). Machado, in the picture, went ahead in both climb and therefore claimed the KoM jersey.



However, Sky was not keen to lose the leaders jersey to the break and as the pack was preparing the sprint, the guys in the break had fallen down the pack. There are time bonuses at the finish, so a change of leader is very possible.



And Sylvain Chavanel (Lampre) wins the sprint ahead of Hubert Dupont (Saxo Bank)! However, as Chavanel was last in the prologue he only moves to 9th in the GC. The new leaders jersey goes to Hubert Dupont, 1 second ahead of Fabian Cancellara.

Stage Results

1	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	4h46'08
2	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
3	Fabian Cancellara	LEOPARD TREK	s.t.
4	Cameron Meyer	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	s.t.
5	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
6	Mikel Nieve	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
7	Levi Leipheimer	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
8	Matthew Goss	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
9	Bernhard Eisel	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
10	André Greipel	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.

General Classification

1	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	4h57'44
2	Fabian Cancellara	LEOPARD TREK	+ 1
3	Laurens Ten Dam	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 2
4	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 3
5	Cameron Meyer	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	+ 4
6	Oscar Freire	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
7	George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
8	Xavier Tondo	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
9	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
10	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	+ 5

Points

1	Cameron Meyer	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	33
2	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	31
3	Laurens Ten Dam	SKY PROCYCLING	25
4	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	25
5	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	22

Mountain

1	Tiago Machado	TEAM RADIOSHACK	8
2	Dries Devenyns	BMC RACING TEAM	4
3	Joost Van Leijen	LAMPRE - ISD	2

Teams

1	SKY PROCYCLING	14h53'22
2	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	+ 6
3	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
4	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
5	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.

Stage 3: Orval – Vichy



Stage 3 is ground of sprinters again. Three small cols are in the route but they should play no part in the outcome of the race. We continue heading south and the wind was again very strong yesterday.



The break of the day was made of three riders again: Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Steven Kruijswijk (Radioshack) and Mathias Frank (BMC). The Italian was first in 2 of the climbs and with 9 points was set to wear the dotted jersey.



The wind was really strong as the pack chased the break and some teams tried their hand on losing some of the other teams behind. It eventually worked when the pack broke in two just before the second sprint. Among those left behind was the whole Garmin-Cervelo, Fabian Cancellara, Laurens Ten Dam, Cameron Meyer and Oscar Freire.



And as the front group approached the finish line, the backmarkers were already losing more than one minute. Jelle Vanendert bagged his first victory of the season and the first for Omega Pharma Lotto. While he was at it, he also got the leaders jersey from Hubert Dupont.
The back group arrived with 1’ 47’’ lost to the winner and all of those behind will almost say goodbye to the general classification. Apart from Garmin, Sky could only place Borut Bozic and Ben Swift ahead, while Leopard only had Jean-Christophe Peraud and Jakob Fuglsang.


Stage Results

1	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	4h09'28
2	Joaquin Rodriguez	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
3	Francisco Ventoso	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
4	Ivan Basso	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	s.t.
5	Tiago Machado	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
6	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
7	Levi Leipheimer	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
8	Joost Van Leijen	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
9	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
10	Lloyd Mondory	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	s.t.

General Classification

1	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	9h07'08
2	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	+ 4
3	Joaquin Rodriguez	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 5
4	Francisco Ventoso	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 6
5	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 7
6	Xavier Tondo	TEAM RADIOSHACK	+ 8
7	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
8	George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
9	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	+ 9
10	Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.

Points

1	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	46
2	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	40
3	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	39
4	Borut Bozic	SKY PROCYCLING	34
5	Cameron Meyer	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	33

Mountain

1	Michele Scarponi	LAMPRE - ISD	9
2	Tiago Machado	TEAM RADIOSHACK	8
3	Steven Kruijswijk	TEAM RADIOSHACK	7
4	Mathias Frank	BMC RACING TEAM	5
5	Dries Devenyns	BMC RACING TEAM	4

Teams

1	TEAM RADIOSHACK	27h21'52
2	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
3	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
4	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 3
5	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 4

Stage 4: Vichy – Saint Etienne



On our way to Saint-Etienne, the first relevant hills will come into play. The Côte de Rochetaillée, only 8 kilometres from the finish is a good opportunity to see some attacks. With the GC so tight, any attack could prove decisive.



Peter Kennaugh (Sky) joined Tiago Machado (Radioshack) and Franck Schleck (Leopard) in the front from the start. Kennaugh is in the picture attacking at the first climb. However, although the most dangerous was the Sky rider at 1’ 56’’ in the GC, there were several teams keen to fight for the victory at the last climb.



And hell breaks loose at the Côte de Rochetaillée, with all kinds of attacks. Although none of them was very successful, the front group was down to 50 riders at the top of the hill. Joaquín Rodríguez, third in the GC couldn’t keep up with the strong pace and lost ground to the pack.



After going over the climb, a quick descent led the group to the finish. Lloyd Mondory (Liquigas) attacked with 3 kilometres to go and even when the pack started the sprint they couldn’t catch the Frenchman. That’s the first win of the season for Liquigas.

No time differences were awarded at the front group (53 riders), but a big group made it to the finish with 2’ 33’’ lost. They were led by Joaquín Rodríguez, the Lampre rider losing the third spot in the GC. Especially useless was Garmin Cervelo, as they could only keep Tyler Farrar at the front. They are more than 10 minutes down in the teams classification.

As Hubert Dupont was second in the stage, he regained the yellow jersey. With the amount of time bonuses Dupont is collecting, the time differences are slowly increasing, but still manageable for the top 25.


Stage Results

1	Lloyd Mondory	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	4h14'24
2	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
3	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	s.t.
4	Alberto Contador	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
5	Peter Sagan	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	s.t.
6	Andy Schleck	LEOPARD TREK	s.t.
7	Mikel Nieve	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
8	Tom Boonen	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
9	Nick Nuyens	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
10	Grégory Rast	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.

General Classification

1	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	13h21'30
2	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	+ 2
3	Lloyd Mondory	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	+ 3
4	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	+ 6
5	Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 11
6	Carlos Barredo	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 12
7	Tony Martin	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
8	Jurgen Van den Broeck	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
9	Mikel Nieve	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	+ 13
10	Grégory Rast	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.

Points

1	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	61
2	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	46
3	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	43
4	Lloyd Mondory	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	43
5	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	40

Mountain

1	Tiago Machado	TEAM RADIOSHACK	15
2	Peter Kennaugh	SKY PROCYCLING	9
3	Michele Scarponi	LAMPRE - ISD	9
4	Fränk Schleck	LEOPARD TREK	7
5	Steven Kruijswijk	TEAM RADIOSHACK	7

Teams

1	BMC RACING TEAM	40h05'04
2	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
3	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
4	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 3
5	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 4

Contador and Andy on the Top 6 on a hilly stage, coincidentally realistic lol. And big fail by Garmin xD

Nice story anyway, great idea to make it 55 then ... i will follow it!

Glad you liked it in the end Now lets go with the next stage

Stage 5: Annonnay - Vallon Pont d'Arc



Stage 5 is also hilly, through the Monts d'Ardeche. However, with the last climb 80 kilometres away from the finish and a GC very tight, we could be set for another mass sprint.



Andy Schleck (Leopard) was the first to attack and got into a breakaway with Mark Cavendish (HTC), Alexandre Vinokourov (Garmin) and Mathias Frank (BMC). Schleck was the best rider in the GC, 2 minutes down on Dupont.



Five climbs afterwards, Franck was a solid KoM leader with 40 points. The break didn't look that good, as shortly before the last sprint they where absorbed by the pack.



And after two days of broken packs, we were set for a mass sprint again. It was Tony Martin (HTC) the fastest today, starting the sprint from behind and overtaking everyone else in the sprint. He moved up to 3rd overall with the 10 bonus seconds.

It was a rather dull day, ahead of the hardest stage tomorrow. We had a new points leader as well, Jelle Vanendert was 4th in the sprint and will wear the green jersey again.


Stage Results

1	Tony Martin	HTC - HIGH ROAD	5h30'57
2	Marco Marcato	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	s.t.
3	Grégory Rast	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
4	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
5	Ivan Basso	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	s.t.
6	Alexandre Vinokourov	TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO	s.t.
7	André Greipel	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
8	Philippe Gilbert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.
9	Peter Kennaugh	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
10	Chris Horner	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.

General Classification

1	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	18h52'27
2	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	+ 2
3	Tony Martin	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
4	Lloyd Mondory	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	+ 3
5	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	+ 6
6	Grégory Rast	TEAM RADIOSHACK	+ 9
7	Marco Marcato	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	s.t.
8	Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 11
9	Carlos Barredo	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 12
10	Jurgen Van den Broeck	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	s.t.

Points

1	Jelle Vanendert	OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO	64
2	Hubert Dupont	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	61
3	Lloyd Mondory	LIQUIGAS - CANNONDALE	43
4	Jean-Christophe Peraud	LEOPARD TREK	43
5	Sylvain Chavanel	LAMPRE - ISD	40

Mountain

1	Mathias Frank	BMC RACING TEAM	40
2	Mark Cavendish	HTC - HIGH ROAD	24
3	Andy Schleck	LEOPARD TREK	19
4	Tiago Machado	TEAM RADIOSHACK	15
5	Peter Kennaugh	SKY PROCYCLING	11

Teams

1	BMC RACING TEAM	56h37'55
2	TEAM RADIOSHACK	s.t.
3	SAXO BANK SUNGARD	s.t.
4	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 3
5	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 4