Ripley wrote:
- I dunno about concentrating the training on specific stats, I usually treat them all equally. Yes, higher RES and your yellow bar lasts a bit longer, but higher FLA, MON or HIL (depending on the terrain, obviously) means you need less effort, so the yellow bar also lasts longer. For example, something I believe has been true forever with PCM, when it comes to climbing, every point counts. RES is nice to have, but I'm pretty sure higher MON will beat higher RES on a 10km final climb every time.
Ok, thanks. I'm still learning!
Ripley wrote:
- I didn't have much success when applying for races as a low-level team, even .2 races. So applications first and only if they are successful you can cancel another race. As I said, even 2.HC races can have low and weak turnouts, you never know beforehand. A tactic might be to apply for lots of stage races, see who else turns up and if it's a strong field of riders you can withdraw all your riders except one after the first stage and hope for a better opportunity in the next race.
I'm not sure I like that idea. If we're racing a stage race we're commited to finishing in it with our entire team as well in my opinion. To just withdraw everyone seems a bit... 'cheaty'..
Ripley wrote:
From a story point of view, your story was highly entertaining even without any results. I think next to no results evokes sympathy. I would be happy if you just continue. Sure, a better team and a few podium places will do nicely as well. I'm just saying, for a story it doesn't matter much/at all. Probably the most boring would be how my careers end up, with my team winning everything.
As you mentioned earlier, it might be a good idea to lower the level to Normal and put everyone on auto. I like the auto function as it allows me to be more of a Sports Director than 'being all the riders' (at least that's how I feel) but I've experimented with auto on extreme, and that's not a good idea!
The bad thing is that I experimented with the early part of season 2, meaning that I might just do a quick update on the first couple of months (not much interesting happened anyway) and then continue on Normal with everyone on auto. I kind of wanna keep the story going so hopefully you'll forgive a short (and messy) update on the first races of season 2
Let's see how it goes. I have to say, having played a bit more, the automatic function can drive me mad, it's a crying shame. So don't expect too much upon making that change, I'm pretty sure the team will still struggle.
Ripley wrote:
Let's see how it goes. I have to say, having played a bit more, the automatic function can drive me mad, it's a crying shame. So don't expect too much upon making that change, I'm pretty sure the team will still struggle.
I think I found a decent compromise but I would like your input so that I don't ruin the story
I was experimenting with a different team (so as to not mess up the Le Coq Sportif career), still a 1-star team but Spanish this time with a decent climber as captain to test out Normal and Auto and see what kind of results I could get. I noticed the same thing you have; the auto function can drive you mad! In the overall standings I could barely get a rider in the top 50, so that's pretty much the same as on Extreme. What gives the Normal and Auto an edge is that I can't mess it up
When I switched to Normal with Auto on all riders (still in the Spanish career) I felt like I took more the role of the Sports Director. I couldn't interfere with the riders, organize them and so on (or even choose when to bring water supplies) and that felt really good actually. I was the hopeful sucker in the car behind the peloton rooting for my riders but not being able to interfere. Now, as you point out, the Auto isn't always the best and I have two points to make about that:
1) these are riders between AVR 61 and 70 so I don't, and can't, expect them to always make the right choices, to organize themselves in a perfect train or attack at the right time. I had climbers in breakaways going for an intermediate sprint that drained them of all energy even though they were really only interested in mountain points. But I also noticed that the stronger the rider is, the better choices and the more successful he is, so there is hope even with Auto.
2) As a sports director would do, I set the strategy. Sadly, the strategies in PCM is limited so I can't i.e. specify that I want a certain rider to attack right from the start or follow an attack from the start. Personally, I do believe that's an option that most SD's in real life do have, and so I came up with a compromise; if I want a certain rider to attack, I'm allowed to "yell in his ear" over the radio and get him to attack.
For instance; I had my best climber in the polka-dot jersey on the final stage of a stage race with the Spanish team. The last stage started with a steep climb, then followed a short downhill before the stage's first and only Category 1 climb. The only riders who could take the jersey from us were 12 points behind so it was crucial that my climber got in the breakaway to defend the jersey. Of course, PCM being limited, I couldn't set my climber to attack right from the start, so, as a compromise, I clicked on the attack button at the start of the race and as soon as I saw he was attacking, switched it to auto again and didn't interfere for the rest of the race. My thinking is that in real life I would've just told him to attack right from the start so I think this is a decent and realistic compromise. I will keep the interference to a minimum though but I also think the radio communication between SD and rider should be a feature if that makes sense (we won the polka-dot, even though it was actually green, so in terms of success it's kind of the same as with Le Coq Sportif. We won two polka-dots with our frenchies).
So, my thinking right now is that I set the difficulty to Normal, all riders to Auto but with the mentioned compromise as an option, although I can't see me using more than once every 4-5 stages tbh. We're still going be shite, but that's the charm. We have some financial challenges ahead of us so that will be entertaining at least
May 1st First months of new season brings only a sliver of light
As Tour de Bretagne came to a close today, we sat down with Sports Director Ollie to catch up on the first few months of the 2015 season after just having seen new rider Thomas Boudat, signed last fall, finish as the best Le Coq Sportif rider overall in 33rd, 5 minutes and 42 seconds behind winner Silvio Herklotz (Wiesenhof). Before the season started Ollie was hopeful that two extra riders would help his team perform better than last year, but so far the results have been far from improving.
"We had a sit down with the coaches during Tour de Bretagne and discussed how we move on from here," the Sports Director continues. "We are making some changes right away but we won't see results immediately. Maybe not until next season."
"What exactly are you changing and what are you hoping for in terms of long-term effect?"
"Well, first of all we're changing the training schedules for most of our riders, but that was planned before the season anyway. We're just making the change a bit sooner than we would like but we think it'll help our riders improve more quickly. We're also clearing the fall schedule, pretty much any race after August."
"Wow, that's drastic."
"Yeah, it might seem drastic, but the truth is we have young legs that aren't capable of racing so many days in just one season. We thought they could handle it and scheduled our race calendar accordingly, but the answers we've gotten clearly indicates that they need less racing days and more training. So that's exactly what we're doing now."
"You brought in two new riders before the season started, split your team into two groups. How has that worked so far?"
"We don't have any great results to show for it, that's obvious. That' another thing we have to analyze during the summer and figure out what our team will look like next year. We might stick with 12 riders but we might go back to 10. But it's too early to say really."
"No great results to show for it yet. What can your team make of the rest of the season you think?"
"I think we've been put in a lot of races that World Tour riders have used as a sort of warm up for the bigger races later on and we don't really have a rider that can handle the speed of those riders. I hope that we can improve. We're going to try out some different strategies, let some other riders get into breakaways and go for points and I'm hopeful that we can come up with some better results soon."
"Do you feel any pressure from the sponsors?"
"I think whether you manager Team Sky or an amateur team there's going to be pressure. Of course, that increases when you don't deliver satisfactory results but I can't focus on that. I just have to focus my attention on what I can change and influence."
"Another issue that will present itself in July is whether or not you'll be able to resign the riders you want to keep. The fans are particularly interested in Pierrick Chevillard, the strongest rider in the team and someone who looks like he could be a great captain for this team for many years. How do you see the situation?"
"It's hard to predict. We will sit down with his agent in July and discuss a new deal. Obviously we want him to stay and he knows he will have a key role in our team for many years if he decides to stay but it depends on what other teams are interested and of course, the contract demands. But I'll do everything in my power to keep him, that's for sure."
"Are there other riders you see could step into his role if he decides to leave?"
"Absolutely. I think Mickaël Cohen is a very exciting rider who we want to resign as well. We brought in Maxime (Le Lavandier) as someone who could potentially be a stage racer and captain in the future, so I definitely think we have options, but losing Pierrick would definitely hurt the team."
"You brought in two scouts before the season. Any chance we'll see some new, young riders next year, or maybe even this fall?"
"That's why I'm paying them!" Ollie says with a chuckle. "I know that they have a few riders they like already but it's a bit too soon to say anything about that just yet."
We thank him for the coffee and conversation and cross our fingers for some improving performances soon.
Next Race: Memorial of Oleg Dyachenko (Moscow)
For those who haven't paid attention to the conversation between @Ripley and myself, I'm now switching the difficulty level to Normal but will set every rider to Auto during 3D races.
The plan for success in 2015 was, according to Ollie, to have two teams of 6 riders with different form peaks and different schedules. It would allow them to always have fit riders in all the different races they wanted good performances from. The first quarter of the season was no big success and the month of April was no better as the thin squad was plagued by sickness.
In the month of April it was the Sprint team lead by Lucien Chateau who was suppose to be in shape and compete in races but one by one the six man team was hit by viruses and colds forcing out of shape riders in restitution and training to race instead. The results, not surprisingly, did not improve in April.
Newcomer Thomas Boudat recorded the highest finish in a stage race in April, finishing 33rd overall in Tour de Bretagne while Pierrick Lhermitte copied the 33rd place in the Memorial of Oleg Dyachenko race on May 2nd.
In addition to sickness wreaking havoc with the young riders we also hear from the medical staff and the coaches that the designated Sprint squad are riding with very tired legs and can’t wait until their season ends at the end of the month. That’s right, Ollie has decided to cancel all their racing this fall and if we understand the situation correctly it’s due to fatigue and tired legs. Ad he said in an interview with us a few days ago, «the truth is we have young legs that aren't capable of racing so many days in just one season. We thought they could handle it and scheduled our race calendar accordingly, but the answers we've gotten clearly indicates that they need less racing days and more training. So that's exactly what we're doing now.»
The team is currently taking part in 4 Jours de Dunkerque which stretches over 5 stages. Due to sickness, three riders had to be replaced and the team are struggling to cope. We’ll have a full report in a few days.
Hehe, I like it. Life at the bottom of the food chain is tough.
However, I wonder where this tiredness is coming from. 60 days of racing per rider shouldn't be a problem. Maybe you have to change your training regime? If you don't use the two top training levels you can have a pretty good fitness nearly all season long. See attached example.
Ripley wrote:
Hehe, I like it. Life at the bottom of the food chain is tough.
However, I wonder where this tiredness is coming from. 60 days of racing per rider shouldn't be a problem. Maybe you have to change your training regime? If you don't use the two top training levels you can have a pretty good fitness nearly all season long. See attached example.
I don't have a picture of what it looked like before the season started, but I always make sure the riders have a maximum of two 'peaks' during the season and that the 'peaks' are far apart (like February and then June or later i.e.). Also, I always turn down the highest green bars, the highest peaks you get when setting a race to the highest priority, except if they can handle it with no tiredness throughout the season. And I never confirm the objectives until I'm certain that the riders will not have any tiredness at all before they've finished their last race of the season (or, in some cases, I make sure that they get rid of any minor tiredness after the first peak before the second peak).
So before the season started all riders were green all the way with no tiredness whatsoever before at the end of the season. After just a month of racing, Lucien Chateau's objectives screen looks like this:
Here you can see that we are currently in May, but it's been like this for awhile now and that's also why I've cancelled the entire fall season because as you can see there's no point. This is the same thing that happened to Fouillet last season, although he was able to rest up and race a little bit in the fall. In terms of race days Chateau had raced maybe 10 days when I noticed this and he was scheduled to race less than 60 days during the entire season if I remember correctly, between 30 and 40 in the spring. None of my riders will racemore than 60 days this season although it seems like sickness could force more race days on some.
I don't know if this is a bug or something but it's extremely frustrating when you've planned the season in detail to have fit riders in every important race and then you race them 5 days and they're dead tired and you have to cancel the rest of the season. Haven't noticed this in any other career btw but I haven't looked for it either.
I believe the problem with that schedule is that due to the early first objective the game goes very quickly to level 4 training, faster than the rules allow normally (level 1, then two weeks of level 2 before level 3, then 2 weeks level 3 before level 4). Yours goes 1-3-4 instead of 1-2-2-3-3-4. And that messes up the tiredness prognosis. Back in January, it will have looked like fatigue is going to be no problem, but then you get this nasty surprise later on.
So, start "properly" (1-2-2-3-3-4), even if it lowers the fitness level for the first objective. Then the tiredness prognosis should be reliable. Also, I recommend you forget training level 6 entirely, even level 5 entirely, like I did in my example. You will still have a fitness level 2 in most races and can race nearly the whole season with no tiredness, or only a little towards the end. Level 1 is difficult to achieve and time correctly, anyway.
@Ripley ok, thanks. I'll try that next season I guess. Not too long to go anyway now you live you learn and I do believe Le Coq Sportif are sponsoring is for another season at least.
May 8th Rain and Sickness No Help for Le Coq Sportif
When you're at the bottom, things can only improve, but for Le Coq Sportif the reality is quite different now a days. Not only have they struggled to produce any results of significance all season long, but they've also had to battle fatigue, causing the fall schedule to be canceled, and sickness plaguing the already thin and disheartened squad. It sums up the season so far when they have to bring in riders who are far from being fit or in form to fill out the squad for 4 Jours de Dunkerque and one of the unfit and out of shape riders is the best placed rider overall.
A total of five unfit and out of form riders had to help out the three riders who were planned to ride the stage race and who hadn't been struck down with illness yet. Without a team around Lucien Chateau to help him get into a position to sprint, a problem the team has been struggling with all season long, the top 10 finishes were far out of reach.
The rain didn't help and after 3 stages Le Coq Sportif's best placed rider in the overall standings was Marius Mourot, who wasn't suppose to even ride in the stage race, over two minutes behind the leader.
Le Coq Sportif tried to get a rider in the breakaway on Stage 4, a stage with a lot of points on the polka-dot jersey handed out, but the peloton wouldn't let anyone else get up to the already 10 men strong breakaway. Instead the race went by in a flash, Le Coq Sportif struggling to keep up and Fernando Fouillet, another reserve brought in for the occasion, finished more than three minutes behind the winner.
On stage five Le Coq Sportif struggled to do anything, not getting in a breakaway and not being anywhere near the mass sprint that took place after 163 kms in the rain, and Fernando Fouillet finished as the highest placed Le Coq Sportif rider in the overall standings in number 39th, over 8 minutes behind the winner.
When you're at the bottom, things can only improve. I think Le Coq Sportif are proving that you could always stay at the bottom.
It looked like any other stage race for Le Coq Sportif as they started the Tour de Picardie today with a flat 189.8 kms long stage that would end in a mass sprint. The team sat gathered in the middle of the peloton, no one tried to breakaway and when the speed picked up trying to catch the breakaway, the Le Coq Sportif riders struggled to keep up with the high pace. That is, all but one struggled.
One breakaway was formed early but caught just 50 kms later which spurred another breakaway. The first 80 kms of the stage went by in a high tempo. The final breakaway got some separation and the peloton slowed down, but picked up the pace again 50 kms from the finish line and again Le Coq Sportif struggled to stay together and protect Chateau. With 10 kms left to go the breakaway was caught and only Chateau was still at the front on the peloton. With no teammates to help him out, he found another sprint train to help him get in a good position.
Just inches separated Chateau from his first stage win, but overall he must be delighted that he finally got to show off his sprinting abilities. And there are two more flat stages coming up in the next two days where he should get another crack at winning a stage. And to finish second without the help of any of his teammates is a great achievement.
Stage 2: A gift for Ollie on Norway's Constitution Day
With David McLay in yellow, Lucien Chateau borrowed the green for the day, the first time he wore any jersey on any stage in his professional career. 5 riders got in a breakaway which blocked any hope of taking points on the intermediate sprints for Chateau and so he stayed put in the middle of the peloton, protected by his teammates just like yesterday. The stage finished with two Category 2 climbs so with 40 kms to go, Chateau looked to be too far back in the peloton to take part in the mass sprint. 30 kms to go and he started to maneuver his way towards the front, but he was still far behind the front teams. 22 kms to go and the breakaway was reeled in. The tempo slowed down before the storm and Chateau was still sitting very calm at the back of the peloton.
Huge day for Le Coq Sportif, Ollie and Lucien Chateau who won his first stage of his professional career and took both the yellow and green jersey with just one stage to go. Finally a bright spot in a miserable season!
Stage 3: Protecting the jersey
Another flat stage encouraged another mass sprint and for Le Coq Sportif, who found themselves in an unfamiliar situation only having carried the yellow jersey once before, had only one task: protect the jersey!
Chateau in yellow
The pace was high from the start, the peloton not wanting to let the breakaway establish itself. Chateau sat at the front today protected by Lhermitte, Baudot and Castan. A group of 6 riders eventually got away and the pace of the peloton slowed down.
52.6 kms went by in a flash in Stoke today when the Pearl Izumi Tour continued with round 3. The whole race only took Wesley Sulzberger (Drapac Pro Cycling) an hour and 22 minutes and he was able to beat Steve Houanard (Jamis - Hagens Berman) in a sprint for the win. Thomas Boudat (Le Coq Sportif) completed the podium, 56 seconds behind the winner while the rest of the starting peloton trickled in from 1 to 6 minutes behind. Another podium spot for Le Coq Sportif will be welcomed despite their designated sprinter of the day, Lucien Chateau, was no where near. Maybe he was slacking off a bit after his recent success. Anyway, we hope he's back in top shape for the next race, the Grand Prix de Plumelec-Morbihan on May 31st.
Gave me back some motivation to keep going.
