Assuming you are playing with one of the better Pro-Continental teams like MTN, Bora, Europecar, Cofidis etc... What would you guys recommend, focus on races at HC and lower levels, or try to participate in as many as possible World Tour races?
What will give a better chance to get invited to the Grand Tours and what will get you promoted to the World Tour?
I would focus on HC races, but still try to get wildcards in the races which fits one or more riders from the team. About the points you can see that under Results -> Rules -> Scale
Promotion should be easy enough with such a team. Personally, I'd ignore the WT races, you'll ride them often enough after promotion. Plus you'll be getting better results in .HC and below races because the competition is weaker and thus gaining more points towards promotion.
I usually uncheck every race and plan rider by rider, program and objectives at the same time. Not for the entire team though, only the main riders. When I'm done, I use an editor to assure that I can race every race that I've chosen, except for the WT races, 'cause I want to earn the wildcard. I usually have backups in case I don't get chosen for a WT race.
MartijnVDD wrote:
I usually uncheck every race and plan rider by rider, program and objectives at the same time. Not for the entire team though, only the main riders. When I'm done, I use an editor to assure that I can race every race that I've chosen, except for the WT races, 'cause I want to earn the wildcard. I usually have backups in case I don't get chosen for a WT race.
How do you back up for not getting a Wildcard?
it happened to me, planned with MTN and Meintjes for the Giro and didn't get invited, at the same time I unchecked all races during the Giro time. 3 weeks topform for nothing lol.
Just inscribe for a race that takes place at the same time. In case of the Giro, this could be California, Bayern Rundfahrt, Norwegian races and/or Belgium Tour.
I applied for the Ardennes classics but didn't get a wildcard, so instead I used Trentino as a backup.
Also, in order to avoid having to change your entire planning, I advice you to plan the entire year for your main riders but not for your domestiques. As soon as you know whether you get a wildcard or not, you can adjust the programme for your main riders and plan in your domestiques as well. Easy enough. =)
geisterhome wrote:
Assuming you are playing with one of the better Pro-Continental teams like MTN, Bora, Europecar, Cofidis etc... What would you guys recommend, focus on races at HC and lower levels, or try to participate in as many as possible World Tour races?
What will give a better chance to get invited to the Grand Tours and what will get you promoted to the World Tour?
Havent seen 2015 stats so far, but dont expect Cofidis, MTN and especially Bora have someone for Grand tour GC. So as J0P3D said, you should look at your team and find his strong sides and possible chances for win.
If you cant finish in top 10 of WT race you can pass it. Winning is key, and if it is .1 or .HC races doesn't matter, but if you cant finish in top3 then dont waste energy on those races.
With MTN you should focus on early season - classics and 1 week WT races, EBH can help you to earn lots of points there. You can try also breakaway wins in 2nd and 3rd week on Grand Tours, but its risky, low points and waste of energy, i would pass GT if i were you.
Edit: some basics for your math problem ...
(used official points, but those in game are very similar, if not buggy ofc )
points you can get for winning 1.2 and 2.2 are around 25 (1 point for 10th place)
points you can get for winning 1.1 and 2.1 are around 80/110 ( around 10/25 for finishing 10th)
points you can get for winning 1.HC and 2.HC are around 140/160 ( around 20/40 for finishing 10th)
points you can get for winning 1.WT and 2.WT are around 250 ( around 60+ for finishing 10th, around 25 for winning the stage, around 40 for final jersey holders)
GTs are special category (3 categories tbh ) you got points for everything but you lose your riders for 23 days ... (and its really hard to win breakaway with kirienka,voeckler and krueziger with someone fl/hil/mo/ 69/66/63)
points you can get for winning GTs are around 500 ( around 150+ for finishing 10th, around 75 for winning the stage and final jersey holders)
you will usually need at least 3000 points to get promoted
(so as i see it strong spring and EBH personally can bring you alone up to 2000 points just from classics if you are able to enrol him and drag him to finish top3 in all of them ... and then all other riders can just enjoy the ride rest of the season)
Edited by vlama on 03-08-2015 10:06
I'm looking for professional slovak team. Haven't you seen any?
"Maybe if we don't do rest day, we can finish one day before."
geisterhome wrote:
Assuming you are playing with one of the better Pro-Continental teams like MTN, Bora, Europecar, Cofidis etc... What would you guys recommend, focus on races at HC and lower levels, or try to participate in as many as possible World Tour races?
What will give a better chance to get invited to the Grand Tours and what will get you promoted to the World Tour?
Havent seen 2015 stats so far, but dont expect Cofidis, MTN and especially Bora have someone for Grand tour GC. So as J0P3D said, you should look at your team and find his strong sides and possible chances for win.
If you cant finish in top 10 of WT race you can pass it. Winning is key, and if it is .1 or .HC races doesn't matter, but if you cant finish in top3 then dont waste energy on those races.
With MTN you should focus on early season - classics and 1 week WT races, EBH can help you to earn lots of points there. You can try also breakaway wins in 2nd and 3rd week on Grand Tours, but its risky, low points and waste of energy, i would pass GT if i were you.
Edit: some basics for your math problem ...
(used official points, but those in game are very similar, if not buggy ofc )
points you can get for winning 1.2 and 2.2 are around 25 (1 point for 10th place)
points you can get for winning 1.1 and 2.1 are around 80/110 ( around 10/25 for finishing 10th)
points you can get for winning 1.HC and 2.HC are around 140/160 ( around 20/40 for finishing 10th)
points you can get for winning 1.WT and 2.WT are around 250 ( around 60+ for finishing 10th, around 25 for winning the stage, around 40 for final jersey holders)
GTs are special category (3 categories tbh ) you got points for everything but you lose your riders for 23 days ... (and its really hard to win breakaway with kirienka,voeckler and krueziger with someone fl/hil/mo/ 69/66/63)
points you can get for winning GTs are around 500 ( around 150+ for finishing 10th, around 75 for winning the stage and final jersey holders)
you will usually need at least 3000 points to get promoted
(so as i see it strong spring and EBH personally can bring you alone up to 2000 points just from classics if you are able to enrol him and drag him to finish top3 in all of them ... and then all other riders can just enjoy the ride rest of the season)
Question for me is what to do with a rider like EBH, he is good at pretty much everything, but at the same time not amazing.
Looking at his stats maybe cobble stone races with some hills and small tours with prolog/TT is where he can get most wins, other than that I see him getting a lot of good results but not too many first places, at least not at WT/HC level. What would be the best races for him to win?
In all DB i have seen he had always stats similar to Sagan, and i saw some tread here saying he is again better than Sagan in pcm2015 ... so i expect he is flat/cob 75 +-, hill/sp/acc 80-+ and mo 70+-. With such great stats he will be able to keep in peloton on any surface and he can earn something in sprint ... Well, with all those WT rides i dont consider him as favorite of any race. i didnt say he will win anything, just that he could bring lots of points, and that he has "a good chance to win something".
That means he can make top3 (150-300 points) per race rided.
Maybe some flat classic with few hills will fit him most (milano-san remo?)
if you have similar rider, or someone with cob 70+ you can try to get then both to top 15 to earn more points.
I think with MTN you shouldnt be worried about points/promotion at all, you will get enough "just by accident"
or you can exploit some game mechanics to earn more points, you know
in pcm difficulty, goals, ... everything is set by player, so its all up to you.
tbh, i cant help you to win anything cause my playing style never was to win anything i usually play central europe continental teams (psk, ac sparta praha, adria and now custom slovak team) so my goal always was to get as good position as possible, but really rarely to win (usually it means to get to top10 )
(edit. confused by/misunderstood "spoil" and "exploit" word ... )
Edited by vlama on 05-08-2015 18:25
I'm looking for professional slovak team. Haven't you seen any?
"Maybe if we don't do rest day, we can finish one day before."
Well, it seems pretty theoretical to me. I find it impossible to not get promoted to the WT, I have done it with some pretty weak teams, coming up from the Continental division. I wouldn't mind another year in Conti Pro, you need a much larger squad for the WT and my budget is still comically low.
My advice to myself is probably: To stay in the Conti Pro another year, I should apply for WT races, especially GTs. I'd waste a lot of racing days there and probably wouldn't get any results.
But what I always did, as I said, is ignore the WT entirely. Ok, last time I had a decent cobblestone specialist so I applied for those 4 WT races, only one-day races, after all, and did get a couple of top 10 results, that was surely worth it. And if you do that with one of the better Conti Pro teams you will surely do well, I'd say a 100% chance of promotion.
)
) you got points for everything but you lose your riders for 23 days ... (and its really hard to win breakaway with kirienka,voeckler and krueziger with someone fl/hil/mo/ 69/66/63)
)
