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World Domination 2026 [Done!]
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 22-11-2015 23:32
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World Champion
Posts: 11395
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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Kotsovolos is awesome, and so is Daan Oliver, fighting the good fight  
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 08:01
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Of course! It's actually not quite as oppressive as it could be, only the WT points of the 5 best placed riders count towards it.
Second placed Gayko (formally Tinkoff-Saxobank) have a pretty good squad, here are their 20 best riders sorted by average:
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 11:57
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 08:31
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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jandal7 wrote:
Kotsovolos is awesome, and so is Daan Oliver, fighting the good fight
Just noted that you quote me in your signature! I should have known it was a terrible example of too much micromanagement, that some people would actually love this idea.  To be honest, since then I've grown to like it myself, but that wasn't my original intent.
Any particular reason why you favor these two riders? Olivier rode for my team for two seasons (2018 and 2019) when we still an underdog in the World Tour, he was a true Grand Tour captain, 6th and 9th at the TdF and 2nd and 3rd at the Vuelta, my first top 10 positions in GTs. I would have loved to keep him on but the budget didn't allow it. He's always been a dangerous opponent since, with many good results, many podiums, though the only WT stage race he's ever won was Tirreno-Adriatico (2022).
While Damian Kotsovolov was generated by the game, became a pro in 2020 and is now in his 4th season with my team, the last two seasons he came 2nd in the WT ranking. Sadly he's from New Zealand, so he never makes an appearance at the World Championships. |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 09:06
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Tour of Flanders
The many hellingen offer plenty of opportunities to attack, but energy management over such a long and hilly course is difficult. Bolstered by the success of early attacks in the previous cobblestone races we went on the attack with nearly 150 km to go. The punchers were really struggling on the cobblestones and for the first time this season I sacrificed some riders to help the others, letting the punchers do most of the work until their energy ran out and they dropped out of contention.
We never built up a lead of more than 3 minutes and the closer we got to the finish line, the more of the advantage we lost, but we still had some energy left for the finale. Kompalla, Paris-Roubaix winner 2024, was the strongest of the opponents, attacked his group and got within 20 seconds of our five riders but just failed to reach us. He was threatening enough for me to let my best man, Vikdal, pull away from the other four riders to at least claim the victory, but in the end we secured the top 5 positions.
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 11:57
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 16:21
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Vuelta a Pais Vasquo
Traditionally a stage race with lots of hills and no mountains, which should put my climbing team at a disadvantage against good punchers. However, the past has shown this is usually not the case.
On the first stage I played it passively, picked up the tempo up the final hilly, attacking at the top, creating a group of 15 riders. Since my team made up the majority of the group the others didn't want to do anything, I "punished" them with a late attack by Morillas, which no one followed, though the best punchers proved too strong in the sprint for the next places.
I didn't realise stage 2 was classified as flat, otherwise I would have simulated it. Also I wouldn't have attacked 90 km away from the finish line had I known it was a flat stage and all the sprinter teams would follow. And they did and caught us 60 km later. However, apparently everybody was knackered from the chase and when I made the race hard again on the last hill and attacked again nobody could follow. Our weakest man on hills Salvati didn't have the energy left for the attack, but the other gained time on everybody else and Morillas again had the energy for an additional attack.
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 11:59
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 16:36
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Stage 3 was another hilly affair, though I think the final climb was more of a mountain, because the punchers dropped back significantly. Morante crashed downhill shortly before the last climb. I admit, I often quit when it happens so late in a stage. However, on the dot at 84 he managed to limit his losses and the rest of the team did very well, so I continued. Here's the general classification at half time.
On stage 4 the 9-men-strong early break was caught after 50 km and for a while all 160 riders remained together until one lone rider tried his luck, but we caught him again on the last cat. 2 climb. With several attacks we managed to shake off most of our opponents, Ortega being the last to crack, leaving us with the two strong Kazakhs who both used to wear our jersey. I didn't quite time my sprint right on the steep final section and had to concede victory to Polyakov.
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 12:00
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 23-11-2015 16:37
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Ouch. Pay-back time 
What difficulty do you play on, by the way? |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 17:03
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Normal, I'm afraid. I keep promising myself to finally switch to hard, obviously this is too easy for me. Though I do restrict myself by not making full use of my budget. Probably Cyanide should rethink wages, though, there are always good riders around who don't demand much, so it's not much of a restriction. |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 18:47
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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On stage 5 I worked hard to drop the last opponent out of the top 8, Pankov. At first I wasn't successful, kept attacking with my team but he always responded and our yellow bars were dropping rapidly. Only with an attack on the last cat. 2 crest we got a bit of separation we held onto.
The official stage result is very generous, however – sometimes the lack of time differences between groups can be a nuisance, this time it worked in our favour. Winner Martinez and Borelli were the survivors of the early break and settled the stage in a two-man sprint. My riders were basically out of energy and lost contact with the punchers, while Pankov was less than a minute behind my team. But of all us got the time of the winner, making the gap much larger.
I simulated the 18.2 km long final ITT feeling quite safe, Morante and Lorenzen disappointed a bit, but Morillas won, which makes it 4 out of 6 stages for him in this Basque Country Tour, plus the mountain and sprinter jerseys. The final standings:
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 12:01
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 23-11-2015 18:51
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Let me guess... You won the team classification?  |
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| NikVis28 |
Posted on 23-11-2015 19:14
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Amateur
Posts: 17
Joined: 16-11-2015
PCM$: 200.00
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Ripley wrote:
Of course! It's actually not quite as oppressive as it could be, only the WT points of the 5 best placed riders count towards it.
Second placed Gayko (formally Tinkoff-Saxobank) have a pretty good squad, here are their 20 best riders sorted by average:
Birgitte Junker? Birgitte is a female name in Denmark |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 26-11-2024 02:29
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Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 23-11-2015 21:05
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World Champion
Posts: 11395
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1020.00
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Haha yeah I love that idea
Kostolovos is a Kiwi (like moi) and Daan Oliver is fighting back and not letting you take all thirty top spots
Edited by jandal7 on 23-11-2015 21:55
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
5x x5
2x x2
2x x2 |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 21:06
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Birgitte Junker? Birgitte is a female name in Denmark
Nicely spotted! Go equality! |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 23-11-2015 21:27
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Paris-Roubaix
I don't think I've had five such excellent riders for the Hell of the North before, making me very confident I could attack early and not be caught. It wasn't to be on the first attack, which was caught by a fairly small group of favorites. But when I attacked again, it came the way I hoped: Nobody was going to help top-favorite Legeay (who won Paris-Roubaix in 2022 and 2023 and the Tour of Flanders last year), he alone had to chase my relaying group, the gap was only 30 seconds or so. His energy ran out, still nobody attacked him yet, and our gap grew larger and larger.
Only when the gap grew to five minutes, Xu finally took over to work for Fanelli and then they all started attacking each other but my team couldn't care less, as I often do at this point, I ordered the riders to my liking, evening out the WT points distribution, gifting the victory to Senden, who was only 16th last year.
What can I say, a perfect cobblestone season. I'm pretty sure I've never managed to do that in all four races before.
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 12:03
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 23-11-2015 22:35
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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By any chance, no screenshot of the 5 victors on the Velodrome? |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 24-11-2015 09:07
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Afraid not. I enjoy reading other people's stories and screenshots make them so much better, but I fear if I start I'd fuss over them too much. It would have been fairly unspectacular anyway, I ordered the riders into a sprint train (without actually sprinting) so they rolled over the line like a row of ducks. |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 24-11-2015 09:30
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Amstel Gold Race
It finally happened, a race I didn't win, Okorochkov strikes again, Grassi comes 3rd. Dropping all but three opponents on this day cost the riders nearly all their energy, in hindsight the last attack was too long.
La Fleche Wallone
I'm not squeamish about attacking and losing energy only to get caught again, especially if co-favorites are forced to do all the work. Here, Grassi exhausted himself reeling us back and after a final attack, it was my team vs Okorochkov. A bit of a buffer to the next group allowed me to play some games with him. I ordered Guilhem to attack, when Oko didn't react I also sent Accardi on his way and the rest had to prove themselves in the sprint, allowing Okorochkov only a 5th place.
Liege-Bastogne-Liege
I committed the team to an attack 100 km from the finish line, producing two chasing groups of 6 riders each. With strong winds blowing, often right into the riders' faces, I just hoped my 8 guys relaying would outlast the chasers, it was very close for a long time but in the end the team prevailed and I allowed Ukrainian Champ Zhak to win his first WT race, Okorochkov was only the best of the rest.
Not quite as successful as the cobblestone campaign, but still damn good. I kept Okorochkov to just 126 WT points so far, he's bound to be the biggest threat to my top-30-goal.
Edited by Ripley on 05-06-2020 12:04
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 24-11-2015 09:57
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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LBL was fantastic.
Yet more proof that Amstel is not easy to win on PCM.
Looking forward to the Giro! |
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| NikVis28 |
Posted on 24-11-2015 10:38
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Amateur
Posts: 17
Joined: 16-11-2015
PCM$: 200.00
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A race you didn't win??? That's something new. I guess you won the teams classification? |
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| Ripley |
Posted on 24-11-2015 11:21
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3341
Joined: 25-11-2014
PCM$: 300.00
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Ian Butler wrote:
LBL was fantastic.
Yet more proof that Amstel is not easy to win on PCM.
Looking forward to the Giro!
I don't know about proof, only that Amstel is tailor made for Okorochkov. He won (against my whole team) in 2023, 2024 and 2026 (with Gordillo once and van der Lem twice coming second). I won in 2025 (with Kotsovolos), but only because Oko wasn't there (probably injured).
A race you didn't win??? That's something new. I guess you won the teams classification?
It's usually a safe assumption that I win the teams classification. After all, I always try to keep the team together, so my weaker riders can draft behind the better riders. Possibly I could have won that race if I didn't play like that, by playing games as I did three days later or by actually protecting my best rider. But I only do that for the World Champs (using riders who are not from my team, of course ). |
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