The title of the story is From Rags to Riches and with the new sponsorship agreement we will have come a long way after 5 years. Our current wage budget is 159k/month, the new sponsor allows us to spend up to 311k, after finalising the squad for next season the actual payroll should be 276k, another significant increase.
Our main goal was to strenghten our stage racing squad, adding more climbers to the team and reducing the number of punchers, keeping only the best. 17 contracts are ending this season. We were prepared to make World Champion and Sanremo winner Smetannikov our highest paid rider, but he snubbed us and signed with Tinkoff instead. While it is a little sad to see him go, it allows us to spend more on new riders. Chris Barton was another rider we wanted to hang onto, but he also decided it was time to move on. In the end, only 4 contracts were extended, all riders still have some untapped potential: Olesen, De Vos, Gross and Barwell.
The number of riders unwilling to sign with us has dropped over the years. We were sad that we couldn't attract Kennaugh (MON 82), Le Bon (FLA 75 HIL 74 COB 77 TTR 76) or 22 year old Swolfs (HIL 79 STA 75). On the 31st of July we lost the battle to sign Esteban Chaves against Katusha and once more turned to the U23 riders to fill the last slot in the squad, Elizondo will be starting as a trainee right away.
We've also picked up a number of good climbers superior to Kudus, Mannion and Beltran, who'll join IAM, Garmin and Lampre respectively. The man we couldn't sign last season, Reichenbach (MON 80), as well as Elissonde (80), Bernar (80), Hansen (78), Nerz (77), Warbosse (76), Munk (76) and Brandzaeg (74). That will turn us into a far more formidable force in stage races.
Our team for the hilly classics is already looking quite good, up to HIL 79, but with our focus shifting towards climbing we needed to let many punchers go, Carter, Howes, Irgalin, Shatskikh, Dernies, Gautier, Le Boulch and McCarthy as well as Barton and Smeta who would not sign new contracts. To replace those two we chose Sepulveda (HIL 79) and 22 year old Paramos (77).
Finally we have added two more cobblestone specialists. 21 year old Chene boasts COB 80, though his other stats are weak, we offered as much as the board would allow us, 5.6k for AVG 71, to secure his signature. The more mature signing is Juul-Jensen (COB 76 FLA 74 STA 75).
Altogether we are very happy with the squad which will get to wear our new jersey next season. We managed to sign some excellent riders and many of the 17 who are already with us will improve further.
Some very good new riders, Especially happy to see Elissonde, he was very good in my own story and he is actually also very visable in this year Vuelta.
(sadly lost a lot of time yesterday )
Definitely, the team is getting stronger every year. Elissonde is 27, maybe he can still improve, some of the other climbers are even younger. On the other hand we've had little luck with climbers so far, only Olesen stands out, he had MON 77 when we signed him and he just made the jump to 80. But with random potential many young riders didn't develop as they should have, like Kudus stuck with MON 75 AVG 72 at the age of 23.
Yeah, we just had to sign Chene, there are so few cobblestone specialists around. We'll have to wait until October to see how much he can improve his other stats, with FLA 68 HIL 62 he'll be struggling at first.
After a long rest period since LBL the punchers were back in action for the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian. We brought along our best riders, except for Irgalin, who is recovering from a broken arm. 35 km out the race suddenly reminded us of Paris – Roubaix. Up until then all our riders had been able to stay near the front of the peloton without losing much energy. But then Ulissi (BMC) attacked and 3 other top-favourites joined him: Quintana (Tinkoff), Daniel Martin (Katusha) and Kwiatek (Astana). And the peloton simpy gave up, no other team was prepared to organise a chase, within a few kilometres the gap reached 2 minutes.
We decided we had nothing to lose and attacked – if they aren't prepared to chase those guys, why should they care about us? Simon Yates (Movistar) and Rui Costa (Quickstep) made the jump with us, sealing the deal. Our group would decide 5th through to 14th, and 8 of the 10 riders ride for us!
The team relayed at high speed before settling into a sprint train 6 km out. Yates and Rui Costa didn't join the end of the queue and had to sprint for themselves against out whole train. Kwiatkowski won the sprint from the front group, winning ahead of Martin and Quintana, Ulissi had to settle for 4th. Our sprint train worked perfectly, we took 5th through to 10th.
Though I am willing to call this a fluke, I wonder if it is a sign of things to come? I'm really not looking to dominate the races as much as I normally end up doing, especially not so quickly. I want a challenge and this season and career so far have been hard work, though already more successful than I'd really like. But 5th to 10th in San Sebastian is too cheap. I did say in my opening post I won't be able to stop myself from taking advantage of AI weaknesses, handicap myself for more realistic results.
Edited by Ripley on 03-09-2016 12:33
I experienced the same thing just in San Sebastian, with TFR team and many good riders, I got 1st 2nd 3rd 5th 7th 9th 10th, of course with top punchers, but the others were not so good to justify such a thing in other top10
I came to conclusion that there are some races where AI can't compete against player strateg, something similar happens in Hamburg and Sanremo
I came to conclusion that there are some races where AI can't compete against player strateg, something similar happens in Hamburg and Sanremo
I'm afraid it's true, the AI has a number of problems, and Hamburg is especially worrying (or easy). Still, in this San Sebastian I expected more of a fight.
Things were back to normal in the Tour of Poland. It included one mountain stage, Kudus was dead last two days earlier, losing 20 minutes so he could attack on this stage. But the breakaway didn't survive and Kudus only finished 13th.
But a day later Barton was part of the escape group on a hilly stage to Zakopane with weaker companions, HIL 72 or less, Hollenstein, Jacobs, Jarrier and Steels. Barton attacked on the final hill and was able to drop the others and hold off the chasers, Ulissi was 2nd, 1:11 behind, he'd won stage 3 by a good margin and wins the 2018 Tour de Pologne as well as the mountain jersey.
The sprinter jersey went to Danielle Ratto, who managed to win three stages. Best young rider was our man Shishelov, he finished 31st overall.
The Eneco Tour offered a prologue, a short and flat ITT, a straightforward hilly stage to Andenne and 4 flat stages without cobblestones – or so I thought. I missed that stage 3 featured one tiny cobblestone sector. I usually simulate flat stages and simulated this one, but while in 3D mode the one sector would make no difference, the simulation treats it as a “full cobblestone stage”. So Cancellara won the stage 29 seconds ahead of Stybar, Sustronck and our De Troch with significant time gaps further back.
The hilly stage came a day later and Smetannikov held onto top group, finishing 7th out of 8 riders, Sagan won the stage. De Troch did well to arrive with the next group, just 24 seconds behind. Smeta rode a good ITT and in the final GC De Troch is 7th and Smeta 8th.
Simulating stage 3 had a pro and a con: Without it De Troch would never have finished in the top 10, on the other hand Smeta lost 2:37 that day and could have finished higher otherwise, possibly even on the podium, considering his performances on the hilly stage and the ITT. But we won't complain about having two riders in the top 10 in a WT stage race.
We've just talked about the Hamburg Cyclassics and here we have further proof how badly the AI handles the race. Gautier and De Vos crashed 40 km out, 10 km later attacks started and the peloton set a high pace, dropping our two slightly injured riders.
With 15 km to go, all escapees had been caught and the peloton nearly came to a standstill, waiting for the sprinters to return to the front. We didn't wait, however, and attacked with our six riders and they took the top 6 spots, Smetannikov won the race.
The Grand Prix de Plouay was similarly successful for Amore & Vita. The early breakaway was caught 30 km from the finish line and we allowed Sebastian Romeu to attack. With his FLA 73, HIL 79, SPR 74 and STA 78 he posed quite a threat, but the peloton didn't react.
A few kilometres later Smetannikov attacked, again, no reaction. We tested this even further, Carter attacked, then Gross attacked... the peloton simply didn't care. Probably we could have attacked with the whole team together. Our four riders crossed the finish line in their attack order and Chris Barton added an 8th place to the impressive result.
Two wildy successful races thanks to the AI weaknesses. San Sebastian felt cheap, these are even worse. We're supposed to be struggling, not dominating.
Edited by Ripley on 08-09-2016 10:59
One thing I enjoy about long careers in this game or the Football Manager is to see old names retire and being replaced by newgens. Once in a while I'll present the cream of the crop, exciting new riders. I will start with the strongest U25 rider currently around, the Colombian sprinter Santiago Yupanqui.
In my experience, the game creates (too) many top sprinter, making it difficult for one to stand out. However, I've seldomly seen a neo-pro as strong as Yupanqui. He recently bagged his first victory by winning stage 2 of the Eneco Tour, he was also 10th in Gent-Wevelgem, one of his first professional races. I'm sure we'll see a lot more from him in the next years.
After the great success in the one-day races the Vuelta Ciclista a España was a much tougher beast. We brought along Olesen, Kudus and Mannion for the mountains while the punchers would try their luck on hilly stages. Sadly, Kudus contracted a virus and had to leave the race after 4 days. Alex Howes had the first chance for glory on stage 6 but he couldn't beat Kadri and Kwiatek overtook both riders inside the final kilometre.
On stage 9 the escape group with McCarthy survived, but he was only 3rd behind Sch舐 and Brems. LeBoulch suffered a similar fate as his team mates on stage 12 where he ends 4th, Hilvert wins the stage in Marbella.
Olesen's first attempt came on stage 13, but he couldn't keep up with Vanendert and was later caught by Chris Froome. It was finally our turn on stage 16, McCarthy, the lone survivor from the breakaway wouldn't have survived another minute, but he just held off the peloton.
Mannion added another 3rd place to our tally, he couldn't keep up with stage winner Gesink and like Olesen before him he was caught by Froome as well. The Brit who narrowly missed winning another TdF this year looks very comfortable in red by now.
Stage 18 was the queen stage of this Vuelta, leading across several cat. 1 and HC passes before climbing to Luz Ardiden. This time Olesen was clearly the best climber in the breakaway. He collected 75 mountain points on the day, enough to win him the KoM classification. He was also able to hold off Froome to win the stage by 95 seconds. And he climbed to 10th in the GC with his ride, he'd drop back to 11th after the ITT on the final day.
Froome went on to win on the Angliru and the final ITT, making it three stage wins in a row. He wins the Vuelta by an impressive margin over his team mate Kwiatek and the points jersey as well. Katusha's Kiserlovski was best of the rest.
Two stage wins for our team by McCarthy and Olesen. The Danish climber also ends 11th in the GC and wins the polkadot jersey. These results were hard work and muich more satisfying than the easy wins in Hamburg and Plouay. However, I'm looking forward to having real GC contenders in the team next season, not just relying on breakaways.
Tamijo wrote:
Quite a nice time cap created by Froome.
Anyway ok result just outside top 10
Froome was in great form, he's still the best stage racer around, he won time on every mountain stage against his rivals. But he's now 33 years old and age is bound to catch up with him soon.
We fought hard for our results in the Vuelta and it's nearly embarrassing to report the results of the one-day races. The Canadian classics offer more proof of the discrepancy between the tough stage races and the simple one-day races.
On a windy day in Quebec we were near the front of the peloton and followed an attack by Porte. As soon as his attack ran out Smetannikov surged past him while the rest were caught by the chasing peloton. Then Quintana and Rui Costa launched an attack, our 7 men followed and together we caught Smeta. Disappointingly the speed in the peloton did not match ours and with an advantage of 60 seconds it was just about certain that all our riders would end in the top 10.
Smetannikov's red attack bar had filled up again by the time the others reached him and he took off again, the winning move. Rui Costa and Quintana nearly caught him inside the final km but had to settle for 2nd and 3rd place. Our other riders were dropped but held on to their top 10 positions.
Montreal was raced on a course unfamiliar to us, a tougher variant with a steep hill before a short downhill run to the finish line. Our riders mistimed their sprint, they would have produced a better result if they had started earlier. But we should hardly complain, because while Astana's Lutsenko won the stage, we claimed 2nd through to 6th as well as 10th, 11th and 14th.
Over the years I've grown used to measuring success by the WT points my riders collect, because it's easy to check the table in the game while there is no immediate way of seeing how many GT stages a rider has won. Surely a stage win in the Vuelta is more valuable than a 7th place in Montreal, even though they reap a similar amount of WT points.
If I added it up correctly then the team collected 932 WT points from the four WT one-day races held concurrent to the Vuelta. While all the hard work at the Vuelta netted roughly 70 WT points. It hardly seems fair.
I wasn't given a choice this season and had to control Ukraine in the World Championships in Bogota even though we do not have a Ukrainian rider in the squad. So I relaxed and just watched the race unfold.
The Individual Time Trial was held on a course featuring one hill of 580 metres with a couple of steep sections, but not enough to upset the specialists. Tom Dumoulin took the title, he was 42 seconds faster than Jungels, 61 seconds faster than Durbridge. The only rider from Amore & Vita taking part was Smetannikov, who finished 30th.
The same hill had to be tackled 9 ½ times in the Road Race, an accumulated height gain of over 5000 metres, making it a much tougher prospect, only the best would survive.
A group of 7 riders would decide victory between them, they had spent so much energy that they didn't really sprint. Ulissi is the new World Champion, he beat Kwiatkowski, local hero Betancur took the Bronze medal. Mollema, Henao, Van Avermaet, Rui Costa, Gilbert, Landa and Villella completed the top 10.
Our best rider was the Canadian Kevin Carter as 16th, Howes was 25th, Gross 26th, Mayordomo 30th, Gautier 32nd, Hermanski 44th, defending champion Smetannikov 45th.
We are nearing the end of the season with the Giro di Lombardia, one of the hardest races in the WT calendar. Our men stayed near the front of the peloton as long as they could.
But it wasn't enough to place a rider in the top 10. Rui Costa and Betancur attacked and a group of 9 riders organised a pursuit, but our men had just about run out of energy. Romeu and Gross could only win the sprint from the next group, finishing 12th and 13th. Ru Costa dropped Betancur and celebrated a rare solo victory, the group of 9 was over 2 minutes behind.
Thanks, I thought so, too. I have to remember to take more in-race screenshots.
The Tour of Beijing presented itself in the tough variant with a very difficult mountain stage and a TTT. We thus brought our best climbers and time trialists. Stage 1 ended in a mass sprint won by Sagan ahead of neo-pro Yupanqui and Modolo. We then won the TTT by 9 seconds ahead of Ag2r, Orica was 3rd, 36 seconds behind.
Next up was the mountain stage to Weicicun with some very steep climbs. We sent our young stage racer Birtz (now with MON 77) into the breakaway so we wouldn't have to control the peloton and there were no objections. He was joined by Gertjan De Vos (77) and our ex-rider Grabovskyy, a pure time trialist.
But no team was willing to chase them and it became more and more apparent that the three riders would not just win the stage but do it by such a large margin that it'd decide the whole tour.
Since nobody was working, by the times the breakaway was 15 minutes ahead, I let one rider after the other attack, as we did in the GP Quest – first Smeta (MON 73), then Boothroyd (73), Olivier (76) and Mannion (75). Only when Olesen (80) tried to attack there was any reaction, so he slowed down again.
Birtz managed to drop not only Grabovskyy, which was no surprise, but also De Vos, and won the stage with an advantage of 2:50 over De Vos, Grabovskyy was 6:50 behind.
Our riders who had attacked trickled across the line one by one, all ahead of the big names, Uran, Kelderman and Majka. The GC was well and truly decided.
On the following hilly stage a strong escape group formed which we couldn't quite catch, Jungels took the stage ahead of Rosa and De Greef. Our riders were all part of the reduced peloton which arrived 1:29 later.
Sagan won the final stage from a mass sprint ahead of Modolo and Stybar, he takes home the points jersey. But all other jerseys are in the hands of 23 year old Birtz, he wins the Tour of Beijing by a whopping 9:38 ahead of De Vos, which of course makes him the best U25 rider and he also wins the KoM jersey. On top of that we placed 5 other riders in the top 10 and won the team classification by 35:26.
Well, that's a pretty impressive result. The key was obviously the strange passivity on stage 3. Even if the breakaway had only contained riders of Grabovskyy's calibre it would have won by 18 minutes.
For a quick overview of the most important results of the season from now on I'm using the excellent PCM Career Explorer (thanks, Tiemen!), which offers this nice summary:
The dominant force in the World Tour was Team Astana thanks to three riders, which finished 1st, 2nd and 6th in the individual WT rankings: Kwiatkowski, Froome and Porte. Between them they won the majority of WT stage races, though not the TdF or Giro, which went to Quintana and Uran.
Kwiatek and Froome raced TdF and Vuelta together, Froome won the Vuelta and came 2nd in Paris, Kwiatkowski was right behind him both times. Froome also won the Tours de Romandie and Suisse, while Kwiatek reached great results in the one-day races including winning San Sebastian, Amstel Gold and the national title. Richie Porte won Tirreno-Adriatico, the Dauphine and the Basque Tour.
Astana also collected the most victories this season, 76 of them, an impressive number. Quickstep follows with 52 wins, Ag2r has 42. Tinkoff was second in the WT team rankings mostly due to Quintana (3rd), Mollema (12th) and Rolland (20th). While Katusha was third thanks to Dan Martin (5th), Betancur (17th) and Kiserlovski (18th).
At the bottom of the WT team table are two teams with just 9 points each. The two teams which were promoted to the WT last season, Caja Rural and Europcar. Depressing! This allows Belkin to stay in the WT with just 31 points. Giant-Shimano and Lampre-Merida return to the top flight.
One of the best riders will be without a team next season: Nairo Quintana. Apparently, no team was able to afford him. Tom Boonen is the biggest name retiring this year, other riders ending their career include Visconti, Arroyo, Tyler Farrer, Gorka Izagirre, Chavanel, Tschopp, Igor Anton, Monfort, Pozzato and Siutsou.
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