@Selwink: yeah, I'll hate the transfer period most likely too...even more surprised that you got such a huge talent in Kämna without regional help
yes, it was a typo, will be PCT
Per is on potential 6 (as the reigning Ronde U23 winner - though he will most likely join Lotto-NL Jumbo next season), Novak (won several youth jerseys this season, f.e. Tour de Slovenie) as well. Katrasnik, who is successful in junior races so far, is on 5...rest of the team should be on 4 (Per, Bozic) or 3 (Mesojedec) with Drinovec I'm not sure since he started cycling really with the age of 22 I guess we gave him 4 if he pulls out a Roglic...
Though you have to say that Per and Novak are the best Slovenian talents since the Pibernik/Mohoric year, the next ones will be the 98'ers with Primozic/Pogacar.
I'll try to get in those two as well as both are in the db, and then build up a team with these 2 generation duos, and further in the game aquire the missing Slovenian talents including the "former" Lampre gang (Polanc, Pibernik, Mohoric) and the missing sons (Kump, Durasek, Roglic). Long term goals stand
Croatia14 wrote:
@Selwink: yeah, I'll hate the transfer period most likely too...even more surprised that you got such a huge talent in Kämna without regional help
I actually play with random potentials, so he might not actually become such a monster - though I obviously hope he does
Croatia14 wrote:
@Selwink: yeah, I'll hate the transfer period most likely too...even more surprised that you got such a huge talent in Kämna without regional help
I actually play with random potentials, so he might not actually become such a monster - though I obviously hope he does
ah okay, than it's a pretty bad indicator...at least in PCM15 it was almost impossible to get great talents when you're not in the WT...hence is why I'm fear of Per & Novak leavin´g when their contract expires...
Whilst this update is only 2 month's work of racing, it does involved 18 days of racing thanks to the Tour Series, National Championships and some of the British Elite Series races.
The Tour Series was a big thing for the sponsors, with all but one of the round being a goal. All Top 10 finishes, and we managed to get 6 out of 9 with them. The best result came in Edinburgh (Round 3) where Jack Pullar spent the whole day in the break, attacked with 10km to go and was caught within 300 metres of the line by the sprinters. Matt Goss took the win, but Pullar managed a fantastic 3rd place.
Away from the Tour Series, we had a disaster at the Beaumont Trophy, where we missed the break, tired ourselves out working on the front and then saw our main sprinter, Alex Paton, crash with 15km to go. We are putting it down as a non-result.
The Nationals were nothing to shout about either. Chris Froome took the ITT title, with James Gullen, our only real TT rider, coming in over 4 minute down and in 32nd place. The Road Race went to Mark Cavendish, who denied Froome the double Title. Again we had no real presence in the race.
We managed to score a victory at the Ryedale GP, where Dexter Gardias defied the odds to hold the rest of his breakaway companions, and a fast approaching Wout van Aert to take the win. Our second victory of the season and well deserved for the way we rode the race. We were aggressive and it paid off (for once!)
July ended with the RideLondon Classic, and we rode our luck to just make into a breakaway. In the end it was right choice, as a group of 17 went clear and gained over 30 minutes on the peleton (a peleton of 137 riders, so no small peleton bug), lapping them on two ascents of Box Hill before contesting the sprint. Rohan Dennis was by far the strongest, by he would be masterfully beaten by Giulio Ciccone despite destroying everyone else behind. Jake Womersley took 13th place and came in alone after losing contact on the last ascent of Box Hill.
*****
Rankings
Leader
PedalHeaven
World Tour Individual
Nibali (537 pts)
-
World Tour Team
Team Sky (1632 pts)
-
Continental Individual
Palini (579 pts)
Gardias (45 pts / 202nd)
Continental Team
Cofidis (2315 pts)
65th (121 pts)
CQ Individual
Froome (2695 pts)
Jake Womersley (22 pts / 805th)
CQ Team
Team Sky (8482 pts)
95th (84 pts)
Wins Individual
Palini (17)
Chapman (1 / 270th)
Wins Team
Team Sky / Cofidis (52)
75th (2)
The rankings do not make nice reading, but for the size of the team, it is ok. We are better than both NFTO and Team Raleigh in the standings, and considering the rider both those teams have it is fantastic to see.
We have already dipped our toes into the Transfer market, and look to strength for 2017. We have 5 riders coming into the team, 1 resigning for another year and 3 doing out.
From
.......
To
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
-
>
PedalHeaven
Tom Scully
Drapac
>
PedalHeaven
Steele Van Hoff
One Pro
>
PedalHeaven
Matt Brammeier
Dimension Data
>
PedalHeaven
Chris Latham
Wiggins
>
PedalHeaven
.
Lloyd Chapman
PedalHeaven
>
Contract Extension
.
William Fox
PedalHeaven
>
Released
Harrison Jones
PedalHeaven
>
Released
David McGowan
PedalHeaven
>
Contract Refused
Very happy with the transfers coming into the team, and we have bolstered significantly in the Sprints Department. Matt Brammeier will give the team some needed experience on the road, and also our first NC jersey next season after winning the Irish Championships.
There is controversy behind the Tiernan-Locke deal, but we are confident that his past is behind him, and he can use the team as the next step on his road to recovery in his career.
We did offer a Stagaire contract to both Oliver Wood and James Shaw, with both undecided yet on whether to accept.
Sorry for the large update, but there are only 3 races left (21 race days in total) for the team before we go onto next season and we will see how we can progress!
Edited by the_hoyle on 02-10-2016 12:41
Only 3 stage races made up the final months of the team's first season as a CT team. First up was the Volta a Portugal, where we had no hope of a GC finish, so banked everything on breakaways and hopes of stage wins.
We finally got a bit of luck on Stage 5 of the race - a flat stage with some small lumps towards the end and it suited Alex Paton more than his breakaway companions. Countering the attacks perfectly, he sprinted to a great stage win ahead of a Rabobank rider.
The rest of the race was a nothing race. The mountains destroyed any GC hopes, and the stronger sprinters stopped any chance of another stage win. However, though it was a good race for the small team.
The Ronde van Midden Nederland was next up and we took nothing from the two-stage race. Jake Womersley took 26th on the first stage, and Max Steadman came home 45th on the second stage. Nothing more to report on that really...
We ended the season with the Tour of Britain - our major home race. We had Max Steadman as our leader, and he did a fantastic job to stay with the leaders on climb to Haytor and also on the stage to Caerphilly and take home a 7th place GC finish for the team. Alex Paton was 5 points off from taking the KoM jersey, but we missed out on the sponsor goal of a stage win.
*****
Rankings
Leader
PedalHeaven
World Tour Individual
Froome (814 pts)
-
World Tour Team
Team Sky (2015 pts)
-
Continental Individual
Palini (680 pts)
Gardias (45 pts / 237th)
Continental Team
Cofidis (3037 pts)
66th (144 pts)
CQ Individual
Froome (4625 pts)
Steadman (34 pts / 789th)
CQ Team
Team Sky (10991 pts)
92th (127 pts)
Wins Individual
Froome (23)
Chapman (1 / 286th)
Wins Team
Team Sky (64)
69th (3)
Nowhere near the promotion places for us, but that was a given at the start of the season. We have built on the team for next season, so expections are higher going into 2017.
We have no more transfers after the last update, so the 2017 team is as below:
Elsewhere, there was the usual selection of PCM logical major transfers:
From
.......
To
Thibault Pinot
FDJ
>
Astana
Alberto Contador
Tinkoff
>
Astana
Greg van Avermaet
BMC
>
Etixx
Andre Griepel
Lotto-Soudal
>
Etixx
Michael Matthews
Orica
>
FDJ
Merhawi Kudus
Dimension Data
>
IAM
John Degenkolb
Giant-Alpecin
>
IAM
Ian Stannard
Sky
>
IAM
Arnaud Demare
FDJ
>
Lotto-Soudal
Scott Thwaites
Bora
>
Movistar
Rui Costa
Lampre
>
Orica
Adam Blythe
Tinkoff
>
SkyDubai
Simon Spilak
Katusha
>
Dimension Data
Wilco Kelderman
LottoNL
>
Giant-Alpecin
Arnaud Demare
FDJ
>
Lotto-Soudal
Bryan Coquard
Direct Energie
>
Katusha
Leopard Konig
Sky
>
Katusha
Lars Boom
Astana
>
LottoNL
Arnaud Demare
FDJ
>
Lotto-Soudal
Adam Yates
Orica
>
Sky
Simon Yates
Orica
>
Sky
Vincenzo Nibali
Astana
>
Tinkoff
Tony Martin
Etixx
>
Tinkoff
Alexander Kristoff
Katusha
>
Trek
Sep Vanmarcke
LottoNL
>
Trek
We also have the Promotions & Relegations at the end of the season with some shocks across all divisions:
Promoted to WT: Cofidis & Bardiani-CSF Relegated to PCT: IAM Cycling & Cannondale
Promoted to PCT: SkyDive Dubai, Axeon, Crelan, Kolss & Joker Relegated to CT: Verva, Delko Marseille, Roth Gruppe, Novo Nordisk & Funvic
Just one change of sponsorship across the divisions, with Kolss becoming VisitUkraine.
Edited by the_hoyle on 18-10-2016 08:51
Quite a good season for your team, considering its abilities. Good that you've got proper leaders now, hopefully promotion within the next couple of seasons isn't too big an ask!
Well just wanted to update you with the worst PCT team in 2017: Adria Mobil
Last season we finished 3rd in the Rankings of CT teams, which was enough to climb one division. Within the season both Per and Novak managed to achieve over 10 victories (Per 14, Novak 11), a fantastic developement from our homegrown youngsters inclusive!
We would even challenge the Novo Nordisk and Funvic with that team, after keeping all riders besides retired Golcer & Rogina. Chasing after home stars Spilak, Kiserlovski and Polanc didn't work out, so our most well-known addition is Luka Pibernik.
We'll start 2017 with an interesting team that purely contains of Slovenians. We love to develope the riders from our team's home country, that's why we'll have such a spare average age and no foreign riders.
Jaka Primozic, Ziga Jerman & Tadej Pogacar - all 18 or 19 - are the future of the team. Add the likes of Tilen Finkst, Rok Korosec, Jure Miskulin & Ziga Groselj to that and we have a rather strong and versatile amount of options of fast men, especially on flat or bumpy terrain.
Main captains though will be Novak (Climbing), Per (Classics) and Pibernik (Sprints). We don't have a real PCT ready rider yet, but we hope to develop them into some over the season.
To bring this a little bit back to live: my all Slovenian 2017 and 2018 PCT Teams for Adria Mobil. With the 2017 squad I won the Continental Standings which meant P3 of the CT teams and an unlucky missing out of promotion.
We want to achieve exactly that in 2018 though, where we can welcome the singings of Tratnik and Kump in addition to the developement of our talents. Especially I'm proud of what the likes of Novak, Per, Korosec and Finkst were able to do in their time here.
Still we struggle hard to get enough race invitations and have a pretty spare sponsor budget. So we develope our own future stars, and bring them to wherever we get invited to.
I hope you like it and still follow our personal challenge to make Adria great. Or do one of these yourselves and share it here too, cause I'm really interested in how other managers deal with their teams. Especially Selwink & the_hoyle: Would love to see how your careers worked out
I recently started a new career (no worries, still playing my Istex-career simultaneously). Maybe it was the death from one former handsome revolutionary-turned-dictator, but I felt like creating a South-American Pro-conti team. I selected custom team, but didn't feel like editting DB's, so instead of Cuba, the sponsor became venezuelan TeleSUR.
I had a weirdly frustrating Tour de San Luis. The field was extremely strong (Quintana, Contador, Valverde, Kittel, Viviani), but I managed two stage wins, once with Diaz who started the sprint early enough to derail Kittel and once with Serpa from a break away. I got the youth classification with Sepulveda (17th GC) and a sixth place in overal GC with Duarte. Great result, but sponsor wanted a 5th overal and cared for nothing else. Damn, so close!
How it is with setting objectives? you can only set one objective for a given period? What about Giro-TDF double then?
Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
_____________________________________________ PCM Velogames Championship - Top Results
* 1st Tour de Suisse ('23)
* 1st Tour de Romandie ('19, '18)
* 1st Tour de Pologne ('20, '19)
* 2nd Tour of California ('19)
* 2nd Tour de Suisse ('18)
* 3rd Tour de France ('23, '21)
* 3rd Giro d’Italia ('22)
* 3rd Vuelta Espana ('23)
* 3rd Autumn Classics ('19, '18)
* 9th Spring Classics ('18)
I play on hard 
PedalHeaven RT: Jun - Jul
Tom Scully
Steele Van Hoff
Matt Brammeier
Thibault Pinot
Alberto Contador
Greg van Avermaet
Andre Griepel
Merhawi Kudus
Rui Costa
Simon Spilak
Wilco Kelderman
Leopard Konig
Vincenzo Nibali
Alexander Kristoff
