I'm playing pro cyclist mode and have a rider who's often a top 5 favourite to win hilly stages, but I'm struggling in the races with a short uphill finish. The short of finish where the yellow bar isn't empty, but I'd like a red bar that's twice as long.
I will generally hit the slope on the dot at 85, hopefully with protection, but it seems like 3-4 kms out a mass of riders will stream past my rider. I can typically gain a bit in the sprint, but winning is rare.
Havent played pro cyclist mode, but I think that 85 is too low, try what happens if you go 93-95 as soon as you see others move fast. If you hang in they might slow down not to explode.
It depends on you acceleration if you should attack (and in any case no longer than you "bar's" can handle) never empty your-self need a little red to sprint the last 300-400 meters.
Edited by Tamijo on 26-02-2019 21:15
Tamijo wrote:
Havent played pro cyclist mode, but I think that 85 is too low, try what happens if you go 93-95 as soon as you see others move fast. If you hang in they might slow down not to explode.
It depends on you acceleration if you should attack (and in any case no longer than you "bar's" can handle) never empty your-self need a little red to sprint the last 300-400 meters.
Thanks. I had some success today following the favourite and then sprinting late. I will experiment with a higher dot number too.
The way difficulty works in PCM is that it just raises the attributes of all other riders compared to yours (or, alternatively, lowers yours compared to them). Extreme difficulty adds about 3-4 points to your opposition's stats for example.
To still win (or just overperform) despite that disadvantage, you have to use better strategy and exploit the AI.
That usually works just fine on longer ascents where you can gauge your effort better than the AI and wait for the best moment to strike, and in sprints where you can deliver your leader in the best position under the flamme rouge, but on short uphill finishes where everyone hits the effort limit eventually and just prays that the bars last, there's not always a way to play the system and overcome the stats deficit.
You can have close to 3000 hours on PCM like me and still struggle in that particular scenario.
The only tip I can give you besides what you already do and what was mentioned here by others is to use the gel about 1km before you expect to have to dig into your red bar (>84 effort) if you're already climbing, about 2.5km before that point if it's a flat approach. That'll give you a little bit more red bar to work with, but don't expect to gain more than a couple of bike lengths with it.
