The team continues to be lead by Bardet. The two most important additions are probably Jaako Hanninen and Clement Champoussin who are both very talented youngsters.
Astana
Biggest addition is Kittel, who should give them many more wins this season. Lopez will still lead the team in the mountains, but the loss of Gorka Izagirre will hurt the support quality.
Bora - hansgrohe
Sagan and Formolo are still the top 2 riders with the team, but Costa and Nieve improve the teams depth! Karl Heinze Schulte is a strong stage racer. The best comparison would probably be Linus Gerdemann.
CCC Team
No real huge changes for CCC, but Ganna and Minali could be great riders one day, so the future is looking better for the team! If not for GVA though, the team would probably be in the Pro Continental division.
Deceuninck - Quickstep
Big changes for the team. Gilbert and Viviani both decided our contract offers were not good enough, so that meant we had to find a replacement. Jasper Stuyven will be the new captain for the classics. It was important to bring in a rider from the region our sponsors have a high priority on! Nelson Oliveira who would have won the WC ITT if not for Jungels also joins the team. We felt we needed a better TTT squad and he will also be a great support rider in the mountains, so he will support Jungels and Mas.
Lambrecht gives us a 3rd climbing option, and hes still very young. Perhaps he could be the next GT winner from Belgium, although his TT ability will need to improve. Mark Padun is another talented young rider that should be great support in the mountains. More often than not our team felt weak in the GT mountain stages, so he will support our leaders, but also get some chances of his own as well!
Keukeleire is another rider brought in to support our cobbles campaign. He should be a good helper, but his sprint allows him to contend a classic like Gent Wevelegem as well!
Finally, we have signed a couple young riders. Andrea Bagioli an italian puncheur, Michael Reis a Luxembourg climber, Rinie Longuet a Dutch cobbles specialist, and Julius Johansen a Danish all-rounder!
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
The only major addition is Sergio Higuita, who could be the next top Colombian stage racer! Woods and Vanmarcke still lead the team, but losing Langeveld, Van Garderen and Modolo will hurt.
Groupama - FDJ
No additions for FDJ surprisingly. They lose Roux though, who was French Champion.
Lotto - Soudal
Politt and Van Der Poel are two huge additions. They should be very strong in the classics this year, but losing Wellens, Benoot and Lambrecht will still hurt!
Mitchelton - Scott
Degenkolb more or less makes up for the loss of Trentin. Haas is also a good local rider to add to the team!
Movistar
Izagirre and Bevin replace Oliveira and Roelandts. They lose a bit of cobbles depth, but they didnt have much to begin with. Valverde is slowly declining, but he will want to have another great year in the Rainbow Stripes
Bahrain - Merida
Trentin is a great rider to join the team, but losing Mohoric and Padun two great young riders will really hurt. Nibali should still be able to challenge for podiums in the GTs as well.
Dimension Data
Losing Kreuziger will be tough, but Van baarle and Langeveld really improve the cobbles team. Sundbahm is also a great cobbles talent, so they may have a new leader in a couple of seasons time in him.
Direct Energie
Kreuziger joins Terpstra as two big name riders, and the first half of the season should be very successful for the team now! Still no real GT rider, but they should still do well at stage hunting.
Jumbo - Visma
No major changes for Jumbo. Van Garderen replaces Powless although Powless will likely still improve. Can TVG help Roglic win his first Grand Tour?
Team Sky
Losing Van Baarle sucks, but they did well to replace him, with Roosen and even improve the team now with Benoot. But who will be team leader in the classics now, Kwiatkowski or Benoot, or maybe even Moscon? Froome also starting to get worse, perhaps Team Sky wont dominate next years Tour?
Team Sunweb
Losing Kelderman to Roompot is going to hurt, but Zakarin should still be a great support rider, and Pedersen could be the best cobble rider by next season, so he really improves the teams outlook. Majka is another great depth piece and Schachmann will also be great for Sunwebs TTT hopes.
Trek - Segafredo
Easily the most improved team, which is crazy to say, seeing as they lost Pedersen and Stuyven, but they added Viviani, Gilbert, Matthews, Wellens, Greipel and Bennett. Their sprint team will be very good, Gilbert has shown he can win hilly classics and cobble classics still and Wellens and Matthews are just really good all-rounders. Add in Richie Porte and they could be the best team next season.
UAE - Emirates Team
Gasparotto and Moreno in, Costa out. Not too much change for this team, but Philipsen and Pogacar will be great riders, and maybe this season will be their breakthrough. Gaviria, Martin and Kristoff remain as the leaders!
Agree with bbl, a GT double winner is hard done by to only come third! Despite losing Gilbert and Viviani I'm a big fan of Stuyven and Lambrecht as replacements with Jakobsen filling the sprint void. I think it's good long-term for DQS
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." [PT] Xero Racing
@ Baseball - Yeah, losing Viviani sucked. I wanted to keep him, but I only had one chance, and I didn't want to "cheat" and edit the cdb to get more chances or whatever, so I just went with it.
And I think Mas should have finished 2nd, but Froome had something like 12 GT stage wins, plus the Tour and 2nd in the Vuelta, so not a surprise to see him there. Also I think popularity/reputation matters for the Velo d'Or.
@ Jandal - I've always liked Stuyven, Trek has become one of my favourite teams so Stuyven naturally is one of my favourite classic riders, if I hadn't lost Gilbert I wouldn't have signed him, but we needed a leader, and Lampaert Im not sure is strong enough and Stybar is getting older. Plus his sprint makes him a really nice option in smaller bunch sprints.
@ Freitas - Yeah, I think the teams better overall, although losing the 2nd best sprinter in the game (according to the save) will be tough, but we definitely improved the climbing and TT, and Cobble depth is probably even better now too
@ sutty - Indeed, always nice to end as the top team! With the loss of Viviani, we will see if we end up top next year
Great transfers mate! Like others have said Mas was robbed only coming third there. Looks like you're trying to focus slightly more on GC after Mas's success last season.
Timmsoski wrote:
Great transfers mate! Like others have said Mas was robbed only coming third there. Looks like you're trying to focus slightly more on GC after Mas's success last season.
Thanks, I do think he should have atleast finished 2nd ahead of Valv. Yeah. the support after Alaphilippe is pretty bad, and Jungels and Mas arent often going to be at the same races, so I wanted to get a bit better in that aspect, but Im pretty happy with how the team looks now.
Lambrecht interesting addition, at present not a typical top race winner, but his nice acceleration great for attacking and force other to work, he can either target minor races or be a super domestic.
Tamijo wrote:
Lambrecht interesting addition, at present not a typical top race winner, but his nice acceleration great for attacking and force other to work, he can either target minor races or be a super domestic.
A top sprinter at Astana, that is new for sure.
Yeah, he should be great support at the very least, but I think he has the potential to win minor races, and even big races in the future if he can improve just a bit.
Indeed, it will be interesting to see how Kittel does, who needs to keep moving until he finds the right team I guess. I did fix some of the crazier transfers, but the transfer system is pretty good this year and I dont like editing it too much, except to keep things realistic.
Just a little update before I start the next season, I have changed the difficulty to Extreme for the new season. I think this will give me more of a challenge in some races (Lombardia *cough*)
I have also lowered the crash ratio down to 0.7. I found there to be way too many crashes at 1.1. I know on PCM15 1.1 seemed like a good number, but I guess in PCM18 the crash chances have increased.
Im also thinking of posting more race updates, rather than updates that cover large sections of the year. There may still be some big updates but I think covering just one or two races at a time, as opposed to lets say 6, will improve the quality of the updates, which will hopefully make following along more enjoyable too!
Unfortunately I forgot to open the Career Explorer from Jan-Mar in my save, and the stage results have been deleted, so I will have to make due without them
The opening stage was won by Marcel Kittel, in his new team Astana! The day came down to a sprint, and the German was the strongest! Perhaps he will return to his old form from his Shimano days.
Alaphilippe takes the 2nd stage down under
The 2nd stage would be a fight between the puncheurs and Julian Alaphilippe shows he was the strongest on the day as he wins the sprint to the line. Bob Jungels also finishes 4th on the day. Because of the time gaps, Alaphilippe moves into the Ochre leaders jersey.
Stage 3 also came down to a mass sprint and was also won by a German, but this time it was not Marcel Kittel, but Pascal Ackermann, however the following day also went to the sprinters again, and Kittel took his 2nd win of the race and of the season with his new team! Astana may have revitalized Kittels career, after stagnating somewhat at Katusha.
Alaphilippe dominates on the Queen stage
Stage 5 the famous Willunga Hill stage was the finale on the day and Alaphilippe was able to climb the hill the fastest to the finishing line and take his 2nd stage win of the race, now tied with Kittel with one stage to go. Would either Kittel or Alaphilippe be able to surpass the other and reach 3 wins on the final day?
Alaphilippe makes it 3 and spoils the sprinters day
Well who can be surprised at this point? Alaphilippe showing he is the best allround rider in the world atm, as he takes the sprinters stage! Originally he was leading out Hodeg but Hodeg lost his wheel and Alaphilippe kept going and held off the sprinters! He finishes the race having absolutely dominated it, and will now change his focus to the UAE Tour.
Jungels was also able to take 3rd for Deceuninck so a great race for sure for the team!
Thanks, it has been a great start, I've figured that starting riders at higher fitness levels really doesnt harm them much in terms of tiredness if you can manage it right
Tamijo wrote:
Opening with GC 1th & 3rd in Down Under
Yeah, Alaphilippe was the favourite, but still nice to get the wins and even Jungels getting on the podium as well! Thanks
And good to see my lad Nelson Oliveira on the squad. 
Santos Tour Down Under 2020 (2.UWT) 
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.1) 
Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta (2.HC) 
UAE Tour (2.UWT)
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1.UWT)
Strade Bianche (1.UWT)
