Really happy to see you stuck around Fab. After our conversations last year, I knew what a difficult period it was for you, especially when multiple (people have mentioned Schmiid, but Groves was also affected) riders were suddenly less than before.
Really think there's a rider for this game version in Schmiid as the resistance still plays well it is just mainly if you want him to be a classics rider (Liege, Amstel, Lombardia and maybe another Worlds Medal) his ST has to go up again.
Wonder if youd considered turning him into a week long stage racer at any point and going up with his MO instead?
ALl in all the base of the team down a level is very good could be a fruitful season against less competition
Really glad to see you around Fab and looking forward to the competition in PCT!
I can't see Groves as anything other than a dominant piece in PCT, particularly with the many declines and departures from the division in the sprinting crop. Darbellay also seems like the type to overperform in a number of the hilly/TT stage races that are ever-present in HC. Castrillo just looks super cool and he'll be a fun rider once maxed.
One thing is for sure, you're starting off on such a strong footing this season that the world is your oyster for however you want to approach the year.
First of all: It's really nice to see that you changed your mind and stayed in the game. You are a very valuable member of the game, so it would be extremely sad to see you leave. I had that down-period myself, and it somehow became more fun once I found a way out of it. I hope you'll have the same experience!
Renewals went well clearly. Schmid is obviously high, but he's still trainable into a leader level - or perhaps look at Aranburu for inspiration.
Thanks for the nice words
Well, I did indeed follow Aranburu pretty closely. Schmid and him had some races in common, with Aranburu mostly being more successful. Which is quite logical due to his stats - what is completely off is Schmid's OVL, though. I also considered sending Schmid to the Vuelta and did quite some tests - but it turns out his skills are just a tad too low to be considered in a rather deep field. I did a test with a less crowded field, and he finished 3rd in GC... But when there are many riders with higher Hi/MM stats, he just gets ignored - which is what happened quite a lot during the season. Maybe he'd have been a good scorer in PCT, but in PT his OVL definitely doesn't reflect his scoring potential in the current version.
Or maybe Carlsberg just had more luck this year - I mean, compare Skjelmose and Darbellay, they're very, very similar (with the former being a tad stronger on shorter climbs), but the points difference is more than 300 (at least the higher OVL rider indeed scoring more here). Aranburu scored about 150 more than Schmid, so maybe I just had used up all of my luck in the three previous years
I definitely intend to train Schmid, but it would take a good "sales period" to actually get there. We'll see, it will be interesting...
Just to throw in my two cents, I do think I definitely just had more luck this year. Skjelmose finding the right break and ending up top 5 in the TDF is almost all luck. No way around that. He was falling off the back and not paying any attention to GC until he hit on that break. I think with second and third tier GC guys, this game just leads to a ton of variation in GT scoring from the breakaway antics. I also planned Skjelmose to get a steady stream of white jersey points, which he won't have this year, so that's another difference between him and Darbellay last year.
Sometimes the game is just random though. Aranburu's success was almost all in stage races and primarily the Vuelta—he was even more useless than Schmid in most of the main classics, where Gregaard often outraced him with 71 hill. Even still, I don't really know why Aranburu showed up so well in the Vuelta and even seemed to get priority over guys like Valter at times. I have a feeling if you ran that race 10 times, the version we got is the only one where Aranburu scores that high. But I do think he's generally more suited to stage races with his 70 stamina, so that's the way I will probably keep planning him.
All that said, I think you've done a really great renewals, and I would be surprised if Schmid doesn't excel big time in PCT with the lighter competition and somewhat shorter races, even without training.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
