Could someone give me a step by step of creating a successful sprint train? I use follow and effort 99 etc but it just doesn't work and like 3 of the riders don't follow. Help would be good guys.
I normally start to form the train with 18-12km to go.
First a rider with high flat. This can be someone without a high sprint like Voigt or Grabsch. This guy is protected by a weaker rider, so that he saves a bit of energy.
Behind him another guy with a good flat/sprint combination like Eisel for example.
Then a good sprinter but not your best like Van Hummel, Sutton etc.
As last then the best sprinter like Greipel, Cavendish etc.
You can obviously do a longer train but keep this format high flat-some 2nd tier sprinters-top sprinters.
With two high flat riders in the front and then 2 medium sprinters you can obviously last longer.
And I wouldn`t go 99% as it might make your sprinter struggle too early. Sometimes 80-90% is by far enough to be in front. Then you can go higher towards the 3km mark.
Always when your first riders runs out of energy, take the next man in the row on dot and high percentage, so that you stay in front.
In best case your main sprinter has still most of his energy with 1,5-1km to go when he starts his sprint.
I am doing the same but i have another problem. When I start too early, my sprinter get tired and he didnt make it to the finish. When I start too late, they shut me down (i think that is the right expression, not sure, but i hope you understand). So, i would like to know, how can i avoid these situations? When is the right time to start sprint? And another thing, i noticed, when i made my own train, my sprinter has worse acceleration than when i am following another sprinter from another team. But when i follow another sprinter, there is a risk of shutting down.
Well at 15-18kms you are allowed to follow riders so either:
- Hang on to the fastest guy with your best sprinter
- Your best sprinter follows your second best sprinter and he is following the best train -> so if you need to chase a better train you can use the 2nd best rider as the one chasing down and hiding your sprinter from the wind so the best sprinter has still a lot of power left instead of wasting energy to chase down
- You are making your own train:
I have as my armada sprint train:
1st leadout - Hansen, Engoulvent with a lot of FL
1st sprinter - good-ish sprinter with decent FL stat like Hunter or Wagner
2nd best sprinter - anyone with good sprint and accleration like Sutton or Coquard for example
best sprinter - Greipel or Demare or Van Hummel (I don't have much good sprinters)
At first, I press "o" as then the wind sock comes up above the selected rider.
Then monitor the wind strength. If it's around 30-40 and it's headwind then good luck..
So the train preparation:
The 1st leadout rider (Hansen) should have been put on relaying (short relay) with around 80% at 20km to go. So he is really at the front when he reaches 15km to go when you are allowed to follow riders. I have the other sprint riders at short relay and 20% or so. That makes sure they are at the top 1/3 of the peloton everytime.
Next step is that the sprint train start to follow their riders:
So Greipel follows Sutton, Sutton follows Hunter and Hunter follows Hansen.
Then you need to be really (really) careful with Hansen.
As when the others start to do taking high effort (the effort dot), the relay riders are chasing them down with 99% even if you just set up 80%.
Well thats bad and needs to be fixed but as thats a diffrent story, back to the sprint:
If they are boltering early with 99% effort, Hansen should be set also on effort but as much as you need to keep a bit up with them. Well I can't give a big tip there as you need a good touch and experience for that but most times around 88-90% are enough.
Like the mountain gameplay when they relay and you set up your mountain riders on low effort saving them energy and the relay riders going dead at the end of a mountain.
Remember: Setting up a high pace with not enough riders leave your main sprinter at the end dead.
So around 7-5km to go you can to start boltering down with a lot of effort with Hansen.
Around 4-3km to go you can give the leadout over to Hunter (high effort) and maybe start to sprint at around 3km or 2.5km to go.
With around 2km to go you can start to sprint with Sutton and follow how fast the sprint bar of Sutton goes down (red bar, as if it's empty he stops to sprint) and how the other sprinters are going.
With around 1km to go start to sprint with Greipel.
If there is headwind and really strong one (above 20-30 and more) I would try to give them the instructions later as 1km sprinting with headwind is bad obviously.
Here is a video of a sprint of mine.
There was some headwind (30 strength), lost connection to my leadout rider (wasn't Premont he was on 99% effort just to confuse myself and the others) and had to do the sprint train with just 3 riders, all of them sprinters:
As you can see with the 5km banner it starts around 6km to go.
It would be advisable to put the 720p HD mode on to have a more sharp video.
Ok I have to admit the Movistar rider was Vicioso so the sprint (thats a Tour de France stage) was really weird.
Edited by Rin on 06-07-2013 12:50
Team Bianchi - 2012 Man-Game ProContinental Tour Champions
i still use the same tactics from pcm 11. start at 15 km, 99 effort. 10 km switch to next 99 effort.6 km then 4 km then 2.5 km then .5 km. always works. not sure if it is the best way but it is a good way for me.
"Before you insult a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you insult him, you’ll be a mile away, and have his shoes." - Anonymous
"The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens. " - Arnold "Terminator" Schwarzenegger
As said by others already. 99% is not the best solution for 15km imo.
I usually start with 70-75 with 15km to go and start in first position as well.
LAter when other trains are formed and accelerate I go up to 85%.
99% is just for the last 5-7km.
Otherwise your top sprinter lost too much energy unnecessarily.
But this also depends on the riders obviously. If you have a train with Cancellara-Van Avermaet-Boonen-Cavendish or so with just high flat riders including Cavendish. Then you can obviously go higher with the effort than with a Voigt-Sutton-Swift-Kittel train.
There is a nice tip and trick section which you could have gone through before making this threadhttps://pcmdaily.c....php?cat=2Edited by kqyt on 06-07-2013 21:43
Please, tell me what am i doing wrong? I think, that was the perfect train, but cavendish lost it. His acceleration was poor. And that happens all the time.
longbow06 wrote:
Please, tell me what am i doing wrong? I think, that was the perfect train, but cavendish lost it. His acceleration was poor. And that happens all the time.
longbow06 wrote:
Please, tell me what am i doing wrong? I think, that was the perfect train, but cavendish lost it. His acceleration was poor. And that happens all the time.
Rin wrote:
- Your best sprinter follows your second best sprinter and he is following the best train -> so if you need to chase a better train you can use the 2nd best rider as the one chasing down and hiding your sprinter from the wind so the best sprinter has still a lot of power left instead of wasting energy to chase down
that's the best way to sprint without having the best train or sprinters and especially in armada against dominating teams, but its more effective with a second sprinters with better flat stats and main sprinter with high acc and sprint,
but if you play career do the train suggestion (RIN) said Edited by Aleakez on 07-07-2013 21:22
daddytorgo wrote:
Good point - definitely not. There has to be another way around it though, doesn't there?
Don't think so. But what exactly do you want? There's a 1:10 scale; starting to sprint at 1,5 kms to go = starting to sprint at 150 m to go in real life (sort of).
Edited by lluuiiggii on 07-07-2013 23:23
daddytorgo wrote:
Good point - definitely not. There has to be another way around it though, doesn't there?
Don't think so. But what exactly do you want? There's a 1:10 scale; starting to sprint at 1,5 kms to go = starting to sprint at 150 m to go in real life (sort of).
Suppose that's true. Guess I hadn't considered the 1:10 scale of it that precisely. Cool.
