I just got a new (gaming) computer and for the first time in years I'm playing PCM like it's supposed to. Only half a minute loading time, very smooth gameplay, much faster simulating through the months etc...
So while this all takes less time, I feel motivated to play another career. I thought it'd be nice to describe the progress here.
This won't be a real, traditional story. Unfortunately I've learned that those days are behind me (except for A Tale of Two, which we'll continue and finish on our own pace).
I'll just be updating my progress here and (as I usually do) mostly zoom in on my two created riders.
I won't include screenshots. Only when something special or amazing happens, I'll have the occasional screenshot. But for the first time in a long time I want to play career, just play, not pause and screenshot every race for the sake of a story.
I won't include much results, again occasionally.
I won't do roleplaying or things like that.
But I'll try to make it interesting for you. Avoiding big walls of texts, try to get you the occasional screenshot. Also give you updates on the rest of the world, who won the Tour etc...
So the team I'll be playing with (at least for the first few seasons. I'm following 2 riders so they may change team one day.) is MTN - Qhubeka. I love playing with a PCT team, trying to move up to PT on our own tempo, but tackling the Tour de France with attacking in mind and where a stage win in the Tour is a real celebration, not a given.
It's a team with spirit and I love it. Also, it sets the perfect placing for my two created riders:
Farai Olujimi
South African, black of skin. Farai starts the 2015 as a 21 year old neopro. He's 185 cm and weighs 62 kg, so he's built like a climber. And that's also his specialty.
Farai is an attack-minded climber, but he's relatively new to the sport so he has a long way to go. His stamina and exceptional recovery makes him the perfect rider for 3-week stage races, the Grand Tours. He lacks the power for one day races and needs the high altitude climbs to really get his groove on. He excels in warm conditions, so the Vuelta might suit him for that reason.
Mandla Sekibo
South African, black of skin. A few month younger than Farai, he turns 21 early in the year, January or February. Sekibo is a promising rider. He's got multiple talents, but can be best described as a sprinter. But he's definitely no pure sprinter, no Kittel. He's got punch and can steer quite well. Born in the same year as Gaviria, they might turn into the biggest rivals of the decade. Both well over a hill, both fast at the finish line, both competent over cobbles. The only thing Mandla still needs is time. Develop at his own pace.
Career "goals"
I'm going into this career with a few goals. I've grown tired of always riding with the very best riders in the world. I always had to have the "best climber ever", breaking records and whatnot.
While these two do have a bright future ahead of them, in their peak possibly among the best in their discipline, they have weaknesses, no unlimited potential and obstacles along their way.
Also, for the first time in a long time I won't be constantly editing the game. I made them with a potential, with some stat limits but now it's up to them to develop. So if for example Farai "only" hits 81 MO and stops, I'm keeping him there. This is new for me
So what are my goals?
MTN - Quebeka: Keep the team's spirit. Mostly African riders. In the longer run try to settle in the Pro Tour as a team with outsiders, like Lotto. Rely on African talents, especially the two created riders, obviously.
Also mostly enjoy myself as I play this career. Pauwels should be a keeper and get a free role in the Grand Tours!
Farai Olujimi: Not sure what I can reach with him, but his future lays in Grand Tours. He'll be too "weak" in the hills to perform in classics (perhaps maybe Lombardia when it's mountainous enough). The ultimate goal might just be to become the first (South) African Tour winner. But first immediate goals (first few seasons) are to top 10 a Grand Tour and win a stage in a Grand Tour. Before he grows into a subtop or top climber, I want to get him into a Grand Tour with an attacking mind. Perhaps the KoM jersey!
Mandla Sekibo: Be a big rival to Gaviria. Contest for victories in Sanremo, the Tour, the Giro, Gent - Wevelgem... Anywhere where the pack may be thinned out (he lacks top speed, unless for now). Perhaps the ultimate goal: be the first African World Champion.
2015 season
Their debut season. Because I'll mostly play stages where they appear, and I really want to play the 2015 TDF, they will be debuting in the Tour de France at the age of 21, as a neopro. Why not.
So for their debut season I'm just going to see what happens. No big goals, no expectations.
Sekibo will take his place in the sprint train for Boasson Hagen or Ciolek and get his chance in smaller races. He'll debut in the Tour de France in a supporting role but might get his chance in 1 or 2 stages. A stage top 10 would be brilliant.
Olujimi will mostly get free roles this season, because we don't have too many leaders as climbers. His main target is, of course, the Tour de France. I actually hope to get in the breakaway in the first stage to wear the KoM Jersey. Maybe keep it for a few days. Like Teklehaimanot did irl in the Tour 2015 I think. That'd be epic.
Besides that, no GC ambitions for his first Tour. Finish. Get into a few attacks, maybe.
That's it. Hope you enjoy following this. Hope I won't get into major bugs, I'll let you know if that should happen Edited by Ian Butler on 24-05-2016 10:01
Thanks, I agree
It'll also be great to tackle a GT without any favorite for the GC (at least first few seasons). I've grown to used to always having a top GC rider so every GT I had to go for the win. Now I can pick and choose my stages and plan attacks etc... Will be exciting.
Since I'm already partway into the season, a first impression of the 2015 season so far:
Sekibo: Had a decent start. His first race of the season, a first sprint in San Luis, he took a surprising 5th place! This showed great promise but unfortunately he was unable to continue on that kind of level and he got another 11th place in another sprint but that's it.
In the Herald Sun Tour, he was last chain in Sbaragli's sprint train and did a decent job, piloting our sprinter to some distant places.
In Kuurne, he had to work his ass off to bring Ciolek back to the front of the race. And it never happened. But he worked hard so that's good.
In Paris - Nice, he first sampled how fast a PT peloton can go. He just got totalled in the preparation for the sprint. He was not ready for this and so this turned into a learning experience mostly.
Olujimi: Having a dream start. Tour de San Luis, first uphill finish he attacked way before the favorites did and it got him far. Only the best caught up with him, he was in top 10 of the GC. He continued to perform well and earned 5th in the GC, getting the Young Jersey!
Herald Sun Tour was another great race, he continued his good form and made a 3rd place on stage 5, again with an attack about 12 km from the finish. This earned him 6th in the GC and again, Young Jersey.
With a lot of confidence he went to Paris - Nice. On stage 1 (bar prologue), he fought hard to take the only KoM sprint but did it! so on stage 2, he was in the mountain jersey! He went into the BOTD and managed to double up!
Unfortunately, Voeckler took control of that jersey the next day, and Olujimi was far down the GC by this time, too. So I decided to let him slack off and all eyes on the final stage, the MTT up Col d'Eze. That was the first disappointment of the season: "only" 63th, a minute and a half down on Kwiatkowski, the stage winner.
Still, he wore that jersey 2 days. Couldn't ask for a better WT debut. MTN is happy about this
MTN - Qhuebeke: Olujimi has brought the team some early succes and CQ points, which are always welcome!
Boasson Hagen had a nice 3rd place in Qatar, thanks to his ITT!
Ciolek was a surprising 3rd in Strade Bianchi (simulated, was a nice surprise)
So all in all a decent start to the season. Olujimi with an amazing debut season but his first peak of the season is now over, so let's see how he takes a small break and starts working towards the big goal, the Tour. Can he do what he did in Paris - Nice and take an early KoM jersey? The pace will be even higher there, the stakes as well.
Paris - Nice: Won by Henao, Kwiatek on 20", Ion Izagirre 25", Quintana 26", Spilak 34"
1
Sergio Luis Henao
Team Sky
+00:00
2
Michal Kwiatkowski
Etixx - Quick-step
+00:20
3
Ion Izagirre
Movistar Team
+00:25
4
Nairo Quintana
Movistar Team
+00:26
5
Simon Spilak
Team Katusha
+00:34
6
Vincenzo Nibali
Astana Pro Team
+00:51
7
Laurens Ten Dam
Team LottoNL - Jumbo
+00:55
8
Jakob Fuglsang
Astana Pro Team
+01:03
9
Mikel Nieve
Team Sky
+01:03
10
Joaquim Rodriguez
Team Katusha
+01:04
Tirreno - Adriatico: Won by Contador, Froome on 2", Sagan 11".
1
Alberto Contador
Tinkoff-Saxo
+00:00
2
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+00:02
3
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
+00:11
4
Rui Costa
Lampre-Merida
+00:52
5
Bradley Wiggins
Team Sky
+01:03
6
Julian Alaphilippe
Etixx - Quick-step
+01:04
7
Rafal Majka
Tinkoff-Saxo
+01:13
8
Thibaut Pinot
FDJ
+01:14
9
Michele Scarponi
Astana Pro Team
+01:19
10
Nicolas Roche
Team Sky
+01:21
Shows you how exciting these two races were, until the very end!
Edited by Ian Butler on 23-05-2016 23:01
Seems like Nibbles and co. f**ked up! And Voeckler, a surpising second, was he in a breakaway that made it to the end? But, seriously, Bertie by just short of 8 minutes, thats extreme, how'd that happen?
Edit: Stupid me forgetting to wish you good luck within this story. I love young African riders! Edited by Martii_Scots01 on 23-05-2016 23:00
Voeckler was surprisingly strong, he didn't need breakaways to get that 2nd spot. Probably got courage out of the "Best Voeckler of All Time" thread!
Contador was just ruthless. On the last stage with an uphill finish, he just went away and everyone was just dying. Pure class. Landa probably in way worse form (and there was a TT, you know Landa just can't handle those )
Not sure what happened to Nibali. Nibali being Nibali, I guess...
@Tamijo; yeah, an incredible start. His stats aren't that impressive yet, but maybe that's the reason they let him go more easily. Either way, I'm not going to complain!
Sanremo is next, but I'll probably report back later in the season. Sekibo has got Sanremo planned, and perhaps a try at Gent - Wevelgem. I might send Olujimi to Crit Int since he's clearly in top shape so why not take advantage of that.
After that, it's all eyes on the Tour de France! Olujimi has already proven he's worthy of a Tour selection, Sekibo will need to up his game. He'll get a few chances to do so before the Tour.
So what else happened: Sekibo: Upped his game. Slightly, but as long as he keeps going forwards, it's all good. I prefer a steady grow over a fast start and then don't evolve.
So in Sanremo he relayed for about 50 km to keep the breakaway closeby for Ciolek, the 2013 winner. We felt we had an outside chance with him and Boasson Hagen in the team.
But Sagan attacked and won the race. We got boxed in at the sprint for the remaining podium places and we couldn't make the top 10. A lost chance since Ciolek had some energy left but could never get his sprint right.
Spoiler
1
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
+00:00
2
John Degenkolb
Team Giant-Alpecin
+00:37
3
Sonny Colbrelli
Bardiani CSF
+00:37
4
Mark Cavendish
Etixx - Quick-step
+00:37
5
Bryan Coquard
Team Europcar
+00:37
6
Greg Van Avermaet
BMC Racing Team
+00:37
7
Sep Vanmarcke
Team LottoNL - Jumbo
+00:37
8
Philippe Gilbert
BMC Racing Team
+00:37
9
Alexander Kristoff
Team Katusha
+00:37
10
Ramunas Navardauskas
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+00:37
Then I decided against Gent - Wevelgem (as a domestique) and sent him to Criterium International instead, giving him a chance at sprinting for own account. He did well and finished 4th in the sprinting stage.
After that, he raced a final race for part 1 of his season: Vuelta cyclista a Rioja. The preparation for the sprint was far from perfect, not having a proper lead-out, but he managed an 8th place. I think I could've actually sprinted for the podium but had to come back from too far after a bad sprint preparation.
In that stage, Kudus and Pauwels got in the BOTD, with 4 other riders. The peloton miscalculated and Kudus, Pauwels and Fernandez tackled the final climb of the day together, with over 8 minutes on the peloton.
On top, Kudus won, with 3 minutes over Pauwels, 5 over Fernandez and 6 over first favorite, Sicard. Driven by the team's success, Olujimi took a 12th place. This was enough to get in the top 10 of the GC, again!
Also, open for any tips. So far I've tried to avoid big walls of text, just giving the essentials. Career Explorer is making is very easy to include results so I'm using that.
I'll try to get some more screenshots but at the moment it's not very useful yet. Unless you want to see Sekibo sprinting to an 8th place
So open for criticism. Or questions, if you want to know anything about the savegame. Who won what race or whatever!
I like it so far, no need for many screenshots in a story like this. Maybe of their first victory and their major successes, stuff like that. The only thing I'm missing a little is the rankings, maybe you can give an update on the promotion and relegation battles every 3-4 months or so.
Other than that, just enjoy yourself (super helpful, I know ). But seriously, the way you're doing it right now seems ideal, not much work for you, plenty of information for us, so I got nothing to complain
Thanks, cunego. Yes, my big focus is just enjoy this career as much as possible. And share it here without having to put in too much work besides the racing
Given my history in stories, this is actually quite new to me. Used to play for the story. Now I'm playing for the career itself, for the sheer fun of it.
On rankings, here's the situation right after Roubaix:
Simulated the Giro d'Italia. We had Meintjes as our leader, but there was no pressure whatsoever. Pauwels was in an attacking role in week 1 but then turned lieutenant for Meintjes as Meintjes worked himself up to place 8, then place 7. I was hopeful and a top 10 in the GT would be great for us at this point.
But then came the 59 km time trial. Meintjes got set back to place 24.
The final week saw Meintjes get back to place 16, 15, 14. Unfortunately, time was running out, and he finished on a 14th spot.
Not especially great, but not bad at all either. Still, without that long time trial, who knows what place he'd be at. 7? 6? Maybe even top 5? Maybe I'm dreaming now, though
And so we enter transfer talks! We made the mistake of not creating a development team, which we'll do next year for sure! So no African riders on the U23 market at the moment so we decided to try and bring in a few reinforcements to make a bid for the World Tour next season or the season after. (preferably stay in PCT one more season).
We prolonged Boasson Hagen's contract with another 2 year. Very happy about this! We have prolonged most contracts at the moment. Including Olujimi, with a minor wage increase. Matthew Goss will most likely be leaving.
John-Lee Augustyn will be making a comeback in cycling! He tried this already last year, with our team, but had to forfeit because of his hip injury. He's now decided to try it one last time. We don't expect him to reach his full potential anymore, but he'll be a valuable asset as road captain and his name rings a few bells.
We tried signing Marcus Burghardt but the German found his bliss elsewhere since we couldn't offer him the wage he requested. Too bad, he would've made a great asset to our cobbled squad.
And so we turned elsewhere. Aged 35, so perhaps his final season next year, Sylvain Chavanel leaves IAM on a one-year contract! We'll welcome him and his attacking mind with open arms!
Lastly, we brought in Atapuma, to strengthen the climbing department.
For a moment, I was tempted to try and bring in Kruiswijk, but after prolonging EBH and getting Chavanel, the budget would get too tight.
And now we turn our eyes on the Tour de France. I'll try to 3D race every stage, it's been ages since I've done that. So it might be a while before I report back. We'll see
Retiring at the end of the season: Cancellara, Zubeldia, Voeckler, Petacchi, Samuel Sanchez, Pellizotti, Ten Dam, Bozic, Noncentini, Tiralongo, Steegmans, Fedrigo.
Thanks Tamijo! With Meintjes developing nicely, he'll be a good help for him later on, and of course, go for some breaks himself every once in a while!
@katulen: cheers! Yes, I'll try to integrate this later on!
In the middle of my Tour de France, report coming later but had to share this!
So I'm in stage 10, a flatish stage ending on the first moutain finish. With Kudus I'm part of a 15 men breakaway! Yes, PCM actually let 15 men ride away up until 6 minutes, I was pleasantly surprised.
On the final climb, I was off with Kudus. I had a minute but some other BOTD members came back, Dombrowski, Gesink...
Dombrowski attacked. I decided to not answer the attack but return using Kudus' steady pace.
And I did! 4 km to go now. It would be me against Dombrowski for the win, but Kudus was looking fit and I thought I had it.
The favorites had started attacking at this point, behind us.
2km to go. Quintana, Froome, Contador are so close.
1.4 km to go. Dombrowski has dropped! I can se the finish line.
1 km to go. I can start sprinting.
0.4 km to go. Quintana passes me. Noooo!
In the end, a 5th place, behind 4 Tour favorites. But damn it! So close to a MTN stage win with an African rider, I would've been so happy!
Amazing stage though. Won't give up, we're only getting started!
