I've been a reader from your progress and it's really amazing the effort and passion you put in your updates. Would be great if you do a story. Specially because you play most of the times with WT teams and not many users play with them and you really stick to a career.
Wish that I could do the same. I always change my saves and can't stay that much time in a team. My record is 3 seasons in PCM11 ahah. How do you motivate to continue that longer in one save?
@Sammy: That's quite an idea. But with two book-ish, writing projects I've going on (one of them only needs 2 more chapters, yaaay!), I rather put my effort into there.
@jnz_1989: Thanks mate! I don't know if I start a new career soon, but I could imagine doing one with Euskaltel for example. Still this is far away, and I'm happy with Lampre right now, as long as the game doesn't crash too often. I'd probably still play my Volkswagen career if it wasn't for these damn crashes.
As for staying on a career: Well, I have a tendency of playing this games for the long haul. I once played a career on Fifa Manager for like 40-50 seasons (although I tended to quick-sim most of the matches) over couple of years. I consider it a nice form of relaxation, but that might be because I always play with music. Personally, I just like to build up a squad, change it and make a certain history in these careers. Not only for my team but for the "entire world", you know - this sounds way too freaky but it's the only way I could explain it. As simple as it may be, I like to observe transformation, see riders (my own or others) getting better, while others decline, like how I can improve my squad or how other squads develop - this is something you can only really get after playing a couple of seasons and which makes this game quite a long journey too. I do change my saves too (like editing riders who are not performing well or they gain an increase if they ride strong, change to weird teams et al) but it's more a natural development I guess.
To stay motivated at this, I started to write these things down in the updates and write down the development. It actually helps. Plus, I don't like dominating everything, which makes the game pretty fast pretty dull, so I can only recommend weak WT teams, where you have to let your riders fight a bit more at times than with a Team like Sky, Omega Pharma or Astana. This alone could motivate to go further than 3 seasons. Also, I really hate to play the first season of any career so I am really not motivated to start new careers in general. Edited by Shonak on 06-11-2013 13:56
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Very sensible things you write here. I like playing long careers too, but I just don't seem to have enough time for PCM these days and it's no fun taking huge intervals all the time when you try to develop something
@Shonak Yeah, winning everything is boring. I like to have teams however where i can top-5 every race. (In theory). That way i have something to fight for all the time. Well, except for Dan Martin. He's really OP, he wins loads.
Also, i think my story will be quite crappy, if it even reaches 50.000. So i don't think i'll post it here.
Thanks for your answer Shonak. You do indeed good points.
I was in a career with Cannondale in PCM13 but was bit disappointed with my transfers after aiming high to bring Tejay van Garderen or Talansky but couldn't manage to bring them.
So, I start a career with Sky in hard level, something I've never did before and the result was a bit like real life. Strong performances in stage races and a bit disappointing in the one day classics. Maintain a realistic level and not bring many stars and try to develop the existing ones. But I agree with you. It's a bit easy with so much talent and good riders.
Maybe I'll start with Movistar or some other "medium" quality team.
Yeah, transfers are something that can really break your spirits to continue a game. Be it silly transfers by the AI, transfers that make the game too easy (at Volkswagen I had Degenkolb and Sagan... what sounded like fun, turned fast into way too many masssprints) or give you sponsor goals you don't care about.
I myself have set the limit for me that I won't hire any riders that are better than my best in the average rating. This way I keep a steady development, whilst still strengthing my squad with domestiques or future stars. For me, this works perfectly at Lampre since I never have the feeling that I can win anything but rather can always obtain decent results, like Deppofix wrote. It also helps when you scout a lot of potential riders and bring them in, because you kinda wanna see how they will do in future seasons, so instead of starting something new you just keep going.
@Blueprint: Ah, good to see you back mate. I can fully understand that. It's tough to get back into a career once it rested for a while.
Meanwhile, I always seem to find time to squeeze a little PCM in the day somehow. The last days, I finished Crit-Dauph and Tour de Suisse. For both Top 3 was the sponsor goal and we managed it fairly easy
The Dauphine was won by Urán before Spilak, who was in superb form, and Caroli. Caroli lost of course massive amounts of time, but because Contador wasn't in his top shape yet, he lost enough time on the first mountain stage to not be a real threat. While Caroli was eventually on a secure 2nd place after the 2nd mountain stage, where he mostly paced to drop Talansky, to get 3rd place, instead of attacking Uran or Spilak, I sim'd the last stage and game nearly broke me when Caroli lost 2 minutes to Uran and Spilak. So, instead of a maybe deserved 2nd place, he dropped to 3rd. Still good enough.
Tour de Suisse was then again highly entertaining. Three nice mountain stages were important, as well as two hilly time trials. Aru took the Tour de Suisse as a preparation for the Tour together with Kwiat and Cattaneo. The first MT stage went to Quintana and Aru & Fuglsang managed to snatch important seconds from other favourites. On a sim'd flat stage, Quintana lost a lot of time though so he fell out of the GC ranks. This way Aru was 2nd in the GC behind Fuglsang. He lost time of course on the 2nd hilly TT.
Cattaneo took the 2nd mountain stage though and Aru attacked later on when Cattaneo's victory was secure. This way, Aru gained important seconds to the competition (Fuglsang, Froome, Quintana). The 3rd mountain stage ended in a bunch sprint but because of bonus seconds, Aru, who was 3 seconds behind Fuglsang at that point, won the Tour de Suisse... by 3 seconds. His first stage race victory, quite a good sign for the Tour. Poor Fuglsang got an increase to 81 though. I also increased Porte, Kelderman, Pinot to 81, Craddock to 80, and increased their Age of Decline a bit.
So the Tour was coming around. Yay. It's the Tour that starts in Germany and features horrendous mountains in the 2nd and 3rd week. I think it's designed by emmea, so obviously I could expect tough races, beautiful routes and narrow pathways. Oh, and a cobblestone section.
Dunno if it was the smartest squad I chose for the Tour, but alas: Aru (Captain), Kwiatkowski, Rosa (I didn't change his MT stat, which is at 80 fyi), Van Avermaet (for cbs!), Boaro, Carlos Verona, Cattaneo, Guarnieri, Durasek.
Serious contenders: Previous winner of last year, Nibali, now riding for Movistar, Contador (KAT), Froome (SKY), Kelderman and Kreuziger (AST), Porte and Quintana (OPQ), Uran (RTL), Henao (MOV)
The first stage ends in a very hilly sprintfinish. Youngster Silvio Herklotz took the win before De Gendt and Kwiatkowski. There was a split in the peloton at the sprint, so only around 50 riders had the time of the winner while the rest got already 1'50'', amongs them were Nibali, Van Garderen, Brajkovic, Roche, Costa. However Herklotz lost the yellow jersey the day after when Radioshack (& everyone else) were beaten by Lampre in the TT. With great TT riders like Cattaneo, Verona and Boaro this victory wasn't all too surprising. Cavendish (BEL) took stage #3 before Kittel (SFR).
Stage 4 was the thing I was looking forward to. I'm kinda a fan of cbs-stages in Grand Tours, so I always look forward to them when one is featured. Van Avermaet and Kwiat were obviously my guys for the stage win, while Aru and Cattaneo just should watch out that they don't lose any time. The cbs-sections arn't really so long as to get a big lead to the other GC contenders. The breakaway though was really dangerous with riders like Terprstra, Ladagnous and Gilbert in it. Lampre tried to keep them in a good distance but when Terprstra went with around 2 minutes in the cbs, despite all efforts of catching up, nothing could stop him from taking the highly deserved win. Fortunately, all this pacing at the end, caused some gaps already in the first section. Kwiat, Van Avermaet and Guarnieri took off and clearly rode for a good result as well as keeping the yellow jersey. Terprstra was around 2'30'' back at the time, and they lost only around 1'40''. Impressively, they really didn't gain back much time at the dutch. Aru at least came in with the favourites (+4'30''. However, not all favourites were that lucky. Uran lost about 1'30'' to the GC contenders, and Nibali, Henao, D. Martin (all 3 Movistar) & Spilak even 3'30''. Obviously this was great for our goal of achieving a Top 5 ranking.
Cavendish won his 2nd stage then, and Terprsta got yellow after he once again landed in a breakaway, in which Lars Boom won. Guarnieri took over the jersey and I forgot to tell the riders to "defend the jersey". But it's okay. Kwiatkowski already took back the jersey the following day at the hilly time trial. The TT was won by Van Garderen. No significant time loss for Aru though (around a minute), from Froome (+10) to Kreuziger (+50), most GC contenders made a good TT.
Soo, off to the mountains:
Favourites didn't wait much at the first Mountain stage. They attacked athe Champ de Feu (1-Cat), with about 25 kms to go. This left me in a position of chasing with Kwiat & the other riders, although Aru managed to get into the group with Froome, who in turn chased Contador, Kelderman and others. Aru didn't do any work though. Up the Mont-Sainte-Odile, both groups came together, while Kwiatkowski's men (Verona & Cattaneo) already had no energy left and Kwiatkowski was left chasing on his own, since Rosa tried to catch up to Aru's group and he could protect him a bit. Up the road, there were several attacks, eventually Spilak got lucky. Aru came in with him though after doing an attack but was caught by Porte, Kreuziger, Kelderman and Brajkovic. Surprisingly, Quintana and Contador lost 20 seconds, and Froome even 50. Nobody was talking about Nibali anymore by the way. Henao was at this point the best Movistar rider with about 8 minutes behind already. So it's actualyl quite questionable why Movistar paced during the entire stage. Well, anyway, Kwiatkowski remained in yellow for the time being, and Aru kept a good 6th place behind Kreuziger, Kelderman, Contador and I think Porte.
Next stage saw multiple 1-Cat climbs, the last of them being Ballon L'Alscace. The descent is rather long, so I didn't expect that I could pull off my favourite Caroli-move with Aru this time. I still tried it and Aru attacked with several kilometers to go. In the descent eventually the group caught up to him though. Victory went to Jeandesboz (BIG) out of the early breakaway.
After the rest day, the first HC-cat was on the program: Mont du Chat. Contador passed him first and kept his lead during the descent. 20 seconds gap to the favourites (Quintana, Uran, Froome, Nibali!) was enough to give him the yellow jersey. Lampre had a bad day. Aru lost +1'22'' to him, and Kwiatkowski even more (although he remained on the 3rd place). Well, it was still okay compared to Astana. Kreuziger came in with Kwiat, Kelderman 20 seconds behind Aru. Well, and if you wonder if Nibali came into form or if Movistar finally woke up? Actually Nibali went into the early breakaway and tried to go for the stage win. A shame it didn't work out though. The race was just too fast that day and the breakaway never really stood a chance. Still, nice riding... that's how great riders should try their luck when there's no hope for a GC ranking worthy of them.
Since Lampre lost the Yellow Jersey, there was a new spirit in the team. One that put us out of the misery of constantly chasing the break or favourites, but granted us the freedom to attack at while. Something that suits Lampre’s style of riding much more. Rosa took the first bit of chance already, when he decided to attack together with other 16 riders early on. The stage saw the Col d’Iseran as a never-ending HC-climb, the Mont du Chasis as a short, but terrible 1-Cat climb, and finally the Col du Finistre. And in the end, the stage ended in Italy. Obviously a stage that any Italian climber wanted to win. Rosa did work in the breakaway, however he also looked out to conserve energy. There were some big names in the group like Gilbert or Vanmarcke, but none of them was a real climber, the closest rival was maybe Izagirre from Euskaltel. When they rode up the Col du Finistre however any of those riders had no energy left at some point and dropped. Rosa went up a steady pace, trying to maintain the gap while also looking out to not get into the feared red-zone which would leave him maybe hopeless to win. The once proud 15 minute gap decreased fast. In the peloton things went crazy at the Col du Finistre. Aru broke away together with Contador, Quintana, Uran and Brajkovic and all of them looked out to distant themselves from their fiercest rivals like Froome, Porte and Kelderman. Aru did a lot of work for the group, and long time it looked like they would be successful, but eventually Kelderman, his biggest rival at that point for a Top 5 ranking, came closer, so Aru rather attacked and looked out that neither Porte, Froome nor Kelderman joined his group. Eventually this left him powered out over the climb, and Contador and Quintana dropped him. With Rosa already being in save distance with about 5 minutes to go, the victory was a sure thing for Lampre in the 10 km descent. Aru obviously paced like hell, and Kelderman even catched up to him, and together the two young contenders catched up in the descent to Quintana and Contador. Since many rivals were behind him, it was obvious that Aru was interested in pacing, but the others 3 didn`t seem so motivated. He came in nearly 6 minutes after Rosa and won some time on the likes of Porte, Froome and Uran.
As of the end of stage #11, the GC looks like this:
1. Contador (KAT)
2. Porte (OPQ) 1’06’’
3. Kelderman (AST) 1’27’’
4. Aru (LAM) 1’28’’
5. Quintana (OPQ) 2’12’’
6. Froome (SKY) 3’04’’
7. Urán (RTL) 4’14’’
8. Brajkovic (COF) 5’58’’
9. Kreuziger (AST) 6’29’’
10. Kwiatkowski (LAM)`7’08’’
Very nice Tour so far.
Oh, and here’s a screenshot of Rosa at the Col du Finistre. All these giants of cycling look like midgets from up here.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
So, after the last couple of tough mountain stages things wern't getting any easier.
Stage #12 saw 2 climbs of HC-cat as well as two 1.-Cat climb. Up to Isola 2000, there was a large breakaway and I had Cattaneo in there. I actually thought of using him as a helper for Aru, in case my top rider attacked, but the breakaway had such an enormous lead that it was smarter to let Cattaneo ride for him own. He came in 2nd, 15 seconds after Elissonde and got 8th rank overall for the time being. Unfortunately the numerous attacks, amongst them was also Aru, saw not much change. Aru managed to get in a group with Contador & the two Omega Pharma, but he was without energy at the end and they simply outsprinted him. Things got worse, when Kelderman even passed him and snatched couple of seconds from him. Eventually Aru was the first of the rest of the pack, losing another half a minute to Contador and Quintana.
Niki Terprstra won stage #13, which is his second win at this year's Tour. Quite good form I'd say. Stage #14, which was flat but saw an uphill finish, was won by Guardini for Garmin-Sharp before Lars Boom (Shimano).
So after these two calmer stages, the last 4 mountain stages were on the programme. The first one saw a route from Privas to Genolhac. Since it featured several climbs of the third and fourth category before it would finish in a long descent from the Col du Pre da la Dame (1-Cat), this was a perfect opportunity for breakaways. And some nice attacking riding. Coppel (LTB) won the stage solo, although the time was taken for the entire breakaway. This time around we wanted to try it again with some risky descending. In fact, Aru tried to attack early on but couldn't manage truly to make a distince move for the GC. Amongst all the other attacks, this stage was too high-paced in the end. Aru tried to attack again in the descent with Kwiatkowski, but he couldn't manage to hold Kwiatowskis wheel, who in turn snatched some seconds coming in before the peloton. Things were still looking okay for Lampre, but well... they would change very quickly.
After the rest day, we saw a rather "simple" stage, which featured "only" 3 climbs late in the stage, the last one being Ax-3-Domaines. Carlos Verona was sent up front to play the domestique role later on but once again the breakaway was just getting too far away. I'd sent him back, but alas, things just wern't that good back anyway. So instead he tried to go for the stage win, which he lost though to Montaguti (VCD), who also took the KoM jersey.
Once again, I might have ridden to aggressively, yet however Lampre obviously had to risk something. So Ax-3-Domaines saw early attacks by Contador and the Omega Pharma duo. Aru was left in a position of chasing, and eventually even dropped other riders like Kelderman and Froome, but he couldn't hold the pace and was caught back by them and then dropped, and dropped further. In the end, he lost about 1:30 minutes to Contador, Porte and Quintana. About a minute to Kelderman, Uran and Froome, who all came in at different times. At this point, the only real contenders for Contador seemed to be the two Omega Pharma riders. Quintana surely climbed stage for stage better, while Contador had finally a decent enough team to support him (like T.J. Van Garderen).
So after the time loss on the previous day, Lampre knew that they had to step up their game if they wanted to have a shot at a Top 5 ranking. Obviously with the 50 km TT at the end of the Tour, Aru would lose chunks of time against the likes of Froome & Kelderman.
Stage #17 saw numerous climbs. First there were two large climbs of 2-Cat, then a steep 1-Cat. and eventually, there would be Col d'Agnes and the Prat Mataou two more 1-Cat climbs, although they appeared to be quite steep and long. Well, Lampre put their tactics into action by sending Rosa upfront in the breakaway. At the third climb, Verona attacked early on and rode away. In this very descent then, Aru tried his luck by following Kwiatkowski. They got a gap very fast and none of the favourites started chasing. It was relatively early on, so the team definitely took a risk. Kwiatkowski paced for Aru until he reached Verona, who in turn would pace for Aru until they arrive Rosa. Unfortunately, Verona gave in very quickly after his performance yesterday and wasn't much help to Aru. This left him chasing for Rosa, who in turn decreased the speed in the breakaway and thus the peloton was coming very close. Aru and Rosa tried their best up the Col d'Agnes, but alas there was not much they could do when they were already caught in the descent. Aru tried to regain as much as energy as possible, with Cattaneo also being in the group. And than I did maybe something really stupid: I reattacked with Aru, believing him to have a shot today, because his fitness was quite superb. However, this left him powered out and he couldn't hold up. He struggled up Prat Mataou and saw his hopes at a Top 5 ranking or even a Podium just flew away. Rosa was kept at his side and looked significantly stronger than Aru at this point. Upfront, Contador showed the other teams how its done and won with a gap of 1 minute to Quintana. Uran and Nieve came in 1:48 later, Kelderman with 2:04 and Froome 2:20, Kreuziger 2:24. Porte lost also massive time, 3:27. But there's no bigger loser that day than Fabio Aru, who got 3:39 and thus ultimately suffered quite a defeat. Unlike Porte, he'd lose lots of time and he was now already behind Froome and I think Urán too.
Obviously we tried Lampre tried their luck the following day, although the riders were by now flat out exhausted. Stage 18 was nothing easy either, with a mountain finish up to Luz Ardiden and before that crazy mountains like Col du Tourmalet, Col du Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin or Port de Bales.... yeah. A day to gain a lot or just lose it all. Lampre did the latter thing. Contador was once more in his own league, getting a minute to the Omega Pharma duo. Behind however, things were quite not so easy, as Aru struggled once more after some couregous attacks. The situation wasn't anything easy. Having to attack in order to get a gap for the last TT, while you don`t have much to gain, just puts you in a weird situation. He lost around 1 1/2 minutes to Froome and Kelderman, about 40 seconds to Urà n. At this point, there was really not a chance left for a Top 5. Vuillermoz won the stage for AG2R.
So after another sprint victory for Cavendish (Belkin), there was the time trial I definitely didn't look forward to. Aru was at place 7, being time equal with Urà n at place 6. And, well, Froome, and actually everybody else too, just destroyed my squad. Cattaneo, as my best time trialist in the squad, lost 3 minutes. Kelderman took a huge jump forward and came in 3rd, overall this meant a 2nd place. Quintana got pushed of by Porte from the podium, after a seemingly awful TT. Still, he couldn't do worse than Aru, who lost 5 minutes.
Gaudin won close from a breakaway at the Champs Elysses.
So, to sum things up:
1. Cont4dor (KAT)
2. Kelderman (AST) +4'55''
3. Porte (OPQ) +5'32''
4. Quintana (OPQ) +6'35''
5. Froome (SKY) +6'58''
6. Urán (RTL) +11'23''
7. Brajkovic (COF) +14'13''
8. Aru (LAM) +14'38''
9. Kreuziger (AST) +14'47''
10. Bardet (VCD) +18'10''
14. Cattaneo (LAM)
17. Rosa (LAM)
18. Verona (LAM)
25. Kwiatkowski (LAM)
Sprint: Cav
KoM: Montaguti
U25: Silvio Herklotz (only 3 riders under 25)
So, Quintana loses his 2nd place due to a otherlong time trial. 50 kms just kills it, but I suppose that's also valid for the incredible tough mountain stages. I thought I had a better chance with Aru, to contest with the best climbers, but while the first stages went excellent, I also lost too often focus of the goal I must admit. I rode increasingly aggressive at the last mountain stages and this just ended in further time loss, over and over again. Maybe if Lampre rode a bit more conservatitely they would have had a better shot at the Top 5 for the future. Trying your luck in 3 tough stages in a row, just might be too stupid. Still, it's obviously better to go out fighting rather than just accepting defeat. On this side, I think the riders showed great moral and progress, although I am rather disappointed that he didn't work out - again. If next year, will feature similiar mountain stages, and be equally tough, any top favourites can embrace themselves for some serious Lampre climbing firepower. I was thinking about getting an better allrounder to finally win the Tour, but then I thought, this just might kill the fun of riding with Lampre. Caroli and Aru just have their strengths and weaknesses, and this makes it interesting in the end. If you wanna win, in case a race features long or tough time trials, it forces you into a position of always making up time, which is quite enjoyabe. Contador's 4th Tour title is quite nice, apparently he will join next season Astana, so they look to be the natural toughest contenders. Next up will be the Vuelta for Caroli. It's the 2013 route, so that's definitely suited for him. Edited by Shonak on 11-11-2013 01:14
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Hmm, shit tour for Lampre, but i guess it's not quite that bad after winning the Giro. Also, i think a breakaway win on the Champs Elysses deserves a banana!
Yup, it`s really disappointing. Honestly I've failed with too many strategies during the Tour, I'm sure there would have been much more possible, especially for Aru.
Yeah, Gaudin`s win was pretty sweet. I tried to get Van Avermaet in the break too but that poor guy was already so tired from an exhausting season he couldn't even hold up in the sprint. Edited by Shonak on 10-11-2013 20:18
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Froome, Contador, Kelderman, Van den Broeck & Roche at the Vuelta. Well, that's some unexpected tough competition for Caroli.
Edited by Shonak on 11-11-2013 12:54
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
In my experience, riding more conservatively is necessary in the Tour de France. In Giro & Vuelta, you can take more risks, but the Tour is all about saving energy and trying to get an edge by smart riding on the final climbs. If you plan your training & racing schedules well, you can also gain a small advantage on your main competitors in the last week, who might develop some fatigue during the race or will blow themselves up on a bad day. Not that you'd win this Tour with a mediocre time trialist, but the podium can be within reach. However, your way of riding is much more fun
You should all cheer for Caroli, that generated, charismatic pixel who rides for Lampre.
@Blueprint: Yup, definitely. I thought in previous seasons it was due to the lack of higher stats, but I was wrong. If the route will suit Lampre's climbing squad, I'll definitely make my season goal then to get Top 3 (after failing to get Top 5 overall in every season prior
However, it really depends on the route, but if I see a chance to do good, the squad will be: Caroli, Aru, Rosa, Anacona, Ulissi, Cattaneo, Casteeli, Kwiatkowski & Malori for the flat and bottle-carrying. Some serious firepower in the Mountains and they will be better rested this time around (except for some riders doing the Giro like Caroli of course), because Merdia as co-sponsor demands far less goals. Edited by Shonak on 11-11-2013 19:03
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I love reading these carear discusions, it really bugs me i cant play PCM 12, i want to play it but it gives time gapss on flat stages so and on mountain stages everyone gets same time its wierd. Pcm 2011 and 13 i own but i prefer historical db and 12 has the best so far. Love reading your updates Shonak.
Poor Fuglsang got an increase to 81 though. I also increased Porte, Kelderman, Pinot to 81, Craddock to 80, and increased their Age of Decline a bit.
