Other than Milan San Remo not much for us here since we don't have a cobbles team. MSR is a focus race so this is not the year for a win by a late attacker.
Not looking forward to the standings after what will likely be two very quiet months in February and March. Need our secondary riders to pull off a few surprises to keep the team spirit up.
Hopefully a good month for us before we start dropping on the rankings. GVK should be more competitive in the hills while he's still a top favourite for the cobbles. U23 some big races coming up as well, hoping they get some video coverage as well!
probably the most important month of the season, many cobbled races and a TT. We hope to score massively, also at De Panne and Dunkirk, the team is well built around Taylor. Let's go!
Sagan and Cav in the mix just about everywhere - except Campania, a potential 0-point race for us. Stacked ZLM Tour, far more exciting for us this year than last. Otherwise another Sagan month, he's our hope in all the classics.
Could be an interesting month for us... Guess I won't be following, though, Tachira has just brought my motivation way below zero. Thanks nonetheless for all the work you guys put into this. Maybe I'll join back later on, else I'm sure some of my riders will find a good home...
The first season perhaps where Liberty is not one of the top teams in the Ardennes, with Bananito becoming primarily a stage racer and VDP not the hill beast I'd like him to be. Looking forward to still some decent results although the chances for a 4th LBL title are very very small
@fabianski: well that is very disappointing to leave the game because of a crash; it is not like Chamorro lost the Tachira race, just a 8th place. With my GT focus I had to endure a lot of bullshit, losing 2 GTs only in recent history, and was also oftentimes disappointed but sticked to the game because good results will come quickly again and pick you up. It would be a shame to quit the game because of single result really.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Suntory have chances in most of the April races. Hoping Eisaks can continue his good form in the cobbles and Bardet has proven his ability over the hills, looking forward to seeing what he can do in the Ardennes this season.
Safford and Mane have good chances in cobbles and sprint U23 races, Crawford tries his luck in the hilly races. Suntory have some ground to make up on Pureblack.
@Shonak
Sure, bad results are part of the game. And if he had just had a bad day and dropped to like 20th or so, OK.
Honestly, if I had realized that crashes were not switched off in ICL, I guess I wouldn't even have joined. Guess if I still participate next year, I wouldn't choose any race with more than 5-6 stages, the chance of wasting RDs seems just way too high for me. So far this year, it seems as if crashes mostly affect team leaders, so basically you need co-leaders to minimize your risk... As I said, I'm just not motivated right now - the high pace might be another reason, as I just can't keep up with everything, especially not with the HQ, so that doesn't help. Sorry to say...
Quite a big month for us with the Ardennes classics, where hopefully Villella will be able to score big. Maybe he could even win one with a bit of luck but I don't want to get ahead of myself - and PCM .
Other than that the Cobbles Classics will be a waste again, but Bobby could surprise me with a good result in Campania.
@fabianski: Would be a shame to see you go, especially because of a single race. Of course you are free to do what you want but would be nice to see you stick around.
@Fabianski: I also hope you won't quit so easily and I recommend using the Changes Discussion Thread. I don't know what the consensus is on crashes, I'm fine either way. And the high pace is worth discussing, too.
As a quick measure I'd suggest a break of a couple of days from one month to the next to give everybody a bit of time for HQ posts.
I know the problem and so I wrote my monthly previews before the season even started and I update my reviews regularly so I can post them soon after the rankings are up. But it's stressful and few people bothered last season.
Edited by Ripley on 28-03-2021 20:03
As usual we only have a real interest in a few races a month. This month, ZLM Tour which I had forgotten we were in, and is a focus race and some precious Quintana race days at LBL.
Hopefully Kittel and the boys can get the train right and deliver our first PT win.
Well I just do some races but I think that if people think pace is too high they can so say and not just quit tbh. We usually have a quick start in the first three months and then it settles down. That said the game is based on providing multiple stages per day and getting a season done much quicker than MG.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I personally don't mind the quick pace. The results are most important since there's no reports, so there's less of a reason to space them out. They don't really consume time for the manager (except the videos). Also, getting 2020 done quickly would allow for a bit of a chance to catch up instead of ending up multiple years behind.
That being said, I also understand wanting to slow it down and give time and space for more substantive activity. I haven't had time to make a real HQ post since the season started unfortunately. I will in a week or two, but even then, the effort to make those posts with consistency can definitely wear you down if you're sticking to monthly previews and reviews, when the turn around is so quick. That's why I've only really posted in race discussion.
@Fabianski: I completely understand your lack of motivation. Realizing that Dan Martin crashed in Paris-Nice and lost a week's race days just like that was a real gut punch. And he didn't even stay in a minor GC position, he was a total non factor in a race where he was the favorite. It stings and makes it all feel pointless for sure.
My one suggestion would be to first take a step back and just be a bit more of a passive manager, and don't invest as much into posts if you feel the game isn't giving enough back. I also understand if the game as a whole becomes not worth playing without investing in the RP aspect and the previews/reviews. But it might be worth it to give that a try before completely quitting.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
April doesn't look like it will be a great month for us, as lots of WT competition in Colombia. Hopefully my deep team there can be one of the first placings for CT teams.
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Also about the pace. I like the pace, although I like the idea of waiting a few days between months maybe. This could give a nice window for managers to catch up again before they have to scan through new results, while also keeping the results coming fairly quickly still. I think we've done about 3 months already in about 10 days. If we had 2-3 days in between months, we'd still go through the same amount of races in about 14-20 days instead, which is still quite quick in terms of progression, but probably allows for an extra weekend or two for some to "catch up" with things.
Also, Jan and Feb were lighter months anyway, so might become less of an issue for the later months.
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As for crashing, yes, obviously sucks and I do feel for bbl and fabianski, but I hope it doesn't become enough for either of you to leave the game. After things have been going pretty bad recently in the MG for me, I've been trying to just focus on the positives in ICL, and really just not put any pressure or expectations on any of my teams results. I'm definitely on #team-nocrashes for the record, but I can see the argument for keeping it as well.
As BBL said, I recognize that the pace is quite fast, but atm I was able to post monthly reports enough detailed according to my intentions. January and February are not crowded, let's see now from March, anyway the more races there're in a month, the more time run between monthly reports, and I should keep the pace (all in all it take me something like 5/10 minutes per race I've entered).
@Fabianski: it's sad to hear that you lost motivation due to that crash. Yes, planning the season in every detail, and then miss several points and a prestigious result not because of your fault and not under your control is very frustrating, but this is a race, the season is very long and I'm sure your riders will have glory somewhere else. However useful my opinion may be, if you feel demoralized you can give ICL less minutes from your PCMdaily's time, just take a look sometimes at results thread, your motivation will come back along the wins.
From my experience, I found very exciting improving the team between my first and second season, maybe you can give it a try.
About crashes (and punctures), imo they are a random factor which take part of the game, it would sound more strange without them.
Ronde van Vlaanderen 04.04 
Tour of South Africa 02.04 - 12.04 
