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Milan San Remo Preview
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| ember |
Posted on 05-09-2011 21:13
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Congratulations to SotD and Festina, a 1-2 in Milan - Sanremo is just great. Definitely a nice 3rd from Steegmans aswell, he was even on the attack earlier.
And this should stop SotD's complains about the racing so far.......... 
And a great report from you Smowz, as always.
Edited by ember on 05-09-2011 21:15
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| CrueTrue |
Posted on 05-09-2011 21:19
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Tour de France Champion
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Rather disappointing race for Spyker Cars. No one in the breakaway, and Sinkewitz not doing anything at all.
Congrats to Festina, though. I want Ulissi back  |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 07-12-2025 10:40
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| roturn |
Posted on 05-09-2011 21:24
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Congrats to Festina. Couldn`t be better for him here after some unlucky results.
Boasson Hagen the only of my 4 bets, who wasn`T in the first group. Probably one of the biggest disappointments.
Excellent report, Smowz. Very detailed.
Edited by roturn on 05-09-2011 21:27
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| SotD |
Posted on 05-09-2011 21:58
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World Champion
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OMG OMG OMG! I have to kiss everyone!!!
Amazing result god damnit!
And fantastic report also... Too bad I changed my win goal from Milano San Remo  This makes up for the Paris-Nice failure by a TON!
I love you all!
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 05-09-2011 22:02
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Nice report and happy with that result.
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| Bushwackers |
Posted on 05-09-2011 22:09
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Schumacher is fired.
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| mb2612 |
Posted on 05-09-2011 22:22
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Irritating that the man game seems divided between races too hard for Ventoso and those which are too easy.
Oh well, didn't really expect anything from this.
 [url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182] Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 05-09-2011 22:24
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SotD can stop pretending he is so unlucky now!
With the Poggio being such a narrow width road, its a bit of a lottery as to whether a rider is well positioned or not. Question to roturn - did you test out gameplay with the Poggio as width 2? I know of some stagemakers who dont use width 1 roads at all because they dont like how it affects gameplay.
Mine werent well positioned (though other teams will have more reason to feel aggrieved at their guys not making that group for no apparent reason), and then Swift didnt seem to sprint anyway. Nice 23rd for Paterski though, didnt think he would be my best performer!
Edited by SportingNonsense on 05-09-2011 22:31
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| roturn |
Posted on 05-09-2011 22:44
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SportingNonsense wrote:
With the Poggio being such a narrow width road, its a bit of a lottery as to whether a rider is well positioned or not. Question to roturn - did you test out gameplay with the Poggio as width 2? I know of some stagemakers who dont use width 1 roads at all because they dont like how it affects gameplay.
On mountains I never use level 1, except of my old and very first stages like the 2008 Tour de France.
On hills I try almost every combination of roads.
Milan San Remo is probably the race I tested the most of all my stages.
I tested with every possible combination here on the Poggio, Cipressa and Le Manie. All of them divided in ascent and descent. So 5 different parts as the final descent had to be level 2 for a realistic sprinter positioning and now in every possible combination.
This one brought the most realistic results after a few tests.
Level 2 on the final climb and there is always a big group without any splits. The first two hills don`t really matter, what combination, but as it is now, there were maybe a bit better results, but might be just me.
Level 1 on the final climb like in my final version had realistic results. Sometimes a group of 40-50 with most sprinters included were able to hold contact. Then also sprinters like Greipel were winners in my tests.
Often it was a similar result like this with a group of a maximum 20 riders with some puncheurs and some stronger sprinters. Here Steegmans, Bewley, Boonen and Pozzato if you count him as sprinter. Then they sprint for the win together with the strong puncheurs like in real. Freire, Cancellara, Gilbert, Pozzato, Goss etc.
And also the chance for a breakaway like Ulissi`s here is possible of course, something that nearly never happened with level 2 on the final climb.
Sorry for the long text.
But in short, narrow roads are crap on mountain stages, but on hilly or cobbled stages they can be necessary imo to have at least the possibility of splits, which can but needn`t happen then.
But in this case I have to agree with Smowz: The first 20 riders here have a chance to win like in real. So, yes, it`s some kind of lottery but actually pretty realistic. Bad positioning on the Poggio = No chance for the win.
Normally the strongest riders position very well that late in the stage like most of the favourites did. Some miss the split and fail like Boasson Hagen or Swift in your example, although this one wouldn`t be the biggest favourite with 68sprint in real.
Edited by roturn on 05-09-2011 22:50
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| dave92 |
Posted on 05-09-2011 22:57
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Classics Specialist
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thanks for the breakdown roturn i found that very interesting. I thought the results seemed relatively realistic.
Good ride again from Van Garderen he's been pretty important for me so far.
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| fenian_1234 |
Posted on 05-09-2011 23:34
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That was an excellent report - really enjoyed it.
Colombia did what I was expecting and Vespa showed there colours in a way I wasn't quite expecting....
Great race - but the variations in daily form must surely have hit some riders hard there... |
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| CountArach |
Posted on 06-09-2011 01:31
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That may well go down as one of the races of the season, really. Absolutely breathtaking from beginning to end.
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 06-09-2011 02:09
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Grand Tour Champion
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That was one heck of a read, great report Smowz.
Congrats to SotD for the result(s).
Edited by Mresuperstar on 06-09-2011 02:09
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| SotD |
Posted on 06-09-2011 06:49
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World Champion
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SportingNonsense wrote:
SotD can stop pretending he is so unlucky now!
X2... Even if I crash out of the next 4 classics, this is making up for it
Also very nice to get a good amount of points, having lost a fair amount in especially Paris-Nice. But this one has to be BY FAR the best result I have ever gotten, so this will be up high for a long time, in my books
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| niconico |
Posted on 06-09-2011 07:34
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Classics Specialist
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Big 1-2 for Festina there, congrats!
Again shitty race by Hagen, bad positioning....
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 06-09-2011 09:28
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Well, I think at this rate I'll be heading back to the CT. Can someone explain why Ponzi was doing better last year with far weaker stats?
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| SotD |
Posted on 06-09-2011 09:56
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rjc_43 wrote:
Well, I think at this rate I'll be heading back to the CT. Can someone explain why Ponzi was doing better last year with far weaker stats?
I think you are safely in the top 10 so far... But year it doesn't make too much sense. Diego Ulissi also seemed weaker, but then this happens.
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| ember |
Posted on 06-09-2011 13:42
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SotD wrote:
rjc_43 wrote:
Well, I think at this rate I'll be heading back to the CT. Can someone explain why Ponzi was doing better last year with far weaker stats?
I think you are safely in the top 10 so far... But year it doesn't make too much sense. Diego Ulissi also seemed weaker, but then this happens.
To me, that's quite obvious, and the reason is what makes the racing exciting to read about. It's dynamics and unpredictability is what makes the racing great. It's impossible to guess the correct result list ahead of a race if everything goes by the riders stats. And honestly, that would have been boring in the end I think. Therefore, it's close to impossible to be lucky with splits, attacks, crashes, daily form and all other things that can have an impact on the result list. Just like real racing, it's impossible to be guaranteed a top 5 or a podium with THAT rider, the racing has to be done first, and there, everything can happen. And as long as daily form counts, it doesn't take much to go from 1st to 9th.
It's simply racing, at it's best, then it should be unpredictable, and not like "I send rider X to race X, where he should take a podium overall." That wouldn't be fun, then you can almost calculate how many points, podiums, wins and more you get through a season, and suddenly the game would lack excitement. It's impossible to "expect" your captain to be on the right side of everything, everytime, but we can definitely hope. And of course it's frustrating when you are on the wrong side of the situation, but it's racing, and being caught on the wrong side of a split, blocked because of a crash, blocked because the rider is on the wrong wheel, that's all part of it.
And for Ponzi, I think he was great in Tirreno - Adriatico, but against two superhumans like Bakelandts & F. Schleck, there isn't much to do I guess. In Milan - Sanremo, it looked like he was caught on the wrong side of the split/bad luck. Ulissi has also been good the whole season, strong in Tirreno - Adriatico, where the early crash gave his campaign for overall glory problems, still he managed to finish inside top 10.
This was probably way too long, and I'm realizing that I've formulated myself terrible, but still, I think you get my opinion on it
Not everyting goes always as planned. |
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| niconico |
Posted on 06-09-2011 19:24
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3926
Joined: 09-07-2007
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SotD wrote:
OMG OMG OMG! I have to kiss everyone!!!
Amazing result god damnit!
And fantastic report also... Too bad I changed my win goal from Milano San Remo This makes up for the Paris-Nice failure by a TON!
I love you all!
Just read this one. I like the euphoria 
It was a big, big win though, just imagine how many points you got at the cost of just 2 race points, well 4 if you combine Ulissi and Pozzato.
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| ANFreeman |
Posted on 06-09-2011 20:29
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Congrats to SotD. That was a great race.
Fantastic reporting too, Smowz. Looked great, and was really exciting to read.
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