Further to the replies on detailed simming the races, I've had a crack at the 3d options, and it's gone OK. Won a sprint thanks to the excellent guide pinned to the top of this forum, and my next race is a hilly stage with a mountain finish
I had a trial one-off race on a flat stage with a mountain finish from the Tour of Langkawi, and it went fine for me as far as my leader won by a minute, but with riders scattered all over the road, it made me wonder how do you look after your sprinters and flat specialists on mountain stages? I just left them on maintain position at 80, but would be interested in other people's recommendations.
I was also a little disappointed my 2nd rider ended up 3 minutes down: I was trying to get #3 rider to protect #2 rider, and the #2 to protect the leader, but it seemed as if a rider cannot both protect and be protected - is this right, or did I miss something?
You are right, the game does not allow protecting a protecting rider.
Protecting does not help much uphill and you don't need it on the flat, so I wonder what it is for anyway.
As far as I understand, there is no protecting in the mountain stages in real-life cycling. Either the helpers make the pace at the front of the group or they are somewhere in the group, getting water and stuff like that.
BTW: Helpers are just that, they don't care about position in the general classification. (And so should you.)
Edited by Lachi on 08-05-2012 00:48
Lachi wrote:
You are right, the game does not allow protecting a protecting rider.
Protecting does not help much uphill and you don't need it on the flat, so I wonder what it is for anyway.
As far as I understand, there is no protecting in the mountain stages in real-life cycling. Either the helpers make the pace at the front of the group or they are somewhere in the group, getting water and stuff like that.
BTW: Helpers are just that, they don't care about position in the general classification. (And so should you.)
I've seen my guys get lots of energy saved by being protected. What strategy do you use to get up the mounatins. And I know that I've seen a super domestique pulling a guy up a climb.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Lachi wrote:
You are right, the game does not allow protecting a protecting rider.
Protecting does not help much uphill and you don't need it on the flat, so I wonder what it is for anyway.
As far as I understand, there is no protecting in the mountain stages in real-life cycling. Either the helpers make the pace at the front of the group or they are somewhere in the group, getting water and stuff like that.
BTW: Helpers are just that, they don't care about position in the general classification. (And so should you.)
I've seen my guys get lots of energy saved by being protected. What strategy do you use to get up the mounatins. And I know that I've seen a super domestique pulling a guy up a climb.
The protect-dot strategy works well for me, even on the higher difficulties. Although, that is usually the only time that I use the protect "feature", and with the right riders, you can dominate. Hell, on hard I have gotten Brajkovic to win some major mountain stages and place third in the Tour, thanks to this!
baseballlover312: I was referring to the fact that the helpers lose energy very fast. To me the loss does not weight up with the gain. Maybe I am using the wrong riders.
If DaBobScotts is right, then I even would consider it cheating. If you can dominate better riders on hard using protection, then it obviously should be avoided.
Also, I don't think it has anything to do with real cycling, therefore I didn't use it anyway.
I get what your saying Lachi, but what is the point of playing a game, if all you want to do irecreate the real life, things like Training Camps are clearly cheating because other teams can't use them.
But no Protect-Dot, because when your riding a climbing stage, you almost always see the other contenders with a team mate sat just in front, presumably "Protecting" there leaders, so I don't see how it could be classed as cheating, IRL you see teams getting in front of there man looking after him and carrying him up big climbs after all!
I agree with baggieboys. Armstrong didn't win all those tours as one man. His team helped him a lot and he had the legs to finish it, but without his helpers he wouldn't have won. (at least not so many teams)
There is a difference between "being on the same level as other riders" and "dominating the best riders in the TdF with Brajkovic on hard".
I never said that I don't use helpers, but I use them either for getting water or making the pace. Or send them into an early attack to use them as relay.
Lachi wrote:
There is a difference between "being on the same level as other riders" and "dominating the best riders in the TdF with Brajkovic on hard".
I never said that I don't use helpers, but I use them either for getting water or making the pace. Or send them into an early attack to use them as relay.
I use my helpers a lot that way, too. But in the mountains, it could be an advantage when you have a decent helper to take the first few kilometers on the mountain. Your gc rider has to do the rest.
