Mateusz Nowak beating Cav on the line in La Vuelta 2016. On very hard (1,04). With Nerz and Flower as leadouts Haven't felt so satisfied by the game in a while.
It's taken a while for me, but I finally managed to motivate myself for a career, with Giant-Shimano, on hard. I'll give a quick update. I'm currently at the start of June.
January: Degenkolb wins 4 stages+GC in the TDU. He lost just a few seconds at Willunga Hill.
February: Nothing worth mentioning, some minor wins for Barguil, Degenkolb, Mezgec and Bulgac, and some more decent results. Kittel pretty much worthless so far.
March: Probably the best month so far. Sinkeldam immediately won the Driedaagse West-Vlaanderen, after an incredible solo win. Paris-Nice brought two stage wins for Degenkolb, and 5thGC+U25 winner Barguil. A random Zoidl took overall victory.
Tirreno was once again disappointing, with only 1 stage podium and a few top-10s. In preparation of MSR Kittel took his first win of the season in the Handzame Classic, to then come 2nd in MSR, between Sagan (winner) and Degenkolb. 4th time for me in PCM13 to get 2nd and 3rd in MSR. Sinkeldam also got into the top-10.
Catalunya brought me a stage podium with Ludvigsson and a 20th spot in the GC with Olivier, but nothing else worth mentioning.
The cobbled classics went almost perfect though. After a 2nd place in DDV for Degenkolb and a 3rd place for Devenyns in the E3, Degenkolb managed to win both G-W and De Ronde.
Pais Vasco gave me a decent result, with some stage podiums and two days in the leaders jersey. Kittel took his second win of the season in De Scheldeprijs.
Paris-Roubaix was decent with a 4th place for Degenkolb, just ahead of Boonen. Cancellara took his second consecutive victory.
Before the Ardennes, Degenkolb won the Brabantse Pijl and Kittel the GP de Denain.
Ardennes are hard for Giant due to a lack of punchers. Still, Dumoulin came 10th in the Gold Race, won by Gilbert, Degenkolb came 13th in the Flèche, won by Kwiat, and came 7th(!) in L-B-L, which was won by Sagan.
The final race before the Giro was Romandie, where Janse van Rensburg got his first and so far only win of the season. Barguil came 12th in the GC. Dunkerque led to a stage win and 3rd GC for Sinkeldam and an 8th GC for Preidler.
I entered the Giro with Kittel, Veelers, De Backer, Timmer, Ludvigsson, Ahlstrand, Curvers, Olivier and Damuseau. The TTT was disappointing, but then it was Kittel who won stage 2, 3 and 4. Stage 5 was won by Henao, while Olivier (72MO,72HI) came 8th. The next stage Olivier hung on in front. Stage 7 was flat and the winner was once again Kittel.
At the first mountain stage, Montecopiolo, Nibali won ahead of Valverde. Olivier lost 8 minutes. At the Passo del Lupo he even lost 8 minutes. Damuseau did better with a 31th place from the break.
After rest day 1 it was another flat stage, with Kittel as winner. The hilly stage to Savona was won by the break, with Voigt just outsprinting Olivier. Time trial wasn't worth mentioning. Flat stage 6 meant stage win 6 for Kittel.
Then we reached the Alps. Olivier, Timmer and Damuseau all were part of the early break. Olivier came as 5th eventually. The next day I sent all 3 of them again, but this time with Kittel included. He picked up the sprint points before the Plan di Montecampione. Eventually Olivier came 6th, climbing to 6th in the GC. Damuseau came 8th, Kittel 13th, Timmer had dropped back.
After rest day 2 Rodriguez won in Val Martello, while Olivier dropped to 10th GC. That wasn't the only unfortunate part, as Ahlstrand, Curvers and Veelers didn't make the time limit. This meant the break couldn't get reeled in on the next stage where Kittel came 7th, best of the peloton. In the next 3 mountain stages we tried what we could, but Olivier dropped to 15th in the GC.
The final flat stage Kittel needed to ride podium to secure the points jersey, but thanks to our shrunk team the break once again made it. Kittel came 8th, 2nd of the pack. Many riders lost time, but if the second group had lost one more minute, Olivier would have come 10th instead of 11th. Still a good result though, I'm very pleased with it.
Meanwhile the Tour of Belgiuim finished at the same day as the Giro. Dumoulin came 3rd in the ITT behind Martin and Cancellara. He came 4th in the GC eventually, as Gilbert and Chavanel had taken more boni secs, while Martin dropped back. The white jersey was a nice reward though.
Also, some potentials (gotta love random potentials )
Another season is about to begin in my Wanty career and I think I have made some good signings, to hopefully allow me to promote to PT next year.
Here is my team:
Not bad and I am very pleased with the signing of Roelandts, he should really allow me to be uber competitve when it comes to the spring classics and Eneco, he is also a very good sprinter so he is very versatile and should hopefully stack up the points. I've kept the team mainly with a focus to the Low Countries but the Italian riders at the start have stayed.
Talent wise, I think the team has got very strong, with 2 new (well-known) talents and a nice regen who was very strong in the U23 ranks.
Here are their pots:
They are all pretty talented and I hope they will progress very quickly and lets bring on the WT calendar next season (i hope!)
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
I'm in July now with Giant, and I have a dilemma about the transfers. Hupond, Ji, Peterson, and (unfortunately) Craddock are leaving, and I still need one replacement signing beside Dombrowski and two regens.
With some more time on my hands these days and no longer just wanting to play stage races or classics on their own, I decided to finally try the career mode thing.
I couldn't decide on which team to pick to do my career with, so I decided to set up a custom team of the best riders who were unattached to any team at the start of 2013, as long as they had some kind of history on the bike previously for another team. After sifting through the database for unattached riders who had some pro-cycling experience in another team, I decided to go with a team of 18 riders maximum. Once the unattached riders were all signed on, I was put into the PCT and I chose to be a Spanish team, as that is where the highest number of riders in my team were from.
So it is essentially a team of the discards from other teams over the past few years who have not been signed by another team or not been re-signed by their own team. A team of rebels who are ready to take on their former team-mates and team principals and show them that they were the ones who made the mistakes by releasing or not re-signing them, and that they still have a lot of good cycling left in their careers.
And here are the chosen 18 to ride in my team, riders with previous pro-cycling experience in other teams but currently not signed with any team. They are the best of the unattached riders with previous pro-cycling experience ready to take on their doubters and prove them wrong:
It will be a two year career as I have not bought PCM 14 but will probably buy PCM 15 unless I decide to continue this career beyond 2015.
Edited by RobbieMcEwen_Jaune on 18-09-2014 05:33
Michał Kwiatkowski after winning 3 Vueltas and 2 Tours grabs his first Giro by...
This was rather a rollercoaster:
STAGE 1 Milano ITT -20s
STAGE 3 Massa +1:24 (Kwiato stuck in traffic and Quintana gets the stage and the pink before any mountains start)
STAGE 5 Pisa TTT -1:18
STAGE 7 Portoferraio -8s (on bonus seconds, Kwiato wins his first stage woth Nairo right behind)
STAGE 8 Monte Cetona +12s (Quintana gets bonus for 2nd place, Kwiato fourth)
STAGE 11 Monte Abetone +1:58 (distaster, Kwiato cannot keep up the high pace of fauvorite group and finishes empty well behind)
STAGE 12 Zoncolan +51s (Kwiato takes the third but is unable to stop Quintana from taking the stage and enlarging the difference)
STAGE 13 Arabba -8s (Kwiato strikes back taking the downhill sprint from already celebrating Nairo)
STAGE 14 Plan de Corones +1:18 (Nairo takes 20 bonus seconds with Kwiato dropping to fourth on the final km)
With the second week finished Kwiato was 3:49 behind. And just when it looked like it's all over:
STAGE 16 Bormio 2000 -21s (marginal gains, mate)
STAGE 18 Como ITT -2:14 (Kwiato takes the win from Porte and suddenly is back in touch)
STAGE 19 La Thuile -1:32 (Kwiato pushes the tempo on the final climb and starts downhilling like crazy with 10s advatage on fauvorite group, Quintana is left without helpers and no one wants to cooperate, so he just rolls to the finish on third and loses the pink)
Kwiato has 18s advantage in GC coming into the Queen Stage from Aosta to Sestriere (231 km). Breakaway is left unbothered to keep bonus seconds out of reach. Nairo tries to shake off Kwiato a few times on Colle delle Finestre but they go into the final climb together. Nairo attacks just over 2 km from the finish and Kwiato cannot follow. With 1,5 km to go the difference is over 40s giving the pink back to Nairo. But Kwiato had much more red left for the sprint and lost only 14 seconds in the end.
Never had such a comeback before
Next goals are Giro-Tour double, defending TdP and Beijing World Championships.
[played on hard as Giro routes are too tough for anything above - at least for me]
Edited by Smoku on 19-09-2014 20:08
Smoku wrote:
Mateusz Nowak beating Cav on the line in La Vuelta 2016. On very hard (1,04). With Nerz and Flower as leadouts Haven't felt so satisfied by the game in a while.
EDIT - that's the man btw:
Ooops, I did it again - Stage 2 TdF 2017
How I wish FlowerPower would be as perfect allrounder IRL
Looks like Kwiato is better RL than in my career. In Le Tour he has lost only 19 seconds on the road to Froome. And 2:16 in time trials. Still a good second place. Now it seems I need to repeat the Ponferrada result on Beijing roads. WCh 2017 - here we come!
I'm going to start a new project next to Giant -where I've now reached 2014- with the FCD2014. It's going to be a small CT team, only youngsters. I just can't decide where the riders have to come from. The first one to tell me a country that has at least one sponsor in the FCD will be the country I choose. I'd rather want a non-traditional country, so no Spain, France etc., but please help me.
Selwink wrote:
I'm going to start a new project next to Giant -where I've now reached 2014- with the FCD2014. It's going to be a small CT team, only youngsters. I just can't decide where the riders have to come from. The first one to tell me a country that has at least one sponsor in the FCD will be the country I choose. I'd rather want a non-traditional country, so no Spain, France etc., but please help me.
Denmark, Norway or Slovenia if you're looking for youngsters Edited by matt17br on 30-09-2014 16:09
Selwink wrote:
I'm going to start a new project next to Giant -where I've now reached 2014- with the FCD2014. It's going to be a small CT team, only youngsters. I just can't decide where the riders have to come from. The first one to tell me a country that has at least one sponsor in the FCD will be the country I choose. I'd rather want a non-traditional country, so no Spain, France etc., but please help me.
Denmark if you're looking for youngsters
A bit too conventional. It's gonna be regens, perhaps I should've stated that I can edit the amount of young riders per country in such a way a big talent will pop up anyway. It's just the country itself I doubt about.
Selwink wrote:
I'm going to start a new project next to Giant -where I've now reached 2014- with the FCD2014. It's going to be a small CT team, only youngsters. I just can't decide where the riders have to come from. The first one to tell me a country that has at least one sponsor in the FCD will be the country I choose. I'd rather want a non-traditional country, so no Spain, France etc., but please help me.
Denmark if you're looking for youngsters
A bit too conventional. It's gonna be regens, perhaps I should've stated that I can edit the amount of young riders per country in such a way a big talent will pop up anyway. It's just the country itself I doubt about.
Then, since there isn't a Baltic real team yet, a mixed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania team. It was my only decent custom career, really great fun.
Edited by matt17br on 30-09-2014 16:14
Selwink wrote:
I'm going to start a new project next to Giant -where I've now reached 2014- with the FCD2014. It's going to be a small CT team, only youngsters. I just can't decide where the riders have to come from. The first one to tell me a country that has at least one sponsor in the FCD will be the country I choose. I'd rather want a non-traditional country, so no Spain, France etc., but please help me.
Denmark if you're looking for youngsters
A bit too conventional. It's gonna be regens, perhaps I should've stated that I can edit the amount of young riders per country in such a way a big talent will pop up anyway. It's just the country itself I doubt about.
Then, since there isn't a Baltic real team yet, a mixed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania team. It was my only decent custom career, really great fun.
I'll give it a try, presenting
Baltic Cycling Project p/b AirBaltic
Pilkauskas (76MO,77HI) and Paskevicius (77MO) are my greatest talents.
I started in 2014 with Novo Nordisk. I signed Kocjan and Cabreira at the beginning of the season. In august I signed some U-23 also. That year I kept the ContiPro division and my sponsor changed (Mapei). In 2015 I signed Zabel, Hocevar and some more good cyclists. In august I signed some more U-23 and I reached the WorldTour division.
Now I have started 2016 with the 2nd best sprinter in the world (Andrea Fedi-83 SPR) and I´m in WorldTour!
I started a career with CFQBase_v4 with a custom team, including Merckx and a great team!
My challenge is to win with Merckx Milano - Sanremo, E3, Gent Wvwelgem,De Ronde, Roubaix, Amstel, Fleche Wallonne, Liege, Giro, Tour. Vuelta, Lombardia and World Champs!
Haven't felt so satisfied by the game in a while.
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