Just played the stage to Pau in the first season as Vacansoleil, Romain Feillu is in a two horse race for the green jersey against Matt Goss after Greipel got eliminated earlier in the race and Cav, Sagan and Boonen haven't really been on top form and are some way back.
Being 18 points down and knowing I cant beat Goss in the bunch sprint I went for the breakaway, taking the full 20 points at the intermediate sprint, Goss taking 8.
Come the end of the stage and the Orica led Peloton are bearing down on the 4 breakaway men and Kessiakoff goes for broke, Both me and the Saur Sojasun rider counter as we dropped the lotto man. Then Brice attacks and I follow as we drop Kessiakoff and Orica get Goss to within 30s with just 5km to go.
Now I ty and get Brice to work with me to keep us away but he won't and under the flame rouge we both launch our sprints as the Peloton does teh same right behind us.
Goss comes flying round me and Rojas pips me on the line leaving me in 4th as Brice did my chances alot of good by holding off Gossand taking the stage win although I'm sure if it was real life he would have made sure we stayed away and he would have led home a Feillu 1-2.
Started another career, but I'm positive that this one will last. I play with LA Aluminium - Antarte with the premise of staying completely Portuguese.
Season start was very promising with a Stage win and fourth overall in New Zeeland, two stage wins and fifth overall at the Volta ao Algarve, both by Hugo Sabido. Especially the latter was great, since it was in a very strong field and I achieved a sponsor goal.
Edgar Pinto won the Tour of South Africa including two stage wins and the points classification. Hugo Sancho took the KoM in both New Zeeland and South Africa.
Advanced quite a lot on the calendar with ING - Shell.
Highlight is the fight for the Tour of the Gila GC. I got 2nd and 4th, vs an on-fire De Maar.
NCs have been completed, no Top 10 in any of them. Well, didn't expect a good result there.
39th in CQ ranking at the moment, in a serious battle for promotion.
Some guys really developed hard(Groenewegen for instance 73 SP now). We're going to get some nice points in August+September, so I hope we're going to promote.
We're aiming for some (relatively) big names now, keep you informed.
2015 with Sky Pro Cycling. Thinking I could win all 3 grand tours after winning the Giro and the Vuelta last year and finishing 3rd in the tour. After Nibali had won the giro two years running I targeted the tour with him leading going into the 16th stage and he falls during a descent and tears a tendon and has had to withdraw. Absolutely devastated !
So Vuelta 2014... Wiggins finishes 2nd behind Van Garderen. Kelderman 6th, Kiriyenka 10th, Siutsou 13th, Lopez 14th, Edmonson 19th as we dominated the Top20 and the Team as well. Kelderman also won the Youth.
Also watched the greatest Points battle ever (even better than Mre's Sagan story!)
Valverde vs Greipel vs Cavendish from stage 2 to stage 21. They were the only riders to lead that comp taking 12 wins between them! Stage 14 (7 to go) they were all tied on points. Cav's took a 5 lead over Greipel before Valverde hit back on the hills to retake the lead. Valverde extended in an MTT taking a 20pt lead over Cav's and 25 over Andre, with 4 to go (two flat, 2mountain). Valverde scored well on the mountains to hold a 34pt lead over Greipel and 35 over Cav's (3 to go). Greipel then steals a breakaway win over 5cols to pull within 4 pts of Valverde. Cavendish then wins stage 20 and Andre fails to score
1 stage to go Valverde leads Greipel by 4pts and Cav's by 6pts... Cavendish wins the stage, but Greipel grabs enough at the IS's to win the Points jersey by 1point on the final day. Valverde mixes it aswell to finish 3rd only 10pts down. It was incredible!!
Sagan and Martin finished 2-3 in Britain as the final Worlds warmup.
WCITT was won by Martin, with Kelderman 2nd, and Thomas 8th
WCRR was won by Sagan with Kelderman 6th and Thomas 8th
Jesleyh wrote:
Wow, that's beast. Hope for you that its a variant with a lot of TT km
Kelderman deserves more support in the mountains, though
If not, i'll change it to one... or quickly whip one up
In other team news: Boonen and Cancellara are both at Quickstep... whos cobble team goes 82, 81, 79, 79, 79, 78, 76, 73 Sagan has his work cut out if he is to bag his first cobbled classic...
Jesleyh wrote:
Wow, that's beast. Hope for you that its a variant with a lot of TT km
Kelderman deserves more support in the mountains, though
If not, i'll change it to one... or quickly whip one up
In other team news: Boonen and Cancellara are both at Quickstep... whos cobble team goes 82, 81, 79, 79, 79, 78, 76, 73 Sagan has his work cut out if he is to bag his first cobbled classic...
Well, it shouldn't take too long till they start declining, Boonen should be 34 and turn 35 in 2015.
What's Sagan's COB value at atm?
I'll post a transfer update from my ING - Shell team soon, when the team for next season is finished.
Never experienced a battle for promotion to PCT this close. Still 40th spot on CQ ranking, I keep switching between 38th-41th though...
End of August + September races should maybe make the differences, with a lot of guys of other teams probably having too much race-days, and I having a few 2.1 & 2.2 races planned.
Anyway, my transfer policy is now fixed on promotion, so it would be awful if I don't promote. Edited by Jesleyh on 20-05-2013 16:34
Still in promotion battle. Got a bit more steady in the 40th place, after domination Tour Alsace. Man, Wellens developed in a CT legend. Nr 39, Atlas, jumped away from me though, with a 3rd place on a 1.HC race(or 1.1, not sure). So gap to 39th(Caja Rujal) is now 40 points. Not huge.
More worrying is that the nr. 41 is MTN - Quebeka(playing with stats update), and they're only 50 points behind, so Ciolek can bring them back to 40th with 1 nice race. Hope he doesn't ride Vuelta
1 August now, so neo-pro's have arrived.
Transfers
4 Neo-pro's(well, actually 5, but 1 fired immediately ) arrived, 3 Belgians, 1 Dutchie. All quite promising, whom 1 okay-ish, 1 good and 2 really promising, I consider posting them in the talent thread later on.
But now the known names:
1. Tosh v/d Sande(22).
He developed nicely to a 74 SP. Got 2 good sprinters now, along with Groenewegen(73 SP already, can see him developing to 74SP before end of season, he's on fire).
2. Steve Chainel(29).
First non-BeNeLux guy on the team. Planning to make French the third(if you count Luxembourg, 4th) nationality of the team, signing some French neos and talents next season, potentially.
Steve Chainel is of course great for the cobbles, and also is quite known, sponsor will like that. This signing turns De Bie in a helper for next season, but just for then, since De Bie probably has more potential.
3. Tom Dumoulin(23).
Great to have him at the team. Relatively low salary paid, but developed nicely, and was already a good rider.
Is now on 71 MO, 74HI, 74TT, 74PRL and 69COB. Very all-around. If promoted to PCT, I hope we can get Ardennes Wildcards, so he can give that a try. Probably a lot of potential, he got a lot in most of my careers
And, at last, the biggest signing, an oldie, but goldie
4. Christophe Le Mevel(32).
Huge reputation. Makes my sponsor happy
Paid more for him than I hoped, but I wanted a good, famous, climber, and I was too late to sign an alternative.
74MO & 74HI, can be key to survive in PCT(again, if I promote )
That's it.
Keep you informed on promotion battle, really hope I make it.
I'd like to start a new career but can't seem to pick a team I'm happy with. Any suggestions? I'm using the PCMdaily 2013 DB and I want to start in UCI Tour.
First attempt I went with Euskatel Euskadi. I split up the team in 3 deciding to send Sanchez to TdF, GP el Vasco + early classics, Team Anton to Giro + fall classics and Team Nieve to Down Under, Paris-Nice + Vuelta. I was kinda disappointed with the team though. Aside from these 3 riders there are not many good climbers. They have a ton of below average sprinters though, but I enjoy riding for the GC a whole lot more. I managed 4th in Down Under, but Paris-Nice Nieve lost too much in TT. I kinda doubt that I'll be able to challenge for the grand tours with Sanchez and Anton when I don't have any good helpers on the final climbs. Should I rather start fresh and focus on two grand tours with a strong team, rather then splitting them up too much?
On 2nd attempt I tried Team Blanco, but they seem a bit too powerful. I'd like a challenge, but I don't want to climb the mountains with a team that's made up of 50% sprinters
If you're looking mainly for climbers, Euskaltel is definitely the way to go But you say you already tried that.
Other than that, Sky has a great mountain squad, but if you thought Blanco was too strong already, well...
Apart from Euskaltel you're going to struggle for a climbing focused team regardless of power. Behind them its Sky, Blanco, Lampre, Katusha, SaxoBank and Astana...
Of those Lampre wold be your best bet as they are climbing focused and with a large potential for change and developement. Most of their leaders are aging allowing you to customise your future direction in any way you want. Plus it makes you focus on Italy and the Giro which i always like
Cheers guys.. I had a look at Lampre. They look like they might be a fun challenge. Maybe a top 3 in Giro and Vuelta with Scarponi is conceivable, a few decent positions in cobble-races with Pozzato and some stage wins with their best puchers and sprinters. The age on some of them worry me a bit though.
Is Garmin Sharp a good challenge? Looks like a very balanced squad that can do well in any sort of tour or day race.
Made custom Team In-n-Out Original Joes, started i the PCT last year bt now were up the world tour, finished third i P-R with Offredo, after he was in a break before being cought by Boonen and Cance, Talasky now has a 79 in TT so went with him tothe Giro and too a second place.
other guys on my team are Mattt Crowshaw, Tejay Van Garderen, Tony Gallopin, Tayor Phinney, Marcel Kittel, Jackson rodriquez, Jonthan Monslave, Segio Heno, andy and Ben Jacque maynes, Fabio Duarte and Dombrowski.
However next year we will become Walmart cycing, so I hope to bring in Ryder Hesjedal and some more american riders
eple wrote:
Cheers guys.. I had a look at Lampre. They look like they might be a fun challenge. Maybe a top 3 in Giro and Vuelta with Scarponi is conceivable, a few decent positions in cobble-races with Pozzato and some stage wins with their best puchers and sprinters. The age on some of them worry me a bit though.
Is Garmin Sharp a good challenge? Looks like a very balanced squad that can do well in any sort of tour or day race.
Yeah, Lampre is a bit old, but Scarponi is the only climber that starts declining within the first 3 seasons, and you can easily do some transfers.
And Garmin is a nice team to do a career with, for sure.
Edited by Jesleyh on 21-05-2013 15:03
Jesleyh wrote:
Yeah, Lampre is a bit old, but Scarponi is the only climber that starts declining within the first 3 seasons, and you can easily do some transfers.
And Garmin is a nice team to do a career with, for sure.
Alright, is it set like that in the DB? I thought the start of decline in stats was largely random, or decided upon game start?
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
Sagan has his work cut out if he is to bag his first cobbled classic...
(22).
(29).
(23).
