Congrats viking. Cool to see Ahlstrand take this one. He is definitely a fitting winner.
10th is okay for us I guess, but seeing Avelino sandwiched by Coquard, Swift, Groenewegen, etc I can't really make a case for finishing too low. We need to find a way to improve on the point-scoring side of things though.
Thanks for the amazing and well-paced reports Fab. What a great addition you've become!
Thanks for all the nice words. For me, it's fun to watch the races, and fun to write the reports. It's less fun to post them, though, as it's clear that with each report I post, some managers will be unhappy about how the race unfolded. But yeah, I can't change that.
It's true that even during the race, there are situations I'd qualify as "Artificial Dumbness" instead of Artificial Intelligence, because it's so unlogical. For example, the pack catching the escapees just ahead of an intermediate sprint - and then no-one sprinting for bonus seconds that are so important in this race. And I don't understand why some teams do have trains on certain stages but not on others (especially Podium Ambition being so strong on the first stage, but completely absent once they had the GC lead). Or sprinters getting podium spots, while other sprinters with almost identical stats (and team support) don't sprint at all. These are surely things that could (and should) be improved, but AI being such a vast and complex topic, it's definitely not easy to create a great engine for such a packed sprinter field.
All in all, I'd say none of the stage winners is a real surprise, and Ahlstrand and Degenkolb, GC 1st and 2nd, were listed 4th and 3rd in the preview. Stage 1 was a real mess; on one hand due to the relatively late catch of the escapees, on the other hand due to some important leadouts - including Merino Criado - being caught on the wrong side of the split with 20km to go. On this first stage, we had Podium Ambition and eBuddy trains - the teams doing most of the work simply had most helpers left ahead in the pack.
On the remaining stages, it paid off for Iberia and Aker having brought so many strong flat riders, as they were able to build a rather well-working train. Swift was unlucky on stage 2, when he lost his leadout's wheel, else he'd probably have taken a GC Top 5, too. It was rather surprising to see Volvo that strong, though, and I don't really have an explanation for why it was them and not e.g. Festina or Podium Ambition getting a good train. Are their leadouts too strong to be actual leadouts?
I can understand SotD's frustration, though, as we saw once again that the strategy of bringing two good sprinters (Stauff, Petit) as leadouts for Coquard doesn't work as well as it logically should (at least I'd expect the same as he does). This couldn't really be foreseen before the season start, and now there's no possibility to adapt some schedules for the rest of the season. However, I don't have a solution to this problem, either. The organizers can't test any possible case before deciding to change the PCM version - and according to several comments, the old version wasn't really that much more "intelligent", either. But yeah, it's always easy to say that when you're not really affected - and my own opinion about PCM 18's AI isn't too good, either. But has it really become worse?
Kennaugh kinda overperformed last year and got some rather incredible results while this season has been more ... on his 'true' level.
However, really nice to get away from this race with a win and top-3 in the GC. Not really sure how he managed to get away with that podium spot considering his average results in the other stages, but I'll take it!
Stage win and a Jersey would normally have me pretty happy. I guess the AI is probably as random as PCM15 was, although i don't remeber in PCM15 the GC leading team with both a stage and race favorite f*cking off for two days. After a poor Qatar and now poor Festival we are totally boned, and it feels like it wasn't my fault.... and that's what's so annoying... Can't wait to be a Div2 team next season!
Kraftwerk were very lucky to have Cav make the top 10 in every stage which meant we achieved our top 10 goal with a few bonus seconds to spare.
Congrats to Viking, thanks to fabianski for the great reports and heartfelt commiserations to the managers of better sprinters who the AI did not favour.
Better late than never, thanks Fabianski for your great effort!
After horrible start, whole Iberia team improved a lot, massively helping Dege almost win whole race eventually TOP 10 goal achieved together with nice amount of points in pocket - I guess I can´t be disappointed.
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
