Just had first stage giro and we could with a decent amount of tt be able to get top10 with cataldo, really looking forward to next year probably with quintana and a big colombian youngster, jes i looked at his potential stats . (i will show him in young talents thread.)
I've just started the tour with sky (eventhough i hate them ) and ist going REALLY easy. Coming into Montpellier i've got EBH in green with two stage wins and henao top of the KoM.
Edited by Dippofix on 24-07-2013 14:25
Sometimes, I really hate PCM. Started a career with IAM Cycling and kicked off the season decently with a beautiful victory of Haussler in the last stage of the Tour of Oman as our highlight so far. But then the cobblestones came...
In Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Haussler started his sprint too early and only ended 11th. Disappointing and my own fault, but we have Kuurne for revenge, right? Not quite, as Haussler got stuck behind some slowpoke from the early breakaway in the final sprint, refused to move around him and ended 30th
Just finished my first year with my Topsport Vlaanderen + 1 talent. The talent (Rudy Verboven) has developed quite well, and a few guys from the team along him. We grabbed a surprise win in GP La Marseillaise, which set the tone for the rest of the season. Riders like Van Hecke, Van Asbroeck and Vandousselaere performed really well, and we got a few more suprise wins.
In general, you could say adding Rudy Verboven changed the team's mentality. We're no lnoger racing for TV time, but for good results. My team killed themselves trying to get enough boni seconds for a Qatar top 10. The first big win we had was Kuurne, where the sprinters stranded in Van Asbroeck's wheel. Later one, Van Hecke won Dwars Door Vlaanderen from a breakaway.
Rudy himself remained in the peloton mostly, but was susualy unable to answer when the big names went. Nevertheless, he got his first win in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen. He would get a few top 10's in the classics as well.
We got most of the races we applied for in the continental tour, but in the World Tour we got refused until the cobbled classics. We have showed something, Rudy got 7th in Ronde, so we really deserved those wild cards.
No wild card for Roubaix though, so on to the hills. Rudy was starting to develop and it showed, he won in Köhl and got his first major win by winnen Brabantse Pijl. We really dominated that race, forcing a split with all our guys on the right side. We caught quite a few favourites unaware and they never came back. In the end, Serry and Kevin Pauwels (I signed him as well) led out Rudy perfectly. We'd got wildcard for the 3 major hill classics, and again Rudy got some top 10's, showing he was worth it.
In the rankings, Rudy was 1st in the CT, just above Hoste and Scheirlinckx. Similarly, tema was first, closely followed by Accent Jobs, Saur Sojasun and Argos. It would be a close call.
We applied for a Giro wildcard and somehow got it, but it was a disaster. Both our sprinter and GC rider, Jacobs and Van Staeyen, crashed out. Cornu did his best to get a top 25 spot though. De Vreese also got a podium from a breakaway at some point.
Big suprise when making the selection in the morning, Gilbert was injured! Van Avermaet was in pretty bad shape, Vanendert couldn't win a sprint and Meersman lacked depth for this one. I decided to go crazy and went for the guy with the best form: Rudy Verboven.
The team was really strong, breaking up the race and giving the Columbian and Spanish favourites a lot of trouble. In the end, Voeckler got away, and an exhausted Verboven held on to Nibali's wheel for very nice 3rd place.
Now his form was declining rapidly, so it would be just Tours and Lombardia for Rudy, but Tours didn't go that we didn't get a wildcard for Lombardia, so his season was pretty much over. Van Staeyen did made up his crashes by going to Beijing with good form and getting us some extra WT points late in the season.
Rudy Verboven won the CT, narrowly beating Kittel. Argos and us promoted, with PDJ and AG2R dropping. For next season, we kept the team together, got in 3 youngsters and expanded our climbing squad. We managed to sign Bart De Clercq and Francis De Greef!
when you played a carrer mode,are you played exstreme,hard or easy...a think a gameplay 3-d stages,thanks..i play on hard,only vuelta i play on extreme,and you?
Started a new career with Movistar. Hope this goes on for many years. The planning of the season was a bit of a challenge due to have only 25 riders. Many riders will have to do 2 GT's, something that is not a thing that I like. So here's my plan:
- Valverde will take on P. Basco, Ardennes and Vuelta;
- Quintana will take on Tirreno, help Rui Costa on Catalunya and try a top 3 on Tour de France. He'll be a luxury domestique to Valverde in Vuelta;
- Rui Costa will take on Paris-Nice, Catalunya, Romandie, Tour de Suisse and some late classics. He'll not ride any GT this year to focus only on this small week long races;
- Cobo will try to do his best in Giro and will ride the Vuelta to support Valverde;
- Visconti will chase stage wins in Giro and late classics.
Started a career with a custom Team, Team Aer Lingus. I've got 24 Irish riders, which is pretty much all Irish in the game (Jack Wilson is the only one An Post have still got). It's going well so far with Bennett taking the first stage of Algarve in the bunch sprint and McCann getting a stage and the GC in the Valley of the Sun race. 4 Riders in the Top 10 GC due to the comparatively high TT Ablity. I'll have a real Problem with getting new riders in, so i'm thinking about loosening the Just Irish restriction.
Dippofix wrote:
Started a career with a custom Team, Team Aer Lingus. I've got 24 Irish riders, which is pretty much all Irish in the game (Jack Wilson is the only one An Post have still got). It's going well so far with Bennett taking the first stage of Algarve in the bunch sprint and McCann getting a stage and the GC in the Valley of the Sun race. 4 Riders in the Top 10 GC due to the comparatively high TT Ablity. I'll have a real Problem with getting new riders in, so i'm thinking about loosening the Just Irish restriction.
Only Irish is too hard indeed. Maybe Irish + British?
Just been robbed of the Vuelta. My target was 1st in the points but being a bit of a novice, I didn't realise that there weren't any truly flat stages and had been going for it with Cav who is getting destroyed by climbers in the points as he arrives at the sprints with hardly any red bar left. His fitness has been 94-99 for most if not all of the tour so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong there. But anyway.
So I realised I wasn't going to win the points and had Froome only a few seconds behind on the GC. So I changed strategy and went for that instead. Surprisingly I managed to build up a lead of around 3 minutes which considering the other riders in my squad were mostly flat riders (to help in the sprint train) I was really happy with it. Going into the final week I was starting to think I had a chance of actually winning it. Cue 3 ridiculous days.
Stage 15: Froome falls. I manage to get him back to the peloton and not lose any time to the GC contenders. Huge sigh of relief.
Stage 16: Froome falls on a descent just before the final 15km or so climb. I lose 8'30'' to Contador putting me around 5'30'' behind. Pretty pissed off but it kept me in second and considering I never expected to win, not too bad.
Stage 17: Froome falls. I lose a further 5 minutes from the GC contenders as he forgets how to ride (Henao pulling away from him on the final climb, both on the same effort cursor, same fitness etc) so I just lost more and more time.
I end up miles behind the top 5, having spent the whole tour working hard to overachieve because the game decides that someone of his calibre would fall 3 days in a row.
I am in career in year 2014, in vuelta I had a lead of 5-6 minutes and in the last mountain stage I simulated it, my guy fell and withdraw. He was first in young riders, general, points, mountain. DAMN!
Okay there must be something that I'm missing. For the second day in a row Froome has been destroyed in the mountains. Lost another 6 minutes today. This time for no reason that I can understand. The rest of my team were dropped earlier in the climb leaving just Henao and Froome. Froome has better mountain and hills attributes. He also has better fitness (Froome 97, Henao 94). Yet they were both in a small group with Contador, both on maintain position 99, but Henao managed to stay with him almost all the way to the top and Froome was dropped about 5km earlier.
Does anyone have any idea why this might be? I was fine with losing time to Contador, but why is he losing time to Henao when he should be better than him?
clown_101 wrote:
Does anyone have any idea why this might be? I was fine with losing time to Contador, but why is he losing time to Henao when he should be better than him?
He's slightly injured from the fall on stage 17
Edited by Kaimelar on 04-08-2013 21:05
Dippofix wrote:
Started a career with a custom Team, Team Aer Lingus. I've got 24 Irish riders, which is pretty much all Irish in the game (Jack Wilson is the only one An Post have still got). It's going well so far with Bennett taking the first stage of Algarve in the bunch sprint and McCann getting a stage and the GC in the Valley of the Sun race. 4 Riders in the Top 10 GC due to the comparatively high TT Ablity. I'll have a real Problem with getting new riders in, so i'm thinking about loosening the Just Irish restriction.
Only Irish is too hard indeed. Maybe Irish + British?
Yeah, or maybe american. I have ti reach Season 2 yet though.
Ollfardh wrote:
Just finished my first year with my Topsport Vlaanderen + 1 talent. The talent (Rudy Verboven) has developed quite well, and a few guys from the team along him. We grabbed a surprise win in GP La Marseillaise, which set the tone for the rest of the season. Riders like Van Hecke, Van Asbroeck and Vandousselaere performed really well, and we got a few more suprise wins.
In general, you could say adding Rudy Verboven changed the team's mentality. We're no lnoger racing for TV time, but for good results. My team killed themselves trying to get enough boni seconds for a Qatar top 10. The first big win we had was Kuurne, where the sprinters stranded in Van Asbroeck's wheel. Later one, Van Hecke won Dwars Door Vlaanderen from a breakaway.
Rudy himself remained in the peloton mostly, but was susualy unable to answer when the big names went. Nevertheless, he got his first win in the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen. He would get a few top 10's in the classics as well.
We got most of the races we applied for in the continental tour, but in the World Tour we got refused until the cobbled classics. We have showed something, Rudy got 7th in Ronde, so we really deserved those wild cards.
No wild card for Roubaix though, so on to the hills. Rudy was starting to develop and it showed, he won in Köhl and got his first major win by winnen Brabantse Pijl. We really dominated that race, forcing a split with all our guys on the right side. We caught quite a few favourites unaware and they never came back. In the end, Serry and Kevin Pauwels (I signed him as well) led out Rudy perfectly. We'd got wildcard for the 3 major hill classics, and again Rudy got some top 10's, showing he was worth it.
In the rankings, Rudy was 1st in the CT, just above Hoste and Scheirlinckx. Similarly, tema was first, closely followed by Accent Jobs, Saur Sojasun and Argos. It would be a close call.
We applied for a Giro wildcard and somehow got it, but it was a disaster. Both our sprinter and GC rider, Jacobs and Van Staeyen, crashed out. Cornu did his best to get a top 25 spot though. De Vreese also got a podium from a breakaway at some point.
Big suprise when making the selection in the morning, Gilbert was injured! Van Avermaet was in pretty bad shape, Vanendert couldn't win a sprint and Meersman lacked depth for this one. I decided to go crazy and went for the guy with the best form: Rudy Verboven.
The team was really strong, breaking up the race and giving the Columbian and Spanish favourites a lot of trouble. In the end, Voeckler got away, and an exhausted Verboven held on to Nibali's wheel for very nice 3rd place.
Now his form was declining rapidly, so it would be just Tours and Lombardia for Rudy, but Tours didn't go that we didn't get a wildcard for Lombardia, so his season was pretty much over. Van Staeyen did made up his crashes by going to Beijing with good form and getting us some extra WT points late in the season.
Rudy Verboven won the CT, narrowly beating Kittel. Argos and us promoted, with PDJ and AG2R dropping. For next season, we kept the team together, got in 3 youngsters and expanded our climbing squad. We managed to sign Bart De Clercq and Francis De Greef!
Small update for first 3 months of 2013: Managed to win TDU due to 1 good attack and sending a strong team. Februari was bad and got us in debths because of my new, more expensive riders. Cancellara went to Rabo and used his super domestiques to dominate Omloop.
March started out pretty bad. De Clercq crashed out of Paris Nice in the final stage and I sent a youngster team to Tirenno, only Van Staeyen managed to get some points once in a sprint. Finaly Verboven had a bad daily form in San Remo, couldn't answer Gilbert and Cancellara, then got outsmarted by Hagen and passed by the bunch sprint in the last kilometre.
Then my luck started to turn again. Verboven sprinted to a 2nd place behind Boonen in E3 and won the Wevelgem sprint. Kevin Pauwels also surprised me, winning a simulated hill stage in Catalunya. So we're looking good so far in the world tour ranking. We'll probably drop pretty badly in the GT's, but I think we're safe to stay in. And the team is looking good for Ronde and Roubaix
Hi everybody! Currently playing PCM 2012 with the PCMDaily 2013 All in One Update. Immensly enjoying it, maybe even a bit addicted but well... My last Pro Cycling Manager is a few years back (5-6 at least). I read that PCM 2013 isn't so much fun and that PCM 2011 is the best, however I really wanted to start with the current squads so, yeah...
First of some questions: I read somewhere about post-race interviews, however I have never given one. Did I misunderstand something or is this a feature I may have "elimated" by playing PCM2013 Update with 1.3.0.0 Patch (now I use 1.4.0.0.).
I am currently in my third season, 2015, with Saxo Tinkoff. Right now prepartions are in full roll for the upcoming Tour de France, major top riders on the verge of leaving their teams, including my beloved Contador, and the UCI Ranking basically consisting of Movistar, Saxo and Astana. On top of that there is the impending renewal of the Saxo Contract. In the first year they cut my budget, I hope this time I will cash in, having so far achieved all sponsor goals and hiring new danish riders last season.
In my first season I was still... well, let's call it, experimenting. I fired coaches and got new ones and fired them again to save costs. I didn't care much about scouting or contracts. I didn't even know my squad that well. I play on normal and had some big successes (at least for me), however I think of switching to hard, although I still have to struggle when I don't ride with Contador the Tour, which is basically all he is doing.
Some things I'd like to say about some riders:
Matti Breschel was really a surprise to me. Right now he is in a 3-year contract with around 55.000 per Month. 2013 was off to a good start, however he was too late in form for the cobble stone classics. He finished Paris-Roubaix somewhere around 30th. He managed to win Gent-Wevelgem though, and later that year (I manage Denmark) he beat Sagan in the sprint at the World Championship by a few centimeters. Thinking back, I guess this was my biggest success as a coach, as I think I really did a good job in that race. Seeing Breschel the entire 2014 season in the rainbow jersey was great. For 2014 I really tried to use his skills and potential and made a custom-training plan. While in 2013 he rode the Tour for Contador, this time around he was purely focusing on the classics (Paris-Roubaix being the highlight of course) and the autumn classics, such as San Sebastian. He did fairly good. He won E3 Prijs and landed mostly in the top 5. However again, his form was not perfect for Paris-Roubaix (he basically peaked already at MSR). He also did good later that year at San Sebastian and Beijng-Tour, however he did not stand a chance against Nibali at the WC. Although with only a single win, he was kinda a hamster, constantly scoring points (even more in autumn than in early 2014), making him 2014 2nd in the UCI World Ranking. Gilbert winning Fleche, Amstel and Liege was a few points before him. In 2015 I tried again to peak him for Paris-Roubaix. This time he couldn't hold up in the sprints at Gent and E3 and even at Vlaanderen, he merely achieved Rank 5. Last season he had too many races, thus becoming tired. This year, he had too less races. Again, I thought Paris-Roubaix, way out of my league. But thankfully there was the Catalunya Tour, so I decided to put him in there. It's right between Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix and with him "putting no effort" into the race, solely racing for Race Fitness, he got better and better. Cancellara (Katusha), Boonen (racing for BMC) and Terpsta broke off relatively early in Paris-Roubaix. I managed to keep him there with the favourites, although he did no work except for one time bringint Terpsta and himself back to Boonen and Cancellara. None of the 4 wanted to work for the other, so eventually a small group of fellow riders came back. Including Marko Kump. Marko protected Breschel as long as possible. Well, just a few kilometers... but that protection was so important. I don`t remember quite the exact race, but I knew that there were still quite some kilometers to go, that the group was packed with riders better than Breschel & Kump, and that Breschel maybe had a enough energy for one attack. Soon Boonen attacked and during this attack... he got a flat tire. With Boonen in tremendous form (basically winning nearly every cobble stone race this year, rating of 85 at Cobblestone), I knew this could be it... and everybody attacked, and Breschel kinda hang on to them. Keukelaire broke away the farthest, my blue rider jersey right behind him. I told Breschel to go all-in. Point dot, 90-95. The red bar was empty, he kept riding. 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds... it kept changing. Cancellara didn't seem so willing to do all the work, Boonen not be seen anywhere, due to the flat tire. Breschel just kept racing and went first into the velodrome. I waited 'till the pack started the sprint, Breschel was still ahead of them. Maybe 5-6 Seconds. It was enough in the end. Breschel won Paris-Roubaix. I won Paris-Roubaix. Super happy. Right now he is chilling in San Javier, resting for Autumn. He surely deserves it.
Contador won the 2013 Tour, and the 2014. Both were really exciting. I can't say so much about them though, because - as usual - it was all kinda messy. Good riders broke down, bad riders held on, and Contador triumphed. 2013 before Froome and... I don't know, 2014 before Wiggins and Nibali. While he also got Tour de Romandie, Catalunya and Dauphine in 2013, it was 2014 only Dauphine. He also managed to win a few seconds ahead of Wiggins the 2015 Dauphine. With 3 victories in a row he is now on top with Hinault. I hope that he will also manage to win the Tour a fifth time. This year however his team will be much worse. Except for C.A. Sörensen he will have no real climber at his side. I still feel good about it though. Contador is in the form of his life. I believe he doesn't even need Roche or Kreuziger. Looking forward to it.
Right now, I have problems renewing with him. He says he wants to wait until July. I thought about using Lachis Editor, but... meh, not sure about that. I would love to keep him and I guess its mostly the game's mechanics fault that he is giving me such a hard time, but still - using an editor wouldn't really feel... right. I hope he stays. I have huge plans for him. I want him to win the Giro and Vuelta next year. I want him to win a classic like Liege or Amstel. All we did in this 3 seasons together was to get Tour victories, however there is so much else to be done. It is a joy to watch Contador in Real Life, and it's fantastic to see him ride in this game... even if he is just a blue pixel-mess.
Marko Kump - kinda my wonderboy. For me he was next to a no-name. Some potential. But it all came out. I hired four legendary coaches in 2015. One of them, Fondriest, basically was just for the cobblestone classics. Breschel and Kump, what a team. He had a fantastic 2014 season, while 2013 was a drag. I didn't use him much in sprints, I didn't even understand much of the sprinting mechanics. Well, he won around 10 races in 2014, some minor classics, some stage wins. He ended up on place 25-30 on the UCI Ranking. Hell, I consider him my own "Peter Sagan". You know, the guy you throw in there and you see he is doing good, and he ends up with a stage win. He was kind of my sprinter of choice, although not really being a good sprinter. He still specialized back then in sprinting, now he is a northern classic-specialist. Yeah, well, I guess you are one when you win Gent-Wevelgem in 2015. Oh dear, I have so huge plans for this fella, but... it seems inevitably to me. He will leave. I offer him cash, I offer him the role of a protected rider, and so forth. He does well, he is super happy. He still wants to think about other offers. Some continental-teams want to hire him, and after what happend to Kreuziger (which revealed utlimately the flawed game mechanics), I fear he will leave me. I will keep him on my watch-list, I will look up how he does in races, and when I see his national dress somewhere I will kinda try to maybe even help him. That mashed up-pixel will leave my team though. I'm certain of it, unfortunately.
I have always been a huge fan of Bennati. However not seeing through the sprinting mechanics his first season was a major fail. I think he didn't get a single UCI Point. Well, maybe some. In 2014 I decided to handle things differently. I made a "classics squad". You know, the fellas who have to be in good shape for the big UCI-Classics like MSR, Paris, Liege... Mailand San Remo turned out be a huge hit. They were all around 90-98 Fitness. Morkov set the pace, Tosatto behind him, Kump, Breschel, Bennati. There was pack of other riders behind my guys but the Saxo-group just pushed forward and Bennati won before Breschel, Kump... and even Tosatto and Morkov. Okay. Again, flawed mechanics. That victory had a bitter taste. But seeing as I got smashed again in other races, I was still satisfied with a perfect team tactic in best Sky-manner and riders who all had a form peak at the same time. I didn't want to make it this way in 2015. Most riders peaked later, only Bennati had to be in his top shape. After all, MSR is the big sponsor goal from Saxo and there was an impending sponsor renewal in 2015. I did a similiar tactic. Greipel and Goss hang on there, but Bennati managed to win again MSR. Seeing how my MSR-formula more or less works perfect, I can't imagine not ever winning this race again (thus maybe setting also up the difficulty). Well, I also can hardly imagine winning MSR with anyone else than Bennati. But he gets old, he gets slower. 2014 was fantastic (he also did win the Hamburg Classic-Race). I kinda need him now for the Tour 2015 because Anders Lund disappointed me in the Dauphine. Maybe Bennati will get a stage win. I fear though that this was his last big season. Well, he could end worse...
Kreuziger's career at Saxo ended in 2014. Unfortunately. 2013 was a major disappointement. I wanted him to have a Top 10 Tou de Francer-Ranking, but he got injured already in the first week. I tried to get him in good shape for the Vuelta 2013. He eventually got it, although too late and too tired. He ended up 6th or 7th. No stage wins in 2013 at all, not many UCI Points. So, well, he wasn't much use in 2013. It got better in 2014. Much better. I made a custom-training for him (and also Majka) for the Giro and Vuelta 2014. He started in the Giro extremly well. Winning the time trial, winning the first mountain stage. I feared he peaked too soon. And yes, Pinot (with a MT Rating of 81 in the game) as well as Kreuziger`s Nemesis Henao (who won Vuelta 2013). That was quite a race. Basically, I always had to watch one of them. And neither of them settled anytime down. Kreuziger in the leader's jersey and a half-good squad for mountain stages... I did get quite a beating, losing time and time. Always some seconds, but they got more and more. After the mountain-time trial he was around 40 seconds behind, finally lost the Leader's Jersey. He looked defeated. There were still some mountain stages left, I didn't see much hope for a Top 3 Ranking as Rolland, Froome and other guys came slowly into top-shape. Surprisingly once Pinot was the Leader of the race, it got much calmer. Pinot reacted to Henao and Kreuziger hang on to Pinot. I often had to sacrifice teammates in order to get Kreuziger back up front, back into the leader group or just into the position he needed to be. I had to be consistenly aware. He is a decent climber, but seeing as Henao, Pinot and Rolland were just uber-aggressive at times, it was tough to keep up with them. Before the last time trial Kreuziger was around 26 Seconds behind Pinot. I managed to snatch some time (together with Henao) from Pinot on a stage one or two days before the TT, I don't remember excatly. I just remember the time stamps. How Kreuziger rolled on this flat time trial-stage, how the bpm went up and down, how I wanted to control every meter of his moves... When Pinot rolled in at the finish line, he wasn't leader anymore. It was Kreuziger. 33 Seconds ahead of Pinot in the Time Trial. From 26 behind to 8 Seconds in front of him in the Overall Ranking. That was his Giro. His victory. I know it may be silly to be happy about such victories, but I loved it. Pinot went on to win the Vuelta 2014, Henao won some stuff too. Giro 2014 is Kreuziger's.
In July, he told me he did not want to renewal his contract. Instead he wants to join some italian Continental Team. I am not even sure if they were a Pro Team at that time. Flawed game mechanics, again. I could understand him leaving to some major competition, but this...? Well, anyhoo. He did a decent Vuelta, and he left. He is now riding for that team. His only noteworthy result is a 6th place in Tour San Luis. Although his italian Team was at the Giro, he was not with them. I wondered if he got injured, but when I looked it up there was just nothing. His contract expires this year. Maybe I knock on his door and see if he wants to come back. It says he wants to prolong his contract, but then again... it said that same about him. And he left. After winning Giro against all odds.
Okay. So just some... stories, moments I encountered and felt like writing down. Quite some text. Not really important. It's just a game. I love manager games though and I love cycling sport. So might as well combine both with a little bit of fantasy (I also like to write a lot - bookstuff and so), so yeah...
I wonder how I will do in this 2015 season. With Contador and Kump destined to leave, I lose two of my favourites. Rogers and C.A. Sörensen also seem to be eager to depart. I could get some major signings. Andy Schleck, Sagan, Cavendish, Froome, Rodriguez (what a Giro 2015 Victory - stages by emmea, I just loved these stages!), Valverde and some huge young talent on the market. Personally I would love to have Contador/Sagan/Breschel as my leading mates. Maybe Pinot will be free next year. Maybe I go for a rarely know newcomer, someone who isn't a star yet but whom I can form to be one. I have seen some riders out there. I managed to keep most danish riders. I also signed a whole lot of russian riders for Tinkoff. One of them, I can't quite spell his name, is only 22 years old and already... quite good. I think I can form that guy to the next Cancellara, or something like that. I would love to sign Tom Boonen but I fear it will kinda destory the "magic moments" I have with the cobblestone races. So far, 2015 was a good year. Movistar and Astana are in front of Saxo in the UCI Ranking. Both teams have some huge talent in their squads. Sky seems to be falling apart though.
Edited by Shonak on 10-08-2013 17:40
Thank you. I switched Difficulty up to Hard before the Tour now and still managed to win with Contador... with a lot of luck. Nibali took around 2 minutes combined in the last week, while I was purely focusing on Froomey. If Pinot and Rolland (more crashes on Hard Difficulty?) hadn't lost so much time in the first week, I'd have problems being in the Top 3.
Turned out my squad-selection was kinda rubbish. C.A. Sörensen was the only one who could keep up a little bit on the tough stages. Contador was often isolated and alone on the last climb. I must admit that it was way more fun winning the Tour like this than the years before. It was definitely the last time though.
Saxo pulled a Rabobank on me and decided to not renew my contract. After achieving every season goal I was rubbing my hands greedy... and I must say, I kinda had it coming. You know, when things finally look your way, the game just decides to stick it to you.
So, while playing TdF I was more hoping to get few luctractive sponsor deals. And try to hang on to Contador. And try to sign new riders. I gave up on Marko Kump, hell - I I gave up on most of my riders. Effectively my squad will be 20 riders next season, although I will surely hire some young continental talent for one year or two. I ultimately decided for a one-year contract with Carlsberg, allowing me to keep danish and russian riders at least for one more year. However Tinkoff's contract runs out next year and I read that the game only allows one contract renewal per year. Maybe Tinkoff wants to go all money-whoring on me and massively invest, I doubt that though. As things look right now, I probably try to get a legendary sponsor for next year, Figures how that works, but it's worth a shot.
I have also given up hope of keeping Contador. It's already August and he still says "he wants to wait until July". I know that if I keep him (120.000/month), this will probably financially ruin me. So the "game flawed mechanics" in terms of transfer-politics are maybe in my favor. Sagan is still on the market and I kinda like the thought of a shared captain role of Sagan/Breschel. Maybe I can get him. I have wasted too much time on Contador's renewal though, most major potential signigns are already taken, leaving me with a half-good squad full of oldies and youngsters for the coming season. Plus, I couldn`t sign anyone for the majority of the transfer time until now. As things look right now, season 2016 will be a struggle.
Kreuziger already renewed his contract by the way. It`s a puzzle to why he did it as his whole season has been a waste of time obviously, but yeah...
Edited by Shonak on 10-08-2013 12:04
So silly me didn't know that each time I offered Contador a new contract it was already added to the finances budget. Since I did basically everytime he neglected the new contract (quite overpayed might I say) I was looking at quite wrong numbers.
Anyway, Contador didn't sign. He went to Omega instead. Which is fine. I can now celebrate the Return of the Prodigal Son to CSC... I mean, Saxo... I mean Carlsberg. Yes, I signed Andy Schleck. With a little bit of coaching and luck in time trial, I surely will have a shot at the TdF, but for now his season goal will be the Giro.
I also signed Sagan. His stats are just incredible. Except for time trialing I don`'t feel like there is something I can't win with him. Heck, I might even try to take on the Alp d'Huez or Mont Ventoux with him. If he has a big enough lead, who knows?
So after all, my current squad is quite good. I managed to massively decrease cyclists and management costs. Some cheap talent on the market too, although two 22 year olds get like 11.000/month. However, looking at their stats, I just really wanted to have them. One of them has already 78 at Hill, the other guy 79 at sprinting. However they both still have their weakness. My young Cancellara actually turns into an Edvald Boasson Hagen, becoming a Jack-Of-All-Trades.
The 2nd Half of Season was fantastic by the way. Breschel and EBH (his 1st season as teamcaptaion at Movistar) had an intense fight for the top-spot at the UCI Ranking. Breschel won Clasica San Sebastian, EBH Vattenfall Classics, 2nd & 3rd places in Montreal, Quebec, GP Ouest and so forth. Basically both of them were in the top ranks of every fall classic except for Lombardia. In the end EBH managed to keep #1 30 points ahead of Breschel. In the end it was due to a injury Breschel got on the 2nd stage of Beijing Tour. While EBH stayed at home and probably chew nervously on his fingernails , Breschel always had to go Beijing Tour all along... well, bad luck I guess. Team-wise Movistar, Astana and Saxo dominated the field. Sky signed Cav again for the upcoming season, Valverde back to Movistar and Vacansoil has a fantastic one-day classic squad. Oh, and Contador is at Omega Pharma. For about 75.000/month. Basically 1/3 less than he'd get at my place. Maybe he feared I might go all bankrupt?
Financially it looks quite good at this start of season 2016. I wasted a lot of money on an agent for sponsor agent. My squad has quite good young talent in it now. Quite half a dozen of decent sprinters. They all mostly lack in general stats, but have a good sprinting ability. With the departure of Tosatto, Kroon & Kump I have lost some major domestiques in the cobble stone classics. Unfortunately (due to sponsor negotiating with Carlsberg) I hadn't have a chance to sign a really good domestique. Well, maybe next season. Looking forward to the 1st season half now. I feel like I'm playing a completely new team. Well, at least they will race under a new name, which is kinda same I suppose.
Also a question: Last time I negotiated with a sponsor I clicked "wait" instead of "sign" when the contract was final (not sure about the exact wording, I play in german). I have now vodafone on my fingertips, however I'd prefer an european sponsor. Will I still able (with some approriate waiting time) to sign Vodafone if I click wait or will the negotiations stop? This question may look stupid, but it seemed to me but the negotiations with other sponsors stopped after I clicked wait.
EDIT: Oh, I nearly forgot: Contador won UCI World Championship. It was a real mountain UCI Race and with the spanish squad it was clear that he'd persumably win (plus, he had the least race days of all favourites). However, I can't feel that this was another way of the game to stick it to me... why? "Because I can." Anyway, it was great last victory for Contador under Saxo-Flag.
Edited by Shonak on 12-08-2013 01:39
. (i will show him in young talents thread.)
) and ist going REALLY easy. Coming into Montpellier i've got EBH in green with two stage wins and henao top of the KoM.
