Shonak wrote:
Uh, what are you talking about Spanish Duo? Contador is massively underrated in this DB. Strongest climbing team lol, I wish.

Otherwise, good stuff.

Ollfardh wrote:
Funny how everyone calls him Mr. Car now

After our big World Tour Preview, comes the PCT review and this time it will be in one big edition! This time I will also go full solo in my predictions, so it's only me you can complain to now

Like the World Tour the PCT will be very close and I think it will more closer than the WT and then again it's not that hard to see the big teams from the weaker ones, but to be clear I won't split them into different "camps" and I do this knowing each team has a strong area each.

I won't be writing much in this Preview and instead of that I'm gonna expain each table that follows further down and I will try to make this easy to read. I could do like I did with the WT, but I don't simply have the time and it's also very hard to hit the true state of things that way.



The World Tour was cut down to 16 teams and this mean't that 4 teams would relegate down to the PCT and this was done, cause Wild Cards would suddenly be both more important, but also more interesting for the teams to follow their specific targets.

This means that getting into the right races is the most important thing for the PCT teams and this is not something the WT teams depend on, as they tend to have an overall squad, better than any PCT team that might participate in an race. The top teams are considered to be Lampre, AG2R, FDJ.fr and Champion System and these teams are well represented for PCT team's and this will definitely be the Top teams, with some exceptions of course.


But as said before I won't split them up in bad or good ones, as each team has an unique idea and though there might lie something different in the waters, which will determine which team's will be placed where.

Finish	Nat.	Team	AVG
1		AG2R	74,44
2		FDJ.fr	74,64
3		Lampre	73,84
4		Vacansoleil	74,56
5		Champion System	72,12
6		MTN	72,4
7		Androni	71,72
8		Team NetApp	72,8
9		IAM Cycling	73,2
10		Cofidis	72,88
11		Colombia	70,92
12		Bardiani	70,92
13		Caja Rural	70,28
14		CCC Polsat	72,08
15		Drapac Cycling	67,28

Nat.	Team	Average
	FDJ	74,64
	Vacansoleil	74,56
	AG2R	74,44
	Lampre	73,84
	IAM Cycling	73,2
	Cofidis	72,88
	Team NetApp	72,8
	MTN	72,4
	Champion System	72,12
	CCC Polsat	72,08
	Androni	71,72
	Bardiani	70,92
	Colombia	70,92
	Caja Rural	70,28
	Drapac Cycling	67,28

FDJ.fr got 17 riders on their team and this has made it easier for them to top this table, but then again I think they deserve it with their roster. Vacansoleil and Lampre got some size-able rosters and only a few leaders in general, but these are accompanied by some great support.

AG2R has managed to keep their stars and while disappointingly not topping the table, they still sit comfortably on this spot and will be hard to move from this spot. IAM got an old squad and therefore some stabile leaders to depend on.

Conclusion is that this show's why big teams like Columbia, Androni and Champion System will have a hard to competing against the relegated WT teams.

Nat.	Team	Age
	IAM Cycling	29,1
	AG2R	29
	Drapac Cycling	28,5
	Champion System	28
	Vacansoleil	27,9
	Caja Rural	27,7
	Androni	27,5
	Cofidis	27
	Lampre	27
	CCC Polsat	26,7
	MTN	26,3
	Team NetApp	26,1
	Bardiani	25,3
	Colombia	25,2
	FDJ	25,2

This table shows the difference between those team's, which got the best prospects for the future and who will have to focus more on it's future. Not surprisingly IAM and AG2R is here, but the big surprise is that Champion System is placed this high, yet their average stat's wasn't that high.

All the heavy lifters except for FDJ is in the top and conclusion is that Age doesn't have a huge meaning, but it's still interesting watching who is keeping the young stars.

Nat.	Team	Nationalities
	Champion System	18
	Team NetApp	14
	Colombia	11
	Vacansoleil	11
	IAM Cycling	10
	Lampre	10
	MTN	10
	Androni	9
	CCC Polsat	9
	AG2R	7
	Cofidis	7
	Bardiani	6
	Caja Rural	6
	Drapac Cycling	5
	FDJ	1

Champion System only has this high a number, cause they've got to cover the whole continent of Asia and Netapp has always been a versatile squad, with no real main country other than Germany.

More weird is to note that Columbia has gone International and this is from a team having only 1 nationality! None of these teams than Netapp and Columbia crosses a line that says to HIGH and result wise this table is worthless.

Nat.	Team	MO
	AG2R	77
	Lampre	75,8
	Colombia	75,4
	Vacansoleil	75,4
	Androni	75,2
	Caja Rural	75,2
	Cofidis	75
	FDJ	74,6
	Team NetApp	73,8
	IAM Cycling	73,6
	CCC Polsat	73,4
	MTN	73,4
	Champion System	73,2
	Bardiani	70,6
	Drapac Cycling	66,6

AG2R is the ultimate Mountain squad and their adventure in the GT's are going to be very interesting, which also would seem to be enough for getting into the WT again. It's the same teams, which are in the top and there isn't much to note, as the team's have managed to keep their focus in this category

Nat.	Team	CB
	Vacansoleil	73,8
	FDJ	73,4
	IAM Cycling	73
	AG2R	72
	Cofidis	70,6
	Lampre	70,2
	Team NetApp	68,8
	CCC Polsat	68,6
	MTN	68,6
	Androni	64,6
	Bardiani	64
	Champion System	64
	Drapac Cycling	62,6
	Caja Rural	61,8
	Colombia	60,2

Many negative numbers in the PCT and nothing surprising as Cobbles usually is an luxury for these teams and Vacansoleil has dissapointed in not bringing an better squad here, but should be enough to gather some points on the others.

Nat.	Team	TT
	Champion System	74,6
	FDJ	73,4
	Team NetApp	73,2
	Lampre	73
	Vacansoleil	73
	AG2R	72,4
	CCC Polsat	72,4
	IAM Cycling	72
	MTN	72
	Cofidis	71,8
	Androni	70,8
	Bardiani	70,6
	Colombia	69,8
	Caja Rural	67,4
	Drapac Cycling	67,2

Champion System got a strong setup for it's GT dreams and so does AG2R and FDJ! Only real surprise is MTN and CCC being placed so high and this is probably cause they want a strong leadout

Nat.	Team	SP
	FDJ	77
	Bardiani	75,8
	Vacansoleil	75,8
	AG2R	74,4
	Colombia	74,2
	Lampre	74,2
	Champion System	74
	MTN	74
	Team NetApp	74
	IAM Cycling	73,6
	CCC Polsat	73,4
	Cofidis	73,2
	Caja Rural	72,4
	Androni	72
	Drapac Cycling	70,4

Bardiani, FDJ and Vacansoleil are heavy lifters here and for Bardiani and FDJ this is their main category. This is the category where every team have to get good characters and while not being as big a category as the hills in the PCT, it's still important to have a strong squad here.

	AG2R	76,4
	Androni	76
	Lampre	76
	Colombia	75
	Champion System	74,8
	FDJ	74,8
	Vacansoleil	74,8
	Caja Rural	74,6
	Team NetApp	74,2
	MTN	74
	Cofidis	73,8
	IAM Cycling	73,8
	Bardiani	73,6
	CCC Polsat	72,6
	Drapac Cycling	69,6

The category that separates the big teams from the smaller ones, but this year it's very close and being the biggest category for the PCT teams, this is the category aside from Mountains importantance for the GT's, this category covers the parts where the teams gather the frequent points

sgdanny wrote:
Columbia

sgdanny wrote:
Columbia

sgdanny wrote:
Columbia

Many negative numbers in the PCT and nothing surprising as Cobbles usually is an luxury for these teams and Vacansoleil has dissapointed in not bringing an better squad here.

sgdanny wrote:
Netapp has always been a versatile squad, with no real main country other than Germany.

Shonak wrote:

Uhm, okay...

Honestly, this PCT review should have been called Preview of Teams got relegated and will kick ass in CT. I appreciate people doing extra work for EPIC, which makes this in terms of its narration such a great story game, but this part of the preview has been a major letdown to read. Bunch of inconsequential tables like smowz said. You don't even interpret the hills tables, which according to you, is the most important for PCT teams.

Thanks for the effort, but you should have sticked with the old model, even if it's just a three lines per team.

Ollfardh wrote:
Previews are fun, and I really enjoyed the WT part, I really did. But I can imagine the CT teams feeling a bit left out now after the luxury preview for WT teams.