Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I know how this must look, however since I already played a couple of seasons with the team I just thought to let it all out, more or less.
On a different note: It's actually 38 seconds. Damn. This makes it by far less amazing.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Shonak wrote:
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.
"Wait" means that the sponsor will get back you in a couple of days to ask you if you've made up your mind yet. Of course, this is also a risk, because they might be talking to other teams too.
By the way, Vodafone is European, they're from the UK
Seems like you're having a rather realistic career, by the way. Sponsorship problems and important riders leaving is something quite familiar to team-Riis
So, while I was supposed to work on my IAM Cycling story, I started a brand new career with Astana. At the start of the season, I added Sergey Renev to the team to get up to 30 riders and make the sponsor happy with the number of Kazakhs in the team, then we were ready to go.
As the sponsor was sad about the lack of famous riders from Kazachstan, Maxim Iglinskiy had to start his season early in the Tour Down Under. He lived up to his task by winning two stages and the GC, increasing his fame nicely.
Next important races were Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico. Fuglsang did what he could, but 4th was the maximum result for him in this race won by Valverde. In the meanwhile, in Italy it was Brajkovic who held the leader's jersey for quite some time, but eventually had to suck up a second place behind Ulissi, who had a stronger team and was more explosive on the steep climbs. In Catalunya and Pais Vasco, we were hoping for Kessiakoff to do something, but that ended up rather disappointing. So no Astana guys in the top-5 and Valverde won both races.
In the meanwhile, the classics season started with a blast in Sanremo. Gasparotto attacked on the descent of the Poggio, the sprint teams organised themselves too late and the victory was ours! Then Guarnieri had an aggressive ride to sixth place in the E3 Prijs (victory for Cancellara), while Bozic got second in the sprint in Gent-Wevelgem behind a superior Greipel. In the big cobbled classics we were chanceless though and victories went to Boonen (Ronde van Vlaanderen) and Pozzato (Roubaix).
Onwards to the Ardennes! Valverde strikes again, winning the Amstel Gold Race in an uphill sprint against Gasparotto, Gilbert, Gerrans and Iglinskiy. Hoping to do better than second and fifth in Fleche Wallonne, we got disappointed with the podium being taken by Gerrans, Valverde and Gilbert, Gasparotto ending fourth and Iglinskiy only seventh. However, in Liege, Iglinskiy had a superb daily form, bridged the gap from an elite group to leaders Gilbert and Vanendert and left both Belgians dying in his wheel. What a beautiful way to defend the Doyenne title and the extra fame is finally making the sponsor more or less happy about our Kazakh star.
For the Tour de France, we had three goals: winning a stage, winning the polkadot jersey and ending in the top-10 of the GC. The first goal was already achieved in the first stage, where Guardini surprised the world's best sprinters and even grabbed the yellow jersey. The second goal was also achieved by an aggressive Fuglsang, who fought like a lion for his points. This made the third goal a bit harder, because Brajkovic hardly had any support and was isolated on all the final climbs. He didn't do really well in the mountains, but a surprise victory in the hilly time trial and a bad crash of De Gendt won him enough time to end exactly on tenth place in Paris. The final podium consisted of Froome, Contador and Van den Broeck, with Sagan taking the green jersey, Pinot white and Fuglsang the polkadots.
During the Tour, Nibali got back into action with a third place in Poland behind Dani Moreno and good old Jens Voigt. Then he went on to win three stages and the GC in Burgos. In San Sebastian, he had to ride a tough race with minimal team support (main helper Kessiakoff crashed in Burgos and is injured until mind september), but he did manage to chase down Henao in the final kilometers and beating the Colombian on the line.
After an Eneco Tour to forget quickly (Grivko was crap, Boonen won), Gavazzi used his good shape to attack in the final kilometers of the Vattenfall Cyclassics and stay ahead of the disorganised sprint trains. Nice victory, but then Gavazzi crashed out of the GP Plouay, so Gasparotto had to step up. However, he lost the uphill sprint to Cancellara, but second is still good. Gasparotto didn't hesitate to take revenge in Canada, where he won the GP Quebec with Iglinskiy as super domestique and then returned the favour for Iglinskiy to win the GP Montreal. Some true team spirit. The Vuelta was successful too: Nibali had a weak team, but dominated the mountain stages and won his second Grand Tour of the season. He beat Quintana with a small margin of 17 seconds, while Henao completed the podium.
After all this, we are now getting ready for the World Championships, hoping for Iglinskiy to win. However, if the (AI) Italians attack with Nibali or Gasparotto, team Kazachstan will not chase them. Also having good hopes for a Lombardia win and Nibali is bound to win the UCI World Tour.
Last, but not least, Astana also did some transfers. Seeldraeyers (Accent Jobs), Huffman (Jamis), Fuglsang & Tiralongo (Androni) and Ponzi (Utensilnord) will be leaving, while Bozic retires. New riders are Smagulov (talented neo-pro), Kiryienka, Polanc, Gatto, Stybar and Peter Velits. So in 2014 we hope to be more competitive on the cobbles. We could get Cancellara too, but that would be too easy. Nicest AI transfer so far: Farrar to CCC Edited by Blueprint on 15-08-2013 12:46
Blueprint wrote:
"Wait" means that the sponsor will get back you in a couple of days to ask you if you've made up your mind yet. Of course, this is also a risk, because they might be talking to other teams too.
Thanks. I have signed a 4-year deal with Volkswagen now (6.2 Mio/year) I don't have to care about sponsoring for the next couple of years. Actually, does it only matter to achieve sponsor goals in the last year or should one try to keep the sponsor always happy?
They have given me quiet a long list of objectives, however I consider none of them impossible (thank God they don't want me to win the TdF...)
Seems like you're having a rather realistic career, by the way. Sponsorship problems and important riders leaving is something quite familiar to team-Riis
Haha, yes. I suppose that's true. However I found a way of kinda safely keep riders by just extending their contract always for 2-3 years in the year before the contract runs out. All my 3 captains have taken the offer.
Looks like you are having a great season with Astana. Some good talent for the upcoming season too. Such a shame you didn't keep Fuglsang though.
To my 2016 season some more words: So, Andy Schleck, the prodigal son, lost the Giro to 38 seconds. He later went to the Vuelta out of convenience. I actually didn't had any plan for him, so his fitness was sub-par (around 90). Obviously he didn't stand a chance against Contador. I don't know if my former superstar was on top of his game, but... well, you definitely have to be in perfect shape to even match Contador's skill (basically my staff unlocked all his potential last season... meh). Also, my support in the Vuelta wasn't too good, while Contador had a surprisignly willing squad of helpers. Early on, when I saw that Andy didn't stand much of a chance, I went for stage wins with Sagan. Obviously getting the point jersey at the Vuelta is tough for a sprinter. Cavendish (who crashed in the 1st week and withdrew), Greipel, Kittel... many stars there for the rare flat stages. However they never did anything to chase breakways, leaving much of the work to be done solely by me. Omega-Pharma (Contador's new team) failed miserably at controlling anything. Actually, I was kinda pissed of at the missing support throughout the Vuelta. Whatever I wanted to do, most Teams were against me. Now this is normal of course, it's just not that obvious always.
Sagan ultimately took 4 stage wins, while only one of them was in a masssprint. 2 others he got due to being in the group of favorites, while a 1st and 2nd place were results of a breakaway. Sometimes I just sent Sagan in front of the race for the 4 sprint points and then taking him back again. Yes, it was very close. With Contador winning 5 stages, Sagan ultimately had to break away on the final day to finally secure his jersey for good (8 points). It was a good decision, he was already tired and out of shape and thus stood no chance in the final sprint of the Vuelta. Contador won with 6 minutes ahead of Schleck and Igor Anton (9 Minutes).
The Tour was quite exciting to watch. It was a complete disaster for me. Well, we won the Team Time Trial and Sagan took a stage win (I withdrew him then so he can be in better shape for Vuelta, after he had already finished the Giro), so speaking of a disaster might be a bit exaggerated. I thought that Roche might stand a chance for a Top 10 GC, however he already got on the 3rd stage (Mont Ventoux) a beating, picking up 26 minutes to Froome. The on-going 3 weeks were a great fight between Contador, Froome, Pinot and Nibali. While Froome looked better on the mountain-stages (and lost 2 minutes in the team time trial already, what's up with Sky in my career?!), Contador had luck and hill stages on his side. Pinot (Garmin-Sharp) was always attacking, on the verge of breaking away and constantly made up time. Nibali, well - he always kinda came back, however he wasn't in such a great shape as last year, thus ultimately getting only 4th place. Nibali had a the best team though (Lampre), while Contador and Froome... well. Contador didn't have any decent climber in his squad at all (Coppel was at least at the Vuelta to support him), same goes for Froome. Weird AI. Pinot had Quintana, Nibali had 3-4 decent climbers. There was a strange balance in this tour actually, making it quite fun to watch. I wished I had picked a more capable squad. Also, A LOT of time trials. Like 3-4, maybe even 5?
For me, the Tour went on to become quite memorable. Roche had no helpers in the mountains, however he got better and better and reached Rank 13 in the final GC. That's okay. He sometimes could hold up with the best climbers, sometimes he failed. It really mostly depended on my awareness, his day-to-day fitness and his positioning. I had secretly hoped for a Top 10 Ranking, but anyway. Well, in Paris I had only 4 riders left... yes, basically 4 Riders gave up, while Sagan just simply withdrew. This is by far my worst result yet and shows me to not take things too easily.
Fall season turned out to be pretty good. Breschel took several wins (Montreal, Quebec, also some minor races) and ultimately reached 2nd place in the UCI World Tour - again. This is now the third time in a row. It's time for him to get to the top finally. He also won Paris-Roubaix and E3 Prijs again. 2nd at Ronde van Vlaanderen (Boonen took probably his last Ronde win this year, he loses stats each year now). This year Paris Roubaix was a safe solo win. Breschel was just the strongest while the win in 2015 was luck more than anything.
He is still regularly ending up with 50 race days in a year and seeing the new sponsor goals I am not going to change that. The season schedule works perfect for him. He is in top shape for the cobble stone classics while supporting Sagan at Liege & Co, plus he will always get at least one UCI one-day race in the Fall season. He hasn't done a Grand Tour since 2013 though. My aim for him is obviously to get the Vlaanderen Triple at some point (Gent-Wevelgem, Ronde & Paris-Roubaix). Boonen and Cancellara get worse each year now, so Terpstra and the whole Vacansoleil squad will be his toughest competition probably.
I also detect a change in my playing style. I remember half of my squad scored minor UCI points in the first two seasons. Now it's only up to Sagan, Schleck and Breschel, each of them having a Top 10 Place at the end of the year. I think my squad is getting weaker. I lost Roche and Bennatti this season. Machado took a stage win at Giro, but not comparable to last year where he ended up 4th/5th (together with Roche) at the Giro. However I got Tony Gallopin (which is awesome) and Winner Anaconda. The rest are some german youngsters I hired for cheap money to slowly build up a german squad. Obviously the team will change even more so next season. I need better domestiques for the Grand Tours (Machado and Majka just arn't enough), while many of my riders havn't performed so well as I hoped them for (the Tour de France being the obvious example). I got an young italian sprinter last season and he did fairly good in 2016. His sprinting is at 80 right now but he is lacking stats in almost everything else. He could be a young Cipollini though. He has potential so I definitely try to use him in minor races. My russian young rider (Mitrofanov) has developed awesome. He has 78 flat, 73 cobble stone, 73 hill, 75 sprint and even good stats in terms of REG and so forth. However there isn't much left to improve. Mitrofanov also came in 2nd at the World Championship. However, that was a pure joke... basically no big rider was in the stage. It was held in Doha and was a pure flat stage. No big sprinters, Breschel didn't even want to particpate (although WC are one of my personal main goals)... did they all just decide to boycott Doha? Guess, I'll never know. Goddaert won the race in the masssprint. He also took 3rd place at the yearly Velo d'Or. Just because of the World Championship, not a single UCI point won all year. This is just ridiculous. But I guess this are the flawed game mechanics after all and I have noticed the pattern in seasons before, where the World Champion always took 3rd place (Breschel in 2013, Nibali in 2014).
To round up Season 2016 (I'm playing this game way too much, however I love to relax and listen to music mostly while playing the game):
-Schleck: 2nd at Giro & Vuelta, 1st at Tour de Romandie, 3rd Criterium.
-Sagan: 6 stage wins at Giro, 1 at TdF, 4 at Vuelta. 1st at Gent-Wevelgem, 2nd at MSR.
-Breschel: 1st at Paris-Roubaix, E3 Prijs, Quebec, Montreal and some minor cobble stone classics. Top 3 or Top 5 at Vattenfall & San Sebastian. 2nd in UCI World Tour, again coming just 30-40 points short of winning it.
Sponsor goals look mostly like I can play the new season just in the same way while I defo have to improve on the riders form peaks. I have massively lost potential in my GT ambitions though as my squad gets weaker for them each year, while my team is keen to dominate one-day classics and will probably share most of the victor's spoils - together with Vacansoleil, who had an amazing last season and are definitely the team to beat this season again (De Gendt, Vanmarcke, Vanendert... hell, they have so many good riders in their squad who turned out to be perfect one-day classics specialists).
Oh, Pinot is back to Sojasun for this season again. It's funny. He switched to Sojasun after winning the Vuelta 2014. However he switched to Garmin-Sharp after Sojasun couldn't keep themselves in the UCI. THey are now back again and he is switching to them again. Hm, I'm pretty sure he will race next season for Garmin-Sharp... again.
Edited by Shonak on 15-08-2013 15:31
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Thanks. I wanted to keep Fuglsang, but it was his decision to leave.
And I just finished an amazingly frustrating World Championship. Aru was in the lead before the final kilometers, but the 12-man peloton, including Iglinskiy and Nibali reeled him in with less than 1 km to go. The final sprint was awful: Ballan won, before Nibali and Iglinskiy. Aru ended 5th, so this was an amazing display of how not to win the Worlds.
Now let's get some revenge in Lombardia... damn Italians.
edit: and revenge has been taken. Astana crushed the competition from the first climb in Lombardia, making it one of the toughest races ever. Eventually, Nibali and Aru could ride away from their tired rivals and Nibali let Aru win. To finish off the season, Aru also won Emilia and Beijing. He now has 80 on climbing, even though I set rider development to 0.3 Edited by Blueprint on 15-08-2013 17:12
I havn`t won Lombardia yet, or actually any other big UCI Hill stage. Since Sagan will be only riding Tour this year, I think his chances will be quite good. Noticed that most riders don't care too much about Fall anyway, making the classics easy fruits to pick.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
So I just won Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Hard).. finally. What an intense race! About 100-150 km were still to go, but I noticed that a bunch of favorites fell behind when a "small" breakaway broke naturally lose due to the up and down. I had all my riders positioned on the top so 3, then 4, then 5 riders just storm up and down the hills. The breakaway had constantly a lead at about 1:30 to 2:30 minutes. In it were quite some nice riders like Poels (Garmin-Sharp) and Van den Broeck (Vacansoleil/Team ING-DCM). My riders took control and thankfully Garmin-Sharp had a bunch of riders too in the group so we just kept racing while the peloton (Lotto, Movistar, Astana) were all trying to catch up. They came close sometimes, however it was until 30 km when they finally got us. Gallopin has rested so far so he could protect Sagan, saving important energy. Sagan had a perfect day (+4 fitness) and much of the race played in our favor. My riders were completely stuffed though. Breschel, Mitrofanov, Mokrov etc. they did a fantastic job but the peloton finally catched up to us. Rui Costa and Nibali attacked right away, and Sagan managed to catch their backwheel. In the next 2, steep kilometers many riders attackend and Sagan had always enough energy to go with every rider. Eventually, after many failed attempts, the group (about 25 riders) were coming near. With about 10 kilometers to go Sagan didn't had any bottles left and I obviously didn't want to sent him back since he didn't have any helpers with him anymore. Henao attacked again together with Nibali and Sagan just recovered in time to counter the attack. Before the final sprint the group was however together again, 20 riders sprinted. Sagan though had the best position right behind Nibali at 2nd Position. When Poels (who has next to Gilbert the best Hill stats in my career by now) came forward Sagan took his backwheel. He had full red bar and managed to keep Poels backwheel and then going past Poels on the last 0.5 kilometers. Whoopdidoo! Quite a nice ending to a very good spring season. Sagan snatched topranks at MSR, Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Prijs, Amstel, La Fleche and also took Paris-Nice (there wasn't a long time trial this year). Nearly perfect, but also quite frustrating obviously with so many missed wins. Alas, it's alright and that's the fun of the game. Winning everything would be kinda boring I suppose.
Speaking of winning: Breschel took Paris-Roubaix again too. 3rd time in a row. Again I failed to bring him to topshape for Gent-Wevelgem and Ronde, but I suppose I'll have next season a new shot at the treble.
But enough for today, feel motivated to take some climbs with my bike now. Edited by Shonak on 16-08-2013 16:31
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Winning P-R with Breschel is quite impressive. On hard? After I changed to hard my best results there are 4th, 3rd and 2nd. Improving one place every season, so maybe next season is the one. My leader is Van Keirsbulck (81 cobb at the moment with one *). Van Avermaet is slightly better than him in most things that matter, and Cavendish all of a sudden became a great cobble rider (81). I've had more luck in the other cobble races though, winning each 1 time in 6 years. (started as a continental team with young riders so it's only the last 3 years I've been in a position to compete for big wins)
Just going to answer to the sprinting topic from Talent Thread here:
eple wrote:
I'm rarely in a position to have that many flat riders, and I don't have the best sprinter in the game either, so that strategy won't work for me. I used to win a fair chunk of the sprints on normal, but I'm figuring out hard difficulty slowly but surly. I usually have one or two flat riders, a sprint lead out and the main sprinter.
Whenever I take charge and lead amongst the sprint trains I get caught on the last 500m, but lately I've tried lying in the slipstream. It's does not get consistent results, as I frequently get blocked, but t does end up in a few wins.
I've relied on van Poppel and Zabel (77&78 in sp, 74 in acceleration) and that might be why I'm struggling, as I'm usually up against the likes of Cavendish, Kittel and Sagan. This year I'm using Poppel and Zabel as leadouts and I've gotten in Swift (81-77) and Demare (80-79) and it's been a very different story, usually ending up top 5 and getting the occasional win. Just finished the Giro and Swift won 2 stages, got two 2nd places and was 6 times in the top 5. Very happy with that!
Yeah, I used to slip in there a lot too. Bennatti even won a TdF stage this way.
I have Sagan now in my team and he is truly a beast. Just won the final TdF stage with him. However he often gets outsprinted on flat stages. Obviously his big strength is his versatilty. I even won a TdF mountain stage with him (one which ended in a downhill race between him and Nibali; Sagan was in the breakaway obviously)... I don't build up a train myself to often although I like to take Mailand-San Remo really head on and just sacrifice on helper after another one to break the peloton in small groups at the last hill. Building up a sprint train was also perfect with Bennati, but he is too old now.
Your guys are pretty good though. Demare (he is 25 years old in my career) has 84 sprint, so he will snack win after win in the coming seasons. I'm sure of it. Either way, your statement that you suck at sprinting was a vast exaggeration )
Winning P-R with Breschel is quite impressive. On hard? After I changed to hard my best results there are 4th, 3rd and 2nd. Improving one place every season, so maybe next season is the one. My leader is Van Keirsbulck (81 cobb at the moment with one *). Van Avermaet is slightly better than him in most things that matter, and Cavendish all of a sudden became a great cobble rider (81). I've had more luck in the other cobble races though, winning each 1 time in 6 years. (started as a continental team with young riders so it's only the last 3 years I've been in a position to compete for big wins)
Yes, on hard. However I am already in season 5 and he has like 82 or 83 Cobblestone by now and 79 Flat, while guys like Boonen and Cancellara lose stats each year. So it's not really that hard (my first year P-R was a true disaster and one that reminds me to never take this races too easily). The first P-R win was a lot of luck (Boonen got a flat tire while attacking), the 2nd was good tactic and the 3rd now was just pure class & strength. Then again, many good riders form a stiff competition (Terprstra, Vanmarcke and so forth). Cobblestone classics are still my favourite races of the season in the game and I'm just glad that there are enough young cobblestone riders who turn out to be so great in the game. Salvatore Puccio is quite a rising star too. That guy has at 26/27 already 83 in cobblestone. However he still can't keep up when it comes to Paris-Roubaix. Maybe next season.
Van Keirsbulck is great. And he is still young (which season are you in?). Pretty sure you will crack Paris-Roubaix sooner or later on Hard.
Seasonwise things look good for me right now: Schleck won Giro and will now be racing Vuelta. I didn't go for GC at the Tour since I don't think he is ready yet (and my squad). But next year we will surely give Pinot, Froome & Co a run for their money. I have hired Dombrowski (MT 80) for the next 2 years and if he proves himself he may end up as my new team captain for the next few seasons. The Tour was still quite exciting. I managed to snatch 4 stage wins with Sagan and had a couple of amazing breakaways with my danish youngster Panduro who won young riders classification and the 2nd last MT Stage (I did it last night when I came home completely drunk :lol. I sometimes worked against Froome as he didn't give Panduro the stage win in the 2nd week when Panduro was climbing over mountains and it was snowing and raining and everybody just was completely exhausted. He was in the breakaway and almost done and then just Froome catches up to him in the descent and takes the win... Pinot had a fantastic last week and Kelderman got 3rd place after a very long, last time trial where many favourites lost A LOT of time. Nibali had one bad day and that kinda ruined the whole tour. He got like 10 minutes that day (it went over several mountains and at the first he was very bad positioned). However he is leaving Lampre now and joining Astana again (who have also signed Kreuziger). Already look forward to next TdF.
Also a question: During the Tour Contador was massively losing stats. He had at the start of the year 84 MT, now 83 and so forth. He is time trial went from 79 to 76 in 2 weeks. He is "only" 34 though. I thought normal riders lose their stats at the earliest with 35. How come? It's 2017 so it's his 35th year but since his birthday is in december it kinda starts early.
Edited by Shonak on 18-08-2013 15:08
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I believe there is an "age of decline" setting or something like that for each rider, most do appear to be mid-late 30s but his is probably at age 33 or 34.
Finished the 6th season with my Belgian team. Now it's an American team, although I could only get 3 Americans in for the season. I have 4 years to change it around though.
I won most of the shorter UCI tours with Gesink and De Gendt. My season plan has changed a bit and it's working brilliant for the shorter tours. Gesink also won the Giro, but he wouldn't sign a new contract, so the next season will be a challenge as I couldn't get in a good replacement.
I had a very strange Tour de France. The was a lot of flat sprints and crazy hilly stages. And every good sprinter in the game was there and apparently in top form, as I could only managed a few top 5 places. De Gendt was far behind early on, as most of the mountains were saved for the last week and the pace was crazy throughout the 21 stages. In the end he got 5th, which was the same as last year. The surprise was that I sent a few guys out in breakaways in the last 3 mountain stages and in the last one Wellens (77 MO), who had been helping De Gendt, pulled the break away all on his own and managed a 22 min time gap on the leader, sending him to 2nd in the GC, only a minute behind. Unfortunately he lost the podium place on the last stage which was a ITT. Very strange tour... frustrating but lots of fun. I got 2 stage wins, both in break aways, and the KOM & young rider jersey. Usually I come home with more than that, but 4th, 5th and 8th in the ranking is not bad! Still haven't come closer than 4th in TdF on this game.
The Vuelta was the complete opposite of the Tour. Swift came back with 8 stage wins, Aru had 4 stage wins, and something like 10 podium places. He was top 10 in all but 1 stage. In the last week it started getting a bit challenging as a few guys were reaching peak form as Aru approached 70 race days and slight fatigue. Just enough to keep it intresting though, as Aru did manage to win all the jerseys. He now has 2 Vuelta wins. I'm tempted to go for some Vuelta records with him, but he has become quite good now. I recon he is my best chance at TdF next year, so I'm not sure what to do there.
I have a bigger budget so I was able to sign Sagan, Goss and Talansky, but lost Gesink. Haven't decided what to do with them next season, but Talansky will probably only be a helper. Might go for Ardennes triple with Sagan.
So, big goals next season is
Finally win Paris-Roubaix
Podium place or better in TdF
Contador has declined a lot now, so I don't think he'll be a challenge, Froome, Nibali and Schleck are all coming to that age as well, so I think Tejay, Gesink and Pinot will be the guys to beat in the coming years. There is alot of good climbers coming up, but almost all of them lack hill and TT skills.
I'm playing with PCM2013 All in One DB (as far as I can tell). I really wanted to start Saxo-Tinkoff with Contador, Kreuziger & Breschel. Turns out, only one of them stayed. I didn't change anything with Breschel or Demare though.
Astana have signed two of my lost riders by the way this season: Kreuziger & Kump. It's good to see them back in the top league. However, Quintana won't stay with Garmin-Sharp and last season's Giro winner will be now riding for a continental team (yes, it's not even a continental-pro team...), what the hell is up with this game?!
Congratz on your outwright vuelta-domination and enjoy Sagan. He is my favourite pixel-mess to play with in the game.
Did you sign a mythique sponsor? Looks like you are having the same problems as I do with Volkswagen. I managed to sign Julian Kern (who won Amstel this season), Paul Martens and Niklas Arndt for the upcoming season, probably having around 9 german riders now. Yet again, there is no real star that is worth the hassle. I still have 3 seasons left to go though so I hope that my scouts finally found a decent, potential german GC rider. At one point I thought I found the german "Schleck" brothers in Bavaria, but it turns out they suck.
@OZrocker: I'm pretty sure the Age of Decline was 35 when I looked through the DB one time. Anyway. In the end it's only one tough opponent less to defeat so it's fine by me. Edited by Shonak on 19-08-2013 12:26
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
He also won Paris-Roubaix and E3 Prijs again. 2nd at Ronde van Vlaanderen (Boonen took probably his last Ronde win this year, he loses stats each year now). This year Paris Roubaix was a safe solo win. Breschel was just the strongest while the win in 2015 was luck more than anything. 
