What the... I just had the strangest AI ever. It must be a bug but I'd get to that in a second.
So finished the Giro on Rank 3, Caroli got 10th. He even managed to hold up on the last 3 mountain stages with the best riders and now has 77 Mountain (boy, that guy is developing fast). Pretty darn sweet Giro result-wise.
Caruso then profited from his Giro-form and got 4th at Tour de Suisse. At the 2nd last MT stage I attacked with Caruso but got zabeld on the line by Valverde. Caruso already had his hands in the air and Valverde just came too fast.
On the transfermarket are Oss, Aru and Marcato. Marcato already signed, hopefully Oss and Aru will do too. Also some good other riders on the market such as Majka, Roche, Purito, Cavendish, Boonen, Froome... should be a intense transfer season and I'll keep continuing on presenting these transfers, primarly to give myself an overview.
Sooo, the Tour started. It's the one where the Mont Ventoux stage is on the third day. Kittel (SKY) took the first stage win and Lampre came in only 3 seconds behinds Froome's Omega Pharma. My squad for the Tour is: Pozzovivo, Anacona, Ulissi, Niemiec (Age of Decline), Mori, Verona, Pietropolli, Palini. I imagine with Malori we would have won but he got injured and focuses on the WC TT. All in all a promising start.
Well then the Mont Ventoux were things started to get strange... I first noticed it when Nibali protected Brajkovic instead of the other way around. Astana also have Wiggins and Tangert. 4 top riders. Before the Mont Ventoux, there are two smaller climbs. On the second one, the peloton got heavily split and many small groups. Peloton had around 40 riders left. I think Froome was all alone, Cavendish in yellow by the way. I had one rider in the top group (Verona) and he was fantastic, holding up the longest before getting caught. I missed to put Anacona and Niemiec to be put in the peloton and I imagine with their help Pozzo would have been even better. Well anyway, I get sidetracked easily: When Saxo, Movistar and Sky made the pace, Froome and Nibali just left behind. Wiggins and Brajkovic were following closely, though both primary Tour Contenders just did... nothing. I thought they were just bad positioned but when Contador and Quintana attacked and much of the favourites left the group, hell -both of them just rode fairly slow up the Mont Ventoux. They did not make any reaction whatsoever. Ulissi even was in their group and could easily go with their pace. They got around 14 minutes that day and it's just weird by the AI: I imagine Nibali "not being the leader", although it makes no sense whatsoever to me, since Astana is pretty strong. Maybe the AI set Wiggins or Brajkovic as respective team captain. Froome, it just doesn't make sense since there's not a single decent Mountain rider at all in the squad. Maybe this has something to do with Cavendish being in yellow. It certainly shouldn't be a matter of form since they both finished Crit-Daup on the Podium behind TVG. Maybe there was a masssprint in the quick sim of the first stage and Froome and Nibali got injured there. It's really the only explanation I can come up with. But hey, whatever! This is obviously fantastic for me.... Pozzovivo came in 5th at the Mont Ventoux and has good chances for the podium. There won't be a way past Contador and Quintana but I imagine Valverde could be doable (MT 81 though, 35 - I edited his Age of Decline a bit). Gotta ride smart. He is currently 4th in GC and a Top 10 result shouldn't be a problem for him while the other 3 riders will try to take stage wins in breakaways.
Edited by Shonak on 01-10-2013 11:40
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Interesting developments on Ventoux. Could be a crash or illness indeed, hard to tell.
In the meanwhile, Katusha is on fire! Trofimov won 2 stages in Paris-Nice through breakaways, while Menchov managed to lose contact with his main rivals on a crucial descent and lost his podium place. The race was obviously won by Horner, before a surprisingly strong Casar. Nibali, Contador and Menchov completed the top-5. Top-3 was a sponsor goal though.
In the Tirreno, Katusha washed away a weak time trial with a superb Chieti stage. Dani Moreno did a fantastic job launching Rodriguez, who took the stage and the leader's jersey. If he can take some more time on Prati di Tivo, he can survive the short time trial and take the GC.
Checked out possible replacements for Rodriguez too. I'll do everything to get Nibali if he doesn't renew at Astana... just can't help it Edited by Blueprint on 02-10-2013 14:26
So yet another season is nearly over. Very pleased with the team`s development.
Contador won fairly easy the Tour although Quintana seemed to be overall stronger. Nibali must have been surely handicapped somehow, Froome came in later in the game and won two time trials (8th overall). Pozzovivo was great in the mountains and kept up with the best. Unfortunately he lost time in many of the hilly stages (6th overall). Ulissi won in a breakaway on a hilly stage, whilst Anacona did a triumphal solo-breakaway over several mountains and took a much desevered stage win. Nobody wanted to work in his breakaway so I just decided that he goes in for himself. He prevailed superbly. Great Tour from him. The Anacona stage in particular was a joy to play as they peloton completely stretched out and was very thin early on. Many favourites had to do their own work. Some other great stages too. Say what you will about the Tour, but in PCM, it definitely has the best mountain stages. Also, there were lots of breakaway wins in general. Especially when Contador caught up to riders from breakaways he didn't even sprint. Now, this is probably just something with stats, but I like to think that this actually fits Contador's persona quite good. Not such a cannibal like Froome or even Nibali (who took waaay too many stages at the Giro 2013).
I went into the Vuelta with Poels as my captain and Verona in sorta a free role. Verona showed his talent by winning a mountain stage (in a breakaway as usual). Poels did awesome in the mountains. He was up against Pinot, Contador, Daniel Martin and he did a great job. It's a real shame that he leaves Lampre next season though. Basically all the time he lost was in the (simulated) time trial, unfortunately. In the end, he was 4 seconds behind Contador on the 4th rank in Madrid. Pinot won before Daniel Martin. Again, some very nice stages with unexpected events.
As mentioned before, prepared especially for the World Championship this year. It's Massa-Massa route, so it favors climbers. Especially Nibali obviously. Malori won the WC ITT by 9 seconds so quite a good start, which is pretty awesome. That rainbow jersey surely will look good on him.
For the road race, Nibali only had like 70-75 fitness, whilst my riders had around 80-90. Caroli was in great shape. I set good pace at the 3rd last mountain and thinned out the peloton. Nibali however had +5 day fitness and it did pretty good, so I used Caroli as an answer to several attacks in hope that he might get away. It never worked and Pozzo, Rosa and Caruso took over the pace again. Contador was strong, but Poels was really god damn strong. Yes, my Poels. Actually I thought about letting him ride away since then I'd have the rainbow jersey for a couple of weeks. But since he transfers next season to a continental team (and I wanna see that damn jersey) I had to go with Nibali, who attacked at the top and just went crazy on the downhill and came in first (for Italy and Astana). Maybe the rainbow jersey helps a bit for next year's Tour, the Nibali in my career surely had some enough bad moments by now. Caroli came in fifth, in a group with Quintana and Rui Costa, pretty great performance by him. Poels at 2nd place is great too.
So with my guys being in top-shape I had a good shot at Lombardia. Caroli and Cunego both went at the last hill and Cunego managed to break away over the hill, when Nibali and Gilbert just looked at each other. Cunego took the chance and went downhill and they would have nearly caught him in the sprint but he won Lombardia. One last victory for Cunego probably, since his Age of Decline will kick in soon. Pretty darn sweet. 3 important victories (plus, Caruso took Mondevisa - or whatever it's name is) at the end of the season rounds up a successfull season. Pozzatto also won a few week races like 5 days of Dunkerque (or wahtever it's name is excatly in english ) Hopefully next seasons starts equally good.
2015 Overview
UCI Ranking 2015
Spoiler
1. Sagan (SKY)
2. Valverde (SKY)
3. Betancur (AG2R)
4. Daniel Martin (MOV)
5. L.L. Sanches (BEL)
Paris-Nice: Valverde (SKY)
Tirreno-Adriatico: Daniel Martin (MOV)
Tour de Romandie: Betancur (AG2R)
Crit-Dauph: TVG (BEL)
Tour de Suisse: Valverde (SKY)
Tour de Pologne: Stannard (SKY
Eneco Tour: Phinney (BMC)
Lampre:
IN
Fabio Aru - Astana
Daniel Oss - BMC
Nizzolo - Radioshack
Velits - Omega Pharma
Marcato - Vacansoleil
/No new decent talents found this season.
OUT
Pozzovivo -> Accent Jobs (refused new contract)
Poels -> BANK BGZ (refused new contract)
Ferrari -> BMC (no new contract offered)
Wackerman -> BMC (refused new contract)
Niemiec - Vacansoleil (no new contract offered)
Pietropolli -> Cannondale (no new contract offered)
Trentin -> Ridley (refused new contract)
Mori -> Tirol (no new contract offered)
As you can see, I did some nice tranfers I think. I especially look forward to Aru and Nizzolo. Not sure about where my focus will lie on next season as it will depend on sponsor goals but I'd like to take on the Giro with Caruso/Caroli as a double phalanx, and Aru maybe Tour. With Oss I have a great new captain for the cobblestone classics and I'm sure Pozzato can help him. My cobblestone talent has still a long way to go to be competitive.
Competition-wise SKY look to be the team for Nizzolo, there actual sprint train (Sagan, Greipel, Degenkolb, Goss, Demare) is just insane. For this they seem to have given up on GC with Wiggins far beyond his peak as leader. Astana (Nibali, Valverde, Brajkovic - 4th overall last Tour), Movistar (Porte, Martin, Rodriguez - though Age of Decline kicked in already) and AG2R (Froome, Betancur) will definitely make for a good Tour next year and at least Astana will be my toughest opponents, next to Sagan, at the Ardennes classics. Katusha (Contador) and Radioshack (Uran) may have great riders but I'm not so sure that they have a good enough squad to support their leaders enough but we'll see. Henao and L.L. Sanches at Europcar could be a tough combo at Ardennes classics too, while Omega Pharma regain their cobblestone advantage with Boonen's return and Vanmarcke in the squad too. Terpstra left though to Orica (I think).
To Caroli: Great season for him, definitely. 5th at WC, 10th at Giro, 11th at Il Lombardia. He is improving a lot. Hopefully he will continue and I might even consider him for the Vuelta (if the WC stage is rather flat, I think Doha should be next). His hill stats like Hill or Acc. are not so high though so I don't consider him yet as an option for Ardennes and rather focus him now on good Grand Tour classifications, always keeping an eye out for a big surprise.
EDIT: Caroli got 2th place at Tour de Beijing. His first podium (not counting Giro Team Time Trial).
Sad day though, Cancellara retires in my career. I'd probably bring him back if I wasn't afraid that my save game would get fucked up again (like constant crashes return or smthg like that). Besides that, his Age of Decline already kicked in, so he wouldn't on top anymore anyway. Not excatly happy about it though (I remember at my Volkswagen career he raced until his 38 xD)
Edited by Shonak on 03-10-2013 21:48
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Just finished 1 season with Lampre won gent and e3 with pozzato, amstel with cunego then at giro i was 2nd in gc with scarponi i got 2 stage wins (1 stage win scarponi and jose serpa 1) then at tdf niemec and ullisi were the leaders niemec finished at 12th and ullisi at 15th with Two stage wins! Then at the vuelta cunego was the leader (preparing for wc) he finished 4th in gc and took 1 stage. At the wc i was Italy working for Cunego(nibali and others out of form) and i won ahead of albasini. The giro winner was Nibali. Tour was won by Contador and a surprise in the vuelta as Henao won it ahead of Schleck. Wc Itt was won by spartacus. I also won tour down under with ullisi, tour of beijing with cunego and i finished 2nd in the Uci team standing!
I'm trying to decide what to play when the PCM DB comes out. I've not played past one season yet due to lack of routes (as i'm too lazy to individually add the races one by one XD).
I'm thinking I might make a Colombian WT team, probably with some other South American and US riders (since that would make logical sense sponsor wise I think). Picking the top end is hard though. Bentencur, Quintana, Uran and Henao is probably overkill XD. Especially as the first two will probably get stat boosts compared to where they are now (well, on the original DBs, might have got modded in the new official DB but i'm still running on old saves atm.)
So, i've got a Little Problem with my Node 4 - Giordana Career: I'm currently on the day before the penuniltimate stage of the Giro friuli. I'm signed in for an extra two one day races on the day of the last stage. We've only got 11 riders though, 6 of them ridig friuli. Now my question is: what to do? pull out of friuli completely (best GC positions are 13, 14 and 15) or try to enter the other races with one or two riders or something completly different?
Dippofix wrote:
So, i've got a Little Problem with my Node 4 - Giordana Career: I'm currently on the day before the penuniltimate stage of the Giro friuli. I'm signed in for an extra two one day races on the day of the last stage. We've only got 11 riders though, 6 of them ridig friuli. Now my question is: what to do? pull out of friuli completely (best GC positions are 13, 14 and 15) or try to enter the other races with one or two riders or something completly different?
If you don't have at least one cyclist to bring at a race your iscription will be cancelled so... no problem!
@Shonak: very nice transfers and good to see Nibali win the Worlds! But what do you mean with him being a cannibal, is that what happened in your 2013 season? In the real world, he only won two stages, one of them being a time trial.
I hope to finish Tirreno-Adriatico and ride some classics this weekend. Really wish I had some more time for this...
Hey
I'am starting a new career with a custom-made team around Sagan. Its slovenian/slovakian oritaded + some cheap strong riders. How do you think about this team? To strong or not for a PCT
Blueprint wrote:
Wow, Lampre seems popular these days
@Shonak: very nice transfers and good to see Nibali win the Worlds! But what do you mean with him being a cannibal, is that what happened in your 2013 season? In the real world, he only won two stages, one of them being a time trial.
I mean the PCM Giro 2013 of course. He won like 5-6 stages and Scarponi back then was like two-three time 2nd, which was kinda... well, frustrating when Nibali simply outsprints you after you try so hard to drop him. I think Nibali also won Tirreno, Tour de Suisse and so forth... he was really without remorse in the first season, much more content now.
Sponsor goals are in:
Stage win at Tirreno, Top 5 at MSR, Gent and E3, Top 10 at RvV and Roubaix should be more than possible. Unfortunately with Nizzolo's signing Lampre wants me to win the points jersey at the Giro, so that will be... difficult (especially considering the Sky Sprinttrain - hope not too many high calibers will ride the Giro). Stage wins at Tour de France and Top 5 at Vuelta are definitely within reach, with the latter being the big season goal by Caroli.
@nielsboy: Yes, very strong. Just by having Sagan in the squad its already good enough for WT.
Edited by Shonak on 04-10-2013 17:53
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Dippofix wrote:
What DB are you using? How on earth does Quaade deserve 80 TT?
PCM.Daily's 2013DB+NC's with stats by me. I think Quaade will be in 5 years the best TT'er in the world. And with his prestation at the WC i think 80 in TT is a good stat for him.
Finally managed to finish the Tirreno with a superb Rodriguez. On Prato di Tivo, he attacked from the foot and gained 3 minutes on his main rivals. Then a third stage victory in the final hilly stage and the GC was for Purito with almost 4 minutes on Dan Martin. After that, nobody responded to Paolini's attack on the Poggio, so Milan-Sanremo is in the pocket too! Quite frankly, I don't get this race in PCM, it goes like this all the time...
Now I'm trying to make something out of Catalunya with Moreno, but it's very hard with a prologue and easy hilly stages that are not selective enough. We got a stage win with Kolobnev though, but GC-wise it's looking pretty mediocre.
Last, but not least, the E3 Prijs saw the same result as Omloop & Kuurne: Boonen outsprints Paolini. Despite all these results being good for Paolini, it's getting slightly frustrating.
Edited by Blueprint on 07-10-2013 07:33
Pozzato got a tirreno adriatico stage win in a breakaway. The sponsor goal was one stage win, so I was really glad that worked. Cunego didn't stand much of a chance on the hilly stages, plus Nizzolo got injured a few days before the race and only recovering in time for the Giro.
Ulissi got a 2nd place at MSR, not much chance when Sagan manages to get your backwheel and simply outsprints you.
Oss and Marcato took each a surprise victory in a sprint in E3 and Gent-Wevelgem. The second one was particularly funny since Oss and Guarnieri tried to stay in the favourites group. Pozzato got in a big crash at the start of the race and thus didn't play any role at Gent-Wevelgem. However, Marcato was always in the peloton (or what you would call the peloton in such a race). In the end, they catched up to the groups of favourites and he had full energy. He took Oss' wheel, who in turn managed to snatch the wheel from Boonen. Marcato outsprinted EBH on the last meters (who was on long solo-breakaway). Top 5 was the sponsor goal at each.
At RvV Oss managed to stay the longest with Vanmarcke and Turgot, with the later taking the stage win. He arrived several seconds behind these two, taking 3rd place before Langeveld. Paris-Roubaix wasn't so good although he took a 9th place. So all sponsor goals achieved.
The Ardennes Classics were a bit of a disappointment - once again. I thought Ulissi (with 79 Hill stats) would be finally able to be better at the last kilometers. Amstel surprised me with a new finish and thus I came a little bit wrong into the final kms. Ulissi got a good Top 15 place though. Liege and Fleche both went better. At Liege he managed to stay with the group of favourites when they broke away but couldn't compete in the sprint (8th). At Fleche he followed Henaos break at the Wall and was only outsprinted by the last few meters (5th). Again, I failed at making a lasting impression on these races and I doubt that Ulissi, or any Lampre rider as a matter of fact, will have a shot at one of the races in the coming years. Better luck next year hopefully.
Giro was quite... dull. 5 mountain stages and two long time trials, in between a lot of simply flat stages. Plus, 4 out of the 5 mountain stages simply featured one MT at the end of the stage... nothing in between but flat wasteland. So, the Giro was rather dull. Mollema (RTL) took an easy victory before Talansky (CAN) and Fuglsang (ALM). Caruso got a 7th place. He's just too weak at Time Trial and I couldn't make a lasting impression in the Mountains like last year. At least Nizzolo came just in time in perfect shape to ride the Giro. While Gilbert took 2 victories and 2 second places in the first four days I already thought that the points jersey might be tougher than expected. However, Gilbert crashed out of the race in the first week and Nizzolo took 5 stage wins and thus it was relatively easy securing the points jersey already in the 2nd week. So sponsor goal was fulfilled and I hope to cash in once the contract renewal is available.
What I really disliked: The last time trial had a small cobblestone section and I didn't see that in the preview. Since it was late and I already wanted to quit I just wanted to sim it and then it completely fucked up the results. So I got the weekly save and just sim'd through the whole thing. At a MT stage Sutherland and Boswell got 14 minutes to the favourites, thus landing on the podium. Quite ridicilous. But anyway, Talansky and Fuglsang kicked them off the podium in the final timetrial.
Overall I gotta say that the Giro was - even compared to last season - very boring to play and I hope that the next few seasons will feature more challenging mountains and parcours. Riding a flat stage for 100-150 kms just to get to a mountain with the whole peloton is just rather pointless to me. All the good stages feature many mountains and the only Giro stage, which featured such a profile, actually turned out to be quite intense. Obviously this route 2016 didn't play to Caruso's strength (or any of my GT riders in particular) so I am okay with the 7th place in the end. I failed to ride more aggressively on the few stages where it matters and probably brought riders who are too weak at Time Trial. I could imagine that Ulissi might have had a shot at the podium this year. I'm glad however that I saved Caroli this year for the Vuelta and Anacona, Ulissi and Aru will ride the Tour to get another Top 5 result and hopefully a stage win (as required). Malori and Velits did okay at the Time Trials but except for a 3rd place of Malori, we didn't get much besides Nizzolo's wins. Hope that the Giro routes will be tougher and offer more variance in the coming seasons, especially because I will set out next season to finally win the Giro, probably with Caroli being my main man (but first, let's see how he will do at the Vuelta). Looking forward to the Tour and Vuelta. They seem to deliver on what I find in a Grand Tour most interesting: tough, long, intense mountain stages with lots of possibilty of attacking, chances of wild tactics and fully using one's squad strength.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Caruso already had his hands in the air and Valverde just came too fast.
Caroli came in fifth, in a group with Quintana and Rui Costa, pretty great performance by him. Poels at 2nd place is great too.
