Does anyone have an idea of how often a rider "Future Great" pops up, given a scout with 10/10 on everything.
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I don't think it works that way. Talents are, as far as I know, created at the start of the season randomly. You sent your scout then into regions and if you're lucky they find someone special before you move him to a new area. U23 ranking can be a indicator of a rider's skills & potential (just sort the list after the nationality you are looking for) but not a guarantee. You can also check the results of the U23 races and try to use them as a indicator like "Was the guy just lucky" or is he really good? Also the raw outlook on potential (like "interesting", "excellent future" ) is not always really correct since, I think, it just focuses on the potential but what's that worth when a rider only starts with 50iesh stats at age 23 in the pro circuit and ultimately will only be a okay domestique at best?
From my experience, when a climber has 68, 69 or 70 you can sign him if his other stats are decent enough. No need in having a sprinter with 80 sprint who lacks severely in acceleration for example (e.g. below 55). The same is for other specialisations of course.
So far, at my current career, this method and indicators works pretty good: Caroli is already becoming one of the best climbers (I think I scouted him at 69 Mountain - his Hill potential is around 80 but he had around 63 back then), Chessa (scouted with 74! hill) has huge potential and a cobblestone rider with 69 in CB and FL (Age 21 back then) still has a long way to go but he's getting there. The fourth guy (Piccolo) could turn into a decent domestique so he's worth to keep around. So in this case, I guess I had two seasons just the right nose because the last two seasons I didn't have any luck with the talents at all. So in the end, you just have to pay attention to any rider who may seem interesting, sent your scouts in different regions, have your scouts take a look at them und need some luck.
As for legendary scouts: I noticed that they mostly just scout faster than "normal" ones. Also their prediction of potential might be more accurate but I really can't say for sure (someone posted a theory like that somewhere, I think in the talent thread).
At my old Saxo Bank/Volkswagen career I signed lots of german youngsters in hope to find a new superstar for the new sponsor but most of them wern't worth the hassle and I fired them after I saw their potential. This is obviously quite a expensive tactic. To minimize such risk, but still playing the game itself, you can check the potential of any talent you have scouted in Lachis Editor if you like it to play it safe and want to avoid to flood your team with bad talent for 3 years.
I can recommend you Blueprints youngrider XML files. He posted a link several days/weeks ago. They are much better than the game's default stuff.
Blueprint wrote:
Or maybe I should just hire Ulissi next year.
Despite my constant complaining, I can only recommend you Ulissi. He's great at Grand Tours when you can use him for stage wins, especially the hilly stages. He's the king in any breakaway since he's mostly not good enough to be a favourite (at least at the TdF), so other riders work with him in the breakaway, but better than most others and his sprint after long hilly stages is pretty okay too.
Edited by Shonak on 11-10-2013 03:26
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I have a question. In my career in my self made team I have Pinot (MO 78, HI 76). Shall I go with him for a good GC or with a breakaway's in mountain stages, in the Tour de France?
Edited by nielsboy1998 on 11-10-2013 07:22
nielsboy1998 wrote:
I have a question. In my career in my self made team I have Pinot (MO 78, HI 76). Shall I go with him for a good GC or with a breakaway's in mountain stages, in the Tour de France?
Depends on your sponsor goals. Personally, I'd go for the polkadot jersey and stage wins, because it's more fun.
Blueprint wrote:
Or maybe I should just hire Ulissi next year.
Despite my constant complaining, I can only recommend you Ulissi. He's great at Grand Tours when you can use him for stage wins, especially the hilly stages. He's the king in any breakaway since he's mostly not good enough to be a favourite (at least at the TdF), so other riders work with him in the breakaway, but better than most others and his sprint after long hilly stages is pretty okay too.
Normally, I don't send my Ardennes riders to the Tour at all. I have a rigid, almost formulaic season planning that I want to change as little as possible. From my Ardennes team, two riders won't do a GT, five ride the Vuelta and one will go for the Giro. Optimized it so much that all my riders have 62-69 race days (national and world championships not included) and I pretty much have entire teams of riders in good shape for any WT race, from Down Under to Beijing. On top of that, every rider in the team will be in good shape for the Worlds. They're also easy to group in Lachis Planner this way
nielsboy1998 wrote:
I have a question. In my career in my self made team I have Pinot (MO 78, HI 76). Shall I go with him for a good GC or with a breakaway's in mountain stages, in the Tour de France?
Depends on your sponsor goals. Personally, I'd go for the polkadot jersey and stage wins, because it's more fun.
The sponsor goal was wear the polka-dot yersey . I'am now at stage 4 (TTT in Nice). I have lost some time in the TTT (so 2'00" at the most GC-contenters) and my importants climb team mate (Riblon) has fallen in stage 2 and has a fractured thigh. So the last 10km will be dificult to stay in the favouritres group without team mates. So I think I go for a stage. Barguil from my team wears now the polka-dot yersey, so I want to defend this yersey. And if Pinot may join the breakaway then I let him ride for the Polka-dot yersey if Barguil lose that yersey.
Blueprint wrote:
Normally, I don't send my Ardennes riders to the Tour at all. I have a rigid, almost formulaic season planning that I want to change as little as possible. From my Ardennes team, two riders won't do a GT, five ride the Vuelta and one will go for the Giro. Optimized it so much that all my riders have 62-69 race days (national and world championships not included) and I pretty much have entire teams of riders in good shape for any WT race, from Down Under to Beijing. On top of that, every rider in the team will be in good shape for the Worlds. They're also easy to group in Lachis Planner this way
I realize that is the smart thing to do but I just decide really often on my gut which races a guy will take or not. I have lots of training schedules and just mix them through. No real Team A or Team B for many things. The only thing for which I really let my riders prepare are the Grand Tours even though I often don't have enough riders for the Vuelta.
So, another season comes to an end. On wednesday it rained like hell (didn't even feel like running for a few miles, it just stormed) and yesterday it snowed like crazy. So, quite some quality time to sit at home and play PCM.
So after the stage winning, but disappointing GC-wise Giro I wanted to get some good results at the Tour. Sponsor goal was a stage win which Ulissi took. Unfortunately my GC ambitions were already stopped at the Dauphine when Anacona got injured. In the end he couldn't even come in good shape for the Vuelta. He is my best current climber (80 MT), so that obviously sucked. Aru, Verona and Ulissi still managed to hang on and got each a Top 25 result in the end. However they were far from the targeted Top 10. Aru won the Mountain jersey though because he two times tried to win a stage in a breakaway. Both times he was caught on the last kilometers. The mountain jersey is a nice substitute though. I also got another jersey, namely the U25 jersey. Carlos Verona rode a good Tour, sometimes in a breakaway but ultimately couldn't perform a surprise.
The Tour was relatively easy won by Froome (ALM) who maybe wasn't the best climber but obviously was quite dominant in the time trials. Quintana (best climber at this year's Tour) and Tejay Van Garderen (best time trial) complete the podium. Nibali and Contador attacked a lot but they were definitely missing the punch. I think Nibali already rode way too much in the early season and Contador didn't have a strong enough team with Katusha I think. I think the mountains also wern't quite tough enough, all time gaps were rather small. Uran (RTL) got a good 4th place, long time-eyeing even the win, after his two wins at the Giro the previous seasons. The MTs still were enjoyable and very nicely designed. Alp d'Huez is always cool.
So now to the good part: Vuelta was a blast, and Caroli delivered! At Age 24 the boy has made a surprise and won his first Grand Tour. Hopefully, unlike Cunego, he will manage this again soon enough.
Vuelta was rather climbing-intense, although it offered four time trials (Prologue, Team time trial, Mountain time trial, last stage 30km TT), so it wasn't the perfectly route suited for him. However at the first stages he kept his cool and Lampre even won the team time trial. The two biggest opponents were Contador (KAT) und Majka (VAC, who has 80 MT by now - as good as Caroli). Since both of them had already ridden a Grand Tour before in this season, Caroli obviously had a bit of fitness advantage. He was nearly all the time at 95+.
The mountain stages were... unique, to say the least. Beautifully designed and basically at every stage I played it rained and when climbing it often even snowed. Many mountain passes with very little to nearly nothing flat in between, great descents, overall high pace in the races and lots of breakaway wins (also because of Lampre's very generous attitude ). In the end, I think over 70 riders withdrew, so the race was actually quite tough. With all the constant rain and snow, there were lots of crashes and the Vuelta generally has a very high pace. So that was quite an atmosphere I had there.
The first Mountain stage was a battle between Caroli and Contador, with lots of attacking and they both came in at the same time. Majka just a few seconds after them. While Contador went into the 2nd week with the red jersey, Caroli got it when he attacked at the 2nd mountain stage, shortly before the final descent. Contador even missed the first group of followers. Majka got a 2nd place that day, arrived nearly a minute after Caroli. Majka then took the next MT stage when he bravely attacked very early and wasn't to be caught that day, 40 seconds later came Caroli and another 30 secs later Contador.
The tough 3rd week with three decivise MT stages was then the blow-out. The first of these 3 didn't make much difference with the top-riders all coming together into the finish I think (I don't remember so much on that one honestly^^).
The 2nd however was pure awesomeness: Over a huge mountain, Majka and Betancur attacked and because the road was very small and there was a huge breakaway, who got caught, Caroli was trapped in the peloton. My superb Lampre climbers though (Caruso, Stortoni, Cattaeno) made all the difference though and Caroli eventually managed to catch up alone to the 4 riders in front in the descent (Majka, Betancur, Valls, Garcia). Majka and Caroli both worked to increase their time on Contador, who desperately chased them, being previously caught in the peloton far back and now rode for his life. On a very steep last kilometer (the stage offered several tough mountains, then a last huge, steep HC-mountain at the end, a short descent and then a steep wall - perfect designed by the way), Caroli mobilized his power and took the victory, even handing one more minute to Majka. That day he probably secured the Vuelta. Contador, despite his huge chase, still managed to get 3rd place at that stage. Honestly, Contador's Katusha Team just was too bad at the mountains (Moreno Moser his only real help as I remember it, and that guy isn't really a climber), they often left him unprotected or he had to get his own bottles.
At the Mountain Time Trial, Contador got around 40 seconds back to Caroli and Majka and won his 3rd stage (one hilly one in the first week, MT time trial, last time trial). The last mountain stage was purely for pro forma since the descent was very long after the last mountain. Caroli didn't follow Contador and Majka when they attacked but Lampre eventually caught up to them. At the time trial, which Contador won, Caroli got another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes but it didn't matter so much. He won the Vuelta with around 3 minutes ahead to Contador and 4 to Majka. Also, we got the best U25 rider (obviously ) as well as the team classifications and three stage wins. But well, that's not so important. Caroli is now officially a superstar (hehe, at least according to his rider profile). This has been quite a long-time coming (including my previous careers), you know, to scout a talent and make him a Grand Tour-winner, so I was rather... satisfied. Dunno yet, if he will ride to win the Giro next year, depends on the route, but its obvioulsy highely likely.
FYI, Caroli is a very tiny, very thin rider. He lacks enormously in flat and time trial. Despite his already high climbing stat (80), he has still lots of nearly untouched potential in Hill and Acceleration. His secondary attributes like Regenartion are already decent but should improve over time of course.
Carol got a good 4th place at Il Lombardia. Saga won Il Lombardia in the sprint and he also won the World Championship in Doha (that boring flat race... sigh).
2016 Overview
UCI Ranking 2015
Spoiler
1. Sagan (SKY)
2. Nibali (AST)
3. Kreuziger (SKY)
4. Rui Costa (MOV)
5. Giuseppe Carlo (LAM) - he got a 2nd place at Tour de Pologne too btw
Team:
1. Movistar
2. SKY
3. Astana
4. Lampre
5. Omega Pharma
17 & 18: Saxo, Big Mat
Best PCT teams: Euskatel, Cofidis
Grand Tours 2016
Spoiler
Tour de France
1. Froome (ALM)
2. Quintana (MOV)
3. Tejay Van Garderen (OGE)
4. Urán (RTL)
5. Porte (MOV)
14. Ulissi (LAM)
19. Verona (LAM)
23. Aru (LAM)
1x stage win Ulissi, KoM Jersey Aru, U25 jersey Verona
Giro
1. Mollema (RTL)
2. Talanksy (CAN)
3. Fuglsang (ALM)
5x stage wins (Nizzolo), Point jersey Nizzolo
Vuelta
1. Caroli (LAM)
2. Contador (KAT)
3. Majka (VCD)
3x stage wins (2x Caroli, team time trial)
Tour Down Under: Durbridge (OGE)
Paris-Nice: Nibali (AST)
Tirreno-Adriatico: Kreuziger (SKY)
Catalunya: Nibali (AST)
Pais Vasco: Nibali (AST)
Tour de Romandie: Kreuziger (SKY)
Crit-Dauph: Porte (MOV)
Tour de Suisse: Nibali (AST), 3rd place by Cattaeno (very surprising )
Tour de Pologne: Devenyns (RTL)
Eneco Tour: Sagan (SKY)
Tour of Beijing: Hivert (EUC)
Lampre:
IN
Kwiatkowski - Omega Pharma
Diego Rosa - Androni
Leopold König - Cannondale
Boaro - free rider, previously at Saxo
Vorobyev - free rider, 3 years without contract
/No new decent talents found this season.
OUT
Pozzato -> Topsport Vlaanderen (no new contract offered)
Caruso -> BANK BGZ (refused new contract)
Dodi -> Selle Italia (no new contract offered)
So I think I have next season a squad of around 27 riders. 25 was this season not quite enough. Further improved the climbing abilities of Lampre (Rosa huge talent, already 79, König good helper as well), but mostly increased the power on flat stages. Kwiatkowski should be fun to ride and maybe a serious constant for Paris-Nice or Tirr-Adr. if there's a time trial and they want me to get Top 5 or Top 10. FYI, in the first season Kwiatkowski won Paris-Nice and many other races and then later I decreased his current stats a bit while I left his potential intact because he wasn't really that good yet after all. Hopefully he can now perform again, his previous seasons wern't so successful as 2013.
Other notable transfers
Spoiler
Major Captains (not all of them of course )
L.L. Sanchez - Europcar -> Ag2r Keldermann, BMC -> Astana Moser, Katusha -> Astana
Spilak, Movistar -> Cannondale
Brajkovic, Astana -> Cofidis
Peraud, Katusha -> Cofidis
R. Valls, Movistar -> EPM Une (his actually quite one of my favourite riders in the game, since he always performs great at the Vuelta)
Dan Martin, Movistar -> Euskatel
Farrar, Radioshack -> Garmin-Sharp
Van den Broeck, Lotto -> La Pomme Marseille
Phinney, Topsport Vlaanderen -> Leopard Trek Contintenal Team o_O
Valverde, Astana -> Movistar Sagan, SKY -> Movistar Quintana, Movistar -> Omega Pharma
Van Keirsbulck, Radioshack -> Orica Rui Costa, Movistar -> Shimano, formerly Argos Shimano (WT) Froome - Ag2r -> SKY Pinot, FDJ -> Sojasun
Ladagnous, Belkin -> Saxo (relegated) -> Radioshack
Kristoff, Vacansoleil -> FDJ
Bardet, AG2R -> Vacansoleil
Guardini, Adecco -> Garmin Sharp (didn't achieve WT) -> Radioshack
Others noteworthy: Elissonde, BMC -> Ag2r
Ferrari, BMC -> Astana
CA Sörensen, Saxo -> Astana
De Greef, Topsport Vlaanderen -> Lotto
Turgot, Radioshack -> Movistar
Sutherland, Saxo -> Orica
Golas, Omega Pharma -> Vacansoleil
Tony Martin, Sojasun -> Gio-Gio o_O
Pozzovivo, Accent Jobs -> ora24.eu
Kruijwisk, Shanks -> RusVelo
Gasparotto, Euskatel -> Shimano
Machado, UnitedHealthcare -> Saxo
Talansky, Cannondale -> UnitedHealthcare o___O
Nieve, Cofidis -> Movistar
Voigt, Coldereports -> Gio-Gio - I see he is still around^^
J.J. Rojas, Adecco -> Movistar
Ventoso, Andalucia (Caja Rural) -> Movistar
So, business as usual: I suppose Nibali will be a lot better prepared for next season's Tour since Moser will probably be their main man for the early classics. Great transfer with Kelderman too. SKY look to go for a Grand Tour win again with the return of Froome, plus Kreuziger is very good. Their sprint train won't be so dominant as last season (although Kittel, Orica GreenEdge, and Cavendish, Belkin, won most sprint stages anyway at the Tour). Movistar might have problems adjusting with the departure of Quintana, Rui Costa, Spilak and Dan Martin. Still they have Porte and now Sagan. Valverde and Purito as oldies in their squad is quite nice too (maybe Contador will join them in a few seasons?). Contadors Katusha team havn`t got any decent climber this season so, as far as I can tell, so he will be on his own probably again. Plus, Moser leaves. Roelandts has at least decent support at the cobblestone races. These races should be once again in total control of Omega-Pharma (Boonen, Vanmarcke, Van Avermaet). They are just too strong. Still wondering if I should get Spartacus or not. I suppose I decide on the last minute (season not fully over yet). Radioshack still have Mollema and Uran, so they should be good to go at Giro and Tour. Overall, very nice transfers this season. A bit more competition probably. BMC will probably struggle next season as their key riders (Kelderman, Ferrari) leave and they have found no real substite it seems (maybe Spartacus?). Anyhoo, already looking forward to it. Edited by Shonak on 13-10-2013 00:33
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
So,i haven't had much with Guinness lately, but Catalunya, E3, Gent-Wevelgem and RVV are over. Dan Martin easily won Catalunya ahead of Klöden i think. He basically secured it all on the first and only MTF, when he attacked an only Klöden could follow. The last 2-3 kms weren't steep, and the finish completely surprised me. I was just with one of the other riders, look at the bottom left Corner and suddenly it's only 0.2 to go. Luckily enough i could still start the sprint and the stage win was secured. Then on a hilly stage Martin attacked with two or three other favourites, Betancur and Gerrans i think were there, and took 40 seconds on Klöden, which ultimately was enough. E3 was quite dissapointing though. Boom and Bagdonas had to Play catch up nearly all the time. In the end, they caught the favourites, but were completely empty for the sprint. Bagdonas was 12th and Boom 13th in the end i think. Then Gent-Wevelgem made up for it though. Cancellara attacked with about 10km to go, out of a big Group. For a Long time it looked like he could stay away, but we started our sprint Train anyway. In the end we caught him with about 0.5km to go. For a split second it looked like Bagdonas could win it, but Boonen overtook him in the end. Still, 2nd was more than satisfieing. Then at RVV it was much like E3, Bagdonas again finishing best out of our Team, with an 11th place. Boom really disapointed me so far, but P-R is yet to come.
Also Roche and Lavery have said they'd wait till July before prollonging, so it Looks like this Giro is the only Chance in the near future to get a GT win with an Irish rider.
And Congrats on winning with Caroli, thats also something i wan't to try sometime. Is it actually worth scouting though? Or should i just sign good U-23 riders?
@nielsboy: Thanks.
Sorry, I have edited the results after I posted the first segment since I feared that my laptop might crash (weird sounds coming from him^^), WC is Sagan. Y
eah, I was actually pleased to see Mollema win the Giro too, since in 2014 he got injured on a simulated stage (2nd place back then) and in 2015 he got the 2nd place. So it's cool that he won, since I like different victors over the years, but as far as I'm concerned, the reign of Caroli at the Giro should start next season. I don't know about his correct potential, but I think he should have 7 since he lacks severely in flat and time trial.
And Congrats on winning with Caroli, thats also something i wan't to try sometime. Is it actually worth scouting though? Or should i just sign good U-23 riders?
Thanks. Caroli and Piccolo (not such a big talent, but he can become a good domestique) were both scouted in Venetia in the first season and both of them wern`t listed in the U-23. If you have the cash (the first season I nearly went bankcrupt because of my scout and I had to fire him mid-season, just to hire him the season after again^^). Obviously there is quite some luck involved and you need to interpret the scouted results, although they arn`t always accurate. It's also quite weird that Caroli improves much faster than other riders but then again this might have something to do with his potential. I think he got like 10 MT points (with a 10 climber coach) in 3 seasons, so that's cool. But yeah, I think it's worth it, especially if you want an irish serious GT-contender this might be your best option. U23 rankings can be a help but, as far as I can tell, they just don't give enough information on riders. I wrote several posts above how I indicate the different settings.
Good luck at the Giro with Roche. I imagine Nibali will ride (since I think he always rides it in the first season) so that's tough competition.
By the way, you can avoid the situation that riders are unwilling to negotiate a new contract by simply offering them a new contract the year before. For example, the contract ends 2014 and it's 2013. Instead of waiting for 2014 to make a new contract you can simply offer a new one and they usually or always agree if the sum/status is correct. Of course that tactic doesn't work when you start the career and the riders already want to leave in the first season. Edited by Shonak on 11-10-2013 21:01
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Congrats to Caroli's Vuelta, that must've been awesome. Nice transfers too, by the way.
In my career, Moreno took revenge for Catalunya by winning PaÃs Vasco, including one stage win and an impressive 10th place in the time trial. Paolini just finished Paris-Roubaix in 8th place. It was an amazingly hard race with Cancellara failing to deliver, Boonen working for Chavanel and Flecha ending up finally winning his favourite race, ahead of the OPQS trio Chavanel, Boonen & Terpstra. Paolini was suffering hard in the last 30 km, so he had no energy left for a decent sprint. Now heading to the Ardennes and hoping that the injury spree (Gusev, Florencio, Kritskiy, Brutt) will finally come to an end.
Edited by Blueprint on 13-10-2013 16:36
So, i just finished the Ardennes. Before them were Pais Vasco and P-R though. Roche finished 2nd in Pais Vasco, 13 seconds behind Gadret, but still a head of Froome which is a good sign, i suppose. Then came P-R which was probably our best showing on cobbles this season. With maybe 40km to go there was a pack of maybe 20, with all the favourites and our good Cobblers in it. Then Cancellara and Boonen attacked together, and quickly got a good lead. Then suddenly, i dind't see this happening, i saw a belgian NC Jersey on the floor, and so Boonens chances were gone. If he would have won, he'd have won every cobbled WT Race and Omloop. Anyway, after that it was obvious there could only be one winner. And so it was, Cancellara took it easily. The fight for the places behind was a lot more interesting, with OPQS now working for Terpstra and Guinness still there with a good few riders. Then the Group got smaller and smaller, until there was only Flecha, Eisel, Boom and Terpstra. But then came the hour of Nicki Terpstra, where he showed that he can do more than just work for Tom Boonen. He put in a mighty attack that nobody could follow. Then the two Guinnes riders decided enough was enough, and both rode away from Flecha. Eventhough they chased very hard, and Boom lead Eisel out in the end, Terpstra just managed to hang on to 2nd. Still, 3rd and 4th is good for a Team like us. This was also the one and only cobbled WT race were Bagdonas wasn't our best placed rider.
But then came the Ardennes and brought huge dissapointment. Gilbert took the Triple and our best placed riders were:
AGR: Boom 4th
Fleche Wallone: Martin 5th
L-B-L: Bakelants 13th
Don't feel like writing much on them, i had expected much more than that though. Maybe also noteworthy is that Jelle Vanendert took the reverse-triple, finishing last in every race.
And i just can't seem to find anybody to replace Roche. Froome, Valverde or Pinot are the only real Options, maybe Gesink. Still, they either wan't a lot more Money or they're not good enough. I'll have to think about it for another while.
Blueprint wrote:
Congrats to Caroli's Vuelta, that must've been awesome. Nice transfers too, by the way.
Thanks mate. That was really a unique GT.
Not so sure if I did the right transfers though. Aru won't renew and I couldn't last season since I had already 30 riders (I forgot about Molina, young spanish rider), and now with Kwiat, Velits and many more I look strong at stage-races and, well, Questiontime: How excatly are sponsor goals determined? I always thought it correlates to one's squad strenghts and weakness and I always considered my team to be very good for high mountains but only decent in one-week races. Now I got the goals and basically everything is Top 3, Top 5 at any important stage races (From Paris-Nice to Tour de Suisse). To put it midly, this sucks. No more cobblestone goals, no more hilly classics, hell not even GTs matter (they want me to win KoM jersey at Giro, 1 freaking star). Thankfully I just renewed Lampre last season and Merida, as co-sponsor, demands far less goals. Anyone got an idea how to change it? Does it depend on the role of the team captains (I currently have only Ulissi, Nizzolo, already upgraded Caroli for the next season though). Is it more per chance? I'll probably not renew Nizzolo's contract (because I think it very dull to go for point jerseys at GT), so I might hire a new cobblestone expert or upgrade Oss or Salvetti (talent, who has after 2-3 seasons now 77 cb).
Also, another question: I read that Kelderman's big goal at Astana is the Tour de France. That obviously puzzled me since they have Nibali. But then I saw, in Lachis Editor, that he is only racing poly_ard or something like that. Thinking a bit about it, Nibali is a bit of a pain in the ass in these early stage races anyway and I'd like to see him as a main contender for the Tour, although I have no true control over that. I think I'll decrease his Hill stats after the classics from 82 to 80 (honestly, 80 seems more like it anyway) and hopefully next year he will finally target the Tour as big season goal, again after like 2-3 seasons. Should I change anything else to make him more competitive in the Tour and take his focus less of stage all these stage races early in future seasons? It's the same with Kreuziger who is stronger at Hill now then at Mountain, but at least it's realistic that he will work for Froome.
EDIT: Turns out that the stage races are kinda manageable when you have some luck. Still, it's kinda annoying to play them when you just want things to get going for the classics or GTs, meh.
Edited by Shonak on 14-10-2013 02:09
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Just played Paris Roubaix. I had Terpstra in a group with Cancellara, Boonen, Flecha, Pozzatp, Boom, and Langeveld. Cance attacks. Boonen chases him down. Then the other way around. Then both attack, and I follow. After that, the pace slows down. Flecha attacks, and no one chases. He solos to the win, Boonen 2nd, Boom 3rd, Cance 4th, and I got fifth with Terpstra.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Fucking A! Ulissi won Catalunya, his first WT stage race. First Merida sponsor goal achieved too. Quite funny actually: We won the team time trial, then managed to hang on the mountain stage and only lost 25 secs to Kreuziger & Nibali. The hill stage afterwards didn't bring any change, although Ulissi and Henao came in first the time was taken for all contenders the same as it was a descent (they really need to get their time stamps better in the future). Kwiatowski was like a minute behind and didn't lose any time. On the flat stage afterwards, Henao crashed a few kilometers left to go. It's quite hilarious since he already crashed at Paris-Nice, and he was even in the leader's jersey back then. This time he was my strongest opponent for the 3rd place. Well, anyhoo. Ulissi and Kwiat rode a good time trial and managed to pass Kreuziger. Ulissi was now 10 seconds in front of Kreuziger at 3rd place, Kwiat 2nd place 10 seconds behind Nibali. On the last stage, which was declared as flat, Kreuziger attacked and Ulissi went with the whole pack (De Gendt, Henao, Landa). Nibali decided to stay in the peloton and so did Kwiat. Well, there were 9-10 strong riders up front and they got a minute to Nibali. Kreuziger won that stage but Ulissi won Catalunya. Some smart riding with looots of luck I'd say.
Ronde van Vlaanderen was probably even more ridiculious. I sent Marcato upfront early in the race and he did a good job. However the real fun was back in the peloton, where Omega Pharma failed to get a constinent pace and constantly had to wait for Vanmarcke. At one of this infamous hills a bunch of Lotto, Lampre and BMC riders were suddenly left alone in front of the peloton and obviously decided it was time to work together. Even then Omega Pharma failed to set pace and didn`t get any help since many of the teams had weaker riders upfront, due to the big breakaway early on. Anyhoo. When the bunch of favourites (DeBie, Oss, Offredo most notably) catched up to the first breakaway, Marcato went all insane and set an enormous pace to keep the breakaway ahead of the peloton. Probably pure carnage over the last 50 kilometers, there were so many groups between Oss, De Bie, Offredo & the peloton, it was ridiculious. Slowly the peloton came closer. However the victory seemed to be a thing between DeBie, oss and Offredo for sure. Offredo (Cofidis) attacked several times, while Oss closed the gap and DeBie (Lotto), as the weakest of the 3, just hang on most of the time. At the final kilometers, Oss and Offredo were already completely exhausted from playing their cat and mouse game, so DeBie just sprinted through and took the win. Oss got a good 2nd place. Marcato just got caught on the last kilometer by the peloton. Paris-Roubaix was, compared to Ronde, rather boring. Vanmarcke must have been quite angry since he rode about 60 kms on his own and completely destroyed everybody. Lampre-Team couldn't hold up such a high pace and Oss got a disappointing 17th place.
Also, quite nice. Velits got a 2nd GC place at Pais Vasco. I sim'd through the stages so no idea how that happened but alas it's cool.
Totally eager now for the Giro in a few weeks (still got the Ardennes left to do). Mountain stages look massive in the preview and there's a cobblestone section for which I even bring Oss, Marcato and Kwiat along. Support for Caroli will be great in mountains as well with Aru, Rosa and Cattaneo. Plus, it will be the last Giro for Scarponi, since he retires at the end of the season, so let's make it something special, shall we? ^^
@5: Nice job with Terpsta. Looks like you got the hang of cobblestone races now.
Edited by Shonak on 14-10-2013 02:05
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
BAM! Caroli goes into the 3rd Giro week with about 3 to 4 minutes ahead of Mollema and Majka. A 50 km time trial & 5 Mountain stages are still up, so there's nothing decided but I feel good...
And I got it, well let me tell you. Caroli, Aru and Ulissi rode the Tour de Romandie. Sponsor goal was Top 3 and Aru was the best at 4th. Sucks but anyhoo. Who'd have imagined that Bakelants can be such a beast, holding up with Kreuziger, Henao, Contador and 3 Lampre riders on the mountain stage? 4 seconds in the end. Still, the form for the guys was good there (about 90) and the Tour de Romandie was a fitting build-up for the Giro (Caroli & Aru didn't do many races until now).
So, we smashed the team time trial. This was actually the only time I saw Caroli in his normal Lampre jersey (GC leader, one time points jersey, rest of it best young rider). Already handed 16 secs to Radioshack (Mollema, Uran both riding) as the second best team. The 3rd stage was already a pretty tough MT stage and it ended on a short descent. Caroli got lucky when he attacked and some BMC rider was behind him. He kept his pace and went the first over the mountain. Mollema and Majka, the two biggest opponents, were close but didn't come so fast over the summit. In the downhill, Caroli went all in while Majka and Mollema seemd to wait for the peloton. Caroli just went crazy and got 40 seconds to the peloton. After the rest day, the 4th stage was again a Mountain stage with a very steep climb at the end in Grassano. Pirazzi won the stage in a breakaway and also took the pink jersey. Caroli managed to get another 15 seconds to Mollema and Majka. The next two stages were flat and ended in masssprints (Kruopis, COF, Guardini, Radioshack) took them. The 7th stage was something I was really looking forward to immensly. Cobblestone on the road to Rome. I just took Oss, Marcato and Kwiat with him and their shape was perfect that day. I set the pace first with my climbers (around 58 cbs). You know, the cool thing about Caroli: He started with 63 CBS, so that's 5 points more than any GC contender I've seen. I would have like to take the stage win that day, but the breakaway was way too far away to be ever caught again. Offredo won, as a former Paris-Roubaix winner this seems only logical. When Marcato and Kwiat set pace with around 20 kms to go and Oss was protecting Caroli in his white jersey, things started to take shape for Lampre. They set pace and always just looked that Caroli could hold up good enough. Fortunately, no other riders could hold on in the long cbs-section. While the peloton was then still only 30 secs behind, they then set the pace up over smaller cbs-section and mostly enough time in between on normal roads so that Caroli could "relax" a bit. Basically, for all three cbs experts this seemed to me more a training ride than a professional road race. They obviously always had to look out for Caroli but he always managed to hang on and if not, Oss brought him back and Marcato and Kwiat reduced pace and then increased it. The favourites were so stupid to start chasing instead of waiting for bigger teamhelp, then again - they probably didn't have such great domestiques as Caroli In a 10 group of fav. riders they worked hard and most of them were caught in the end by the peloton anyway. Fuglsang, Bakelants and some others came in around 30 secs later, so they actually would have nearly caught up to Caroli in the sprint (my youngster was completely exhausted). However when my fiercest rivals rode over the finish, Mollema, Majka & Co, they lost about 2 minutes to Caroli. Yup, Caroli rode into Rome that day like Caesar.
Right afterwards, there was already a mountain stage again. This time only a single mountain and thankfully it was the only stage that offers only one MT, while all others feature great variance and several climbs during the stage. Anyway, Mollema, Majka, Intxausti (Radioshack), Craddock (Belkin) constantly attacked. My team of superb climbers (domestique-wise I brought pretty much A-team; Aru and Rosa have both 80 MT, König, , Verona and Kwiat good helpers too) managed to snatch them though. In the end, Caroli went with the raging favourites and the 3 top favourites all came in 5 minutes after Kozontchuck (KAT), while other good contenders lost around 20 secs to 2 minutes.
The time trial afterwards was a great success. After 23 kms, Kwiat won his Giro stage, 23 seconds ahead of Verona. Yes, double victory for Lampre in a time trial, hard to imagine in a grand tour but alas, it's true. Heck, if it wasn't for Durbridge, König would have gotten even 3rd for Lampre. Caroli (66 TT) only lost about 40 seconds to Mollema, so that's good. Still, the real tough time trial is still yet to come.
The only hilly stage in the whole Giro afterwards saw Drevenyns as a winner, favourites came in at about the same time.
The stage up to Monte Serra (#11) was quite crazy. I couldn't control the race and when the larger breakaway slowly crumbled and were caught up one by one, things started to get confusing a bit. Majka seemed to have slip through my net and got around 31 secs to Caroli. Mollema managed to get 11 secs to Caroli. Winner was Bisolti (WIT, former Cannondale).
Next stage with 3 mountains, from Viareggio to Fanano, saw another breakaway win (man, quite a lot of those ). Silin from Astana was the lucky guy. Caroli, Majka, Mollema, Fuglsang, Intxausti, Craddock came in at the same time. This however was the first time that Aru actually missed to perform. He lost his 4th GC rank, coming in 2 minutes afterwards.
The mountain time trial was a blast though! Caroli won it by 45 seconds to Mollema and 1:12 to Majka. Thankfully, AI just messes up MTT way too much.
Sooo... felt like writing down. A very interesting Grand Tour. Not quite so special as the Vuelta, especially considering the snowy atmosphere on every mountain at the Vuelta, but I already see how Majka will turn out to be Caroli'`s long time rival. I edited Majka last season to 81 at MT cuz he deserved it. Caroli also has 81 MT by now, he is still missing much potential (especially in Hill & Accelaterion). Hopefully next season, he will go all crazy with 82 at MT, about 80 at Acc. Mollema (81 MT) is obviously the best all rounder, probably next to Fuglsang (79 MT). Overall, I like the competition. I wouldn't describe Caroli as the best climber, since he still lacks in secondary stats, but he definitely has the best team, as far as I can tell. As I mentioned, I have two 80 MT guys with Aru and Rosa. Kwiat, König, Verona are great domestiques too. Oss and Marcato are beasts on the flat obviously and Scarponi rides his last Giro as a decent bottle carrier. Without the 2 minutes from the cbs-stage, this would be veeery close. Hell, it will be probably still close. However, I think if Caroli loses no more than 2:30, max 3 minutes at the 50 km Time Trial, then I think that he can onto the pink jersey. Still I except at least 2'30 minutes, hope he has good day then. So 4 MT stages and probably less than a minute to defend against one, probably two riders.
Also many other top riders (Uran, Quintana) who are not in top-shape. It's always funny to see them drop like flees at the Giro and then beasting around France a month later.
Right now, the GC is as following:
1, Caroli (LAM)
2. Mollema (RTL) +3:16
3. Majka (VCD) +3:51
4. Fuglsang (ALM) +6:39
5. Intxausti (RTL) +7:43
6. Aru (LAM) +7:59
7. Craddock (BEL)
8. Rolland (VCD), MT 80 by now
9. Devenyns (LTB) - yeah for sure. He was two times in breakaways, got like 30 minutes in total I think
10. Bakelants (OPQ)
Next up to is a rather nice, veeery long stage, #14, to Sanremo. Cipressa ftw! Then a hopefully nice stage up to the Col d'Izoard. Afterwards the 50km TT, one flat and just 4 more mountain stages. Well, just as I started complaining about the dull Giro, they give me such a fine, great designed, really fun to play Giro. Great mountain stages, which are beautifully designed and quite demanding, lots of breakaways, crazy cobblestone-road to Rome and time trials who wern't really such a disadvantage until now. So, let's stay motivated, and say: Let's bring this Giro home, one more week to go!
EDIT: Just lost about a minute at the Izoard stage to Majka. Majka now 2'33 behind, Mollema 2'42. Caroli and basically the entire team had an awful day. Man, that's going to be intense since Caroli will lose a big chunk of time at the TT.
Edited by Shonak on 16-10-2013 03:03
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Wow, that sounds like a really nice route!
I've played a bit lately too, first Romandie and then the first three Giro stages. Romandie started with a MTT that Roche won fairly handily, Jungels came 10tth. On the Mountain stage, Roche was doing ok, (out of yellow jersey due to breakaway though), but when the BOTD got caught, he was stuck behind them and four favourites, i think Valverde, Froome, Contador and Rodriguez attacked and gained a lot of time very quickly. Roche could claw a bit of time back, but not enough sadly. He overtook Purito on the TT though to take fourth, so not bad.
Then on to the Giro! Since i'm in year one, the first stage was Napoli-Napoli which was rated flat but had quite a hill on the middle of the circuit. Nothing extraordinary happend, but Theo Bos took third, which was kind of nice, given the hills. The TTT on stage two was a disaster, we finished second-last and lost a max of 1 minute on the other riders. The third stage was nice though, it was the one Paolini won IRL, into Marina di Ascea. I did the same with Roche, attacked on the short hill in the middle of the decent, and lone behold i took the win. No time gaps though. So hopefully i'll. play some more this evening, though i'm not happy about having to play catch-up already.
Hey
I have start a own custom team in my career and the first part (Jan-Juny) Was amazing! First I start with the team. The name of my team is Bouygues. Its French and dutch orientaded with some spanish riders. And 5 riders from other countrys. The teanleaders: Igor Anton and Laurens Ten Dam for the stage races. Poels and the big talent in hills Puccio (grow from 76 to 78 in hills with stil 3 stars left ) for the hilly races. Chavanel and Mørkøv for the cobble classics. Demare, Boy van Poppel and Romain Feillu are the sprinters. In TT we have Chavanel, Jungels and Stef Clement. Orther important riders in our team are: Gallopin, Frank, Barguil, Ellisonde, Fernandez, Coquard and Ruijgh. Chavanel will ride the Cobble Classics, Tour de France and the WC. Anton Catalunya, Dauphine and Vuelta. Poels the hilly classics, Tour and WC and Demare Milaan-San Remo, Tour de France, and Parijs-Tours.
We race at PCT niveau. Our biggest opponents to promote to the World Tour are IAM Cycling and Europcar. Cofidis, Sojasun and Caja Rural are outsiders.
We started our season in Venezuela. In the vuelta al Tachira. A 12 day stage race with 7 hilly/mountain stages. We started great. Romain Feillu wins 2 stages and the green yersey, Coquard wins a stage from a breakaway. And last but not least Igor Anton wins three stages, the KOM-ranking and the GC. Then febuary. Our mission was to get in form for Parijs-Nice and the classics. But we get some wins in the first part. Chavanel wins in Besseges the ITT, Puccio stage 4 of the vuelta a mallorca, Stef Clement the TT, and Bob Jungels the GC in the Tour le Mediterian. Then was our first big race and goal: Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Our sponser goal was to get the win. The race goes well. At the last 40km we were with still 4 man (Chavanel, Gallopin, Morkov, and Jungels) in the first group. At 20km Chavanel goes rides his own pace. He get a gap of 20" and ride it to a gap of 1'00" at 12km before the finish. But then came Cancellara. At 5km before the finish he comes by chavanel. But in the sprint Chavanel wins from cancellara. Boonen is thirth and Morkov seventh. In the next days Chavanel wins Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, Le Samyn and Strade Bianche. In the Tour of Langkawi Ten Dam finished second and Barguil sixth.
Then starts our best month so far: March. We have get wildcards for Parijs-Nice, Milaan-San Remo, Catalunya, E3 Prijs and Gent-Wevegelm. Anton was pur team leader for parijs-nice. It started great. Chavanel wins the proluge. Then there were to flat stages both won by greipel. Feillu gets a thirth and fifth place. Then there was a ITT. Again wins Chavanel. But the next stage was a mountain stage. The whole day Bouygues takes the lead of the peloton. At the final climb Anton atacks. Nobody reacts and he wins the stage with a lead of 1'00" at Gesink. The next 2 stages where won bg a breakaway and Anton holds his leader yersey. Then there was a flat stage won by Theo Bos. In the final stage Anton atacks at the last hill and finshed with a gap of 20" solo in Nice. Our first GC-win in the WT!
Our next race was Milaan-San Remo. Frank of our team goes in the breakaway. He and the other riders get a maxium lead of 9'00". At 30km the were back in the peloton. We had now 2 plans: 1. Let chavanel atack at the Poggio. Plan 2: have Demare in the first group for a sprint. Chavanel atacked at the poggio and get a gap of 20". But at 3km he was back in the first group. In the next sprint Boasson Hagen wins. Goss is second and Cancellara thirth. Demare finished seventh, and Chavanel tenth. Then we raced Catalunya. There were 4 flat stages and 3 mountain stages. It is teh first big goal of Anton and he is in a great shape. It was really great! Anton wins all 3 mountain stages and wins the GC. LL Sanchez is second at 1'40" and Nibali thirt at 2'40". Two flat stages were won by Ferrari. The other 2 stages by Moreno Hofland from Blanco and Hushovd. In the meantime we raced some good classics. Cancellara wins E3 Prijs, but Chavanel wins Gent-Webegelm and Dwars door Vlaanderen both solo. In the Criterium du International Clement wins the ITT and Frank become 6th in the GC.
Then April. The month of the classics. We started with de Ronde van Vlaanderen. It was a nice result for us. Cancelarra wins solo. But chavanel becomes second. Vanmarcke wins the sprint for the thirth place from Boonen. Then Parijs-Roubaix. Our sponser goal wants the win. It goes really well. At 40km I let Jungels and Morkov rides a high pace. At 25km they were tired and Chavanel atacks. He wins solo with a gap of 2'00". Boonen becomes second and Cancellara thirth. Our next race was the Amstel Gold race. This race suprised my the most. I let Poels ride his own pace at the Cauberg. He gets a gap of 10". But Gerrans rides 20" before him. But in the sprint poels wins closely the Amstel Gold Race! In la Fleche Wallone poels get a seventh place and in Liege-Bastonge-Liege a fourth place. Sagan won and Valverde become second. Rodriguez become thirth at 10". We finiseh April in style with 2 stage wins in Turkey.
In may we didn't race many races. The importanst results of our team was a stage win the Tour of Norway. Vincenzo Nibali wins the giro with 4'20" at Gesink. Daniel Martin become thirth. Wiggins fourth, and Quintana fifth. A suprising result: Sagan becomes 12th in the GC and won the KOM-yersey! Kittel has won 5 stages and the points ranking. Our next race was the Criterium du Dauphine. The second goal of Anton. And again it goes well. Chavanel wins the proluge and the ITT. And anton the GC and a stage win. Rodriguez become second and Jurgen van den Broeck thirth. Youngster Kelderman fourth. Then the NC's ITT. It wete good days. Chavanel wins in France. Clement in Holland and Morkov suprisely in Danmark. Jungels had a fructured hand so he couldn't race. Now I'am racing the Normal NC's and coming soon the Tour de France.
Sounds like a great start. However, it seems too strong for a PCT team. Your sponsor wants you to win Paris-Roubaix, that's just weird. What difficulty do you play on if you don't mind me asking?
@Dippofix: Good luck with Roche at the Giro. I always fail against Nibali (and he always seems to ride it in the first year). And yes, it was a wonderful route. Enjoyed it immensly playing. After report comes later when I feel for it, I already finished the Giro by now. Probably going to take a break from the game for a few days/weeks but we'll see how long I won't play it (for example, I really like to play it when I'm hung over). Edited by Shonak on 17-10-2013 00:23
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
. I'am now at stage 4 (TTT in Nice). I have lost some time in the TTT (so 2'00" at the most GC-contenters) and my importants climb team mate (Riblon) has fallen in stage 2 and has a fractured thigh. So the last 10km will be dificult to stay in the favouritres group without team mates. So I think I go for a stage. Barguil from my team wears now the polka-dot yersey, so I want to defend this yersey. And if Pinot may join the breakaway then I let him ride for the Polka-dot yersey if Barguil lose that yersey.
- he got a 2nd place at Tour de Pologne too btw
