Shonak wrote:
Yup. I was actually surprised by how fast he progressed (10* climber coach though). Others talents of mine didn't even come close to improving so fast. Guess I got lucky with him.
Puccio sounds great. In my old career, he had quite a lot talent in CBS, did this change? The self scouted rider with 76 MT should become a beast in no-time.
I prefer lower stats though (82 as max. in MT for example) since it makes the mountains way slower and more dramatic to ride and increases the chances of breakaways. I use the Post TdF-update and only had to lower Froome and increase some other riders like Contador. Plus, Blueprints young rider files have 82 as max I think. I can only recommend it for future careers.
With the databese editor I have saw what the potential is of Guido. His max at mountains is 84 . A really nice talent. This year I don't let hij race to much. The only races he ride at the WT is Catalunya. But for the august/september I don't know if I let him ride the vuelta or portugal and then Canada.
Always if I make the stats in my databese, then is 83 the higest. So by MO is that Quintana, Froome, Rodriguez, and Nibali. At hills Rodriguez, and Gilbert. TT is Martin and Wiggins. COB is Cancellara, Boonen and Vanmarcke and the sprint I have Kittel.
Just raced the most weirdest stage ever in my PCM-live! It was a mountain race with wind arround the 50-70! Thr=e race was Vuelta a Catalunya stage 3. Here a short story about it:
In my selection I have: Sicard: the Teamleader, Ellisonde: a important team mate, Frank: teammate, Bardet: teammate, Castroviejo: For the ITT and the TTT, Riblon: Free role, Coquard: the sprinter, and Stef Clement: Getting back from a injury. I saw that the wind was strong with 50-70 and I thought: Let's do Crazy! Make a strong race . I lead the peloton with Frank, Bardet, Castroviejo, Coquard, and Stef Clement with pace 80. Sicard, Riblon and Ellisonde were holding his position. After 20km, there was a group that came at 1'00. The doesn't come back. After many kilometers was this the situation:
1. Ellisonde with pace 80 and Sicard holding his position
2. A group with Wiggins, S Sanchez, LL Sanchez, Sagan, Zoidl, and Sagan +1'00"
3. A group with Intxausti, Spilak, Bouet, Machado and G.Izargirre +2'00"
... Some groups with riders who can't follow the pace
4. A group with Froome +7'00"
... were some groups
5. A group with Van garderen +9'00"
Some kilometers later the final start at 30km before the finish. This was the situation:
1. LL Sanchez
2. Group with Sicard, Wiggins, S Sanchez, Sagan, and kwiatowski. +2'00
Then the last mountain begon. LL Sanchez was leading with 1'30". Followed by Sicard and Wiggins.
With 2km Sicard and Wiggins came by LL Sanchez and get a gap of 10". Then there was a long sprint won by Sicard. This were the results:
So I started a new career with FDJ. Casar and Roy as leaders in most of the continental races/and some WT races. We started pretty badly. Casar was getting some TOP 10 GC finishes in WT and CT races. At the cobbles our best place was 8th Mathieu Ladagnous (E3). At the hilly classics our best was Pierrick Fedrigo with 16th at Amstel and 16th at La Fleche. Then until the Giro we had a small amount of victories(0 victories in WT races). So for the Giro leader was Pinot (He wanted to do Giro-Tour in this season). At stage 5 we won 1 stage (Roy from a breakaway, and then Pinot won 1 stage). Pinot finished 13th and won young rider jersey. Then at Tour de Suisse Pinot won 1 stage and finished 4th GC. At the tour we sent Demare, Bouhanni, Pinot, Ellisonde, etc. A strong squad. At the first stage Demare managed to outsprint Cavendish!!(Bouhanni blocked Cav a little ). At stage 2 Demare won! Yes he managed to stay in the peloton even after such a hard stage. Then at Ax3 stage Pinot took the victory and the leaders jersey!! The next day had no changes. Then the ITT where I was thinking that Pinot will lose the jersey, but no! Pinot finished 7th (Had +4 on the day!) And managed to have an advantage of 1 minute! (2nd was Gesink, 3rd Purito 4th Valverde 5th Contador 6th Evans... etc)
At Mont Ventoux Pinot took another victory in front of Valverde and had 2 minute lead(!). At the Alpe d Huez stage Pinot had a bad day but managed to keep the jersey with a little advantage of 4 seconds! (2nd Valverde 3rd Evans). At the stage 19 Pinot lost the jersey and now was 8 seconds behind Valverde while Evans was 3rd at 12 seconds. So the last mountain stage was decisive. Pinot managed to (once again) win the stage and guess what.. take the jersey!! And the last stage... PINOT FELL! I sent my whole team and he lost some time but some small time! So at the end I won the TDF in front of Valverde and Evans . Quintana was not in shape, neither Froome was he finished 6th. Contador got 5th while Purito 4th. And now I am preparing for the vuelta(!).
HaRe wrote:
So I started a new career with FDJ. Casar and Roy as leaders in most of the continental races/and some WT races. We started pretty badly. Casar was getting some TOP 10 GC finishes in WT and CT races. At the cobbles our best place was 8th Mathieu Ladagnous (E3). At the hilly classics our best was Pierrick Fedrigo with 16th at Amstel and 16th at La Fleche. Then until the Giro we had a small amount of victories(0 victories in WT races). So for the Giro leader was Pinot (He wanted to do Giro-Tour in this season). At stage 5 we won 1 stage (Roy from a breakaway, and then Pinot won 1 stage). Pinot finished 13th and won young rider jersey. Then at Tour de Suisse Pinot won 1 stage and finished 4th GC. At the tour we sent Demare, Bouhanni, Pinot, Ellisonde, etc. A strong squad. At the first stage Demare managed to outsprint Cavendish!!(Bouhanni blocked Cav a little ). At stage 2 Demare won! Yes he managed to stay in the peloton even after such a hard stage. Then at Ax3 stage Pinot took the victory and the leaders jersey!! The next day had no changes. Then the ITT where I was thinking that Pinot will lose the jersey, but no! Pinot finished 7th (Had +4 on the day!) And managed to have an advantage of 1 minute! (2nd was Gesink, 3rd Purito 4th Valverde 5th Contador 6th Evans... etc)
At Mont Ventoux Pinot took another victory in front of Valverde and had 2 minute lead(!). At the Alpe d Huez stage Pinot had a bad day but managed to keep the jersey with a little advantage of 4 seconds! (2nd Valverde 3rd Evans). At the stage 19 Pinot lost the jersey and now was 8 seconds behind Valverde while Evans was 3rd at 12 seconds. So the last mountain stage was decisive. Pinot managed to (once again) win the stage and guess what.. take the jersey!! And the last stage... PINOT FELL! I sent my whole team and he lost some time but some small time! So at the end I won the TDF in front of Valverde and Evans . Quintana was not in shape, neither Froome was he finished 6th. Contador got 5th while Purito 4th. And now I am preparing for the vuelta(!).
Sounds like a great carreer. Which difficulty did you play?
Wow, nice win! Leading a race and then falling on the last stage is something i really dread. Luckily enough it hasn't happend yet to me, and you seem to have been lucky too.
As for my Guinness Career, i've reached the NCs and i think i'll sign Pozzato for next Season. Good all-rounder, and i don't really want a sprinter, because then i'd have to Play all flat stages. The only other Thing i'm thinking of is editing Roche's contract so that he stays.
Dippofix wrote:
The only other Thing i'm thinking of is editing Roche's contract so that he stays.
Actually, Aru told me in January or February that he thinks about other offers and now in June he came to me for a contract renewal. So riders can change their mind, but I suppose this is mostly up to luck. If you want to keep him, then by all means, just edit the database. The game should be fun for you to play and seeing Roche 2-3 years in a continental team just sucks (he did it at my old Saxo career I think). A sure way of keeping riders is to prolong the contract one season before it runs out.
@HaRe: Nice victory. Even on normal this is quite great since FDJ isn't the strongest squad and neither is Pinot.
@Blueprint: Yeah, I prefer Grand Tours too when it's close until the last day. While Nibali's 5 second defeat at the Tour de France 2014 just sucked (Froome came from 4th place to 1st or so in the last Time Trial), this Giro was from the feeling definitely the closest race because none of the three top-riders were dominating and lost time on different occasions. In the end, Caroli probably just won because of the great cbs-section where he got 2 minutes to Majka and Mollema. Definitely have to improve his flat for the next seasons (hardly any potential left in Time Trial). Maybe then I even have a shot at the Tour in one or three seasons, depends on the route.
On another news: Caroli got a 3rd place at the Crit-Dauph with his late form from the Giro. Also a stage win. Quite some intense racing on the three mountain stages. Contador looks superb for the Tour who won the race. Nibali is in good shape too but he has already so many race days (I changed his rider "persona" from ply_ard to tour_ard) that I doubt he will be a serious contender this season. Froome will probably get into late Tourform.
Edited by Shonak on 25-10-2013 18:33
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
@Shonak thanks! And yeah FDJ is weak. I mean for e.x. I chase the break with whole team but the break is gaining advantage instead of me cutting the time..
Just finished the vuelta. And the winner was Van Garderen! My team got 2x 2nd place (Roy from breakaway) 3x 3rd place (Ellissonde from breakaway...). Ellissonde finished 24th as the best guy in our team xD. Unlucky but at least we will not be relegated. We survived because of the TDF.
I'll probably not Keep Roche. If he decides to go to a CT Team though, i'll edit. And the Vuelta is giving me a real Headache atm. Atapuma has 79 MO and 73 HI and sup-par secondary stats. If i'm lucky he'll up both those stats by one by the time the vuelta comes (i'm only a few stages into the tour). And in some CT Race i simmed, Quintana got injured, he won't be back till mid August. So i'll have to have him working for Atapuma, who has dissapointed me in every stage-race so far. His recovery especially is just too low to do anything.
@HaRe: God luck recovering from Rojas-Farrar Syndrome, 2x second and 3x third seems really unlucky. Was Ellissondes Breakaway on the Angliru by the way?
Pozzovivo has development great in TT. He is now (march 2014) at 76 in TT . And the last 5km were uphill. Schleck won the TT because Jungels was injured. So it was lucky for him
HaRe wrote:
Andy won a TT? What is this? Is this some kind of a joke? It's not funny...
This are the TT stats of luxembour
1. Jungels at 77 but was injured then
2. A. Schleck at 71
3. F. Schleck at 69
4. Gausteur at 69
the rest below the 68
So it turns out i'm keeping Roche! My Game is somehow fucked up, it wont let my sign new riders because i don't have a Sponsor contract for the 2014 season, even though the contract Ends after the 2014 season. So Roche is staying in the End, because it's not possible to sign any other rider.
@Nielsboy I'm actually shocked Andy even bothered to ride the TT NC properly, doesn't seem like him at all.
I have just finished march, and the season goes well! I started again in Vuelta a Tachira. Boy van Poppel wins 2 stages and the point yersey, while Laurens Ten Dam wins 2 stages to and finished 3th in the GC. In Australia started the wordchampion Bauke Mollema his season. He is there to build up his form for the first important races. Our best result there was a 4th place in a sprint with Morkov. Kittel has won 4 stages, while Betancour won the hilly stage and Tom Dumoulin wun a stage from a breakaway. Betancur was the GC-winner to. Then we went to Colombia for the new race Columbian Ventaux. That is a WT-race in Colombia who ends at a high mountain. A year ago Chris Anker Sorensen was the first winner. This year was Vorganov the winner from a breakaway. Mollema was our best rider with a 11th place. He could race to the podium, but he felt and must come back to the peloton.
Then febuary start. Here was our fist sponser goal: podiumplace in the WT-Race Tour of Germany. This is the first goal of Bauke Mollema. A year ago Steven Kruijswijk get the win. We started great. Boy van Poppel takes the first stage, and Bauke Mollema wins the TTT and the Mountain Stage. We get in the GC a 1-2 with Bauke Mollema at 1 and Laurens Ten Dam at 2. Now we started with the Cobbles season. The first cobble race at the WT is Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Our teamleader is Sylvain Chavanel and Michael Morkov has a free role. Sylvain Chavanel is not the best cobble rider more. A year ago he was in 82 and the cobbles but now 78. Geraint Thomas won suprisely from a sprint with Cancellara. Chavanel finished 18th :/
Then we started with Parijs-Nice. A goal for our sponser. Mollema is the team leader. It goes well. Mollema has won 3 stages and the GC. In Tirreno-Adriantico was our goal to build up the form for the classics. Igor Anton was our team leader and finished in the GC at a 5th place and wins a mountain stage. Rodriguez taked the win before Intxausti and Slagter. Then Milano-San Remo. We had two plans. Plan A is Mollema atacks at the Poggio to win solo. Plan B is to survive the Poggio with Danny van Poppel and get a good result in the sprint. It went well. Mollema atacked at the poggio and Leukemans atackted to. In the downhill Mollema gets a gap and ride away from Leukemans. He wins solo Milano-San Remo before Leukemans. Castroviejo who was the domenestique managed to get the thirth place, and the winner of a year ago Boasson Hagen get 4th. Danny van Poppel finished 8th.
Than Catalunya! Sicard was our teamleader, and the goal of the sponser was a 5th place or better in the GC. We started great with winning the TTT. Then was the weird mountain stage. From 20 favourites for the GC-win, get 3 only in the first 20 riders. Sicard wins the stage. Wiggins is second at 40" and LL Sanches thith at 1'20". Then Intxausti at 4'00". Sicard survived the hilly stage, and in the last hilly-TT he lost only 20" at Wiggins. So he won the GC with 20" at Wiggins and 1'10" at LL Sanchez. In the meantime Chavanel wins Dwars door Vlaanderen and get a 11th and 7th place in E3 and Gent-Welvegem. Coming soon the classics and the giro.
So, Le Tour is just over, so i thought it's time for an update with the NCs aswell.
The NCs didn't really go great for us, in the TTs Taylor Phinney was the only one to grab a Jersey, ahead of his Teammate Andrew Talansky. The RRs were already a bit more succesfull, with two wins. Both wins came from a Breakaway, with J.D. Atapuma beating a small Breakaway Group including Janier Acevedo and Jarlinson Pantano to it. After that there was lots of nothing, the most notable being Taylor Phinney nearly achieving the double, but just before the sprint started he couldn't follow the wheel he had chosen and so ended third. Then, on the last race of the day, Bernhard Eisel managed to clinch the Austrian Title after a heroic solo breakaway, with Marko Haller, Thomas Krizek, Matthias Brändle and Thomas Rohregger completing the Top 5. All in all a very weak Performance, though Bob Jungels got the double on the simmed Luxembourgian NC, and Gustav Larsson as always won the also simmed Swedish TT Championships.
Then came the Tour, the GT i cared least about. I'm not going to go into full Detail, because i sent the weakest Squad off all GTs this year, meaning that it was a pretty anounymous Tour for us. Highlights were definately our two Stage wins, which were Jan Bakelants on Stage 2 (yes, turns out PCM is more realistic than we think) and Wout Poels magig win from a Breakaway on L'Alpe d'Huez, were he finished ahead of Kelderman. In the End Andrew Talansky managed to become sixth, narrowly missing our Sponsors Goal of a Top 5. Nevertheless a very good Performance by the Young american, reaching the Team-Intern goal of winning the White Jersey. Here are the Classifications:
GC:
1. Alberto Contador
2. Vincenzo Nibali
3. Chris Froome
4. Joaquim Rodriguez
5. Andy Schleck
6. Andrew Talansky
7. Alejandro Valverde
8. Thomas de Gendt
9. Jurgen Van den Broeck
10. Thibaut Pinot
Just finished the 2013 season.
So WC was won by Gillbert, WC ITT was won by... Geraint Thomas
World Tour rankings won by Sammy Sanchez, Pinot was 2nd.
I signed Andrew Talansky who is groowing fast (79 MO, 75 HIL, 76 TT and has some stars left in all). A.Demare from our team has signed for Sky(not sure if that is a smart move). Sponsor changes Blanco -> Petronas. (Thats about it for WT teams). Getting ready for another season of surviving.
I'm actually surprised that you guys play the NCs. I usually just sim to the 30th June and do something else in the meantime.
Meanwhile, we had a good Tour. Unfortunately Ulissi got injured during the Tour de Suisse (great 2nd place overall by Aru!), so I put Malori in it for the team time trial and the italian time trial specialist later abandonend to save energy for Vuelta and WC ITT.
The route was the one where the Mont Ventoux is featured already at the 3rd stage and the last day is a 20 km Time Trial to the Champs Elysses. I already played this route once in this current career and it's the one where the weird AI issue happened with Froome and Nibali. In the end, Contador won this Tour de France two-three seasons ago.
At least this time around nothing strange happened at the Mont Ventoux. My squad consisted of Anacona and Aru (both 80 MT) as team-captains, while riders like Bono, Palini, Stortoni, Boaro and the young italian Chessa were mainly supporters. I also brought Nizzolo along for the ride if I decided to ride for mass sprints, but I didn't.
Nibali was pretty weak at the Mont Ventoux and lost time (30 secs I believe from the top of my head) to Contador and Froome, who won the stage. Quintana was rather disappointing too. Aru and Anacona came in Top 10 that day.
We had a great first week. A hilly finish was won by Fabio Aru who broke away shortly before the finish. The 2nd mountain stage, which featured a descent, was won by Stortoni out of a breakaway. Lastly, the stage Ulissi won a couple of seasons prior, was also won by Andrea Chessa this season. So 3 stage wins for Lampre, plus best team and the U25 jersey (Chessa).
However GC-wise, over the course of the 50 km time trial, the MT time trial and several mountain stages in the 2nd week, we couldn't hold up always with our captains. Nibali showed great performances. Contador took over Froome's yellow jersey after the 2nd mountain stage (after the time trial), where Froome didn't follow Nibali and Contador over the summit and lost time in the descent. Contador, Nibali and Froome were very close sometimes, only a few seconds between them. However, Froome often didn't chase as his teammate Kreuziger was playing the Froome... rather bad support from Team Sky, who had also lots of sprinters in their squad (Demare, Greipel). Contador usually has a weak team with Katusha, at least this time around he had decent enough helpers. When Contador was in yellow Lampre paced the two big mountain stages a bit for him. We nearly shooked off Nibali and Froome one time, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Nibali eventually took the yellow jersey the day before the Mountain time trial when he came in several seconds before Contador. At the mountain time trial he annihilated everybody and was now leading with about 1 minute to Contador. The following mountain stage saw early attacks from Uran (4th place at the time) and Anacona (probably 8th). Uran took the stage win while Anacona couldn't keep up. Nibali and Contador increased their time on Froome. Third week was mainly for sprinters (Kittel won couple of stages but withdrew injured, so Sagan got the green jersey) and two hilly stages. Both Aru and Anacona lost time on the hilly stages, Contador about another 20 seconds to Nibali. In the final time trial, Froome overtook Uran and secured 3th place. Anacona managed to defend his 9th rank overall.
So it's good that Nibali (AST) has finally won the Tour after his 5 seconds defeat 2014, which was just bitter and awful. Contador looked very strong and has only 40 race days. I hope he will be featured in the Vuelta this season so he might finally win a Grand Tour again after the Tour 2015. Way too many 2nd places for a Champion like him in Tour and Vuelta. Froome wasn't so strong as in previous seasons and I hope that continues. Quintana had a rather disappointing Tour (he finished last time 2nd on this route), yet however he came from the Giro and this isn't really the best schedule, especially when all of the action happens in the 2nd week. Jürgen Van den Broeck with a strong 5th place. Also, a very attacking, strong Majka got 6th. That's sweet.
GC:
1. Nibali (AST)
2. Contador (KAT) about a minute
3. Froome (SKY) about 3-4 minutes
4. Uran (RTL) 4 minutes
5. Jürgen van den Broeck (LPM) over 10 minutes I believe
6. Majka (VCD)
7. Quintana (OPQ)
8. Kreuziger (SKY)
9. Anacona (LAM)
10. Bardet (VCD)
13. Aru (LAM)
KoM: Vimpere (BIG)
Sprint: Sagan (MOV)
U25: Chessa (LAM)
Team: Lampre
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
. A really nice talent. This year I don't let hij race to much. The only races he ride at the WT is Catalunya. But for the august/september I don't know if I let him ride the vuelta or portugal and then Canada. 
. I lead the peloton with Frank, Bardet, Castroviejo, Coquard, and Stef Clement with pace 80. Sicard, Riblon and Ellisonde were holding his position. After 20km, there was a group that came at 1'00. The doesn't come back. After many kilometers was this the situation: 
Australia
New Sealand
Italia
Portugal
Danmark
The Netherlands
Belgian
Poland
Swiss
USA
Slovakian
Czech
Colombia
Germany
Croatia
Russia
Spain
Ukrain
Greece
France
Austria
Norway
Canada
Slovenia
Great-Brittain
South-Africa
Argentina
Sweden
Belarus
Lithuania
Ireland
Japan
Kazakhstan
Hungarian
Luxembourg
Venezuela
Estonia
Eritrea
