hey after some length (hard tog et in australia) i managed to acquire this game and have been enjoying it immensely but i was after some help with a few things.
first a quick overview of my first season:
i chose prector-lotto, mainly because that is wat cadel evans rides for. i struggled early on, particularly with getting sprints ride so i had to rely on simulating the cobblestone classics with leif hoste to win a few races and keep the sponsors happy. we were ofcourse gearing up for the tour de france but that didnt stop Dario Cioni getting an impressive result (16th) in the giro. i was able to get cadel up with the favorites in all of the mountain stages but for the most part he would be blown away on the last climb and would finish in the second or third group, eventually finishing 9th over all (vinokourov won that sucked.) i then went through the rest of the season, simulating many races as i was not happy with how i was going. i lost chris horner to caise deparngre (spelling?) but pursued at managed to score Popovych to strengthen my teams in the mountains and time trials. i also picked up vandborg as well as several young riders.
im now into my second season but its pretty much over with evans breaking his arm early on and not being able to resume training until june.
the things that i struggle with are as follows.
1. on the important climb the day i can protect my rider alright and can normally pick the correct attack to follow. but when evans goes after the rider/s his blue bar usually runs out quickly and is picked up by the chasing bunch while the other attackers (annoyingly) go on to win the stage. would setting his effort meter to say 80 or 90 before attacking/counter attacking enable him to make the break?
2. how do you get sponsors? i kept contacting sponsors but in the end only two very small ones agreed. does it matter how many sponsors you contact at the same time?
3. what riders would you recommend pursuing at the end of the 2008 season? i was thinking perhaps Alberto Contador, Jose Ivan Guiterrez or damiano cunego (not sure wat the $ on him is though) my transfer budget is about 4.7 million.
and finally
4. how should i sprint with mcewen? i just can't nail the stage wins that i know i should be getting.
1. the AI overpowers you almost every time, it depends on his form, and what difficulty you are playing on. % bar doesn't have any effect whilst attacking, i don't think
2. sponsors are random, they tend to sign if they are from the same country as your club or your stars, but still fairly random
3. don't know, never get that far
4. just follow the big sprinter and ease past him
or set up your own train, i would think Fast Freddy would do the job in the leadout. there have been many threads on sprinting so i shall find a link for you
ok so i couldn't find the guides, which is mildly annoying but...
1. you can have as many riders in the train as you like, i have 2 many have 3, some have more.
2. with 3 riders, put your best flat rider on 'relay' 90-99% ith 12kms to go and get your leadout man (2nd best sprinter) to follow him then you best sprinter following his leadout man. (make sure the are all set to 'aggressive'
3. now with around 8 kms to go put your best flat guy on 'dot' 99% he should start to pull your guys forwards.
4. if he gets a red bar full before the sprint that will probably make him useless so take over with your lead-out man.
5. never start the sprint, wait for the AI to start sprinting then with your lead-out man on 99%, sprint.
6. when your best sprinter starts to close in on your leadout man, or you fell he has to go, the make him sprint, also on 99%.
that is it and hope you win
i may have missed something but that is basically it
1. Regarding attacking in the mountains, the easiest way is to get your man and support riders up early, so he's in a prime position to counter any attacks. Usually I don't attack until the last hill if possible, but if the race faves make a move then you have to counter. Its always better to counter attack, it uses up less energy. If you find yourself out in front attacking after a counter, often I tell him to relay until another rider attacks past me, then I counter him.
2. When it comes to sponsors, I'm not too much of a genius - I just sort them out by budget and apply to all the v large ones at once - I usually get one or two offers. Then I repeat for large, then medium if needs be.
3. Thomas Dekker is a potential 8 (exponential stat growth), so hes always a target for me. You can find a detailed discussion of best young riders here: https://www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthr...ead_id=637
Always look for a few riders out of contract that will bolster your squad, and clear the deadwood.
4. You could, as Addy suggests, just follow the big (favourite) sprinter, or set up your own train. I find the latter much more effective, details of how to set one up as well as more detailed answers to your questions can be found here: https://www.pcmdaily.com/readarticle.p...ticle_id=6 , its a guide for pcm2006 - but still relevant for pcm2007. It helped me a lot. Happy gaming!
alright thanks a lot guys. interesting about the sprints i've tried both but always had more success with following the wheel of another big sprinter. maybe thats just for mcewen though seeing as though its his tactic in the real world. also where can you fing the potential rating?
