Is it just me or are the gaps in grand tours totally out of whack? The gap between a climber with 83 and one with 79 in one of the hardest stages in the tour will barely be a minute (the most I managed was about 30 seconds with Schlek on hard but even contador won't take any time out of his competitors either, going into the last time trial he was ahead of Leipheimer by 40 seconds and behind Samuel Sanchez....)while the gap between the number one and 30 or so in a time trial is easily 5 minutes (Andy Schlek losing about 4 and a half minutes to Contador compared to 1 minute 44 in last years tour is absurd)
Basically it seems they overcompensated the mountains (yes it's quite realistic but the gaps are to small now, it seems it barely matters what a cyclists mountain stats are over 78) without making any adjustment on the time trial. When the gaps in the final 50km time trial are more then twice what they were in the last 40km time trial in the last tour between pretty much all cyclists (sometimes going up to 3 times as large) while the mountain gaps are tiny it really overvalues time trials and makes the game almost impossible unless you have a great time trialist.
It almost seems you have to play the game on normal or easy on time trials to be worth it, when you dominate the entire tour as I did with Schlek winning virtually anything on a mountaintop (or hill) but you end up 3 minutes behind in 3rd because 1 time trial is the same gap you can get in 5 mountain finishes something has to be wrong. I've allways felt time trials were the least balanced part of the game with the gaps being way to large (ie the gaps are usually at least twice as large as in reality) but it seems the time trial gaps only got worse while mountain gaps got decimated.
Edited by Ramira on 10-07-2010 20:34
I have managed to have some real realistic results, even on 08.
One of my weaker climbers (Santaromita) attacked some 50-60 km from the finish, and on the final climb (10-15 km or so), Basso and the favorites attacked and Basso won with about 1 minute to the rest, who were spread out.
Santaromita was taken back with about 7-8 kilometres to go, but still managed to finish in 7-8th, about 3-4 minutes behind Basso.
hmm, my experience was also another one. i remember that on some later mountain stage of the giro d'italia all other top riders (including my captain with a mountain parameter of 79) lost about 6 minutes compared to the duo Basso / Nibali. They attacked next to last mountain already (if i remember right) and the final result was about: Basso -> Nibali (+1 minute) -> other top riders (+6 minutes)...
I've only experienced realistic scenarios so far. On the early stages of a grand tour, with easier mountain stages, the riders are coming to the finish in small and big groups. When i'm hitting the big mountains the gap between the riders grow and the gc is most likely decided before the final TT.
In the giro the gaps were indeed pretty high in the end too, Nibali taking 2/3 minutes or so in the final stage. I guess it might also be the way the stages of the 2010 tour are in the game as they simply aren't decisive enough it seems.
I still believe the TT gaps are to big though, even horrendous time trialists rarely lose more then 3.5 minutes in a 50k TT if they're in with a shot even Pantani lost less then 3 minutes to ullrich over 52 KM when he wont he tour. I think the game doesn't take into account the effect of being a competitor on the performance in time trials making it very hard for pure climbers to win.
