Well, a continental team has around 12-18 riders (not talking about the big ones like Cervelo, BMC, Cofidis, ...).
Take for example Acque e Sapone. 12 riders, mostly focusing on hills and mountains. With this sort of team, it's best to build up to the Giro. So to get invited into the Giro, you need to have alot of points, so you need good Continental results. What i do with an Italian team, is race most the Italian races in february. You can try and get a wild card to TDU or you can start with the Giro del Calabria (or whatever it's called). Then that one day classic in Italy, then one of the following:
- Tour of Oman
- Tour of Qatar
- Tour Med
After that you can take the Giro di Sardegna. And then some more of that one day classics at the end of february (those in Italy and Swiss), see what fits your riders, in the case of Acqua e Sapone, i guess that would be hilly races. Also, make sure not to much races clash, because you have to get trough a whole year, with limited 'resources'. Then i would ride Strade Bianchi, and after that Tirreno-Adriattico and Milan-SanRemo.
The reason why it's best to take alot of these races in february is for the points in the CQ ranking. Without it you won't get wildcards. After that i would continue with the Italian stage races, a few one day classics, maybe an Ardennes Classic? And as a final build up to the Giro, race Tour of Romandie, gives your riders good shape.
In the case of Acqua e Sapone, Garzelli is your man for Tirreno and the Giro. make sure he's in shape for those races (aswell as the Masciarelli's). Paolini is ideal for achieving some goals and stage wins. You could dominate february with him due to a good hill and sprint stat (Calabria, Sardegna, Strade Bianchi, ...). After that you can find your way trough it, just keep in mind that points are the most important thing (WC, promotion, ...).
in my opinion, do not enter a stage race unless you are almost certain do very well in it. as a conti team you usually don't have many riders, so you haven't got many race days available.
stage races waste tons of race days and don't give much more points (and money) than one-day races.
not to mention that very often as a CT team your results depend more on the opponents' field rather than your abilities.
if you enter a 5day stage race like vuelta a murcia and all the big guns are in, you are probably going to struggle for a top10 wasting 5 precious race days.
this especially applies to stage races in feb-mar, and generally in periods when there are no PT races.
titleist82 wrote:
not to mention that very often as a CT team your results depend more on the opponents' field rather than your abilities.
What exactly do you mean with this?
Riding against e.a. Visconti, Failli, Voeckler, ...
Or riding against Cunego, Nocentini, Contador, ...
The Pro TOur riders also ride CT races to get in shape, although, most of them still suck at that time, so i don't rly have a problem beating them, but more to the end of the month, beginning of march, it's becoming harder.
titleist82 wrote:
not to mention that very often as a CT team your results depend more on the opponents' field rather than your abilities.
What exactly do you mean with this?
Riding against e.a. Visconti, Failli, Voeckler, ...
Or riding against Cunego, Nocentini, Contador, ...
The Pro TOur riders also ride CT races to get in shape, although, most of them still suck at that time, so i don't rly have a problem beating them, but more to the end of the month, beginning of march, it's becoming harder.
yes, that's the point.
in february and march riders preparing for P/N, Tirreno MSR and Northern classics are always in decent shape. By partecipating in conti races they steal you lots of valuable points.
Another tough choice is whether riding GTs or not. Personally, i wouldn't waste 21 race days of my team leader unless he is a really strong gc contender (evans, sastre). In this case you are almost certain to score lot of points with a top10 GC finish.
Another good advice is to focus on races from the same country of your team leader(s) in order to enjoy the extra performance every rider has in its own country's races.
titleist82 wrote:
not to mention that very often as a CT team your results depend more on the opponents' field rather than your abilities.
What exactly do you mean with this?
Riding against e.a. Visconti, Failli, Voeckler, ...
Or riding against Cunego, Nocentini, Contador, ...
The Pro TOur riders also ride CT races to get in shape, although, most of them still suck at that time, so i don't rly have a problem beating them, but more to the end of the month, beginning of march, it's becoming harder.
yes, that's the point.
in february and march riders preparing for P/N, Tirreno MSR and Northern classics are always in decent shape. By partecipating in conti races they steal you lots of valuable points.
Another tough choice is whether riding GTs or not. Personally, i wouldn't waste 21 race days of my team leader unless he is a really strong gc contender (evans, sastre). In this case you are almost certain to score lot of points with a top10 GC finish.
Another good advice is to focus on races from the same country of your team leader(s) in order to enjoy the extra performance every rider has in its own country's races.
Playing on hard, i had Ginanni work towards MSR. He won, Calabria, 2nd in Giro di Sardegna, win Strade Bianchi and won the first 2 stages of T-A, togheter with the point jersey, and finished second in MSR if Boonen hadn't blasted past me like a rocket, he would have won it (credits though, Ginanni had +5 that day). I'm on top of Conti rank, 4th in CQ (first Conti), first on Individual rank (Conti) and Top 5 Individual rank (PT). In all those stage races he had the points jersey. And i still had some team mates also getting top 10's (mostly my lead-out man for Ginanni getting 4th-10th) and winning sometimes aswell.
A top 10 in Giro should be achievable with riders like Scarponi or Garzelli, so you will get a good amount of points there aswell.
is it best to set the riders schedule, to the classics, so they are in best shape the first half of the season or is it like with the PT teams, look at each rider, and see what fits best for him?
I struggle with training schedules, have done with every PCM game ive bought, Im Cervelo, is it best to check and maybe change the training schedules for your riders, but if i do that I don't understand like Giro_1 Giro_2 and which best to choose, also as im Cervelo I will ride most of the PT circuit do PT point help to get me promotion from Conti or is it the same as 09.
I always make my own training schedules but you could also select one of the classics schedules. But if you play Cervelo you have to select a giro, tour or vuelta schedule for sastre and his helpers.
