EDIT: Story moved to PCM 10, click here to got to it, or you can also click here, or maybe here, and why not there?
Thanks for attention. And do not forget to click here or in any of the other links. I would appreciate if you followed the story =D
---------------
Well, for me, school's finished tooday, so I think I might have the time to start one story..
And the team I choose is Scott/Marcondes/São José dos Campos, the only Brazilian team in the game!
Unfortunately, they don't exist anymore in real life because of financial problems... and the best rider in the game squad, Luciano Pagliarini, just announced his retirement.
But that doesn't change anything(at least for me)
Please keep in mind this is my first story ever, I play PCM now for just a few months, so I probably will act like a noob in both playing and 'storying' ways, so forgive me for my future errors
Finally, I'd like to add that the team is unfornately horrible, and I will be playing on hard, so I wish this doesn't get too boring =)
Edited by lluuiiggii on 05-09-2011 01:11
Sounds awesome. Brazil, small team, Hard difficulty, I wish you the best of luck and hope that this is a success. I know a few guys that like playing as smaller teams, and I personally do too.
Difficulty: Hard (Normal difficulty for financial part)
Database: PCMdaily2010DBV2
Rider Development: 0,5
Let's start with goals and key races, then.
Honestly, I don't really now these races and don't know what level of rider usually wins it. But from what I've seen on my other carrer(the rider who won), I think most of the goals are completable.
Now here's the squad. Initially, the team had only brazilian and argentinian riders, but I signed some free riders to strengthen the team: Kangert, Betancourt, Vítor, Escuela and Walker(these guys are making me pay a lot more than I would, and I’ll probably go on red at least once, but there was no other choice )
Now let's take a look at our leaders:
Luciano Pagliarini is an old, experienced sprinter. He’s passed on teams like Lampre and Liquigas. He took part in 2005 TdF, getting a 5th place on stage 2. In 2007, he won a stage in Eneco Tour, being the first Brazilian to acquire a victory in the UCI Pro Tour.
Nicholas Walker is an young talented sprinter, one of the free agents we signed. The Australian has a good potential to get better, but nothing extraordinary. I expect good results from him in this season.
Tanel Kangert is other free agent we signed. He is a young cyclist, but doesn’t have a good potential. With decent MO, TT and HIL stats he will be our leader in stage races, but I find it difficult for him to get a stage race victory this year. I expect podiums coming from him, tough.
And in the next post, more bla bla bla before we start(just kidding).
Tour of San Luis in next post.
Edited by lluuiiggii on 03-12-2010 13:41
First, I’d just like to announce the Australian Championships results: ITT
1 Cadel Evans 45’51”
2 Michael Rogers +38”
3 Richie Porte +58”
Road Race
1 Cadel Evans 4h09’47”
2 Michael Rogers +17”
3 Richie Porte +17”
Strangely, we had the same podium in both time trial and road race event(and yes, I’m sure I have seen two different results page =P)
January 18th
Tour de San Luis
WELL, you probably don’t know it, basically because I didn’t tell you yet, but our first race, Tour de San Luis, starting January 18th, is one of our key races, as you will be able to check on the first post soon. And not only that, but we also have the goal to win the sprinter jersey. It’s just 3 sprint stages, plus 3 mountain stages plus 1 ITT.
The Tour was created in 2007 and since than has three different Argentinean winners(just to let you know, Nibali won it in 2010, but I’m playing this carrer as the 2010 year, so whenever I talk about winners and dates I won’t consider the 2010 results ). Coincidently, the Tour happens in the region of San Luis, in Argentina (oh!).
Almost all the races I'm going to be in will be small races, so I will put the stages profiles here:
As already said, we have our first goal of the season in our first race: we gotta take that sprinter jersey home. As a key race, I will also try for a good position in GC, but that’s not our priority. The fact that this is just our first race of the season is not good because the difference in fitness will be very small, differently of what it would be if it was in mid-season, so my main riders would have fitness 90~95 and normal riders 80~85.
The GC Contenders
According to the game, the favorites for Tour de San Luis are Ángel Vicioso (Andalucía - Cajasur), Rui Sousa (Barbot - Siper), Aitor Pérez Arrieta (Footon - Servetto), Alejandro Marque (Palmeiras Resort - Prio) and Patrick Sinkewitz (ISD - Neri). Vicioso is the best climber and time trialist between these riders, and he is the biggest favorite here. Rui Sousa and Pérez Arrieta are great climbers, but lack time trial abilities, what opens space for Marque and Sinkewitz, who aren’t as good climbers but better time trialists, to fight for a podium if they can defend themselves in the mountains.
The Sprinters
We have a high number of medium level sprinters here. Three of them gets more emphasis: René Obst (Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse), Iván Dominguez (Jamis-Sutter Home) and Yuri Metlushenkos (Amore & Vita - Conad). The plenty of sprinters here makes our goal a lot more complicated, and Pagliarini will have to do some serious efforts if he want that jersey.
Scott/Marcondes/São José dos Campos Team
Team Goals:
- Sprinter Jersey (Pagliarini)
- Top 10 GC (Kangert)
We’re going with our strongest riders here, but that doesn’t mean much compared to other teams.
Tanel Kangert will try for a top 10 in GC. He will receive help from Hugo Vítor on the mountains. I tried to convince the judges to let Vítor ride with Kangert in the time trial as well, but they didn’t approve that. Luciano Pagliarini is going to be our man for the sprinters jersey, and will receive help from Daniel Rogelin, Ricardo Escuela and Nilceu dos Santos, although there isn’t much the team can really do for him, but protecting and… protecting, as these guys aren’t good enough to be able to chase a breakway. Our team:
1. Hugo Vítor
2. Daniel Rogelin
3. Tanel Kangert
4. Luciano Pagliarini
5. Ricardo Escuela
6. Nilceu dos Santos
Enough of talking(in fact, I talk/write too much, sry), let the season begin!!
Edited by lluuiiggii on 02-12-2010 04:54
January 18th: Tour de San Luis
Stage 1: San Luis - Villa Mercedes, 168.0 kms
Now, to start our season, a really easy stage, let's hope for Pagliarini to do well here. If he isn't able to get a good position, that can finish his chances on completing our first objective of the season. We'll also protect Kangert, the mountains already start tomorrow.
After several attempts, the break of the day was formed with 7 riders. I thought in writing their names here, but really: what would it change?
In the peloton, Amore & Vita - Conad did most of the work today. Their sprinter, Yuri Metlushenkos, might be in a great day.
The breakaway got a maximum lead of 4’45” before the peloton started to reel them in. With 13 kms to go, the peloton was in the lead again.
With 5 kms to go, Pagliarini was well positioned to the sprint, in the wheel of Iván Dominguez. But right before the sprint starts, he lost his wheel to another rider. He could catch the other rider’s wheel, tough. Pagliarini is the first rider of the two with a yellow jersey and green shorts, near the middle of the road, to the right.
As the sprint starts, Pagliarini isn’t on a good position. On the right, with a green jersey, we see Eeckhout, with his lead-out, and René Obst on his wheel. More to the left, in the front, we see Corioni and his lead out. There are 2 riders on Corioni’s wheel and then Pagliarini. On the extreme left, is Bonsergent.
With 1 km left, Eeckhout had already made his move and was in the lead. Vidal Celis tried jumping from Eeckhout’s wheel. In the right, Bonsergent was in third. Pagliarini is out of the screen.
It’s now 500m to go, and Celis is faster than Eeckhout! Can the An Post - Sean Kelly rider hold his position to win it?
Yes, he can! It was in the line, but Eeckhout beats Celis! Bonsergent came in third, and Luciano Pagliarini surged out of nowhere to grab sixth!!
Today’s winner is
Stage Results
1
Nico Eeckhout
An Post - Sean Kelly
3h45'17
2
Vidal Celis
Footon - Servetto
s.t.
3
Stéphane Bonsergent
Bretagne - Schuller
s.t.
4
Ángel Vicioso
Andalucía - Cajasur
s.t.
5
René Obst
Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse
s.t.
6
Luciano Pagliarini
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
s.t.
7
Iván Domínguez
Jamis - Sutter Home
s.t.
8
Emanuele Vona
ISD - Neri
s.t.
9
André Cardoso
Palmeiras Resort - Prio
s.t.
10
Stefan Van Dijk
Verandas Willems
s.t.
Pagliarini didn't get the best sprint train today. In fact, he got the very wrong sprint train. Fortunately, he sprinted very strongly and got a 6th, so he still has chances for the jersey.
General Classifications
1
Nico Eeckhout
An Post - Sean Kelly
3h45'07
2
Vidal Celis
Footon - Servetto
+ 4
3
Stéphane Bonsergent
Bretagne - Schuller
+ 6
4
Ángel Vicioso
Andalucía - Cajasur
+ 10
5
René Obst
Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse
s.t.
6
Luciano Pagliarini
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
s.t.
7
Iván Domínguez
Jamis - Sutter Home
s.t.
8
Emanuele Vona
ISD - Neri
s.t.
9
André Cardoso
Palmeiras Resort - Prio
s.t.
10
Stefan Van Dijk
Verandas Willems
s.t.
Points, Mountain and etc classification goes on spoiler box... or does someone disagree? Because for me, it looks better that way, what about for you guys?
Spoiler
Points
1 Nico Eeckhout An Post - Sean Kelly 25
2 Vidal Celis Footon - Servetto 20
3 Stéphane Bonsergent Bretagne - Schuller 16
Mountain
1 Dieter Cappelle Verandas Willems 5
2 Luis Silva Palmeiras Resort - Prio 3
3 Marius Bernatonis Atlas Personal 1
Young:
1 Samuel Caldeira Palmeiras Resort - Prio 3h45'17
2 Thomas Degand Verandas Willems s.t.
3 Benjamin Sydlik Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse s.t.
Vicioso sprinting for 4th... if he does so well in sprints, imagine in the mountains?
Ok, now to some noob questions..
1. How to put the results organized? Like all the names in one column, all the teams names in other, and so on..
2. The SS are appearing with horrible quality. What could I do to fix that? Maybe cut out the borders and make it bigger... or would it be graphic options? thx
Edited by lluuiiggii on 02-12-2010 13:26
Well I tried cutting the picture to see if quality would be better, its awesome now. stage 2 coming really soon, i tried to post the report here all day, but never got enough time
January 19th: Tour de San Luis
Stage 2: San Luis - Mirador El Potrero, 161.0 kms
Now, we will be able to see who are the real guys for the GC. Biggest favorites here are Vicioso and Sousa, but there a lot others who could do well here. We’ll try something with Tangert, at least try not to lose so much time, because he’s a good time trialist and could go some positions up in Stage 4.
It didn’t take long for the BOTD to be formed. It had 6 riders, and, between them, was Cappele, the Mountain jersey wearer.
The break really worked hard, and with 100 km to go, they got their maximum gap of 8’01” to the pack.
Then, ISD - Neri started to do all the work. They have Patrick Sinkewitz as leader, and he may have felt great today. With 60 km to go, the gap was of 4’30”.
But than, the peloton relaxed a bit, and the gap started to fall in a much lower speed.
With 26 km to go, José Herrada tried his luck, but no one went with him and there were almost 20 km for the climbing to start, so probably not a good decision. But for him that was normal, as he had no brain today
Edit: no brain and no bike, just seen that
Anyway, he was considered a threat, and as soon as he attacked, Footon - Servetto, Whirpool and Barbot joined ISD - Neri in the chase. He had a maximum lead of 31” over the pack and was caught again with 12 km to go.
While Herrada was caught, Jesse Anthony attacked his breakaway companions, even though the break still held 2’17” to the peloton with 13 km to go. Nobody followed him, and when he stopped, he had a 30” lead over his companions.
This is the situation with 8 km to go, right before the start of the climb. Anthony with good chances to get the win and the jersey here, although it would be very difficult for him to hold it.
Anthony; 42” E2; +1’42” P.
Then, still before the climb starts, Scott/Marcondes makes its move. We tried to build an “attack train” with our 2 climbers(Vítor and Kangert) and Nilceu dos Santos to help the attack before the start of the climb. Patrick Sinkewitz (ISD - Neri) followed us.
As we reached the 5 km mark, dos Santos had already done his job, but Vítor keep pulling hard for Kangert. We stopped shortly after the mark, but Sinkewitz kept going and reached E2. We were short of it. Anthony had a 52” lead by now, with near 4 km left.
From here to the end, a lot of things happened. The next move came from the peloton, Pereyra attacked followed by Pires and Herrada.
Vítor and Kangert got to the E2, at the same time that Sinkewitz tried leaving the others.
Anthony; +42” Sinkewitz; +17” E3.
Vítor started to pull even harder to bridge the gap to Sinkewitz and keep the attackers coming from behind away. Anthony had a lead of 41 seconds with almost 3 km to go.
The peloton was also pulling hard, tough, and the attackers had no problems reaching the second chase group.
But the high pace set by Vítor splitted up the E2 in two groups, with the group at the front containing 4 riders. Quickly the peloton got the others. No moves from favourites Ángel Vicioso, Rui Sousa and Alejandro Marques yet.
Anthony; +27” Vítor, Kangert, Sinkewitz, Pereyra; +29” P
Vitor really had awesome legs today. He kept pulling the group very hard, and with 2 km to go we reached Anthony, who couldn’t keep up with the group and had to fall back.
With 1.8 km to go, Sinkewitz tried a last move, followed by Kangert.
But they couldn’t create a new group, just got a slight advantage for the sprint.
Tangert, Sinkewitz, Pereyra, Vítor; +31” Anthony; +17” Golcer, Romero, Kozúbek, Herrada.
As the sprint will begin, nobody has nobody’s wheel. Kangert was in the front of the group. The victory would probably go for Kangert or Sinkewitz, who looked like to have the fresher legs.
The sprint starts, and Kangert has got plenty of power in that body, quickly opening up a gap of 10” to Sinkewitz!
And YES, Kangert takes the win seventeen seconds ahead of Sinkewitz! The first Scott/Marcondes win in the season comes in our 2nd race day!
Today's winner is Stage Results
1
Tanel Kangert
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
4h00'48
2
Patrik Sinkewitz
ISD - Neri
+ 17
3
Andres Pereyra
Jamis - Sutter Home
+ 28
4
Hugo Vítor
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
+ 41
5
Javier Moreno
Andalucía - Cajasur
+ 1'02
6
Jure Golcer
De Rosa - Stac Plastic
s.t.
7
Luis Alberto Romero
Jamis - Sutter Home
s.t.
8
Stanislav Kozúbek
PSK Whirlpool - Author
+ 1'13
9
Jesse Anthony
Kelly Benefit Strategies
s.t.
10
Bruno Pires
Barbot - Siper
+ 1'36
Our tatics simply worked perfectly today! We saw the oportunity in the quite small climb, put our two climbers almost a minute in front of the pack as the climb started without tiring them much(thanks to Nilceu dos Santos) and could celebrate not only our first win, but also a 4th place and the 1st in GC. We of course counted with some luck(Vicioso and Sousa never attacked, losing 1'36" to Kangert), but the main factor for this win is probably the 8-day fitness training camp we took
General Classifications
1
Tanel Kangert
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
7h45'55
2
Patrik Sinkewitz
ISD - Neri
+ 21
3
Andres Pereyra
Jamis - Sutter Home
+ 34
4
Hugo Vítor
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
+ 51
5
Javier Moreno
Andalucía - Cajasur
+ 1'12
6
Luis Alberto Romero
Jamis - Sutter Home
s.t.
7
Jure Golcer
De Rosa - Stac Plastic
s.t.
8
Jesse Anthony
Kelly Benefit Strategies
+ 1'22
9
Stanislav Kozúbek
PSK Whirlpool - Author
+ 1'23
10
Ángel Vicioso
Andalucía - Cajasur
+ 1'46
Spoiler
Points
1
Nico Eeckhout
An Post - Sean Kelly
25
2
Tanel Kangert
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
25
3
Patrik Sinkewitz
ISD - Neri
21
Mountain
1
Dieter Cappelle
Verandas Willems
15
2
Tanel Kangert
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
10
3
Patrik Sinkewitz
ISD - Neri
8
Young
1
Tanel Kangert
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
7h45'55
2
Andres Pereyra
Jamis - Sutter Home
+ 34
3
Jesse Anthony
Kelly Benefit Strategies
+ 1'22
Team
1
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
23h22'02
2
Andalucía - Cajasur
+ 27
3
ISD - Neri
+ 30
Yey, this time I tried cutting the borders of the SS to see if quality would be better... and as you could see on my last post, it worked very well!! Not only that, but I could also take out the "Save" and "Next" buttons and convert the SS to .jpg, which should make the page loads faster!!
Oh, and sorry for too much screenshots, 19 is too high and that is not good =( I mean, I think the page will load slower... or am I wrong? If more screenshots won't make the page load slower(it would just make a new page be created faster), is it okay for you to have a stage report with such a high SS number?? Because its kinda difficult for me to write few things... sry, but that is a problem I have(a problem??) Edited by lluuiiggii on 03-12-2010 05:33
Great victory by Tanel Kangert, also Hugo Vitor and Nilceu dos Santos perform well.
With the screenshots: Well, I always try to limit the screenshots between 12-15, but I already had 20 in one race For my, your report was good to load and great to read. Keep up the good work
Brilliant victory! Your tactics worked perfectly, Vitor was great and Kangert did well to win the sprint.
And the SS are great, with lots of them I felt like I was really watching the race. They loaded fine as well. Hope you can hold your jersey for at least the next few stages, maybe even the whole race (yes, I know it's a bit early to be thinking about to be thinking about that but I think Kangert is capable).
@janne_837
yeah, the only problem is that the one race you had 20 SS was probably a P-R, maybe a 20 km climb in TdF, not a 6km climb in stage 2 of Tour de San Luis
@Porte
yeah, he might still have the overall lead after the time trial, both kangert and sinkewitz have 70 tt. the problem could be stage 5, as vicioso might take some time in the itt(he has TT 72) and then we'll have to defend ourselves in that stage. then, stage 6 shouldn't offer much trouble.
---
signed with last sponsor, #4 now updated, you can see goals and key races there.
--
stage 3 should come soon, already played it, now just gotta write =D
I remember it was a hilly stage in February... There were much attacking
Just as Porte said, it was a great report, nice to read Good luck for stage 3.
@janne_837
yeah, there wasnt much attacking, but anyway.. glad you're liking the reports
@FreitasPCM
he has a little advantage in fitness =)
January 20th: Tour de San Luis
Stage 3: Fraga - Buena Esperanza, 199.0 kms
Now, let's go to the easiest stage of the tour. It’s biggest(and only) climb is 7 meters long. It’s also the longest stage on the tour. We’ll just try to control the stage and see what Pagliarini can do in the final sprint. After all, our goal here is still win the points jersey.
As the race begun, I found a little problem: if I wanted to protect both Kangert and Pagliarini, I would have already used 4 of my 6 riders, which meant only 2 would be able to chase the breakaway. But this was just a small problem compared to what would happen today. And here we see Kangert in his new jersey; it’s almost the same jersey of his team members, but that’s okay
After some failed attempts, the BOTD was formed with 4 riders: Claeys, Volik, Wackernagel and Danacik. The best of them in the GC was 3’08” down Kangert, so the fact I had only 2 riders to chase the break shouldn’t be a big problem. But now here comes the main thing of the day: the wind. As you can see in the SS, the 4 riders are in 4 different groups. The wind splitted them. In some points of the stage, the wind got up to 71.
And now, there are my guys, keeping the break under control. I’m proud of what the team has been doing in this race. We were just controlling it, though, and with 130 km left, the lead rider advantage was 11’45” to the peloton.
As you can see, the wind stretched the peloton a lot. Look at the size of it. Really big, considering that the peloton has no more than 100 riders.
This is the hard thing as always in wind stages: splits in the pack. It’s stressful to keep your riders in front. And I though it would be an easy, calm stage.
A bigger group of almost 40 riders was formed as the main chasers of the BOTD. All our riders were in it, initially.
Because of all the splits, the small peloton and the very strong wind, with 50 km to go, the break still held 9’30” to the pack, which meant that the victory would very probably go to the break and Claeys, who was the first rider 3’40” behind Kangert, would take over the yellow jersey. It would be very difficult for him to hold the jersey until the race end, though.
But then, the long stage plus the strong wind plus riding alone all day long surely tired the breakaway riders a LOT, and the gap started to fall very quickly. The first rider to be caught was Danacik, then Wackernagel.
Volik was next, and as the peloton passed the 10 km mark, only Claeys was still in front, 2’44” ahead of the pack. But he was going on 41 km/h, while the pack was going on 52 km/h! Would they still have time to reach him?
A sprint train was formed in the left of the road, but Pagliarini couldn’t get into it. So, he got in the wheel of his team mate Ricardo Escuela (SP 68 ACC 75), who was in the wheel of Claudio Carioni. As they passed the 5 km sign, Clayes still held 2’01”. It was now almost impossible to take the win from him.
With 4 km to go, I tried to get out of Carioni’s wheel with Escuela, and hope for the wind to help us build a small gap for the sprint. Escuela has only 66 FL, so the attempt had no success at all.
As the sprint begun, nobody on the right side of the road was well positioned. I was going to try to give Pagliarini a go with Escuela good ACC stats and let Pagliarini get a sprinter’s wheel.
But the non-sprinters passed like flying jets on the right side!! José Herrada, Andres Pereyra and Patrick Sinkewitz, names you saw on last mountain stage(so, climbers) were owning the sprint! Pagliarini got Sinkewitz wheel, and under the 1km banner, tried his move!(I though I had taken a SS of this part, but I hadn’t =P)
And while Claeys claimed a very well deserved win today…
...Pagliarini sprinted for 2nd, an awesome result for the sprinters jersey!
Today winner is Stage Results
1
Dimitri Claeys
Team NetApp
4h30'30
2
Luciano Pagliarini
Scott - Marcondes Cesar São José dos Campos
+ 1'00
3
Patrik Sinkewitz
ISD - Neri
s.t.
4
Stefan Van Dijk
Verandas Willems
s.t.
5
Andres Pereyra
Jamis - Sutter Home
s.t.
6
José Herrada
Caja Rural
s.t.
7
Andrew Bajadali
Kelly Benefit Strategies
s.t.
8
Ángel Vicioso
Andalucía - Cajasur
s.t.
9
Miguel Rubiano
Meridiana Kamen Team
s.t.
10
Samuel Caldeira
Palmeiras Resort - Prio
s.t.
Today should be the easiest day, but the wind didn't want that. Anyway, we managed to get our 2 climbers in the main group, and we didn't lose yellow(I was almost sure this would happen in the middle of the stage). In the end, the stage was really good for us, as Pagliarini took 2nd and than came some non-sprinters, which means the sprinters got less points. Sinkewitz will now use the sprinters jersey, but that's because I forgot to edit the bonuses given on mountain stages(they give sprint points).
)
