Hi there, I am currently in my first season with a custom team.
I need to work out who to take. This is the team I think I am taking:
Leader: cadel (for gc)
Wiggins (for his tt and support in mountains)
Larson as above
Rijano (pure mountain henchman)
Gadret as above
Grabsh (for tt and potential lead out for train)
Gil (sprints)
Appolonio (sprint lead out)
My thinking is though, that would I be better leaving appolonio and getting another worker in? I may be better off letting Gil try his luck on his own and just work for the gc? I have plenty of decent mountain domestiques I could take, do u guys think I need a water carrier instead of a second sprinter?
Not sure I have much in the way of TT backup, with evans, wiggins, grabsch and larsen I have a solid 4, is that not going to be enough? Grabsch is a 79 TT and is going to be riding hard as he is only good at that. How many plus 70 TT guys do you need for a decent TTT?
You can do well with lots of differet setups, im usually going for as balanced setup with flat and mountain riders, usually with atleast 1 hill classic spesialist in the mix. 4 good mountain men is enough, if you only have 1 leader fighting for ovrall table, then 4 good flat riders, with 1 of them a good sprinter. early stages they all form train for sprinter, later on when the mountains have set the flat riders +30 mins behind leaderboard, i usually use 2 strong flatriders to go for breaks and 1 to support sprinter incase break dont go in and we get mass sprint for win. For mountains im usually have 1 strong mountain rider in support of leader, 1 to carre food and 1 to either set pace or go off with mountain breaks to control the stage. Il list the best team iv had in manager mode, was a dream team, but unfortunatly some had to leave after season sincer so many stars became to expennsive for budget.
season 2014 - ingame diffecoulty extrem hard:
1. Andy Schleck - leader, and won overall 0,23 in front of Contador, was a close one...
2. Frank Schleck - main support rider, was the one strong enough to follow and protect Andy until last strech or Andy had to counter attack on alberto.
He ended in 6th place overall, and won a hill stage...always been quick on the slopes.
3. Jacob Fuglesang - second support rider. Strong enough to follow until the last strech and make sure Andy had enough food and drinks, so he did not have to drop back and get it himself, very important. 18 overall
4. Van Garden - verry talented GT rider, this is hes last "learning" season. Next year he will lead a GT himself, prolly Italy, since Vuelta is more of a hilly GT, and Van Garden is best at the ssteapest mountains. He was in many mountain breaks, and won both mointain points and got 2 in best young rider. 22 overall and even won 1 montain stage!
5. Mimfort - Still life in the old body, what a great overall cyclist. Won 1 hill stage, and is good enough both on flats and the mountain to be of general help everywhere weather it be in a train for a sprint, or singlehandely riding in a break both on flats and hills.
6 Fabian Cancellara - The man, The legend, the one and only. won 3 stages in 3 different ways. 1 TT, 1 breakaway and 1 attack 20km from finish. On early flat stages where the sprinter teams dont allowe any breaks, hes a 1 man train, he can go in fron on 90% for 15km bringing ure sprinters to the front at 2,5 km and playing angry birds on hes Iphone at the same time...25 overal, 3 stage wins, and 5th in pointstandings
7. Matti Brechel - strong flatrider and ok in sprint, wich makes him perfect either for lead out, or second leadout, he will never tire out before sprint and loose the back of Fabian. No results for himself, but awsome flat helper.
8. Edvald Boassen-Hagen - world class flatrider, good in sprints and good in hills. Almost unbeatable in light uphill sprints if used properly. 4 stage wins and won the overall point rankings. when he was not main sprinter (dead flat stages) he was fiirst lead out at 1,8-2km and took enough points on these stages to hold of the likes of Cavendish and Ferrar on points overall. Also world class in TTs.
9. mathew goss - strong sprinter. Not as good flatrider as Cav and the other cannons, but so strong he can keep the back of my train with Fabian, Brwechel and Boassen and still pass them on the last 500 meters. This gave him 2 stagewins and 3 podium places.
