I would appreciate advice on this. I'm sure many of you has gone this route before and could shed some light.
In my 1st season with a custom team in the continental division I had 16 riders. I split them up in to two groups. One group would peak in March-April and July-Aug, the other May-June and September-oct.
I focused on the X.hc-races I was able to join and avoided the cobbles as I had no strong cobble rider. It worked out pretty well as my team won the Superprestige narrowly and got promoted to the Conti Pro.
This season I have 26 riders. Mostly talents, but a few good riders. I split them into three group, the first 2 roughly the same as the 1st season and one group for the cobble races and a few classics and short tours.
So far okay?
With the grand tours I'm planning on only asking for a wild card for the Vuelta. Mollema is the only one I have good enough to compete for the GC and I suspect the Vuelta would give him his best chance as I've noticed a lot of favorites are unfit by then.
Problem is I have no idea if I get a wildcard for any of the tours or classics, so how do I go about planning the season? As far as I can remember you only get confirmation on wildcard from the WT-races after you've already confirmed the race calender, so whatever I do it seems risky. Any advice on what to expect? As an example in my last try I didn't get wildcards for Par-Nic, Ti-Ad, Giro, but I got it for TdF and Vuelta. What is it based on? Is there any way of knowing, or is mostly random?
The only options I see is: only plan for the WT-races, but risk not getting a wildcard
or double up on races from WT and Conti and hope it works out somehow.
The sponsor expects all sorts of successes in the WT-races, but did so in the 1st season too, but was still delighted despite me not managing a single goal (as I didn't have access to the races). Contract is running out end of season, but I'll probably look for a new one to improve my 100k budget.
Edited by eple on 15-01-2013 00:42
1. Don't care about sponsor goals
So 2. Don't plan for WT races if you don't have a really competitive rider for them, chances you get WCs when newly coming into a grown system of WC distributions are not as high as you often think
If you feel like you can really get one, sure, go for it, but remember to have a suited CT race somewhere around that fitness peak in case.
One thing worth remembering is that on PCM12, most wildcards are returned as a success/fail very early in the season, so even if you get rejected, you can re-plan your riders seasons without losing too many of their potential race days
Another tip i've used in the past is to always set up a situation where at any race, where it may be affected by a wildcard, I have a first and second class leader set up to go there, this means that if i get a WC then i can simply change where i am sending my 1st leader, as i know he will be free at this period as he was already "booked"
Obviously for this to work you will need an available 2-3 strong domestiques extra, so that you can support both teams effectively, but as a tactic i've found it useful
As for how wild cards are given, it's not totally random. I haven't really tested or observed much how it is in PCM12, but nationality of the team seems to be a major factor, and then strength of the team.
The others have sort of said the rest: don't really care for sponsor goals if you don't want to, and try to find CT races that your leader could do well in if you don't get the wildcard
Thanks, guys. I have Offredo (cobb 76) and Mollema (m77). Those are really the only ones capable of winning classics and wt-tours, although I did manage to beat riders such as Wiggins and A. Schleck with Quintana in a tour last season, so I could possible win the odd one and get a few good places. I hear what you are saying though.
I'm thinking maybe I should just go for the x.hc-races and the classics, and just forget about the WT-tours, unless they don't crash with other races. I was top of all conti and conti pro teams last season in the superprestige, so if I use the same strategy as last year but ride more races I should do even better. Only problem is that the two WT-teams that got relegated are looking really strong. I.e Astana with Janez Brakoviz (avr78) and a few riders above avr75. Is it possible to get promoted when ditching the WT altogether?
I would just ask for those wildcards and make a backup program in case your request gets rejected. If needed, you can always use an editor to cancel your participation in a backup race if you get your wildcard. Maybe a bit lame, when PCM hands out wildcards unrealistically late, it's a valid option for me.
I think that you have a chance on the Top 10 in the Giro or Vuelta with Mollema.
You should give a smaller WT stage-race a shot too, seriously, you can get a nice result if you have Mollema in form 85+ there..
And as suggested earlier, if you let Mollema peak somewhere for a WT race, you should have a .HC or .1 close to that, so that he'll use his top form for something else if you don't get a wildcard
Ended up applying for all classics and roughly half of the WT-tour, as well as attending most x.hc-races. I figured if I get all wildcards I'll be around 80 race days, and if I get none it's probably around 60, so somewhere in the middle is just fine.
Currently at the end of march and it's going much better than expected, almost too good, so I don't think it will matter much if I run into trouble with the schedule. Major results so far is taking the GC, points and mountain ranking with Mollema in Vuelta Cataluna. Up against F. Schleck, Evans, Froome, Wiggins, Taaramae, etc, Also won Tour of Oman and Malaysia with him, and a 2nd in Vuelta Mallorca. Offredo is not quite there yet, but got a 6th place in E3 and a 2nd place in Gent-Wevelgem. Won Dwaars and Ronde-West Vlaanderen and also got a few top 10 places in other races.
So far my team is top in the continental and superprestige by a great distance. Even have the 3rd place in WT, although I don't expect to hold onto it
