I have recently played Giro with Astana and had a problem with Guardini. Stat-wise he was one of best sprinters in peleton (79 SP, 78 ACC) but every time I sat on Goss's wheel or made my own train when we reached 1 km to go his red bar was already at least half empty, so he never managed to get a decent result in sprints. What's the reason of that? I read here that RES stat affects yellow bar, he has ~66 REC, and ACC affects red bar, but 78 ACC isn't that bad.
Either it's your sprinters form, his FLat stat, or since you're talking about Goss, depending on your stat, you might have had one too many HILls along the way.
Guardini has 75 flat, so this shouldn't be as big problem. I'm talking about Goss as there was no Cav or Greipel there, and in the last stage (perfectly flat) as my leadout Gavazzi aws in -4 form I decided to try my luck on Goss's wheel (he had train made by Impey and Davis) but, as I wrote, by 1 km mark Guardini was already quite tired, so I couldn't sprint effectively. I found this problem on every flat stage of Giro, maybe only once managed to get top 5 with him (difficulty normal).
Edited by Cossack on 30-05-2013 20:56
75 FL is not the highest and if things were moving really really fast he might have lost some red bar because of it, but it would not happen all the time.
Other than that, fitness and form are the only two things that come to mind.
The awful RES stat can make the difference here.
If the yellow bar gets more empty, the other bars drop faster as well I think.
Guardini is 79 SP, but due to his hills and energy stats, he isn't as good as the other 79 SP guys.
Try to lead the peloton with the train as few times as possible, don't force the pace too much. Also, try to start the sprint later. F.e Bozic is a good leadout, and you can start the sprint at 1,2km with Guardini.
Edit: And form is really, really important. 76 Sp guy on 97 form can beat a 79 SP guy on 80 form quite easy.
Edited by Jesleyh on 30-05-2013 21:02
Thanks for all replies, I have already finished this Giro and it was only a single race, so I don't think I will race with him more, I was just curious which stat was mainly responsible for my problems. Starting sprints earlier is not an option as so far I always start sprint around 1 km mark.
By the way, what is optimal distance to start sprinting? If I seat on a good sprinter's wheel should I stick to it for as long as possible or try my luck on normal distance?
Edited by Cossack on 30-05-2013 21:22
Cossack wrote:
By the way, what is optimal distance to start sprinting? If I seat on a good sprinter's wheel should I stick to it for as long as possible or try my luck on normal distance?
If it's my own leadout ( = the rider in front of my sprinter, who started at 2.5~2 kms, is fading away), I usually go with about 1 km to go. If my sprinter is sitting on another's sprinters wheel, then I usually go a few hundred meters inside the last km (~0.7 kms to go), but imo it also depends on the quality of the field (the faster the sprinters are the earliest you should go, otherwise you won't have time to pass the rider you were following).
Unfortunately, in PCM12 the riders, when sprinting, lose top speed very quickly (run out of red bar), and when they do so they lower down to ridiculous speeds, specially on lower-level races. In these cases, you can easily win by just sticking to wheels and accelerating with 0.4, even ~0.25 kms to go, but I don't like doing that because it feels like cheating
