One thing I have noticed is an inability for the game or perhaps me to ride mountains with my weaker riders. What I mean by this is that it doesn't seem to matter how I set my sprinters/crap mountain riders when they have to climb....they always either stay at the front and expand farrrr to much energy resulting in them obviously not recovering as well the next day...or they drop completely out of the peloton to the point where i worry they may not make the time limit..
So I ask you...what is the best approach to take with the weak climbing riders?!
Well im talking about when we hit the category 1 climbs in the Tour or Vuelta for instance..
I would have thought 70% and maintain position would destroy there energy... i.e. the likes of Cavendish and other such riders. Whilst obviously the command is maintain position they would still be exerting 70% energy!?
Usually my non climbers keep up the pace until they drop with low energy. Mostly early in a big climb.
I just have them keep position and about 70 on the effort scale. Sometimes I have them drop early to go slower and save some energy.
This also depends on the climb and how the race goes. If it's an early climb, chances are they will manage to hold on, not even expending much energy. But if it's towards the end, they will peel off from the group by reverse order of quality.
Don't bother yourself about time gap, I never experience that even when I let sprinter ride at 20% entire climb (last one) if you are very afraid about your raiders just use 50% dot and everything should be ok.
About middle race climbs as above: every rider should be able to resist in the pack (or grupetto will be created so still ok).
70% effort will allow them to have their BPM up to about 170-175. Think of it as a cap on max effort. How much effort that is needed in any given situation depends on the rider and the terrain of course. If the group is riding slow they will only spend the energy that is needed to maintain their current position, but changes in the speed of the peleton will pull them towards the BPM cap.
When they drop of the peleton at 70% effort it is most likely not because they are empty, but for them, a higher effort than 70% is required.
I think it's at 165 that the BPM-numbers turns yellow, at which point it stats to eat into the yellow bar (represents "sustained" energy, for lack of a better word). If you put it at 84% they will have a BPM up to 186ish, which is the point where it starts to empty the red bar (explosive energy). 186-189 is sustainable for a good while, but anything at 190 and above will empty them very quickly.
I'm not entirely sure how the green bar works, maybe someone can enlighten me, but I always assumed that when the yellow&red bar empties it uses the green bar to refill it. Therefor I put my leader on maintain position around 35-55 effort at the beginning and then I slowly increase it as the speed is picked up and they start climbing. I don't change if it blinks red, I only change it if the rider is in danger of falling of the group.
This way, when the peleton accelerates to chase in early breakaway attempts or does difficult climbs, the leader does not get pulled into the yellow range unnecessarily. I always keep an eye on the BPM and whoever's effort level I micromanage almost always has a lower BPM. Doing this the leader has a lot more of the green bar left towards the end than the other riders, and his other bars doesn't drop as quickly.
If you want to make sure your sprinter sits in the group over a climb you should manage his effort level carefully. It's safe to put it around 84% for a while. Any higher than that he will empty if it goes on for a while. If a gap is created and your rider is on the wrong side of it, just hit dot effort at 84-86% and he will close that gap without losing too much energy, that is if he is at all able to do it. Some climbs are just too though for the sprinters.
I have never had an bad climber not stay ahead of the cut off. If it is an HC climb, I set them at 50-60% and keep it there unless they start to drop. Most of the time they lose a ton of time. Yet finish before the cutoff. I have also started having them set on follow to a group of riders that are also bad climbers...such as Cav.
If they have a decent hill stat you can have them work for your leader as the climb starts. Delending on the stam stat, most can do decent work till the grade is 5-6% just depends on the climbs length. And you dont want a sprinter leading a good climber if you have better support riders around. Just set them to 70-79% at about 3km from the base of the climb. They should hang on till about 1/8 the climb. Then let them fall back, stick them on a rider like Cav's wheel and let you stronger riders take over.
I have never put a sprinter at any effort past 75% on a climb. I will kill a helper who can climb with 80-84% before I launch my leader. I only use 1 climber with my leader most of the time. This keeps my other climbers fresh if another climb is up the next day. Then I use a different leadout and let my other helpers get water and recover.
A slight trick, put you bad climbers with your good climbers. As soon as they need water, send the sprinter for it. Oddly, even on a huge climb...the AI allows the sprinter to return to the group and hand out water. They may drop after, but it is a cheap way to get them up a climb.
