I wanna ask, how can i help my main leader in big climbs (except obvious protecting him with anotehr rider)? Is there any other way his teammates can help him ?
In PCM this is tough. Depending on his FLAT abilities, you can help him by tiring out the competition before the climbs or in between the climbs You can also help by pre-attacking:
1. Either send a decent climber in the attack and keep him at a few minutes. Then attack with your leader and you'll catch up with him, then you can use him to save energy.
2. Attack with a climber and follow attack with your leader, this saves energy and you're already a few meters further.
Setting a pace that's hard to follow to get rid of other teams helpers, if you've got a fairly strong domestique then possibly attacking with him to force other teams to chase. Though I've not normally got a rider strong enough in support for that to work.
Few unorthodox thoughts on climbing in PCM2013 comparing to previous versions:
1. Position yourself in front of the group before the climb. Bringing rider up on climb can waste more energy than pacing in front. And AI will attack like crazy if you're stuck down the peloton.
2. Keeping position on climbs (on say 84 effort so you don't get dropped) is now more effective and less exhausting than riding on dot to keep high position in the group. Dot should be only used as "attack" option in the final of the climb (cause obviously you still want to avoid attacks on climbs as they will kill you).
3. Instead of protecting your best climber with second best, use the second best climber to pace on dot (relatively high effort but without craziness, monitor your leader heartrate to choose best tempo, ca. 79 usually works for me) and have your leader maintain position behind him. You will tire the peloton instead of tiring yourself and your leader will not lose much more energy. This will also make AI attacks less effective and easier to counter.
4. When you right click on a cyclist there is an order to take position on that cyclist (big dot, first from the right in the same menu, where there are protect, follow, measure time orders) - this is by far the most useful order in whole PCM13. This is also your best friend on climbs. Use this option with your leader on your gregario and have your gregario pace in front. Your leader will keep right behind him just like he was protected spending only little more energy. When your gregario is done, keep position after the next pacing rider fro other team to save some energy for the great finale and wait for the right time to use high effort dot in the final kms of the climb.
Works for me on hard, should work for you. It's definitely less aggressive and counterintuitively may be more energy effective than riding on dot all the time and having your rivals use your effort.
Don't know if it's applicable on extreme.
Edited by Smoku on 15-04-2014 14:01
I've had reasonable success with the 3rd best climber protecting the leader, and having the leader and 2nd best climber on relay (2nd best climber higher effort)
then when he runs out of red, then you protect with your #2 rider and dot away from the field (somewhere in the high 80s for effort)
kinda like how sky do it irl (yeah, it sucks to watch, but it's damn effective)
oh yeah, and try to get all your riders near the front at the start (it's one of the first things i do, just after the BOTD has gone and the pace is low)
Edited by samdiatmh on 16-04-2014 11:29
You can also help by pre-attacking:
