I a playing a career in which i have quite some decent sprinters and a decent lead out train train, currently i am at WCT level and i play at hard.
I do run into a problem though in this season bering my first at the WCT level. Every time a stage ends up in a sprint, i am getting blocked. If i try to keep my sprint train at the front, it seems it is always slower then the other teams, so i am losing it here, even if my riders have the better stats.
So the thing in sprints i do is keep them roughly at the same place as the other trains or slightly behind, but every time i do that my train gets blocked by either parts of the BOTD getting caught, other team their helpers or even just random guys who arent supposed to be there.
After realising sprint trains don't work apparently, i tried to stick my best sprinters on the wheels of the other teams their trains. With a lot of pausing in between it is doable to get them in the other sprinters wheel, but once again i run into other riders completely blocking me. While the guy in front of my sprinter seems to go right through the obstacle, mine comepletely gets stuck.
I once even saw my sprinter being blocked so badly, that he lost the peloton all together.
to make clear how often this happens to me, i was able to sprint once normally in all of the tour stages of the last tour de france with only one of my two sprinters. All the other times i was blocked.
So I would gladly accept any form of advice on this matter on how to deal with this.
Stephan, you are absolutely right in AI sprint trains being unfairly strong. They are simply cheating.
In between 5-3k to go, the AI forms their trains, usually 3 guys. No matter how good your train is, and what your/their train's position is, their train will always be faster in between 5-3k. You can only hope that the AI doesn't gain too much from it.
I've had it happen with my fresh 5-3k leadout being 82 FL and 77 ACC, max fitness, being overtaken by a guy with <70 FL and ACC.
In regard to controlling your train and positioning, I advise the following:
The AI is bad when it comes to leading the peloton, right after the breakaway. As long as there is a breakaway, the peloton will relay instead of positioning sprinters. Exploit this between 18-5k to go by putting a rider in the break and attacking at 18k. Let them chase you. After the final breakaway is caught, the AI usually stops chasing for a second and the peloton slows down. Exploit this moment to launch your train to the front of the peloton at maximum effort. Timing is crucial, don't get stuck. Hopefully, you have disorganized the sprinters and the peloton enough to launch your train properly.
I've litterally had my 4 man train ride away from the peloton in one occasion, because nobody went after my sprint train at 5k to go, when I launched. I won 1-2-3-4
I've got some more luck with Giant-Shimano right now in the Giro. I most often position my train very early, then dot at 85 with 15km to go. This enables you to stay in front. If you have a 4-man train accelerate with 6-7km to go to give you a little edge. For each man extra I always count 2km. With my sprint train Kittel-Veelers-De Backer-Ahlstrand-Curvers-Ludvigsson-Timmer I managed to win first three sprint stages with a perfect sprint train each.
