I want to expose the analysis facing the 2015 Real Tour with the Tour played for me in PCM 2015. You can see the comparative at the end of this article.
The first difference for me is The Tour in PCM seems 21 different races and no a race with 21 stages. I mean sometimes you can see attacks with non sense (far of the finish line in a medium-mountain stages) and in the third week, these riders are exhausted and his teammates too.
First week: in the first week in the Tour usually there are the most of the falls and some leaders is down (this year Peraud and Costa, in 2014 Froome). The first week is too the week of the cuts because the wind, this year that happens in the stage 2 (Quintana, Valverde and Nibali lost 1:30). In the game did not happens the wind cuts.
Time Trial stage 1: 3 minutes more to finish the stage in the game than real. The differences between favourites ones are a few second more than real.
Team Time Trial: 2 minutes and half more to finish the stage than real, the differences between the betters are a few less than real.
Hills: too much time than in real. for example stage 3 (Huy): Nibali, Froome, Quintana + 2'44. In real, a Group with Valverde, Quintana and Nibali 11 seconds after the winner (rodriguez). The second rider arrived at 18 seconds in the game and in real the second one, was Froome at the same time.
Cobblestones stage: The differences are very very exaggerated. in the stage 4 the winner arrive 5'58" before the big group. Pinot, Contador lost 7'40. In real the favourites arrived three seconds before of Tony Martin meanwhile Sanchez lost 3'23. Therefore there is a extreme difference between real versus game.
Mountain: The differences is bigger than in real. I think change the escale time is necessary. I mean few meters in montain would be 30 seconds, therefore in a sprint a rider can advantage 45" only in 500 metres. In Real for example Froome gets 1 minutes to Quintana in more than 6 kilometres in the stage 10. In Alpe D'Huez Quintana attacked 9,5 km left the climb and advantage 1'20 to Froome. Another example Nibali in his worst day stage 10 he was exhausted and lost contact with the group early in the climb and lost 4'25 . In the overall classification in real the 3rd (Valverde) finish 5'25" of the leader, Quintana (second) 1.12, Nibali 8'36" and Contador 9'48". In the game. Quintatna finished 2'27" of Purito Rodriguez, Bardet 11'32, Porte 16'32 and Valverde 17'21 that's a enormous difference.
In the game in a mountain stage one rider can advantage 1'30 easily and in the next stage, this rider can lose 2 minutes, that is not regular as in real. In the last Tour only in three stages has been differences between the favorites stage 10, 19 and 20. Another thing is the descent in the real is more important than in the game, I think that should be checked
Breakaways: In the Tour arrived 7 breakaways. In the game only 2. Even Valverde won the stage 15 (in Real Greipel). Moreover in the real the flat stages, the breakaways are of few riders. In medium-mountain and high-mountain stages usually are between 15-25 riders in the breakaway. and are this kind stages where are easier to arrive to finish line. This isn't in this way in the game.
Paris stage: in the game the last stage is a normal one in the game, however in the real is a party, only the last turns in the circuits are competitive. No one attack until Paris circuit. Moreover in the game three riders abandoned in this stage (is very unreal) and there are differences in the finish line (the last rider arrived at 17 minutes). I think is very difficult to see falls in this stage.
STAGE 1 (TT)
GAME
1 Tony Martin Etixx - Quick-step 17'57
2 Michael Rogers Tinkoff-Saxo + 7
3 Bradley Wiggins Team Sky + 8
4 Tom Dumoulin Team Giant-Alpecin + 11
5 Fabian Cancellara Trek Factory Racing s.t.
6 Geraint Thomas Team Sky + 22
10 Rohan Dennis BMC Racing Team s.t.
13 Chris Froome Team Sky + 32
16 Tejay Van Garderen BMC Racing Team + 40
17 Nairo Quintana Movistar Team + 40
21 Richie Porte Team Sky + 42
22 Bauke Mollema Trek Factory Racing + 42
24 Rigoberto Uran Etixx - Quick-step + 43
33 Thibaut Pinot FDJ + 50
43 Vincenzo Nibali Astana Pro Team + 55
55 Alberto Contador Tinkoff-Saxo + 1'01
88 Mathias Frank IAM Cycling + 1'20
93 Robert Gesink Team LottoNL - Jumbo + 1'21
102 Romain Bardet Ag2r La Mondiale s.t.
51 Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha + 1'44
167 Fabio Aru Astana Pro Team + 1'49
REAL
1. DENNIS Rohan 63 BMC 14' 56''
2. MARTIN Tony ETIXX-QUICK + 00' 05''
3. CANCELLARA Fabian TREK + 00' 06''
4. DUMOULIN Tom 85 GIANT + 00' 08''
5. VAN EMDEN Jos LOTTO ' + 00' 15''
6. CASTROVIEJO MOVISTAR + 00' 23''
11. GESINK Robert LOTTO NL + 00' 33''
12. THOMAS Geraint SKY + 00' 33''
14. MOLLEMA Bauke TREK + 00' 37''
17. URAN URAN ETIXX-QS + 00' 40''
18. PINOT Thibaut 21 FDJ + 00' 41''
20. VAN GARDEREN BMC + 00' 42''
22. NIBALI Vincenzo 1 ASTANA + 00' 43''
39. FROOME Christopher SKY + 00' 50''
46. CONTADOR TINKOFF + 00' 58''
57. QUINTANA MOVISTAR + 01' 01''
79. FRANK Mathias IAM + 01' 12''
125. RODRIGUEZ J.KATUSHA + 01' 26''
GAME
1 Domenico Pozzovivo Ag2r 3h22'46
2 Julian Alaphilippe Etixx - Quick-step + 18
3 Richie Porte Team Sky + 33
4 Simon Spilak Team Katusha s.t.
5 Daniel Martin Team Cannondale - Garmin s.t.
6 Philippe Gilbert BMC Racing Team s.t.
9 Mikel Landa Astana Pro Team + 1'22
10 Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha s.t
Quintana, Nibali, Froome, Aru, + 1’44”
Uran,Gesink,Van Garderen, 2’24
198 Phil Bauhaus Bora - Argon 18 + 14'34
GAME
1 Sébastien Turgot Ag2r La Mondiale 4h31'41
2 Filippo Pozzato Lampre-Merida + 1'17
3 Fabian Cancellara Trek Factory Racing s.t.
4 Tom Boonen Etixx - Quick-step + 2'20
5 Sep Vanmarcke Team LottoNL - Jumbo s.t.
6 Sylvain Chavanel IAM Cycling + 2'40
7 Maarten Wynants Team LottoNL + 4'54
Valverde,Nibali, Van Garderen, Gilbert, Rodriguez, Froome, Quintana a 5’58”
Bardet, Contador, Mollema, Pinot a 7’40”
REAL
1. MARTIN Tony ETIXX-QS 05h 28' 58''
2. DEGENKOLB TEAM GIANT- + 00' 03''
Valverde, Froome, Contador + 00' 03''
78. SANCHEZ SamuelBMC + 03' 23''
STAGE 10 (LA PIERRE ST: MARTIN)
GAME
1 Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha 3h49'09
2 Nairo Quintana Movistar Team s.t.
3 Alberto Contador Tinkoff-Saxo s.t.
4 Romain Bardet Ag2r La Mondiale + 1'49
5 Wilco Kelderman Team LottoNL - Jumbo s.t.
6 Simon Spilak Team Katusha s.t.
7 Vincenzo Nibali Astana Pro Team s.t.
8 Chris Froome Team Sky + 2'22
10 Richie Porte Team Sky + 2’57 “
15 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team + 4'02
Pinot, Uran, Van Garderen + 4'31
Gesink, Frank, Sánchez + 7’23”
REAL
1. FROOME SKY 04h 22' 07''
2. PORTE Richie SKY + 00' 59''
3. QUINTANA Nairo MOVISTAR + 01' 04''
4. GESINK TEAM LOTTO + 01' 33''
5. VALVERDE MOVISTAR + 02' 01''
6. THOMAS SKY + 02' 01''
10. VAN GARDEREN BMC + 02' 30''
11. CONTADOR TINKOFF-SAXO + 02' 51''
16. SANCHEZ Samuel BMC + 04' 00''
17. MOLLEMA TREK + 04' 09''
21. NIBALI ASTANA + 04' 25''
23. FRANK IAM CYCLING + 04' 44''
STAGE 9 (TTT)
GAME
1 Team Sky 34'58
2 IAM Cycling + 2
3 Trek Factory Racing + 2
4 Etixx - Quick-step + 5
5 BMC Racing Team + 7
6 Astana Pro Team + 8
7 Team Cannondale - Garmin + 18
8 Orica-GreenEDGE + 20
9 Tinkoff-Saxo + 28
10 Team LottoNL – Jumbo + 31
11 Lotto Soudal + 39
12 FDJ + 42
13 Ag2r La Mondiale + 45
14 Team Katusha + 48
15 Bora - Argon 18 + 55
16 Movistar Team + 57
17 Team Europcar + 1'07
18 Team Giant-Alpecin + 1'13
19 Lampre-Merida + 1'16
20 Bretagne + 1'17
21 MTN-Qhubeka + 1'17
22 Cofidis, Solutions Crédits + 1'34
GAME
1 Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha 5h02'27
2 Alberto Contador Tinkoff-Saxo s.t.
3 Nairo Quintana Movistar Team + 44
4 Bauke Mollema Trek Factory Racing + 1'43
5 Rui Costa Lampre-Merida s.t.
6 Romain Bardet Ag2r La Mondiale s.t.
7 Vincenzo Nibali Astana Pro Team s.t.
8 Richie Porte Team Sky s.t.
12 Tejay Van Garderen BMC + 2'54
18 Samuel Sánchez BMC + 3'59
19 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team + 4'14
Pinot, Froome, Gesink FDJ + 5’49”
31 Mathias Frank IAM Cycling 6’33”
REAL
1. BARDET Romain AG2R 05h 03' 40''
2. ROLLAND EUROPCAR 13'' + 00' 33''
Gesink, Froome, Valverde, Contador, Frank, Quintana, Nibali, Thomas a 3’02”
Samuel Sánchez, Mollena a 3’21”
STAGE 19 (LA TOUSSIERE) GAME
1 Jean-Christophe Péraud Ag2r 4h23'14
2 Chris Froome Team Sky + 30
3 Tejay Van Garderen 4'13
4 Simon Yates Orica-GreenEDGE + 9'17
5 Thibaut Pinot FDJ s.t.
6 Diego Ulissi Lampre-Merida + 9'34
7 Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha + 10'49
9 Nairo Quintana Movistar Team + 12'45
10 Romain Bardet Ag2r La Mondiale + 13'16
11 Vincenzo Nibali Astana Pro Team s.t.
12 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team s.t.
18 Mathias Frank IAM Cycling + 17'24
REAL
1. NIBALI Vincenzo ASTANA 04h 22' 53''
2.QUINTANA Nairo MOVISTAR + 00' 44''
3. FROOME TEAM SKY + 01' 14''
PINOT, Bardet, Valverde, Mollema, Gesink, Contador, Samuel Sánchez + 02' 26''
11. ROLLAND EUROPCAR + 02' 35''
14. FRANK IAM CYCLING + 05' 02''
STAGE 20 (ALPE D’HUEZ) GAME
1 Nairo Quintana Movistar Team 3h05'31
2 Joaquim Rodriguez Team Katusha s.t.
3 Richie Porte Team Sky + 1'53
4 Romain Bardet Ag2r La Mondiale + 2'25
5 Alejandro Valverde Movistar Team + 2'44
6 Chris Froome Team Sky + 3'11
9 Vincenzo Nibali Astana Pro Team + 4'48
23 Samuel Sánchez BMC + 11'10
26 Robert Gesink Team LottoNL + 13’11
soo...? this is a game, not a simulation.
to make an even somewhat valid comparison you should play hundreds of tours and run hundreds of real tours. the problem with the latter is, you'd need to run hundreds of 2015's tours..
