So I've been playing PCM 2015 for a little while but only the mode I have been playing is Pro Cyclist. Just decided to give Career mode a go before realising how much I suck at planning. I have literally no idea how to plan ahead. I've looked up for some tutorials but they all seem outdated(PCM 12/13). So do you guys have any tips or even better, any tool/tutorial that is still relevant?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: I'm using Team Sky
Edited by llwh96 on 08-05-2016 13:25
A first step would be telling us what team you'd be playing with, because WT teams often plan their season totally differently and have more riders as well.
Planning the whole season for each rider individually is hard and takes forever, imho. Which is why I use the simplest system I could come up with, I explained it (in more detail than necessary) as comment #3 under Dancycling's season planning advice (which I also recommend reading):
If you want to plan the season relatively detailed, I'd advise you to have a side document, like an Excel sheet or a handwritten page.
What I do is I pick the riders I want to lead in races (usually two to three stage racers, a cobble rider, a puncheur, maybe a sprinter and a time trial guy). Assign them two or three domestiques (more aren't necessary in my experience), and then set the main goals for each of the leaders. This is where the notes are very helpful.
Then apply the goals in the personal planning in game and see if they work out. Sometimes, your original plan is too much for a rider, or you have room for more races.
If the main goals for the leaders are set, set the same goals for their personal domestiques. Now you should have between 16 and 22 riders planned. I usually leave the weak riders to themselves and just add them to races that still need riders once those races come up.
For the last step, chose the prep races for the leaders' goals.
This is how my planning looks like for instance, which may look complicated at first but is actually relatively simple:
1) Leaders - Pick the leaders you want for the GTs. Allocate the same. Put them into the necessary prep races. For example, for the Giro, I usually allocate the designated leader to Catalunya or Pais Vasco. Similarly, the leader for the TDF gets allocated to the Criterium Dauphine or the Tour de Suisse, depending on the stage profiles (the latter is usually better).
2) Super Domestiques - This would be the likes of Majka, Kreuziger,etc. Assign them to the grand tours you want to. Assign races like the Paris-Nice and Criterium Dauphine, where they can challenge for the win.
3) Domestiques - Pair them up with leaders. Like, for team Sky, if you plan to send Froome to TDF and Landa to the Giro, pair up Nieve with Landa and Henao with Froome (for example). Assign the domestiques the same races (both GTs and WT events) as the leaders you pair them up with.
4) Sprinters - Choose races which have a considerable number of sprint stages in proportion to the number of stages in the race. Personally, I prefer not to send sprinters to races like Catalunya and Pais Vasco, as there's hardly anything on offer for them there.
Besides this, keep an eye out for your TT riders as they prefer some races over the others. You can check that in the planning screen. The other support riders can be left with their default selections and you select them to complete the team in races. Tiredness is the other thing you need to keep a track of, and is easily viewable in the planning screen.