I noticed this thread hadn't been made yet so here we go. Post your career experiences in PCM16 that you want to share here.
With the launch of the Expansion Pack I decided to give it a go as well. Chose for Silber Pro Cycling Team. They've got a very young and talented squad (or at least hopefully with random potentials on ). Key rider seems to be Ryan Roth, who can do hills and TTs, so hopefully some GC results are good for him. Other strong riders are Ben Perry, baroudeur, Kris Dahl, sprinter and Alexander Cataford, time trialist. This might become my first career since PCM13 where I actually manage to play an entire season.
I'll try to give some updates regularly, after a few races as well, and with some news from the other races and teams as well.
Started a career with PedalHeaven to get playing with the DB and experience PCM16 a little bit more.
Not the best team (being pretty much unknown to anyone who doesn't know the ins and outs of the GB scene), has some nice GB veterans as well as some younger riders for development. A few nice signings after the second season and they will be a useful team to play with
I've got motivation. This might be my first career since PCM13 where I get further than a season. I can really recommend Silber to everyone who looks for a CT team (and the Expansion Pack of course, though that shouldn't be necessary to say). If there's anything else you want to see from this career (such as other race results, stats etc.) feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do.
Silber Pro Cycling Team - Update #1 (Post-April)
Not the busiest period yet for the team to start the season. We've set up a first sort of longlist for transfers already, the plan is to stick to Canadians initially, and maybe have some other North American riders as well. More on that after actual transfers.
First race of the season was Valley of the Sun. I chose a stage win as a goal here (no idea why I didn't just pick top-5, seeing that Roth would be able to get a good result in the TT). The TT went decent, Roth took 4th and would hang on to that in the end.
However, the highlight of the race was stage 2. A mass crash tore up the pack with 30km to go. About 40 riders were left in the pack. The break was picked up with the greatest of efforts from the pack. That's why I decided Julien Gagne (fitting name ) attacked with 5km to go, and he managed to win with 41 seconds ahead of the pack, where Dahl managed to pick up a podium as well after finishing behind Caldeira. Stage 3 was a bit more underwhelming, but I didn't care.
Next Ster van Zwolle. We failed to put someone in the break, so we went all in on a sprint with Kris Dahl. Ben Perry and Matteo Dal-Cin gave everything to ensure Dahl would even be able to find a sprinters wheel. Eventually this did succeed, and Dahl repaid for the team efforts with an incredible third place.
In the Tour de Normandie I managed to find out again how messed up the TT AI was. In the prologue Masbourian (61PRL) managed to get third place due to a +5 day. Palini and Peters were too strong unfortunately. Riders like Dibben and Vermeltfoort didn't even get into the top-10. In stage 3 Dahl sprinted to second (despite being blocked, otherwise he might even have won). Even better was the next stage. The stage (very short) had a small hill near the end. Ben Perry headed to the front with Ryan Roth in his wheel. They managed to distance the disorganized pack. Perry brought Roth to the final 5km, after which Roth himself managed to finish the stage himself as winner. The final three stages were very disappointing, mainly due to Dahl being blocked in the sprints. However, in the final GC we got another 4th place (Roth) and a 9th (Masbourian). So a good race overall.
Joe Martin Stage Race was another stage win goal. However, this one went a lot worse. The riders were not in a good shape, and the sprinter field was way too strong for us to compete, as well as the climber field, which meant we didn't stand a chance in the MO prologue as well. At least in the final stage Kris Dahl got a podium, but it's still a failed goal. Dahl was also the best in the GC, at 14th (also due to echelons).
The final April race for us was the Charlotte Criterium, where we had a top-10 goal. Cataford was part of the break that lasted until 8km from the line, then we relied on Dahl. Perry launched him quite well, and 9th was the final result, so we passed our goal.
The rider development is quite messed up as well unfortunately (it seems). Ryan Roth has been declining quite a bit already and if this persists I might not even renew him, but on the other hand all other riders are far from the age of decline luckily, so that's better news.
Hopefully other people are willing to share their career experiences as well. Doesn't need to be such a large bookwork as mine, but it's always nice to read some other stories. In any case, here's a new update from me.
Silber Pro Cycling Team - Update #2 (Post-June)
May and June have by far been the most successful months for the team. We raced a lot and scored a lot of points. More details to follow.
First up was Silver City's Tour of the Gila. Things didn't seem very promising here. After the TT we did get Cataford in the GC top-10. However, on the final (hilly) stage he attacked with 5km to go. He immediately picked up the early break and then stormed to a solo win, taking enough seconds to net us our first ever GC win!
Next up was the Amgen Tour of California. Stage 1 didn't bring much, but stage 2 is right now feeling like my best ever stage on PCM.
On stage 2 though, this happened. After we set up a sprint train, the other teams could not follow us and Kris Dahl got a massive win, ahead of Wippert. We even got to wear the leader's jersey for a day.
In the stages afterwards, we did not get impressive results, but because Dahl joined the early break 3 times, picking up 10 points per stage, he managed to claim the points classification in the end.
In stage 8, an early break with Cataford and Perry in it survived. Perry unfortunately couldn't do better than 2nd behind Roosen, while Cataford, who worked all day, came in as 12th and last of the break.
Next up was Tour de Gironde. On stage 1, we didn't do much, on stage 2 a break, with Émile Jean in it, survived with a massive gap. Unfortunately Jean was not good enough and only came in 8th and last of the breakaway, also ending 8th in the final GC. On stage 3 Ben Perry managed to join the surviving break, this time getting redemption for his 2nd place in California and winning the stage.
Winston-Salem Cycling Classic did not go as planned. No notable result here.
We rode one of the Pearl Izumi Tour Series, namely number 3. In the ''mass'' sprint here, Kris Dahl got 2nd, Ben Perry got 3rd. Good result, but unfortunately no win.
Philadelphia went just like Winston-Salem, so no words should be wasted on that.
Next up was the Tour de Korea. This race had a stacked startlist, but the racing was incredibly weird. In stage 1 it was a normal mass sprint. Stage 2 already saw a breakaway win. Julien Gagne managed to come 4th from this break. Stage 3 was another breakaway. However only one escapee survived: Ben Perry managed to get a solo win ahead of a small pack. Gagne took the overall lead ahead of Perry. Stage 4 was bizarre again. The break was reeled in and a small pack would fight for the stage win. Ben Perry managed to win the stage. Gagne was dropped and lost the overall lead to Perry. Stage 5 had the exact same scenario, exact that Gagne didn't get dropped and Roth managed to complete the 1-2 with a second place. So that's 3 stage wins in a row for Ben Perry who's also leading the overall. Stage 6 saw another breakaway win. Baugnies was the strongest, Gagne again came 4th and retook the lead. On stage 7 another breakaway win. Prades won the stage ahead of Dal-Cin and the storming pack. Perry was dropped, but instead Dal-Cin took enough time to take the overall lead. Stage 8 saw a break beat the peloton, Graeme Brown took the win.
In the end:
On top of that Ben Perry also won the points classification (3 stage wins were in the end enough), Julien Gagne was 3rd in the KoM and Dal-Cin/Gagne took the -25 as well.
Tour of America's Dairyland also brought a GC win. Julien Gagne took both hilly stages and with that the GC. Ryan Roth came 3rd, also in the points classification.
The Tour de Beauce was the final stage race in June, and since it's Canadian it's important for us. In the sprint uphill on stage 1 Ryan Roth took a podium place. On the hilly finish of stage 2 the best we could do was 8th for Cataford, 1m34 behind and the GC gone. Stage 3, the ITT was for Émile Jean, ahead of Matteo Dal-Cin. Stage 4 was a breakaway win. Julien Gagne turned out to be the best of the escapees. Stage 5 was a sprint stage. Kris Dahl wasn't there, so we decided to take it easy. On stage 6, Cataford went for a late attack. He took the stage win, but couldn't climb in the GC.
Finally the NCs, where he hoped to take at least one jersey. However, in the end, we took both. Thanks to good peaking and a good daily form Ryan Roth took the ITT, only 6 seconds ahead of Tuft. The RR was a piece of cake. Three riders without a negative daily form, all three in the break. In the end Gagne, Le Rossignol and Dahl were joined by Duchesne and Britton. Since neither of the two could pull off an attack strong enough to get away we set up a sprint for Dahl, which he won easily. Le Rossignol and Gagne even managed to finish on the podium.
As you can see, a promotion spot is almost inevitable now. That lead me to a dilemma. Should I manually keep myself in CT at the end of the season and calmly build the team or respect the game and promote? In case of the latter, should I stick to Canadians only (Boivin and Anderson are the only 70+ AVG Canadians available), stick to Americans or just go international to get some real good riders which may help us survive? I'd like to hear your thoughs on this.
It was a quiet start to the season for the PedalHeaven team. Rory Townshend comfortable took the KoM jersey our first race at the Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux, whilst none of the other riders in the team placed well in the race.
We failed our first goal at the Tour de Reservoir, where the sponsors demanded a victory. Best we could manage was 4th on Stage 1, but any hope of a result faded on a difficult Stage 2 as Grant Ferguson struggled to hold his GC position and slipped to 21st on the Overall Standings at the end.
Rutland - Melton will remain unspoken of, as we missed the large 23 man break that went all the way to the end to contest the sprint, before a very strong Tour de Yorkshire ruled out our second goal of a Top 10 finish. The final stage into Leeds left riders all over the roads, and our best man came home in 54th place.
Our best result of the season so far came at the U23 Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt, where Rory Townshend came from nowhere to take a 2nd place podium in a sprint to the line. That was followed up with a 4th place at the Lincoln GP for Alex Paton (our first successful Season Goal!) after he went clear with the group of favourites on the last lap.
The Tour Series got underway with a 5th place for Max Steadman (Season Goal #2 clicked off!) in Ramsey before a disaster of a Velothon Wales, where a strong field of WT teams destroyed everyone.
The month ended with the AnPost Ras, which has been out most successful race so far! Lloyd Chapman picked up a victory on the Queen Stage to Seskin Hill, whilst a series of podiums and consistent finishes put Grant Ferguson on the GC podium at the end of the 8 stages. Joe Fry also walked away with the KoM Jersey for his effort in a number of breaks as well.
@Selwink: great look! go in whatever division you achieve, so if you make it go to PCT - but keep your canadian focus, trying to sign the best canadians and maybe add 1-2 americans to it to make your team competitive in PCT
@hoyle: also a great read! An Post must have been a fantastic race!
Problem of staying Canadian was that the only good Canadian out of contract - Michael Woods - immediately signed for another team on day 1 or so, so he was out of reach. I'll give more details on what I've done as soon as I finish the season (only 10RDs left), so that shouldn't take too long
I've decided to go for option #3, more details after the racing.
Silber Pro Cycling Team - Update #3 (End 2016)
I think it's safe to say we've had our majority of racing before these months, but our most important race of the season was still to come.
But first up, the Delta Road Race, another of our home races in Canada. Unfortunately, Kris Dahl, our sprint leader, (whose shirt is awesome by the way ) showed up with a bad daily form, so Ben Perry and Ryan Roth would lead here. Our goal was a top-10 here. Ryan Roth decided his best shot was a late attack, but he was reeled in with just 400m to go. It did bring a 6th place and thus another achieved goal, but so close to a win it was still a bit disappointing. Ben Perry also made it into the top-10.
Next up the Cascade Cycling Classic. The goal was a stage win, which we achieved on stage 4. Elliot Doyle took a solo win from the break there. Bad news from that stage was that Cataford dropped from place 5 to 8 in the GC. On the final stage though punctures for Carvalho and Pate, nrs 2 and 5 in the GC, brought us the GC 6th. Doyle also took the KoM in the end.
The Tour of Utah was next. Stage 1 was a successful break, with Ellsay in it. He didn't perform brilliantly and ended outside the top-5 of the stage. Stage 2, another break, this time Ben Perry got 3rd. Stage 3, 5th for Cataford from the break, also 8th for Dahl from that break. Morton won the stage with 5 minutes ahead of the rest of the break and obviously didn't lose the GC anymore. Stage 4, Ben Perry was reeled in with 800m to go. Damnit. For the rest we did not get impressive stage results. Due to breakaways Ben Perry did win the points classification, in the same fashion Dahl did in California (though not with the same margin).
Then finally it was time for, I think, our most important race of the season: the Tour of Alberta. Our goal would be a GC top-10, which would probably be very hard. Of course, the field was incredible. Richie Porte, Robert Gesink, Rohan Dennis, Dylan Groenewegen, Rigoberto Uran, Andrew Talansky, Andrey Amador and Sonny Colbrelli all started (and some more very strong riders). Stage 1 was nothing, only a break appearance. Stage 2, again in the break, and our first stage top-10 for Ryan Roth who came 9th. Stage 3, Julien Gagne took the lead in the KoM. Kris Dahl sprinted to an impressive 5th, ahead of riders such as Ruffoni, Haedo and Hofland. At this point he was up to 9th in the GC as well. The TT cost us the GC of course. At this stage Cataford and Roth were still somewhat contending at 23rd and 25th, 27 and 29 seconds down. In the final stage, Ben Perry joined the break and was reeled in with just 7km to go. Cataford was dropped from the pack in the last 3km, but ended 14th in the final GC. If he had hung on he would've been 11th. We lost the KoM as well. All in all the Tour of Alberta was a bit disappointing for us in the end.
We ended the season with the Reading 120. In a bizarre race, where the pack kept the pace very high during the entire race, not a single break got away. In the end it came down to a group sprint of just 33 riders. Ben Perry gave Kris Dahl an amazing lead-out, and Dahl himself managed to finish the race, taking the win with relative ease. Perry himself managed to take a 6th place as well.
In our transfer season, we obviously needed some serious reinforcement for riding in PCT next season. We decided to go abroad as well then. Some of our goals failed, which was a bit unfortunate. These included Brenton Jones, Damien Howson, Jack Bauer and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg and more. Our first signing was George Bennett, who we signed on the same day Ryan Roth resigned (as a consequence all 2016 riders will ride for us in 2017). Since almost all other targets actually failed afterwards, I decided to go full retard on talent and see where it would end, and hopefully with a bit of help from quick development survive PCT. The riders coming in are Egan Arley Bernal, Edward Diaz, Michael Carbel, Daniel Whitehouse (regen), Edward Walsh (regen as well, Canadian) and Lennard Kämna. It was frustrating to lose out on so many other riders (including talents such as Costa and McNulty), but I'm quite pleased by the names I signed. Perry and Dahl also are showing good signs of development, so hopefully they'll also perform on C1 level next year. Otherwise obviously breaks ahoy.
I started a career (like in every PCM) with my beloved Adria Mobil team. Hard difficulty and, of course, the PCM.daily Expansion Pack with the latest stats copied from our sheet.
I'll give you a short overview what happened until may:
Firstly to the general developement: I started with Rogina & Golcer (both 70 overall) as my captains. Well, being into may now Golcer is alreday down to 67, while Rogina is at 69, both not the most competitive guys anymore. Instead Per (71 FL, 69 HI, 71 COB, 71 SPR, 69 ACC) and Novak (74 MO, 70 HI) have stepped up their game a lot and look really well now! Out of the trio of very talented guys Katrasnik stuck a little so far (stayed at 66 HI & 67 SPR, but with a rise in ACC (69 --> 71). The trio looks bright for the future now.
Then to the AI: The scorebord says it all: David Per is second on the winner's table behind Mark Cavendish. It's really too easy to win on a bumpy, tough stage from a reduced bunch by either a late attack or a strong-man's leadout. Per is made for both, so he is that successful. Contrarily to that I constantly get screwed over in the mountains on hard and have almost no chance. Novak has scored better results on the hills than on the mountains due to the strength of opponence and miss of tactical chances.
What I really liked is that 1.there are more attempts for late attacks and 2.the breakaway AI has become much better, also the style of the chase in general (leaving out late attacking chase). Also there is more tacticl flexibility by sending a man up the road earlier and doing Contador-Vuelta-Purito-screwing attacks. That is fantastic to see. The peloton increasing the pace on every hill to make the MO-HI ratio work is fantastic to see, seems like they have done a good job with patches.
To the career: As said, it is kind of too easy when Per scores really like he wants. At the 9th of may Rogina sits 3rd in the CT while Per is 5th (288/261 points). We are sitting 4th in the CT rankings behind Cofidis, Wanty and Fortuneo.
In the CQ Ranking we are currently on P24 (593 points), with the following scoring:
By the time we pulled out 16 victories already! That is a too high number for a medium strong conty team with a spare amount of riders.
Per: 7 (GP Industria, Valley of the Sun [Stage 2 and 4th overall], Istrian Spring Trophy [Stage 3, Youth jersey, 2nd overall], Volta ao Alentejo [Stage 4 & 5, Points jersey, 3rd overall], Trofej Porec, Giro del Belverde, 2nd at GP Adria Mobil)
He would've even got one more most likely, but crashed alone in front at the Giro di Laigueglia...
Rogina: 5 (GP Viborg, GP of Moscow, GP Izola, Circuit des Ardenns [Stage 1 and GC])
Bozic: 2 (GP of Sochi [Stage 2], Circuit des Ardennes [Stage 2])
Katrasnik: 1 (Beograd - Banjaluka 2)
Novak: 1 (Tour d'Azerbaidjan [Stage 3 and 5th GC])
The huge goal races: This year I count the races in Slovenia and Croatia to the huge goal races, plus all the rides in the additional balcan region...
GP Laguna Porec (Cro, 1.2): Badly prepared for a bunch sprint, Katrasnik on a bad day. P10 for Golcer.
GP Izola (Slo, 1.2): Many early hills, only bumpy at the end. Rogina finished a great delivery from Per for the win.
Trofej Umag (Cro, 1.2): Different train row, Rogina - Katrasnik - Per wasn't the strongest one here though. Per finished just outside the podium on P4.
Trofej Porec (Cro, 1.2): Another bumpy stage, Rogina's leadout dropping everybody on the rise onto the finishing line. Triple!
Istrian Spring Trophy (Cro, 2.2): We were missing the punch in the prologue and the hilly finish, but an agressive medium range attack gave us a stage, the white jersey and a second place overall with Per. Rogina on P6 to round this off very well.
GP Adria Mobil (Slo, 1.2): Home race, baby. Sadly we couldn't win that lumpy one. But the two lower steps on the podium for Per and Novak made up for that.
Tour of Croatia (Cro, 2.1): No chance in the GC against 9! WT teams, especially when your leader starts the mountain stage on a -4 day. Katrasnik getting caught on the final 50 meter on the last stage made the disappointment complete, you realize how close it was as he still finished third.
Beograd - Banjaluka 2 (Bos, 1.2): 1-2, the leadout was too quick on this flat one with small rises. Again Rogina with the foot on the gas to make it an easy one for Gasper.
Sponsor Happiness: Still I managed to fail 4/6 sponsor goals which is quite shocking. Next season will most likely be CT, that could be interesting as our budget won't be increased for too much I guess. However, we'll stick to the Slovenian/Balcan Focus.
Transfer Outlook: Golcer and Rogina will end their careers, while I will try to prolong Bozic's contract. All other guys have running contracts. A lot of interesting talents are on the market from Slovenia (cheers to kodman here once again), so I'll have 4 Slovenian youngsters in my mind. Possible captains for PCT level on the market are Bole and Polanc, I'll try to go for Kiserlovski and Spilak as well too but that is going to be a tough ask
well you Zabel'd me while writing Selwink I only have to correct you with the two "regens", both Whitehouse (Terrenganu) and Walsh are real riders assigned as free agents we added to careers to make exactly stuff like CT careers more enjoyable with realistic young FA options a fantastic read once again, though I don't really like the spread of nationalities you took especially with Kämna, Carbel and the Colombians...slightly too much "mainstream-talents" for me but that's a personal thing
Btw, these riders were not exactly my first choices either. However, I really needed riders to survive in PCT, and when your first 350000 options all fail (despite high offers they just didn't want to sign) I just had to resort to these riders. As soon as I can build on stronger anglosaxon riders to make a strong PCT/WT team I'll probably let some of them go (if I'm not too attached to them by then )
Adria Mobil looks very interesting. I've also found hilly stages with a flat finish to be relatively easy. It's how I won my stage in California, and got in winning breaks in Utah. Still of course a great job to score so many victories. We had 20 victories throughout the entire season, and that was including that weird Korea race and stuff like that. I'd be surprised if you stayed CT with these numbers though (unless you edit it or made a typo ). In my career 593 points was enough for promotion already. Btw, which of your riders seem to have the highest potential?
@croatia: What difficulty do you play on? That is a massively successful season for you with such a small team.
@selwink: great end to the season and some fantastic signings for the team. Shame that you couldn't keep the team fully Canadian, but needs must for survival in PCT
). Key rider seems to be Ryan Roth, who can do hills and TTs, so hopefully some GC results are good for him. Other strong riders are Ben Perry, baroudeur, Kris Dahl, sprinter and Alexander Cataford, time trialist. This might become my first career since PCM13 where I actually manage to play an entire season.
PedalHeaven RT: Jan - May
a fantastic read once again, though I don't really like the spread of nationalities you took especially with Kämna, Carbel and the Colombians...slightly too much "mainstream-talents" for me but that's a personal thing
