It is the year 2025, and Cycling is a dead sport, I work for the UCI, and we all know that in a few years the world of professional cycling will cease to exist. It is not because of doping, decreasing popularity in the sport, or global warming, it is because of Team CSC. Team CSC has become so powerful all they do is win, everything. No other teams want to try to challenge them, and no sponsors want to give money to anyone other then them. This year, only 17 professional teams registered with us, and not one race was won by them, it was all CSC. With the sport dying, the UCI has hatched a plan to stop them. Using a recently released time machine, I will be sent back 20 years into the past, to 2005, to the first year of the ProTour, to create a team that will be able to resist the might of CSC. The team I have been ordered to lead is for two reasons, it gives me a number of riders, who although considered reasonable prospects at the time, became future greats, and two, the team I have includes CSC great Fabian Cancellara, which hopefully will deprive CSC of his services. I will be leading Fassa Bortolo, a team that only lasted one year, but included a number of great riders. The challenge will be tremendous however, as I have not only CSC to deal with, but Discovery, T-Mobile, and others as well. Riders such as Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, and Ivan Basso sill dominate the races, and it will be hard to get good results. Having completed my journey, I have used a device to become the manager of Fassa Bortolo.
Here is the first half of the team:
And the second half:
The team will have five leaders for the year to come, first off, TT and Cobbled Classics Leader Fabian Cancellara:
Next is Cobbled Classics Rider Juan Antonio Flecha:
Sprinter Alessandro Pettachi:
Puncheur Kim Kirchen:
And Stage Race Leader Marzio Bruseghin:
The team has been given a hard group of goals by the sponsors to complete this year:
The first race of the year will be the Jacob's Creek Tour Down Under, which will be the team's only race in January. If you wish to know the "stats" of any rider in the game, simply ask, and I will tell you.
Hopefully, I can complete my goal and save cycling, but it will be tough, as so many great riders, legends on the bike, are riding, and dangerously at that.
Edited by Deadpool on 01-06-2008 16:14
Thanks for the support, just remember that riders in this game have higher stats, Lance is an 84 for god sakes. Just to compare, Pettachi is tied for top sprinter with Robbie Mcewen, but in the game positioning matters a lot more than sprint skill, so I will probably get realistic results against top sprinting fields. Fabian is the best TT'er in the game, even better than Lance, but the TT system is so messed-up that doesn't matter. Fabian is probably a top 10 and Flecha a top 15 cobbled rider, so I should be able to do well but not great, and Kim is probably a top 20 puncheur, but compared to Rebellin's 85 hill pales in comparison. Lastly, Marzio probably isn't even a top 35 Stage Race rider, so although the team's stats look good, they pale in comparison to many other team's stats.
The team I sent includes Codol for Willunga Hill in stage 5, and my 2nd and 3rd best sprinters, Aug and Chicchi. However, they are both 77 sprint, and with McEwen (84 sprint), Hushovd (82), Steels (80), O'Grady (80), Cooke (80), Casper (78) and a few other riders equal to or better (Eisel, Nazon, Fast Freddy) in the race it will be tough for them to get results. Likewise, it will be tough for Codol, as his 71 hill stat is very lacking, and I didn't want to enter either of my better hill riders, Kirchen and Flecha. Here is the team:
Stage 1:
A short, pan-flat 50 km criterium in Adelaide, the chance for a break to succeed today is very high (breakaway's succeed more in 05 than in 07):
A break went away early, headlined by Da Cruz (FDJ). With a number of good flat riders in the group, they would be hard to bring back:
Just becuase it would be tough to bring the break back did not mean no one would try however, as Davitamon-Lotto, Credit Agricole (including a young British rider named Bradley Wiggins), and Cofidis formed a chase:
As the sprint started the pack was still +36" from the break. Both Aug and Chicchi had lost the wheel they were following, and dropped back. Aug was able to follow O'Grady at a distance, who launched out of the pack, well ahead of everyone else, to try and bring back the break. However, with half of a kilometer to go, Da Cruz, who had pulled ahead of his breakaway companions, was too far ahead, and had wrapped up the stage. You can see behind him the remnants of the breakaway, followed by O'Grady in the Aussie Champion's Jersey (8th rider), followed by the pack:
Da Cruz was able to ease up and cross the line for an easy victory, however, no time was awarded back to the pack:
Results:
G.C. (no time difference on stage, time bonuses are reason for lead): 1 Carlos Da Cruz FRANCAISE DES JEUX 1h06'19
2 Juan Fuentes LAMPRE - CAFFITA + 8
3 Mark Scanlon AG2R PREVOYANCE + 12
4 Sergei Matvejev CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 20
5 Stuart O'Grady COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE s.t.
6 Koen De Kort LIBERTY SEGUROS - WURTH TEAM s.t.
7 Jurgen Van Goolen QUICK STEP s.t.
8 Damien Nazon CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
9 Fred Rodriguez DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t.
10 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
11 Bernhard Eisel FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
12 Graeme Brown CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
13 Tom Steels DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t.
14 Robbie McEwen DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t.
15 Baden Cooke FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t. 16 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO s.t.
17 Brett Lancaster CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t. 18 Fabio Sacchi FASSA BORTOLO s.t.
19 Ciaran Power NAVIGATORS INSURANCE CYCLING TEAM s.t.
20 Kirk O'Bee NAVIGATORS INSURANCE CYCLING TEAM s.t.
21 Janek Tombak COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE s.t.
22 Vassily Davidenko NAVIGATORS INSURANCE CYCLING TEAM s.t.
23 Aleksandr Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
24 Christophe Mengin FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
25 SÈbastien Hinault CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
Sprint: 1 Carlos Da Cruz FRANCAISE DES JEUX 25 25
2 Juan Fuentes LAMPRE - CAFFITA 20 20
3 Mark Scanlon AG2R PREVOYANCE 16 16
4 Sergei Matvejev CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE 14 14
5 Stuart O'Grady COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 12 12
Tomorrow is the first RR stage, and we will be looking at both the break and the sprint for results.
A long, mostly flat ride, it will most likely come down to a sprint:
Suprisingly, no one had attacked by the time the peloton reached the KOM sprint, so I sent Sacchi out to take it, he was unopposed and won it (and the jersey), along with the first intermidate sprint, before being brought in (here he is attacking):
Shortly after being brought in, Aug followed Sacchi to take the second intermidate sprint, with Casper of Cofidis in third:
I set up the sprint perfectly, with Sacchi leading out Aug, with Chicci well down in the train. Importantly, Aug was the best sprinter in the first 7 spots. When the riders reached the 1 km to go mark, Aug was moving along into the lead, here is the front of the peloton:
Here is a list of the riders in the picture and their sprint stats:
Aug - 77
Sacchi - 72
Cofidis - Tombak - 76
FDJ - Eisel - 77
AG2r - Usov - 78
O'Grady - 80
Navigators - O'Bee - 75
C.A. - Nazon - 79
Davitamon-Lotto Right - McEwen - 84
Davitamon-Lotto Left - Steels 80
Aug was able to pull ahead of the other riders, and took a nice victory, to give Fassa Bortolo their first of the year, ahead of Usov and Eisel in second and third respectively:
Aug was thrilled when he picked up the paper the next day, as he had warranted a big headline in the sports section:
Before I get to the results, I need to explain something. Four teams, Cyclingnews, Jet Fuel, MGX, and Webcor, were listed as riding in the race, but weren't in the first stage. All of there riders were listed as "Withdrew" at the end of stage report. They were however, in this stage, and so therefore, dispite finishing with everyone else, have ridden an hour less. So you will see that those riders are leading by an hour and six minutes over the riders that rode both stages (Protour, Navigator's, AG2R, Ceramica Panaria), and therefore one of them will win the race. This is a very annoying bug, but I will continue to ride the race for stage wins
Results-
Stage: 1 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO 3h40'13
2 Aleksandr Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
3 Bernhard Eisel FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
4 Kirk O'Bee NAVIGATORS INSURANCE CYCLING TEAM s.t.
5 Stuart O'Grady COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE s.t.
6 Janek Tombak COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE s.t.
7 Robbie McEwen DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t.
8 Damien Nazon CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
9 Tom Steels DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t.
10 Baden Cooke FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
G.C. (sort of): 1 Charles Dionne WEBCOR BUILDERS CYCLING TEAM 3h40'13
2 Andrew Randell JET FUEL COFFEE CONNECTED BY SYMPATICO s.t.
3 Mark Pozniak JET FUEL COFFEE CONNECTED BY SYMPATICO s.t.
4 Daniel Newnham TEAM CYCLINGNEWS.COM s.t.
5 Cody Stevenson TEAM CYCLINGNEWS.COM s.t.
This is top three legitimate riders: 28 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO + 1h06'13
29 Carlos Da Cruz FRANCAISE DES JEUX + 1h06'19
30 Aleksandr Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE + 1h06'27
Sprint: 1 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO 31 31
2 Carlos Da Cruz FRANCAISE DES JEUX 0 25
3 Stuart O'Grady COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 12 24
4 Bernhard Eisel FRANCAISE DES JEUX 16 21
5 Aleksandr Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE 20 20
KOM: 1 Fabio Sacchi FASSA BORTOLO 16 16
2 Paolo Fornaciari LAMPRE - CAFFITA 12 12
3 Peter Farazijn COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 10 10
4 Nicolas Portal AG2R PREVOYANCE 8 8
5 Kane Oakley TEAM CYCLINGNEWS.COM 6 6
Well, with the G.C. messed-up stage wins are all we can hope for. I'm really annoyed about the bug, but happy about the team's first win.
Edited by Deadpool on 01-06-2008 15:59
This great..Fassa was my favorite team when I was rookie at cycling. Played with it al the time in Cycling manager 4..
Aus won a stage..good. He was fine estonian rider.
An overall flat, rolling stage that will most likely, but not neccesarily, end in a sprint:
The day began and no one had attacked by the time the KOM sprint was reached, so I told Sacchi to go and defend his jersey, which he did and then promptly slowed down and returned to the peloton:
Three riders followed him, and formed the main break of the day:
Near the second intermidate sprint, four ProTour riders, all strong on the flats, broke out of the pack and caught the breakaway, without that much distance to go, I sent two riders, who along with the Davitamon-Lotto and Credit Agricole teams, took over for Webcor and brought the break back in. However they were caught with around 5 km to go, and the sprint started disorganized. Aug was way back, but was able to launch himself onto the wheel of Tombak of Cofidis, who was now way in the lead, however, Tombak faded, and Tom Steels moved around him, taking a huge gap. Aug tried to follow, but fell back, so as Steels took an massive win, Aug was edged out by Bernhard Eisel for second, and narrowly held on for third.
With 1 km to go - Steels (80 Sprint in front), then Aug, followed by Tombak (Cofidis, 76, going backward), Eisel (77, FDJ), Cooke (80, FDJ, behind Eisel), and Sacchi (72):
Steels with a big gap (no time however), as he coast across the line, even not having sprinted for the last 250 meters:
Results -
Stage:
1 Tom Steels DAVITAMON - LOTTO 3h28'13
2 Bernhard Eisel FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t. 3 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO s.t.
4 Stuart O'Grady COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE s.t. 5 Fabio Sacchi FASSA BORTOLO s.t.
6 Baden Cooke FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
7 Robbie McEwen DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t. 8 Francesco Chicchi FASSA BORTOLO s.t.
9 Aleksandr Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
10 Janek Tombak COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE s.t.
G.C.: 1 Charles Dionne WEBCOR BUILDERS CYCLING TEAM 7h08'26
2 Glenn Chadwick TEAM CYCLINGNEWS.COM s.t.
3 Troy Glennan MG XPOWER PRESENTED BY BIGPOND s.t.
Real G.C.: 28 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO + 1h06'05
29 Bernhard Eisel FRANCAISE DES JEUX + 1h06'19
30 Tom Steels DAVITAMON - LOTTO s.t.
Sprint: 1 Andrus Aug FASSA BORTOLO 16 47
2 Bernhard Eisel FRANCAISE DES JEUX 20 41
3 Stuart O'Grady COFIDIS, LE CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 14 38
4 Tom Steels DAVITAMON - LOTTO 25 35
5 Aleksandr Usov AG2R PREVOYANCE 7 27
KOM: 1 Fabio Sacchi FASSA BORTOLO 16 32
2 Paolo Fornaciari LAMPRE - CAFFITA 0 12
3 Jesus Hernandez Blazquez LIBERTY SEGUROS - WURTH TEAM 12 12
The damn bug is pissing me off, as Aug would have a 14 second lead now if it weren't because of it. However, I still have the points and KOM jersey. And have taken two podiums in the last two day's, so at least we are salvaging something.
Edited by Deadpool on 04-06-2008 02:53
1) I will have reports on .HC and PT races, along with selected other races only, but will tell results of all other races the team takes part in.
2) The DB is the PPDB Giant 2005 DB.
3) I am playing on normal, I am not great at PCM, and find it a very realistic level to play at.
Edited by Deadpool on 04-06-2008 01:56
This story is not dead, I have found that I need to become a lot better at mountain stages before I reach any, I expect to start again next week, which I have off
Good luck 
