If you haven't figured it out by now, this story will be about Deceuninck - Quick Step starting from the 2019 season.
-DB: World DB 2019, although I've made major edits to the progression (whether it actually affects anything or not, as well as many potentials, and stats, sponsors f.e. )
-Difficulty: Hard (Changed to Extreme for the 2020 Season)
-Crash Ratio: 1.1 (Changed to 0.7 for the 2020 Season)
-Other Rules: I wont abuse the fitness system or the transfer system, I will only make 1 signing per day, I will try to keep signings realistic, will also edit sponsor changes and AI transfers to keep things realistic
How this story will work
This story will not be of the quality you are used to seeing from me (although its been several years), instead it will be more like this. I will play all WT races but non WT races will only get a quick summary if its significant enough. I hope to get through seasons much quicker than a typical story would so one week stage races will also probably be summarized in one post.
Screenshots will also be very uncommon, probably only pictures of race winners, or major events. (I may make fancy posts every once in a while though, perhaps for the classics, since it is Quickstep after all) Essentially, this will be a very casual story. Hopefully, some of you will still follow along, but I understand if some may find it more "boring".
I think it's a great idea and casual updates won't affect the quality of the story, only the pace. And you'd rather have a slow but decent story than quick-paced garbage.
With Quickstep, I agree Hard is the correct difficulty
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@ Ian - Yeah, hopefully! Thanks to PCM Career Explorer I will have the results for basically every race of the season, so even without a lot of screens it should hopefully be easy to read the "important" part of the story, which is the results!
About the difficulty, Im actually quite bad at 18. 15 I would win basically every race, but I think since the switch to the new MO/HIL gameplay Im worse, and will need to get better at it before I move the difficulty up.
@ tsmoha -
@ Croatia - I was very close to using the Daily db, I think the stats are better from a rating perspective, but I ran 3 test careers beforehand and with how progression works now sometimes riders jump up as much as 3-4 in one stat, so a rider like Kelderman could go from the 30th best climber to the best in a very short time. If things get out of hand, I'll actually probably edit certain riders back down a bit, as I find it too much sometimes. The other reason was I wanted to keep my other workshop dbs installed too, mainly the 1994 DB
@ Ollfardh - Thanks, it probably wont take me too long actually Although I dont know if I will be able to repeat their cobble results so far
@ VoetsT - Yeah, go for it! I look forward to following it! I think with how I plan to do this, it should be different enough anyway.
The team is full of very strong riders. Experts believe us to be the 2nd strongest team in the peloton after Team Sky. Viviani will be our strongest sprinter and his main goal of the season will be the Giro d'Italia. Our team isn't without other strong sprinters though! Fabio Jakobsen will support Viviani at the Giro, but then be the sprint leader at the Tour de France. Julian Alaphllippe is our top rider and his main objective will be the Ardennes classics and the Tour de France.
Jungels and Mas are our two GC riders. Mas will ride the Giro and Vuelta, while Jungels will ride the Tour! Jungels will also take part in select cobble classics, as he is a massively talented all-rounder.
Speaking of Cobble classics, Gilbert, Stybar and Lampaert will be our three main leaders for the Flanders season. Depending on the day either one of these guys could win.
Our biggest talent is Remco Evenepoel. He is probably the biggest talent in cycling atm, and we will look to keep him with the team for as long as possible. He could develop into a top classics rider, or a GC rider!
The future of the team looks good! We have great GC riders, and very strong Sprinters in Jakobsen and Hodeg to build around. However, Quickstep has long been known for being a classics team, and with Gilbert and Stybar only getting older, we will need to find new riders to ride the classics. The main goal will be to find the next Tom Boonen. Ideally we would like a rider that can sprint, and is one of the top riders on the cobblestones, so if that means a transfer or developing them ourselves that will be the main priority. Edited by valverde321 on 06-03-2019 15:50
A very fun team to play with. Will be interesting to see how you develop Evenepoel
One little remark: Jungels has star in three disciplines, yet Gilbert only has star in cobbles and nothing else in puncher? Not even accomplished? Or am I misinterpreting what you mean?
@ Ian - Good catch, I hadn't noticed that. Its just what Career Explorer gave him. Gilbert is actually a 78 in HIL which is 9th best in the db. Its probably to do with their roles in the game. Gilbert's is Northern classics so it probably just says star for Cobbles in CE, while Jungels is stage races so maybe CE can interpret that as star in all 3.
Interesting to see a story following such a dominant team, but if it means a classics focus from a great story writer I'm in A very fun team to play with as well with super cool riders.
And so as it always is, the hunt for the next Boonen is on!
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@ Ollfardh - Yeah, not sure why some ratings are weird like that.
@ purepasd - Thanks!
@ the hoyle - Great to see you here! Thanks for following!
@ jandal - Yeah, I never used to be as into the classics as the grand tours, but in the last few years I've enjoyed classics a lot more, so I thought I'd try a classics focused team, and Im also a very big fan of Alaphilippe since his Etixx days and Jungels.
The season opener in Australia went decently well for the team. Jokobsen started to find his form in the sprints, taking a podium on Stage 2, and 2 more Top 5's. Gilbert did very well on the toughest stage of the race on Stage 3, also grabbing a 3rd place, however it was not enough to drop Fernando Gaviria the former Quickstep rider, who dominated this years edition of the race! In the end a 5th in the GC is a good result, but we will hope to see less of Gaviria this season or else it could end up being quite a long season!
Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race 2019
1
Fernando Gaviria
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
2
John Degenkolb
Trek - Segafredo
+00:00
3
Adam Blythe
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
4
Danny Van Poppel
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
5
Jean-Pierre Drucker
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
6
Nikias Arndt
Team Sunweb
+00:00
7
Pascal Ackermann
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
8
Oscar Gatto
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
9
Jacopo Guarnieri
Groupama - FDJ
+00:00
10
Mark Renshaw
Team Dimension Data
+00:00
Not a great race for us, Gaviria takes another win...
Tour of Oman 2019
Stage 1
1
Elia Viviani
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
2
Pascal Ackermann
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
3
Jasper De Buyst
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
Stage 2
1
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
2
James Knox
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
3
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
+00:00
Stage 3
1
Elia Viviani
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
2
Pascal Ackermann
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
3
Alexandre Geniez
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
Stage 4
1
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
2
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:28
3
Alexandre Geniez
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:28
...
8
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:49
Stage 5
1
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
+00:00
2
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
3
Sergio Luis Henao
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
...
8
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
Stage 6
1
Elia Viviani
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
2
Pascal Ackermann
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
3
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
+00:00
Final GC
1
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
2
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
+00:26
3
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:35
4
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+00:44
5
Vincenzo Nibali
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:44
6
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:53
7
Sam Oomen
Team Sunweb
+01:05
8
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+01:05
9
Domenico Pozzovivo
Team Bahrain Merida
+01:24
10
Pierre Latour
AG2R La Mondiale
+01:36
Points
1
Elia Viviani
Deceuninck - Quick Step
85
2
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
85
3
Pascal Ackermann
BORA - hansgrohe
83
The Tour of Oman was probably our best race of the year to date! Viviani restored some faith in the team that letting go of Gaviria and replacing him with Viviani was a viable solution. On the steeper finish stages, Alaphilippe was our man, and he took a great win on Stage 2, with the help of Knox, who even held on for 2nd place, probably the biggest result of his career thus far. Stage 4, Julian limited his loses, a great result considering it was a mountain stage and Stage 5 Julian finished in the lead group, consolidating his GC position of 6th. Viviani finished the tour with another win, also putting him into the lead of the points jersey (actually a tie for the lead, but won thanks to his stage wins being the tiebreak).
UAE Tour 2019
Stage 1 (TTT)
Groupama - FDJ
+00:00
Mitchelton - Scott
+00:03
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:10
Stage 2
1
Fernando Gaviria
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
2
Álvaro José Hodeg
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
3
Magnus Cort Nielsen
Astana Pro Team
+00:00
Stage 3
1
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+00:00
2
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:08
3
Vincenzo Nibali
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:44
4
Tim Wellens
Lotto - Soudal
+00:56
5
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+01:37
Stage 4
1
Tim Wellens
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
2
Vincenzo Nibali
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:00
3
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+00:00
Stage 5
1
Fernando Gaviria
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
2
Álvaro José Hodeg
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
3
Arnaud Démare
Groupama - FDJ
+00:00
Stage 6
1
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+00:00
2
Vincenzo Nibali
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:00
3
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
4
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
Stage 7
1
Christophe Laporte
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
+00:00
2
Arnaud Démare
Groupama - FDJ
+00:00
3
Sonny Colbrelli
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:00
Final GC
1
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+00:00
2
Vincenzo Nibali
Team Bahrain Merida
+01:16
3
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+01:16
4
Bob Jungels
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+02:17
5
Tim Wellens
Lotto - Soudal
+02:27
Hodeg and Jungels were our leaders here, and Gaviria again stuck it to us on the second day. Hodeg was able to grab 2nd, in a very tight sprint, half a wheel length between the two, but in the end 2nd place. Jungels was feeling under the weather for the first half of the stage race, so his results on stage 3 given that fact were remarkable! Froome was simply too strong! Jungels managed to finish in a large lead group on stage 4, 8th place on the day, but rather a quiet day from him. Stage 5 was yet again the Gaviria show, with Hodeg taking 2nd again, a win would be nice but Hodeg still getting great results! Stage 6 Jungels finished in the leading group of 4 riders. He was the weakest in the group, but getting the same time was crucial for moving up in the GC, which in the end put him in 4th overall, behind 3 great riders so a solid result altogether.
Omloop Het Niewsblad 2019
1
Peter Sagan
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
2
Wout Van Aert
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
3
Michael Valgren
Team Dimension Data
+00:00
4
Oliver Naesen
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
5
Matteo Trentin
Mitchelton - Scott
+01:02
6
Jens Debusschere
Team Katusha - Alpecin
+01:02
7
Ramon Sinkeldam
Groupama - FDJ
+01:02
8
Dylan Van Baarle
Team Sky
+01:02
9
Mads Pedersen
Trek - Segafredo
+01:02
10
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team Sky
+01:02
11
Greg Van Avermaet
CCC Team
+01:02
12
Zdenek Stybar
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+01:02
13
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto - Soudal
+01:02
14
Bert De Backer
Vital Concept - B&B Hotels
+01:02
15
Silvan Dillier
AG2R La Mondiale
+03:05
The cobble season opener was not a great one for us. crashes broke up the race and Stybar missed the decisive move made by the leading 4 riders, and did most of the work to chase them down, but in the end his group-mates went past him in the sprint.
Kuurne - Brussel - Kuurne 2019
1
Caleb Ewan
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
2
Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
3
Peter Sagan
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
4
Elia Viviani
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
5
Thomas Boudat
Direct Energie
+00:00
6
Timothy Dupont
Wanty - Groupe Gobert
+00:00
7
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team Sky
+00:00
8
Mathieu Van der Poel
Corendon - Circus
+00:00
9
Christophe Laporte
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
+00:00
10
Tim Merlier
Creafin - TÜV SÜD
+00:00
KBK came down to a sprint, and Viviani was close to the win, but he mistimed his sprint somewhat and was just narrowly passed on the line by 3 other very strong sprinters.
One of the most exciting races every year, and this year should be no different! Alaphilippe and Gilbert will both be here for our team to try and take the win! Valverde should be the biggest favourite, and you cant count out Michal Kwiatkowski as well as a two time winner of the race in the past.
Although I dont know if I will be able to repeat their cobble results so far 
A very fun team to play with as well with super cool riders.
