Top 5 will be a great result for Jungels. Roglic is looking strong, while, surprisingly, Froome is out of form.
Off-topic: Thank you very much for recommendation. Just bought PCM 18 on Steam sale and now have a decision to make about DB. I see you using World DB. Is it superior to Daily DB when it comes to continental circuit-level playing and career? I remember huge DBs from other editions of the games, which had plenty of teams and riders, but they were lacking quality.
@ sutty - Yeah, hes pretty much secured a Top 10 now, but Top 5 is my goal, although a podium would be great and with solid riding is possible too.
@ kirosha - Glad you were able to buy the game on sale. I think both dbs have pros and cons. As far as I know, the World db has more teams and races in the game, and due to steam workshop they released many smaller updates fixing small things (they also have a much larger team I think). To me PCM daily probably has better stats and the added equipment is nice too. If you are wanting to play with smaller teams, the world db is probably a better choice, I have a pro cyclist mode with a Canadian team and many of the races had mostly north american and south american teams riding.
Overall, we are very pleased with Jungels performance. He managed a 4th place, which is quite good considering the competition. We were hoping to surpass Valverde, but he was able to hang on, despite not being as strong on the mountains as he used to be.
Other than that, it was all about our young riders here. Evenepoel and Padun both showed lots of potential, as Padun just narrowly missed out on the Top 20, and in the end won the Under 25 classification. Evenepoel was gaining back lots of time on Padun and looked to be heading towards taking the lead from Padun in the final week before he crashed out of the race. At just 20 years of age, to win the U25 jersey would have been something special for sure. Perhaps as soon as next year he will be able to compete in Grand Tours.
Great to see this back, hope the travels were enjoyable! What are Remco's stats? Doesn't seem to quite be the dominant force it looks like he's becoming irl, yet...
Timmsoski wrote:
Great to see this back, hope the travels were enjoyable! What are Remco's stats? Doesn't seem to quite be the dominant force it looks like he's becoming irl, yet...
Thanks! I had a great time in Europe, its so different from North America. I definitely want to go back one day and check out all the countries I missed.
At the time of the Vuelta, Remco had 74 MO, 73 Hill and 76TT I believe, but he may or may not have improved since then...
I will post his, along with everyone elses stats probably in a week or so, as the season is just about over, and then it will finally be time to see all the new transfers. There will be some big surprises I think.
The first major action starts with a Jungels attack, as he tries to soften up the peloton and see if he can get a good gap
As he reaches the 2nd last climb of the day he gets swallowed up. On the descent Alaphilippe crashes from the lead group, which was only a group of 8 at that point, his race is over, and what could have been another huge win. Perhaps the Rainbow Curse is striking already?
Instead, Dan Martin takes the win, ahead of Tim Wellens and Gianni Moscon.
1
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+00:00
2
Tim Wellens
Trek - Segafredo
+00:00
3
Gianni Moscon
Team Ineos
+00:00
4
Wilco Kelderman
Roompot - Charles
+00:28
5
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+01:28
6
Tiesj Benoot
Team Ineos
+01:28
7
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+01:28
8
Dylan Teuns
Team Bahrain Merida
+01:28
9
Michael Valgren
Team Dimension Data
+01:28
10
Sam Oomen
Team Sunweb
+01:28
11
Tony Gallopin
AG2R La Mondiale
+02:39
12
Ion Izagirre
Astana Pro Team
+03:04
13
Mikel Landa
Movistar Team
+03:04
14
Domenico Pozzovivo
Team Bahrain Merida
+03:50
15
Jonathan Castroviejo
Team Ineos
+04:15
Spoiler
Sorry the WC was so brief. I dont think PCM really handles it very well in terms of fitness and objectives for other riders. My teams riders consistently outperform better riders the past 2 seasons, so Im going to try and fix that for next year.
Up Next
- Offseason News
- Transfers
-Velo d'Or Winner (Who will it be )
-Final Rankings
After a historic season in which he won the Ardennes Triple, the Tour de France, and the World Championships. He is the first rider to ever do so, and thus rightly wins the rider of the year award. He showed that he can hang in there with the best climbers in the world, and on the short steep climbs, he's virtually unbeatable. He outscored about half of all the World Tour teams himself.
He has decided to hold off on announcing his decision for which team he will sign for, until later in the offseason, but he says the team knows who it will be.
Timmsoski wrote:
Nice one! Unreal season from Julian. Looking forward to seeing if he stays or leaves, my gut tells me he’s moved on...
Thanks! He is just so strong. I should have the next update up this week. I'm just doing a bit of behind the scenes editing which I need to complete first.
Tamijo wrote:
Quickstep totally smashed that season.
Yeah, we didn't dominate the monuments, but we were able to "overperform" in many Stage races.
With the off-season well underway, a press conference was held, with Patrick Lefevere to put rumours to rest. The first bit of news is that Patrick Lefevere's Deceuninck kit will not remain with Specialized Bikes after a long and synonymous partnership. They had been partners since 2007, but with the contract running up at the end of 2020, it was time to find a new supplier.
The next big announcement is related to the first one! Deceuninck will be joined by a new co-sponsor, in order to facilitate a transfer. Deceuninck - Quickstep will become, Deceuninck - Corendon! Deceuninck are, despite some misconceptions, not a rich cycling team. Julian Alaphilippe demanded more than they could pay and so he is moving on, however bringing in another co-sponsor with WT ambitions helps raise the budget a bit. Not only that, but it was necessary in order to sign Mathieu Van Der Poel, who is under contract for one final year with Corendon. This move allows Lefevere to bring in arguably the most exciting rider in the world, after Alaphilippe, and the timing of it all works perfectly for him.
The team will therefore ride on Canyon bikes now, as VdP has a contract with the bike supplier.
Of course Corendon are owned by Triton, a company which also owns Sunweb, so this will likely be the final season of the Corendon sponsorship, which means there is still a lot of uncertainty with the team in the future. Quickstep has remained on as a sponsor, but are probably not thrilled that they are now the 3rd sponsor on a team they were formally the main sponsor of. Canyon may be looking to become a major sponsor for a new team, which could lead to the swift departure of Van der Poel after only one season if they decide to form their own team, rather than team up with an already existing one.
So in the end, lots of changes for the team, as they have a new star, new bike supplier and a new sponsor. But as Lefevere says, it was almost like the stars aligning to make this all happen. Without the end of contract of Specialized, the entire thing probably wouldn't have been possible.
Sponsor Changes
Old Team
New Team
Correndon - Circus
Merges with Deceuninck
Deceuninck - Quickstep
Deceuninck - Correndon
Team Dimension Data
Team NTT
Bahrain Merida
Bahrain McLaren
Top Transfers
Rider
New Team
Old Team
Julian Alaphilippe
Total Direct Energie
Deceuninck - Corendon
Rohan Dennis
Trek - Segafredo
Team Bahrain McLaren
Sep Vanmarcke
AG2R La Mondiale
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
Alexander Kristoff
BORA - hansgrohe
UAE - Team Emirates
Marcel Kittel
Israel Cycling Academy
Astana Pro Team
Roman Kreuziger
Lotto - Soudal
Total Direct Energie
Mikel Landa
Bahrain McLaren
Movistar Team
Oliver Naesen
Team NTT
AG2R La Mondiale
Sonny Colbrelli
Astana Pro Team
Team Bahrain McLaren
Miguel Angel Lopez
EF Education First Pro Cycling Team
Astana Pro Team
Steven Kruijswijk
Team NTT
Team Jumbo - Visma
Team Presentation 2021
New Riders
Davide Ballerini Nacer Bouhanni Dario Cataldo Bauke Mollema Gerben Thijsenn Mathieu Van der Poel Ilan Van Wilder
Departures
Julian Alaphilippe
Total Direct Energie
Enric Mas
Movistar
Tim Declercq
Trek Segafredo
Remi Cavagna
Cofidis
Fabio Sabatini
UAE
Iljo Keisse
Retires
Jersey
Spoiler
jersey is made by Froomeyy on legrupetto, edited by myself.
jandal7 wrote:
Excited for a new chapter with VdP. Chapeau to Julian for a huge season and leaving in a positive way on the bike at least!
Thanks. As I said at the start of the story, the goal was to look for the next Boonen and not to compare the two, but its nice to have a "perfect" classics rider. Also, things were just getting too boring with Alaphilippe. He's probably my favourite rider atm irl, but it wasnt fun anymore. Also Alaph wanted 200,000 a month, and Van der Poel only wanted 50,000 so saved a lot of money too.
Jasper will be the team leader for Paris Roubaix. His biggest result to date is KBK 2016, but he was 3rd at Milan San Remo and Dwars Door Vlaanderen last season. He will then look to be a support rider at the Tour de France.
Name
Bob Jungels
Age
28
Specialty
All Rounder
Career Wins
12
Best Result
WC ITT (19' )
Objectives
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Giro d'Italia
World Championships
Bob will challenge the early season classics, like Strade Bianche, MSR and RvV before riding his only GT of the year, the Giro. His end of season objective will be the World Championships and Il Lombardia.
Name
Fabio Jakobsen
Age
24
Specialty
Sprinter
Career Wins
19
Best Result
Gent Wevelgem (20' )
Objectives
Milan San Remo
Tour de France
Gent Wevelgem
Fabio is again the teams top sprinter, and will hope to win stages throughout the year. His main target will be Milan San Remo, which has eluded him so far, as well as the Tour de France where he will target stage wins.
Name
Alvaro Jose Hodeg
Age
24
Specialty
Sprinter
Career Wins
8
Best Result
Tour de France Stage win
Objectives
UAE Tour
Giro d'Italia
La Vuelta
Hodeg is hoping to start his season off with a bang at the UAE Tour, before going to the Giro to hunt for stages. The Vuelta will be his other main target, where he can hopefully win some stages as well.
Name
Mathieu Van der Poel
Age
25
Specialty
Classics
Career Wins
7
Best Result
Tour of Britain Stage win
Objectives
Ronde van Vlaanderen
Ardennes Classics
Tour de France
Our biggest acquisition will have most of the early months off, to ride Cyclocross, before taking on the big spring classics. His middle of the season will include the Tour de France for the first time, where he is hoping to win multiple stages, and possibly challenge for the Green jersey, or support Jakobsen. He will end the year challenging the Canadian classics, and Il Lombardia.
Rest of Squad
Stage Races
Climber
Puncheur
Remco Evenepoel
Bauke Mollema
Andrea Bagioli
Mark Padun
Bjorg Lambrecht
Pieter Serry
Dario Cataldo
Julius Johansen
Michael Ries
James Knox
Ilan Van Wilder
Classics
Time Trial
Sprinter
Yves Lampaert
Nelson Oliveira
Nacer Bouhanni
Zdenek Stybar
Davide Martinelli
Florian Senechal
Gerben Thijssen
Jens Keukeleire
Michael Honore
Rinie Longuet
Kasper Asgreen
Davide Ballerini
Press Statement
"Welcome to the rider presentation, I am Patrick Lefevere, manager of the team, and I will introduce the team, and try to answer any questions you may have!
We've highlighted our big 5 leaders, Jasper, Bob, Mathieu, Fabio and Alvaro, but we feel we have many other strong riders that can lead in their absence. Bauke and Bjorg will head to the Tour, looking to challenge for a Top 10, and take stage wins. Nacer has struggled a lot in the last few years, but I think that with a little more focus and having a great leadout, which I believe we do, I think he can get back to his former level.
Our two biggest talents are Van der Poel and Evenepoel. The two of them could be two of the best in the world and we hope it will be part of a long partnership they have with our team and each other. In fact, not a lot of people know this, but their fathers both rode together in the 1990's for Collstropp so bringing together the next generation just felt right to me. Remco we hope will take that next step this season, he will ride the Vuelta again and look to take the leadership role, although he will face competition within the team.
Lampaert and Stybar are not our top leaders, but both guys have shown they can outperfrom Jasper and Mathieu on a good day, so its almost like we go into every race with 2 or 3 leaders, which gives us a huge advantage. They will no doubt get races where they will be riding for themselves.
Ballerini will look to support the classics riders all year. He can be dangerous from a breakaway as well and the autumn classics will be races he targets as well.
Dario has ridden for my team before, and with his contract up at Astana I thought it would be a good rider to bring back. His climbing ability should help our guys in the mountains, and there should also be breakaway opportunities for him as well.
Finally, Ilan and Gerben are two young riders that our scouts have noticed in U23 races. Ilan we feel can be a good climber, while Gerben should be a sprinter. We will monitor their race days carefully, so they dont burn themselves out, but they will be strong enough to ride in support of our leaders for this season.
I'd like to thank everyone for their time, but thats all the time I have for today!"
La Vuelta a España (2.UWT) 2020 Week Three
Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec 2020
Giro d'Lombardia (1.UWT) 2020
)
Nacer Bouhanni
Bauke Mollema
Gerben Thijsenn
Bob Jungels
Alvaro Jose Hodeg
Mark Padun
Julius Johansen
James Knox
Nelson Oliveira
Zdenek Stybar
