Oh yes. For those of you who don't know I kinda have a passion for cycling. I tend to simulate a lot within the game and to play a lot myself. My challenge is always the same. Start with a continental team and make my way up to Pro Continental and then to World Tour, the highest stage of cycling. My objective is to win all 3 big tours at least once. Tour De France, Giro d'Italia and La Vuelta.
I'm playing on the 1996 DB and will advance to other databases once I manage to complete this challenge. I will also create another thread only for simulation of the big stages using the 1996 startlists, which means, using the riders that competed in those stages in real life and compare the results.
For this carrer I've chosen the portuguese team although I don't really like the squad to start with. Maia-Jumbo Cin is my main sponsor but that can change as we advance in the career, we can hire riders, renew contracts, etc. To get to World Tour you need to have a top 20 team index classification by the end of the current year or continental Pro follows the same but i think it's the top 30 or so. Hiring better riders is a must but I would like to keep the portuguese base although it's not really configured in this particular database, that should make the sponsor happy.
Sponsors define objectives and we will have a hard time fulfilling those, specially in the first year, where I don't have the riders to pull a great perfomance. I also play on Normal difficulty, because other difficulties don't change the AI but the rider stats and my riders are already so bad that makes no sense to raise the bar, I will raise it once it gets too easy if needed. Keeping sponsors happy is key to success as that defines the budget, and budget defines who you can hire or not hire along with the transfer points and dossiers. There is a lot of depth to it.
OVERVIEW
From here we can keep track of sponsor budget for next year, only the objectives until August actually matter for that regard which isn't optimal programming but it's how it works but I play for the objectives even after August for realism sake and fun, but I already see some that are quite difficult to achieve, like the most important one that is a stage win at Volta ao Algarve.
OBJECTIVES IN DETAIL
I will prepare the riders and the season accordingly and next post will present the squad with more detail if you interested. I will also present quick results and notes about the stages as we go.
Although he is listed as a sprinter, this man right here as 68 in Cobbles and 74 Stamina so it's our best bet for classics with pave. He cam also play a leadout role in some stages. Although he is best known for his work for Lance Armstrong at US Postal he was not a climber as he was young.
One of our best bets for most of the objectives but keeping his fitness high will be difficult. If he can even compete in some stages against the opposition. His salary and contract ending is something I dislike so I might not renew with him at the end of the year, only time will tell.
He has potential, can be a leadout sprinter in most stages and is contracted until 1997 so I will most likely track his development.
Despite his age is our best sprinter but most likely won't renew with him. He will be a strong bet for the following season
Here's one guy I will renew, young has loads of potential and can be a immediate bet for our objectives and stage wins on mass sprint.
The rest of the squad
From here I see domestiques and potential leadout riders, at the end of year Dias Salgado and Bela dos Santos might go as their contract ends, it all comes down to the points available.[/div]
Final observations
Team is heavy sprint base and have a lot of hilly objectives so it's going to be hard to raise the budget this year so I need to adjust and try my best at stages I can win as that can boost sponsor confidence. Not having the sponsor set for Portuguese riders in the squad kinda hurts and I might edit that just that is more realistic and helpful for me. Now it's time to prepare the season, set up individual training schedules and jump into action.
Already removed some races that made no sense in our calendar and changed for some we can actually do something and get some sponsor confidence in return. Saudi Tour and Popularissima are ones to have under our eye. I usually plan 3 months at a time so I don't spend 2\3 hours preparing a full season, but since I'm going to post this diary here, I might as well do it.
