I've been playing PCM since october 06, PCM 06, 07, and 08.
I'm Belgian, so I played mostly Belgian squads till now. (Unibet, Davitamon-Predictor-Silence Lotto, Chocolade Jaques and or Topsport Vlaanderen).
Last career was
PCM 08, Pack Evans, Silence Lotto, normal difficulty, no traing camps, except condition for the Australians + Down Under team + mood/leisure if necessary and compatible with preesatblished individual race schedule.
After 2,5 saisons, I got tired, a bit too easy, and same obectives every year (year 2 and sneak previeuw at year 3).
(Remark: career before that was on hard, with JRG real name DB, and I got tired before april because a bit too hard to win anything, altough with hindsight the reslults of my team were very realistic: Only signnificant win : Australia Champ. with … Matt. Lloyd.)
I got tired of these, so I opted for something totally new: Euskatel
This story is unusual as I have actually played it till the end of TDF, and I intend to continue at least untill PCM dailly 09 v.2 is out.
General settings :
PCM 08 aka PCM 4
Divinity DB final fix.
Normal difficulty
no training camps, except condition for the Down Under team + mood/leisure if necessary and allowed by preesatblished race schedule
To make it a bit harder than the career before :
No tailor made training programme
No power gel
Only Spaniards on the team.
Now let's take a look at the DB
The most striking feature of the DB is the min value of 70 for flat for all riders.
I read it's to allow more escapes to reach the end, Future will prove this to be at least partially true.
A less obvious one, but very real, is the lesser value in hills for everyone.
I guess it's to prevent huge timegaps on hill stages in stage races, this too is at least partially true.
Another one is the min value of 65 on TT for everyone, and I don't see why, but I don't see why not either.
Taken all this in consideration, averages are I guess 2 points higher than in other DB's, which you have to keep in mind when selecting new riders for the team, or decidng who to let go.
A few races have been added, some of which I like to see (i.e. Halle Ingooighem …. Wait : I'm Spanish now !), and I very much like the inclusion of cobblestones in the Eneco tour, even if this crushes any hope for my new team of a good gc. Milan San Remo is of the huge hill at the end kind, which I guess is strange, because I believe word has been around to modify the prima vera's finale for long, but without implemantation. Looking at my team, I won't however complain for this modified version.
More strangely, the caledar has been slightly modified (compared to evans and JRG). Not that this actually matters a lot.
But the feature I most liked is, after a test fast forwarding till mid july, a much slower evolution of the riders' stats, old one's down and young one's up.
I got really fed up of R. Mc Ewen being able to win Tour Down Under, but not a single top ten sprint in circuit Franco Belge (I confess with less good condition) Sprint 82 -->75 in 10 months.
And I remember signing a P. Veltis which was below average in '08, and a genetic monster or a crossing of the best features of P. Betini and M. Boogerd in '10.
When I take a closer look at my own team, I see
Only 25 riders, so plenty of room for new signings
But only 10.000 salary to spare, so I'll have to play Mr Scrooge for the new entrants.
Not a single rider with cobblestones above 65, so I know which PT races I'll sim trough.
More unexpectedly for me : The team is quite weak on hills specialists, when you look past olymic champ. SS
Second best Yon bru, with hills 75, and after him everyone has better mountain than hills stats.
Another look : 3 riders have mountain "value" of 79 : This is bonanza ! (remember I played mostly Belgian teams, sometimes even "ethnically clean" and except for Evans with Lotto ...
This team is biased towards mountains !
A closer look : 7 riders have an average of 68 or 67.
This team is not biased towards mountains, it's biased towards crap !
A look at the objectives :
Those should be relatively easy, with SSG...
Wait, I can't enter him on all races, painful choices will have to be made ...
A look at the important races
Funny all those Spanish races .... Wait, that must be because I'm Spanish now, (and not getting used to it)
A look at the free agents is, for me, disappointing :
Free Spaniards
Pecharomman, nice rider, who asks more than I can pay.
Astarloa : would be nice addition to my team, by the way, isn't he basque ?
Mancebo : not an imporvement compared to the existing team, but if he's cheap ?.
Alberto Martinez : good hills, good TT --> you are needed
Santos Gonzales : good hills, good TT …and not demanding when it comes to money --> you are WELCOME
JE Guitterez : average mountains, hills, but good TT --> why not ?
Iker Flores, who has a low average because of a low recup, but can be usefull in hills and mountains, he is cheap, not too old, and he is basque.(at least his picture shows him with a nice orange guantanamo suit, which I have still trouble identifying as my own team.)
Jonathan Castrovijecho : nice young promising TT specialist, listed as a "northern classics" fan (with cobblestones 60 ???) : I hope his palmares gets as long as his name ….
Other older minor helpers for mountain/hills : to fill the roster.
Now let's play !!!
Edited by nicolas7412 on 13-01-2009 21:36
First things first : let's establish the actual squad
I can't remember how I pulled it, but … after restarting twice, after hiring/being laughed at when making a proposal/firing/hiring, I end up with the following :
New :
- I. Astarloa : welcome "home" : "you will be SS right hand in April, for the rest go and try to win something, and don't get too old too soon…" (he's 31)
- A. Martinez : "you 'll be my leader" (sotto voce when I don't give a lot about the race and there are no mountains) "And don't die of old age before your contract ends" (he's 32, and hired for 1 year)
- S. Gonzales : "even if you end up declining, you will still be value for money, leader of the even lesser races that A. Martinez is not in. (he's 34 : that's a gamble, isn't it ?)
- JE Gutterez : "I fired A. Perez for you (see later), so be a good helper in the mountains, and help me not look ridiculous in team time trials." (he's 32)
- J. Castroviecho : " whenever it's flat, you're part of it"
- Iker Flores : sorry about the administrative f… up, it must be my secretary who misspelled the name on the letter of dismissal... of course we always wanted you to stay (especially at such bargain price)"
- D. Belda : a "69 ner" : 69 on mountain, 69 on hills, 69 on average, well, you be less useless than my 67 eveners, and at 25, you might become a "70 er"
And ….
S.L. Henao (has a Colombian flag) : yes, … I know, … I couldn' t resist, he's only 20 and nice average of 70, with mountains of 74 … besides I do remember having seen an "Etxebaria" with a Venezualian flag on Euskatel's roster a few years ago?, and after firing Perez, I had money to spare…. And it was already january 10 th….
Speaking of Venzuala …
Anthony Brea : lousy rider, but with a 75 sprint, and those don't come in grapes within the Spanish speaking comunity…. and he's cheap ... and I already broke the rule once ….
Gone :
A. Perez : was according to me the least value for money in the existing team, and I needed a few more quids to sign riders I wanted (Gonzales, Astarloa, Martinez)
J. Azanza :
B. Albizuri :
M. Irizar :
L. Apperibay
Four young riders with plenty of room for improvement.
... But I ‘d rather have them improve outside than inside the team
Fired and rehired at half the wage : A. Lafuente .
Now this is something absolutely immoral … I can't remember having done something like that since playing hitman ….
But it's only a game, and it's not cheating, so ….
Remark : I actually end up with a surplus wage of 3.000 €, but not enough time to rereshuffle my team.
Now that I actually have a complete (nice 30) team, I can begin the real work : planning….
Now that I actually have a complete (nice 30) team, I can begin the real work : planning….
Well not yet..
First the foreplay :
I get 2 scouts, one mythical to … Basque country, one intl, to galicia.
I have one mythical medic,
Improvement training is set : all who have a progress percentage above 0 get a trainer, the rest will live without it, every training is not impaired by the number of rider he trains, …
I end up needing 3 trainers, 2 mythical and 1 intl. (and everyone is Spanish)
This part is also an opportunity to see who's got potential, and Castrovijecho stands out.
Earlier I had already secured +/- 50.000 /month in sponsoring till end jully.
Now the actual planning ( in real time, lasts 5-10 hours ! I like very much this planning part, maybe leftover from wargames ?)
I use 2 excell sheets, one with the startlist for each race I intend to enter, one with the number of days raced for each rider.
I try to get the best balanced squad for each race, with at least 1 chance of winning, and at least 3 helpers in each race.
This due to my most common race strategy : 3 protected riders, each protected by one helper, saved for the finale, and 2 free riders alternatively juming on each forming early break My experience with earlier editions of the game was: the only early breakaways that have a chance to make it are the ones I have no rider in. Hence I vowed never to let go anybody early on without sending at least one of my own with him.
W
hen I sim, I usually have one normal ride, one sprinter, one take risks, 2 breakaways, and 3 helpers.
I won't discuss the startlists I ended up with now, I think it's better when we actually get to the race.
But … when setting up the condition training schedules (and this is the one feature that will make me not turn back to pcm 07, even with the PPDB or PCM Spain) , I discover no pre set schedule actually fits 15 of my riders schedules …
I end up breaking another rule of mine, but only very limitedly :
There will be one custom schedule, coveniently called custom, and not a single more.
However, riders are allowed to switch during the year (once) from one schedule to another.
Time will show that this feature is devilishly efficient : during the game I discover I had one rider on a wrong schedule (f.. up of of mine) 1 week before an objective I desperately switch his programme, already thinking of restarting the game 1 month earlier, and he ends up being correctly if not perfectly in shape when the day comes ...
Whereas the pre set schedules require at least six weeks for this kind of condition enhancement.
I don't know though if peaking so fast is generating less or more fatigue ...
But it's a very nice feature to correct mistakes.
So, after all, finally at last ….. A bit of racing.
I know it's going to hurt, as I'm used to play with (Belgian) strong steam engines disguised in riders, with more often than not a world class sprinter among them.
Even with a lengthy training camp, even with everyone's schedule set for early form, it's going to be more of damage control than anything else ...
Anyway my startlist :
Koldo Fernades de Larrea : my top sprinter, but with 78, I don't have too many illusions.
Inaki Isasi : nothing standing out about him except second best sprinter with 75, together with…
Aitor Galdos : another 75 sprint, with a nice little 70 on hills : this one might be interesting for the famous fifth stage …
Anthony Brea : (see above) : by far the lousiest of my “75” sprinters, let's see what to do with him
Josu Aguirre : actally a tt specialist (with a little 73 on TT though) and a nice 74 on flat .. Wait, I'm playing ethernal's db : 74 isn't all that nice …
J. Castrovijecho : (see above) I told him if it's flat ...
J. Oroz : lousy rider, but a little less lousy on flat.
J. Aramedia: Even lousier rider, but a bit less louzy than others on flat (72)
General strategy will be to protect my 3 sprtinters, and to send Castovijeco, Aguirrie, Oroz and Brea out on escapes, each stage 2 of them stuck protecting and 2 of them free. Aramedia will be the perenial team mate.
First stage : after the early break is reeled in (by the way, it's nice I never had to reel in a break myself, and when I tried in earlier editions, I failed (see above))
A lot of sprinter trains are forming, none of them looking more promising than the other.
I. Isasi has the day of his life +5, and the other 2 sprinters are average (around 0). I decide to let each of them play his own card by hanging on his weels to a train, and to have Castrovijecho (who looks average good) place an attack at 5 km, more to try to form an euskatel train than to win the race.
At 2,6 Km (have you noticed, everyone sprints at 2,6 ?), Isasi seems to be the lucky one, follwing one of the 2 collumbia trains, the greipel one. This train is clearly ahead of the others. My other riders are ingulfed in the pack (even castrovijecho who hasn' t finished attacking, but no one else notices but me).
At 1 Km, Isasi gets out of Greipel’s wheel for his own sprint, and to no one's surprise gets dropped by Greipel
But to everyone's surprise, no one manages to pass those 2, and I end up SECOND for my first ever race.
And as cherry on the cake, Aguirre who was reeled in together with the other escapees manages to still finish with the bunch.
Second stage :
Exactly the same, but ….
Oroz gets in the break, reeled in and dropped out.
No one has a particularly good day.
No one catches a good train.
Hence no one's getting any close to S. O’Grady when he crosses the line first.
O, yes, I almost forgot, as the break was late to form, Galdos had the good idea to sprint in an early intermediate, finishing second. Shoud have done it with Isasi, for GC, but stupid me (or maybe not ?)
Third stage :
To correct my mistake regarding Isasi, I decide to place a gamble : change tactics and send him out with the break, to win intermediates and hope not to lose time if/when reeled in.
Well it works ….
And Koldo (who is good at +2 or 3) catches the one good train, liquigaz, albeit too late, hence a bit back, but ….. He finishes SECOND (behind pozato).
Ok, he gets even with Isasi
Fourth stage :
I’m not willing to risk Isasi (2 nd on GC in the meantime) anymore, I play for keeps and leave him safely protected in the bulk. Early escape is caught as usual …
But this is Koldo’s day ! (+5)
At 15 Km of the finish, the whole team starts forming a train, getting passed in the process by most of the bunch (wrong tactic)
I decide to once again leech on someone else’s wheel, but with Isasi and Galdos ahead of Koldo. And it’s not a train but the actual relay I’m
leeching, and Isasi’s turn to relay is (how conveniently) at 4 Km of the line, and he gives it all … (no sprint for Isasi) and Galdos takes over at 2,6 Km, and he sprints away (at this point, same level as at least one other train) and Koldo is itching to go, and he goes sprinting at 1 km, and someone else is going too alongside him (Greipel) and …. Koldo get’s it by half a bike.
My first win !!!
And I got 2 riders in the GC top ten, Isasi still second, and Koldo now ninth.
Fifth stage : the most intersting one.
Aguirre is once again in the break, which gets reeled in just at the foot of the hill.
Galdos is looking good…. Every decent hill rider tries to escape on the hill, I keep my Galdos (70 hills) safe behind castrovijecho (69 hills).
Once at the top of the hill, there are riders everywhere, but the game still sees it as one peloton.
Castrovijecho is pulling hard to get Galdos back at the front and keep him there, careful not to pull whenever the game senses a time gap. Meanwhile everyone half decent is attacking, and getting reeled in by others, who are themselves attacking, etc.
By the way Koldo and Isasi are safe in the bulk, but with no energy to spare to get at the front.
Meanwhile Galdos' energy is still 90 %....
Finally I can't hold any longer, S. Gerrans has with 3 other a 30 sec lead on the others, and I feel this one is for real. Galdos attacks (bye bye sprint) hoping to reach the escapees.
Which he does…
And no one else follows…
And the escapees are pulling hard ….
And here comes the final sprint (and Galdos is burned, hardly hanging on) and S. Gerrans wins with fingers in the nose. And the bunch is 43 sec. behind ….
Meaning ….
A. Galdos is second on GC, behind Gerrans, thanks to intermediate sprints earlier on.
And I haven't seen anyone ever succeeding in a break in the last stage of TDU….
Meaning …
Save for a catastrophe, I will finish my first (and second less favourable after eneco) PT stage race SECOND on GC.
Sixth stage happen exactly as planned meaning nothing happens except someone wins it (not me, too busy trying to make sure no one gets a time gap on my 3 (!!!) top ten GC riders).
And I end up being FIRST on provisionnal PT Team classification, albeit S. Gerrans holds the individual.
So, even if this my worst TDU ever (I played once with T. Boonen not winning any stage, finishing 4 times second, but winning the GC, and in the same race G. Van Avermaet winning one stage (as leading man for Boonen, but obviously too good for that).
I end up getting more than I expected, and much more than I feared.
But I was lucky with the form of the day, and picking the right train …
4 Spanish stage races, and 2 one day races are on the menu, all to prepare for the next PT races.
For the vuelta Mallorca, I send out a team without any other ambition but getting in shape.
Alberto Martinez
Ruben Perez
Inigo Landaluze
Juan Jose Oroz
Andoni Lafuente
Javier Aramendia
Antony Brea
Anton Luengo
I sim through, and my riders are, not surprisingly, anonymous. (even Brea, with sprinting status, and still benefitting from TDU, I'm a bit disappointed, but then again he IS louzy)
For the Ruta del sol (andalusia), I send out a better team,
Samuel Sanchez
Igor Astarloa
Inaki Inasi
Santos Gonzales
Iker Flores
Gorka Verdugo
David Belda
Andoni Lafuente
Here I play all stages but the fourth, too flat to matter .
First stage :
Iker Flores (new rider see above) gets a free status, in with the morning break (lousy riders) no one pulls behind, the break is getting close to the finish …
4 min ahead 20 Km to go … Iker has been saving and saveguarding a 100 % streghth .. Here comes the last hill … and Iker goes (and no one follows) and he WINS
And the peloton has taken a day off and the first, Cancellara, finished 2 min 47 behind….
Quite strangely, Cancellara treated himself to his own private time trial, finishing 30 sec in front of the peleton.
Interesting tactical situation : On this race, I have 4 riders which are better than Iker, but none of them is 3 min in front of a bunch of very good riders (I have seen Kirchen, Hincapie, Voight, etc.)
I opt for protection for Iker, and as breaks tend to work, Astarloa will get a go next time.
Second stage :
Astarloa goes together with others, and gets reeled in early, and the lasting break is thus with Verdugo, but they get caught anyway, and here we are in the final flat before the (very short) uphill finish.
And 3 riders of mine are feeling well, and they attack together with many others, Santos Gonzales and I. Astarloa pulling .... SSG
And in the final hill P. Bettini attacks, (I didn’t even know he was there) and gets countered by SSG, who wins with a 14 sec lead on the Italian.
Santos Gonzales and I. Astarloa, after a job well done, finish 1 min 30 behind SSG (djee one can loose time on a short climb) and still 20 sec ahead of the bunch, with a lot of people between SSG and them, again Cancellara, Kirchen, etc and a nobody called Holger Sievers....
Wait , this SOB was part of yesterday’s escape ....
I LOST MY JESREY.
Damned, GC Iker 2 nd 49 sec behind Sievers
Wait I’ll get my vengeance when SSG makes you eat dirt ... tomorrow.
Stage three :
Astarloa is once again out with the early breakaway, but to no avail, as everybody is caught well before the finish.
The finish is slightly downhill with a microscopic uphill 10 km before the line.
This is where SSG part company with the rest, I hope for ever.
After a breathtaking suspense SSG manages to finish .... second, a flea’s hair behind Bettini who finished first of the mass sprint. Damned.
Wait...
According to the result page, SSG finished first, The computer sometimes sees things a human doesn’t. I won’t complain....
But it’s not today the GC is changed.
Stage 4 is flat, and sees P. Bettini taking revenge, winning a mass sprint. No changes.
Stage 5; last chance to retake the jersey. I’m still placing my money on SSG, 19 th at 2.59, instead of Iker Flores, 2nd at 0.49.
And once again I. Astarloa gets an early exit ticket ... except this time it works out fine, as they make it to the finish.
But not all of them, as Astarloa has left early, sneaking out at 10 km before the finish, pretending he had an urgent meeting to attend to ....
And he wins with 45 sec on the others, and 3.30 on the peloton.
Getting him fifth on GC.
Meanwhile SSG, outraged he was denied any early exit ticket during this race, take vengeance by attacking (same spot as Astarloa 3.30 before ?) and, giving it all, maintaining a lead of a mere 20 sec on the bunch. He finishes 13 th of the stage. Now there are seconds more valuable than others (as the story will tell later) and those 20 move him up 10 spots on GC, to 9 th place.
Summarized : 4 wins out of 5 possible, 2nd, 5 th and 9 th on GC, and the mountain jersey for the ever trying Astarloa ...
Maybe the settings are too easy after all, I start regretting hiring those 2 foreigners...
Let’s see what happens with the Vuelta Valenciana.
I got there with a decent team,
Alberto Martinez
Ruben Perez
Yon Bru
Ametz Tsuruka
Inigo Landaluze
Iker Flores
Sergio Luis Henao
Antony Brea
And, after ruta del sol, lots of ambition, (if the settings are indeed too easy, I might as well win all of it).
Stage one :
As Iker demonstrated some affinity with early escapes, I decided to send him out early.
And, guess what, in exactly the same way as stage one of Andalusia, he won.
But, once again a lot of people decided to leave the peloton in the last few miles.
This time however, one of my own followed suit, giving, Yon Bru a 2 min lead (together with many others, on the main bunch, at 3’18’’
Stage 2 :
This time, Ruben Perez got the exit ticket, (Iker Flores having been promoted once again co-leader) and this time too it worked out well … but not for me.
R. Perez did not manage to get rid of his mates, but then again he had no hill to do so, and when the line came, he felt, well, a bit tired.
The peleton managed to finish only 56 sec back
Some riders from the bunch managed to make the jump to the escapees,
so they finished a whole 22 of them. Unfortunately, nor, Iker, nor Yon Bru, nor A. Martinez where part of them.
Stage 3 :
I don’t remember who I sent out with the early break, but they didn’t make it, and where not dropped either.
This is an uphill finish, and I placed my hopes to win the gc here.
And A. Martinez was up to task. (he was good +4)
He was pulled by the rest of the squad, and placed the decisive attack at the right time.
Unfortunately, nor Iker, nor Yon Bru, nor R. Perez where feeling well, meaning I a had yet another stage victory, and yet another well placed rider on the GC, but not well enough.
Stage 4 :
Should have been the same as the stage before, but I don’t know why, a group of riders managed to drop my best of the day, disputing victory between them.
This was the end of the hills, and I faced an honourable third spot on GC with Iker Flores, the rest of the team had faded away.
Stage 5 was flat, and with no sprinter (sorry Brea), I simmed,
Getting me this result :
PS : Brea must have had a particularly good day, finishing only 10 th
And this GC :
Now Lugano (simmed), and then my first real chance to win a GC : Murcia with SSG
My team was slowly getting in shape, but as I had enough wins, I decided to sim this one anyway (it’s not in Spain, would be the excuse)
My team didn’t look bad,
Igor Astarloa
Ruben Perez
Inigo Landaluze
Ametz Tsuruka
Iker Flores
Sergio Luis Henao
Javier Aramendia
Santos Gonzales
I got there with mixed feelings, as my thoughts were already turned to the real deal of Paris-Nice, and Tirreno.
Anyway, because I got there with my best team till now, as this team was very similar to the one for Tirreno
Samuel Sanchez
Yon Bru
Koldo Fernandes
Inaki Inasi
Gorka Verdugo
Josu Agirre
Anton Luengo
Andoni Lafuente
I decided to settle for reasonable objectives : A stage win for Koldo… and the GC for Sanchez.
Stage 1 was probably too flat for an early escape, and Gorka Verdugo paid the price by being severely dropped at the end of the day. Somehow, I remember he spent the first half of the race together with others chasing a better group of escapees, and the second half chasing the peleton, but alone this time
Koldo, who hadn’t raced since TDU, hadn’t any trouble getting his second win of the season. Loddo, Hunter or even Richeze where no threat.
This confirmed to me placing is everything, and being too far back doesn’t give you any chance of winning, even if you are the best of the bunch.
I set myself an additionnal objective to win 1 stage in every stage race Koldo would enter. (Tirreno, vuelta Asturias, catalunia, Vuelta and others)
Stage 2:
As Koldo got what he (I) wanted, I simmed this one, and this time Hunter wasn’t sleeping.
I was surprised, however, to find SSG that up the ranking, he wasn’t even supposed to sprint ?
The other surprise was to see a time gap halfway up the bunch. Some must have been hitting the dirt really hard : 1’30’’
Stage 3 : My first ITT, and as usual I sim them, important or not
Now you can understand my surprise when I saw this screen, by what I saw, Yon Bru third, and what I didn’t see : SSG ?
Scrolling down (not much thank god) he was 14 th at 45 sec
Bru was lucky : the two in front him that day had been caught in the trap of
stage 2.
Maybe I wasn’t going to win with SSG after all….
I got once again in the difficult situation of having a leader not as well ranked as a team mate (even if Yon Bru was promoted co-leader on the spot)
Stage 4 :
As usual I sent out 1 of mine to snitch and report on the dangerous deviationists who wanted to break the peloton line early.
But as Bru, Koldo and SSG where protected, and Isasi and Aguirre where no good climbing, I got no choice but to send G. Verdugo on a personal vendetta against the bunch who made him suffer that much on stage 1.
And it seems revenge is an efficient motivator, because no one saw the escapees again, and by the end of the last climb, no escapee was seeing Verdugo either …
His first win, and a beautiful way of getting even, but no good for GC….
GC was going to be settled far behind, by my team … of 2, as my only decent mountain helper was in front winning the stage You can’t blame him for that, even if some perverse DS might have given an order to stop and wait in such situation (remember Kloden and Vinoukourov in the TDF 07 ? )
The other teammates dutifully guided Bru and SSG to the foot of the second climb, and then faded away.
Anyway, SSG had to do something, despite being -1 or -2 and he did, honestly mainly thanks to a weak field.
Attacking half up the climb, after many others had tried, to no avail, thanks to other teams doing all the work, he secured a decent gap. But he never managed to get back to A. Noe, who went a bit before him.
Meanwhile Bru was hanging on, not doing a single effort too much.
Thankfully, there was a downhill, where SSG increased his gap even more on the bunch, and reduced it even less with Noe, but he didn’t catch him.
Bru placed an attack in the finale, securing a few seconds for GC. (At this point I was really thankful for the time gap in stage 2, as R. Plaza followed Bru, and he had been in front at the ITT.
But anyway, I had stage win, and GC 1 (Bru) and 2 (Sanchez).
It was time to get to the serious stuff of the coming PT races, and I simmed stage 5 (flat):
I was once again surprised by the result :
Whatever happened to Bru, I don’t know, but I felt (still feel, wait for what’s coming) terrible for him.
Well, I don’t remember much, except it was hard, harder than I … feared (those settings might be about right after all ?)
Hard choices had been made at the race scheduling, and 1 of those included to keep Anton, Zubeldia and Astarloza for the grand tours and the PT races with mountains.
In this DB, both Paris-Nice and Tirrenno have no mountains, which would have been a blessing, should I have remained Belgian, but as I was not….
And as Sanchez Gonzales was scheduled for Tirenno, this left me with A. Martinez as leader (i.e. not much) for the coming race
However the rest of the team was quite decent: So my goals where a top ten spot on GC, and a stage win.
My startlist :
Alberto Martinez
Ruben Perez
Inigo Landaluze
Ametz Tsuruka
Igor Astarloa
Juan Jose Oroz
Iker Flores
Javier Aramendia
R. Perez had been selected because he told me he liked this race, except it was before I restarted to get an optimal roster. It turned out he didn’t give a damn.
I simmed trough the the ITT’s and the flat stages, because I didn’t have any sprinter.
I ended up with 2 early escapes (last stage and stage before last) giving me my wins, with landaluze and Astarloa. The last one allowed Astarloa a significant jump on the GC classification.
But no one got even near the best when they battled….
This race also left the impression A. Martinez was missing something …
Samuel Sanchez
Yon Bru
Santos Gonzales
Gorka Verdugo
Sergio Luis Henao
Koldo Fernandes
Inaki Inasi
Josu Agirre
Notice this includes sanchez gonzales and Koldo de larrrea.
As murcia --> tirrenno tend to be the best preparation for Milan San Remo, all other factors remaining equal, my team for Tirenno tends to be slightly better than the one for Paris-Nice.
My aims : gc podium for Sanchez, a win for Koldo, and a win or a gc top ten for someone else.
What I got:
Sanchez Gonzales was up to the task, winnning one of the early stages and finishing second on another.
The rest of the team, however, was a bit short.
I simmed stage 6 & 7 (both flat) and got nothing
Notice that in this race, none of the early escapes actually made it.
But having always the same rider escaping pays nevertheless off with the mountain jersey.
I LOST MY JESREY.
