Tour de Pologne

Real life does interfere with the game sometimes! I get irrationally fed up if I don't have enough time to read all the previews and study the odds. Happened this week as I was staying at my sisters and I am blaming her for my lacklustre performance in the Circuit Franco-Belge! 

I had a choice, I guess.  Change what I was doing and travel to where I could get a decent signal, or take a chance and run an odd transfer strategy.  I managed to get to the pub for the TT stage, but it barely helped.  In the end, I had to treat the game as just a game and take a hit.  Why does it bother me?  Too much of a cycling geek!

I'm in Spain when the Vuelta is on.  Brother's wedding in Barcelona when they are riding in the north, then down to my park home in Torrevieja.  Haven't studied the route much, but it looks like I'll be near Alicante for the TT stage there.  I normally stay away in Summer as it's too hot to train/enjoy, but it's no different here this year.

For once, "life" is actually bringing me closer to our obsession...  Only drawback is I'm the best man so have to do the speeches type thing.  Eeek!

From my experience of watching races live, a TT is probably the best as you get a good look at all the riders and there are plenty of vantage points. There is more raw excitement on a mountaintop finish but it generally involves a long wait for the action and all the best places to watch are nabbed early (plus I got caught in a thunderstorm on top of Monte Zoncolan a few years back)

11waterloo wrote:

Real life does interfere with the game sometimes! I get irrationally fed up if I don't have enough time to read all the previews and study the odds. Happened this week as I was staying at my sisters and I am blaming her for my lacklustre performance in the Circuit Franco-Belge! 

Just looked at your team.  I'd say you were a bit unlucky.  You spotted it would be strong men and in form/durable sprinters.  If Vanmarcke had come good, you'd have been fine (he nearly did).  Most of us dropped points because of Girmay and De Bondt let downs...

I really struggle with the one day races. I'd been talking Ven Gestel up as well, so much so that my son put him in his team on my recommendation whilst I left him out! 

I absolutely love the classics.  As a concept in the standard fantasy game, where we treat the spring and Autumn Classics in the same way as a stage race?  Does it work?  Honestly?

It would be a shame not to include the one-day classics in the game.  I prefer treating them as they are - single races.  No limits on numbers of "transfers" and just be able to pick who you like for all one day classics.  I'd also like to see the monuments worth more points than the other one-day classics.

Yes, the one day races have to be in the game, but lumping them into a spring and autumn series does feel a bit clunky. You could treat the one dayers as individual races (so you can pick eight new riders for each one) but have a reduced budget - meaning you have to use a bit of creativity in filling up the spaces from the bargain basement - but I haven't really thought it through so it might not be any better than what we currently have! 

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense to have them as separate races.  The budget needs to be a bit higher for the Monuments anyway, so it makes little sense to have the same budget for "smaller races".  Either the budget is too big (and you can pick whoever you like as in the last race) or the alternative is a budget so small that you can barely have any top riders for the monuments.

It's difficult trying to tweak the game, as it is so well-balanced and playable in nearly every way.  If anything was ripe for a tweak, it would definitely be the Spring and Autumn Classics.

I wonder if he's already left the team in his own mind. Carlos Rodriguez looks a better GC bet on current form.

Thank you! That is my first stage race win after plenty of close calls, so I'm a happy chap tonight! 

I agree that the cycling game is more satisfying than the football. Vuelta not too far away now as well! 

Definitely saw him standing around crash. Don't think he went down though.

I expected more teams to ride hard on the climbs and drop the sprinters. Defo a miscalculation. Too many teams either wanted a sprint or keeping strong TT riders in contention for GC. Kooij is riding really well on the climbs. Jumbo are something else. Teunissen tomorrow...

Good question... No, I don't know what happened. Milan is a decent back up on paper but I don't remember him sprinting before. I have always kept an eye on him as the holy grail of sprinter and TT'er but he has been neither really up until now. Just finished a session with the Italian track squad though, so presumably has good legs! 

Milan looks like the perfect lead-out man to me while he learns.  Big, strong, high top speed and track skills for positioning.  If I were Cav looking for a lead out man and one last crack at the tour record...

Stream: https://cyclingstream.com/live-stream/

I watched San Sebastien on Eurosport Player.  They only showed it live for the last three climbs.

I thought Eurosport said they were going to cover all World tour races?  One of the reasons I paid for the player.

Yes they are, and it has a better parcours than Poland. Once again, Gaviria finds himself in a race with absolutely no flat ground whatsoever! 

That's not great. Heal up well!