The bookies have met Odds: B. Wiggins - $2.75 V. Nibali - $4.20 R. Gesink - $8.75 R. Hesjedal - $10.00 A. Talansky - $15.00 R. Plaza - $17.00 Not Quoted - $19.00 M. Scarponi - $21.00 D. Pozzovivo - $25.00 R. Uran, S. Sanchez, D. Cunego, I. Basso, J. Brajkovic, J. Kern - $31.00 C. Froome - $1001.00
Yeah, I am too. The major gripe for me is - Riders with very little preparation shouldn't be attending grand tours. It's an absolute waste of Froome's race days if he's attending the Giro well underdone. - Compounded with that, riders with very little preparation still shouldn't be losing 21 minutes if their name is Chris Froome - Too many breakaways succeeding; not enough effort to chase them down I don't think who's doing well though is a major concern; it's hard to really compare them to the real world as the whole form thing is so different. A month ago Rafal Majka came 6th in the Giro and now he can't even get within 7 minutes of the winner in a continental race. It happens, and in this 'universe' preparation, training and peaks are so different. Every rider should have their peak time. I just think if a gun isn't peaking why bother.
I control a team in this (astana) as I have to for it to work but I've not paid much attention to them at all. I just set the default orders and occasionally throw in some aggression hoping it might liven it up. Perhaps I could try and use the blokes I've got control of to try and chase down the breakaways? I'll try that and see if it works. I'd like 1/4-5 breakaways whether that be early breaks or late breaks to succeed as opposed to the 1/6-7 I'd say IRL but the current 1/2-3 is just a bit too much. That said we've had a small sample, could be an outlier.
Leave it as is for a couple more stages. What difficulty setting have you got it set on? Maybe that plays a part in it.
That's actually a good point but I'm pretty sure in this the difficulty is only in the budgeting not the races. I think? Anyone keen?
Nah the difficulty definitely effects the races as well I'd say. While back I set it on easy, did a Giro, on at least 3/4 stages we took at least the first 3/4 places, one was the first 8.
Ok this Real life result: About 40-50 remained iirc with Battaglin winning the bunch sprint. I expect this not to be a bunch finish, a solo break should win, I'd say.
FMD sutherland and plaza in the breakaway of five again. Grega Bole from HFF is a part of it, though.
Bole finishes 2nd in the 1st intermediate and 3rd in the 2nd. Ag2r doing a lot of the work on the front of the peleton given they've got the leader and Plaza's a direct threat. Moser and Westra from my blokes also helping out (for Gesink, I'd say) and Markus, Larrson, Impey, Sorenson and Simon helping out for Nibali who's a little further back being protected by Oss.
Break had 11 minutes with 140 ks left but now halfway through the cat 3 climb (40 ks left) it's been whittled down to 2 minutes 30. FPC doing a lot of work, obviously not happy with Ag2r's work as now they've had five blokes leading the peleton for 25 kilometres.
Hmm. Near the top of the cat three climb the break had a minute. Cunego again tried to bridge the gap over to Bole but he'd burnt out by the time he'd got there and dropped back to the pack. The break has discintigrated though, Plaza's gone alone and leads Sutherland by 17 who leads Caruso (HFF) by 14. The peleton are 27 seconds further behind. Cunego took third in the cat 3 mountain sprint too. edit: 28 kilometres to go and Plaza hit the wall and has been swallowed up while Cunego and Sutherland lead solo out front by 15 seconds. The only rider of ours to be dropped was Oss - which was understandable given the work he'd been going all day. Should swallow up the front two by the start of the climb, leaving it as a battle between contenders. edit2: 15 kilometres to go, 10 of which is climbing and Santambrogio has launched a solo attack. He gained a minute while Kiserlovski (RAB) tried to bridge the gap and so far is only 15 seconds off Mauro. edit3: yep, he's done it. Cunego too (most combative much). three of them lead by 50 seconds.