There are a few things that I just don't understand when it comes to the AI in the game. Mostly the logic behind breakaways. In a stage with several very short 10% inclines towards the end, a breakaway gets a good lead. I put some of my guys up to relay and keep the breakaway under some control. However, the lead just increases. In the end I put 4 riders up to relay at 93%. However, when i do this the breakaways lead increases... with 3 minutes. At about 35km before the line, the difference was about 2 minutes, at 30km it was above 4. I tried to attack with my leader, who had 1:50 down to 2nd, but then the pack suddenly woke up and realed me in in a matter of seconds. When I was caught, they just let the breakaway continue.
The thing is, the teams who had the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in the GC would lose their place if the breakaway got in. So tell me, how come they will let the breakaway go, but reel in my guy who has such a big lead over the other guys that he can't be caught? To me, this seem completely illogic.
It is not only unlogic, it is stupid in its purest form.
There are two problems:
1 - The AI only cares about first place. If your rider is in the lead, you have to do all the work.
2 - It shouldn't be possible that the escaped riders can ride faster then your riders. Your riders are fresh and they were in the wind for the whole day.
But you can prevent the AI and the game to behave so stupid:
Put one of your riders to short relay at about 55 once the breakaway has a lead of about 3 minutes. The breakaway will not get a huge lead and you can easily get them back BEFORE the final hills start. Normally the AI even does help your team if the breakaway is not to far away.
(In the flat, you could set your rider as high as 65 on short relay and he wouldn't lose yellow bar.
