I am fairly new to PCM. I have noticed that overall fitness plays quite a large part in the game. However I find planning a season very difficult. I have no real idea what I am doing because other than the 3 Grand Tours I don't know what any of the other races are about. Another issue is that I don't know how fatigued the schedule will make my rider.
Also when the Computer automatically picks your lineup for each race what does it take into account?
Finally does the default training schedule that the rider gets given change each season or does the rider stay on the same schedule forever unless you change it?
It takes some work at the start, but I think its really necassary.
If your guys are out of form(training schedules have the main role in that, race form has a role in that as well...), then it's going to be really hard to get results.
For instance, maximum (race)form of a rider starts to decrease when going over 60 racedays, so I wouldn't ride more than 70/75 days with your leaders.
Default training schedules are bad, you tire a bit too fast with them, and I think, that they're randomized(except maaybe some leaders who switch between a few schedules, not sure how it exactly works)
And to see what races are about, you can click on the race name(if it's hyperlink-ish), and then you see the race profiles. WT races are the most important races ofc
Jesleyh wrote:
It takes some work at the start, but I think its really necassary.
If your guys are out of form(training schedules have the main role in that, race form has a role in that as well...), then it's going to be really hard to get results.
It takes time to get good at season planning and fitness schedules, but the difference it makes in huge!
Here are a few simple tips to get started:
1) Split the squad into smaller "teams". Pick the "team" leader, a strong rider like Wiggins or Cavendish etc. Then add in 7 other riders to that "team" who will work for that leader
2) Assign "teams" to key races, these can be sponsor goals or just races you want to win.
3) Pick out 2-3 races before that target the "team" will go to, so they build up fitness
by doing this you will instantly start gaining a good idea of how planning a good season works, and how to manage race days. Of course this is all pointless without the fitness schedule to back it up.
1) Identify the main race(s) you want to target. For WT teams these are obvious, but if playing as a PCT or CT team i recommend targeting whole months rather than specific races
2) Plan out which "team" will go to which target
Now to make a custom schedule:
3) Identify the week of the big target race, or the key week of a multi-week race
4) Make that week the tallest darkest green bar. You only want 2 of these peaks per season, getting them right takes time. It will also automatically add in the other build up weeks fitness making your job much easier
As a simple start out that should help. Everyone likes to plan their season differently. Most use the in-game race planner or Lachis season planner. I personally use a more complex "team" method and improvisation. Just play around with the various different aspects until you find yourself a method that works and is comfortable. Planning a season properly does take a while so there is no quick-fix solution.
To try and answer in a more compact form: No you don't have to, but then you will have to select riders based on their form. In World Tour races if your riders are not in 85+ form, you basically have no shot of winning. In the biggest races you need to be 90+ with the best riders in the game to have a chance.
I highly recommend planning the season, a shorter way of doing this though is to separate your team into groups of 4 riders. Pick a GC team leader, then a few support riders for him and they will all ride the same events throughout the year, this way you can build 1 plan and its good for 4 riders.
TheManxMissile wrote:Here are a few simple tips to get started:
1) Split the squad into smaller "teams". Pick the "team" leader, a strong rider like Wiggins or Cavendish etc. Then add in 7 other riders to that "team" who will work for that leader
2) Assign "teams" to key races, these can be sponsor goals or just races you want to win.
3) Pick out 2-3 races before that target the "team" will go to, so they build up fitness
by doing this you will instantly start gaining a good idea of how planning a good season works, and how to manage race days. Of course this is all pointless without the fitness schedule to back it up.
1) Identify the main race(s) you want to target. For WT teams these are obvious, but if playing as a PCT or CT team i recommend targeting whole months rather than specific races
2) Plan out which "team" will go to which target
Now to make a custom schedule:
3) Identify the week of the big target race, or the key week of a multi-week race
4) Make that week the tallest darkest green bar. You only want 2 of these peaks per season, getting them right takes time. It will also automatically add in the other build up weeks fitness making your job much easier
Good advices, I pretty much do it like that. It was very daunting at first, but after doing this one time, the next time I had a clear idea of how to plan it. I write down my team on paper, split them up and try to make every team strong enough to win their goals.
In example I'll have a mix of cobble/classics-team that might also ride a few tours that doesn't have big mountains, a giro&vuelta team and a spring classics-TdF or TdF-autumn classics team.
Season planning and assigning riders to races now takes less then an hour, and it's worth every minute of it as all the season goals are winnable. It also makes me put less emphasis on unimportant races because counting it all up I noticed how quickly those race days add on.
A few extra tips
* Prioritizing the tours and classics and using only a few of the conti pro races to grain race fitness can be good. If you have around 25 riders they will all ride well above 60 days doing that, so if you in addition ride a bunch on conti pro tours you will struggle by the end of the season.
* Remember 9 riders not 8 for the 3 major tours.
* If going for all jerseys in grand tour pick a balanced squad, i.e 4-5 climbers (a good downhill domestique can make a big difference chasing in breaks if you put him upfront on descents on say 90-95 effort), 2 good on flat to chase breakaways and/or control speed, 1 sprinter, 1 lead out. 2nd best climber should be decent enough to keep up with the leader in the mountains until well up the last climb.
* You can start those tours on low fitness (i.e 70/80 + 10/20), just as long as you peak when it's important to peak.
* Have a few talented young riders on a medium training level for most of the season and don't assign them to the races initially. They will be good to have if you have injuries, so you don't have to shift the teams, and even the weakest riders can do a job as water carriers. They still progress even though they don't race as much as the others.
* 70% training (or is it 60%?) and more will see fatigue level rise, IIRC, and it rises exponentially as you increase. When you reach half bar of fatigue, max fitness starts to drop. So use the darkest green bar sparingly (I use 2 or 3 pr season)
stealingsilver wrote:
Another issue is that I don't know how fatigued the schedule will make my rider.
Hi Guys,
I will sit down on Saturday morning and try to properly plan a season. I think I was over thinking things and trying to win everything. As suggested I think I will go for 3 major targets (Suchas GC in TDF, Giro and Paris-Roubaix) and build up 3 teams.
Is there an easy way of knowing if I will fatigue my rider by over training them?
stealingsilver wrote:
Another issue is that I don't know how fatigued the schedule will make my rider.
Hi Guys,
I will sit down on Saturday morning and try to properly plan a season. I think I was over thinking things and trying to win everything. As suggested I think I will go for 3 major targets (Suchas GC in TDF, Giro and Paris-Roubaix) and build up 3 teams.
Is there an easy way of knowing if I will fatigue my rider by over training them?
Yes. While making the schedules(if you do custom ones, otherwise not possible), you can click on a button called 'Evalution/Review', something like that. White bars will appear. When those bars reach really high, then you overtrain them, for sure.
You should experiment a bit with those schedules, until the bars won't reach an extremely high level(= When they reach the same level as the dark-green bars which are in 'the background' then) Of course, after their ultimate peak, they might get high for 1 or 2 weeks, that's fine. But not longer than that
One more question. How many days are too many days? I have done most of my planning but some of my domestiques will rack up 90+ days on the road. Is this ok? It seems an awful lot but I do not really seem to have a choice as I have spaces to fill. I am playing as Sky with the 2013 database.
From 60 race day onwards, their race maximum form limit will start decreasing roughly 1 point/2 race days. Here's a table showing exactly what maximum race form they'll get for each race day after 60: https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....ost_452729
As you can see in the table, with 90 race days they can only have 3 points of race form, so if they are at their training peak they'll have maximum 83 form. That might seem pretty bad, but in fact it's not quite so: they are only domestiques, so form is less important than for your leader (there's not so much difference between helping your leader with 80 or 90 form, but if you're trying to win the race, having 80 or 90 form can be a huge difference). Additionally a lot of riders are worn out with race days by the end of the season
Summing up, 90+ race days is fine for domestiques, but for leaders you might want to keep that value below 70, 75 (unless of course you also want to use him as a luxury helper in the late-year races )
This is a very useful thread for people new to the game. So thanks guys, I reckon you've definitely helped me understand preparing my team for a season.
