Am working through my first season with FdJ (mediocre at Tour of Australia, couple of 4th places with Gerard so far at Tour of Qatar).
I've just totted up the number of days racing that all my default races will involve (ProTour + invited races already in my calendar) and that works out at 271 days total, before adding in any more races that some of my riders want (e.g. Coppa Cyclista - where I don't have an invite yet but 5 of my riders have it as 'preferred'.
If I want to keep young riders (I have 4 ) to 40 days max, that seems like a hell of a lot of racing to share amongst everyone else. Is it too high?
What kind of total race days number do people generally aim at?
Also - I just agreed to do the Tour of Malaysia as they want to see Gilbert. I think this might be an error......
Great game though - will be even better when I know what I'm doing :-)
You only have to race the Pro Tour races (CTT in the calendar). You are free to cancel every other race.
Just count the days for CTT races and make a season planing for these races only. If you have days left, you can race other races.
As you will not win every race in your first career you could also just start playing without to much thinking. Just try all the stuff and start another career after you played your first full year.
Having some CT races can help your youngsters to an extent, but being a team like FDJ you should be racing almost only in PT races, using CT races only as warmup events for the important ones or if they're sponsor goals. I think the first goal of your season should be to acumulate enough points early to avoid relegation. The Tour of Malaysia may want Gilbert but for only a few thousand dollars you should save him and then really ramp him up in spring for the cobbled classics where he could prolly earn you enough points to sail clear of relegation trouble the whole season
It's your choice, really. Do whatever you want. As an example, I want realism, so I'd be aiming for the races the team aims for in real life. those being the classics, and french races (both protour and continental)
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