Hello all, I am struggling bad with trying to get my guys up front before the sprint starts at the end of a race. No matter what I do my guys fall back to the middle of the peleton.
I have tried making sure they are in short or infinate relay to get up front with about 30km left, but as soon as the peleton decides to speed up my guys fall back to the middle of the pack even if I set effort to 99, dot them or kick them in the butt.
Even when I dot one of my guys at 99 and try to make my own train I simply can't get close to the front.
You might want to read "The Career Guide" which can be found in our Guides section.
The following quote has been extracted from that guide, and it might help you out.
-- Sprints, (a) Set up your own train with two riders in front of your rider, one with high sprint (77plus), one with high flat (74 plus). 5-7km from the finish put the high flat in front, 99 effort, put the second one behind him; 2km from the finish have the 2nd one sprint, 1km from finish have the 3rd one (your best sprinter) sprint.
-- Sprints (b) Follow someone else's train. Crucial that you are not behind more than 1 very strong rider (stronger or equal to you). Set your rider to follow at 11.9km, and choose one of the favorites. But sometimes the favorites get caught too far back in a train (the 5th or 6th rider -- this is a problem for everyone except an 84-85 sprinter). Be ready to switch trains if you have to. If you are the 4th or 5th best sprinter, you can often finish second simply by following the best sprinter.
Be sure to eat at around 17km to go if your green bar is low. Be sure to set your sprint mode to aggressive.
I have a similar problem early in the season when my guys aren't very fit. You need riders with good "flat" statistics and they need to be fit to get up there with big boys. If you have really good flat riders (flat stat>76) then you can put them on the dot and create your own sprint train. But again, they have to be quite fit to do this.
Ah, it is early in the season and my guys are not super fit. I was following the guidance in the career guide but now I understand. My flat scores are not the best and all of my riders were between 65 and 70. This was just a warm up race for the first important sponsor race of the season.
