14 DAY TRIAL // Today we go from Grenoble to Grenoble in the penultimate stage of this grueling Tour de France and we do it against the clock, with the remaining riders taking place in an Individual Time Trial that could heavily shake up the various classifications (minus the one dedicated to climbers) before the largely ceremonial ride into Paris that takes place tomorrow.
The ITT is seen by some as the ultimate test of strength for a cyclist and the modern period of the sport has seen most of those interested in winning major tours get fairly competent in the art of pushing hard against the clock.
The challenge with this time trial is that it's the twentieth stage, meaning that there are some tired riders in the peloton and that the major favorites, like my own Leopard-Trek Cancellara and HTC's Tony Martin, might not be the winners.
In the real world, an ITT is very much a question of pacing, with each rider focused on evaluating his own abilities and his own form on the day and then tapping out an appropriate rhythm.
The ITT discipline has long been dominated by Fabian Cancellara, also known as Spartacus, who is part of my team, but I have used him as a pace setter so much in the mountains to help my team leaders that there's a very good chance that he might not be the winner on this day.
I usually simulate this kind of stage, but this time around I actually played it and, because you need to watch all the riders parade, it's a pretty long and boring one.
And, because I was focused so much on the Yellow Jersey of Andy Schleck, I pushed Cancellara too far for his abilities in the first 10 kilometers that he ran out of energy in the last 5 of the stage, out of contention for the stage win.
But, on the upside, I managed to only lose 3 seconds to Contador and have secured the overall win in Le Tour de France.
Here's how an Individual Time Trial looks in Pro Cycling Manager 2011: