14 DAY TRIAL // I like cycling and even I tend to get a little bit bored with the sprint-oriented stages that I have to play around with mainly because they tend to concentrate all the excitement in the last twenty to ten kilometers and require the rest to be experienced at 8X speed.
This year's Il Giro, the three-week Tour of Italy and second most prestigious competition in cycling, managed to create a profile that was so mountainous that many sprinters abandoned the race half way though, but Le Tour seems to be aiming for balance this time around.
I might again try to get a solid sprint train going today, but my biggest worry will be keeping my three main mountain men, Fuglsang and the Schleck brothers, out of trouble and as close to full energy levels as possible.
I am unhappy to report that sprinting seems to be something I am just unable to handle when it comes to Pro Cycling Manager 2011.
Yet again, I have failed to get into a good position for the last five kilometers and got surprised by the nice train that the people of Garmin-Cervelo and HTC managed to create.
I reacted with my own riders and seemed to be getting back a few meters, but then I launched the sprint and managed to actually block my main man, Benatti, with my lead out because I neglected to tell him to drop back after launching the sprint.
My go to excuse is saying that my team for Le Tour de France is in no way set up to do sprints and is geared towards helping Andy Schleck get the Yellow Jersey in the mountains and the protecting its wearer on the way to Paris and final podium.
Oscar Freire gets another win and could well be the Green jersey for this edition of the race.
Take a look at how the eleventh stage went down in Pro Cycling Manager 2011: