14 DAY TRIAL // I was very happy yesterday because my Radioshack Trek riders managed to deliver an unexpected win in the team time trial, but luck is a fickle force in cycling and today, my hopes of wearing the Yellow Jersey in Paris seem remote to non-existent.
Stage 5 was supposed to be a rather uninteresting one, a stroll through southern France ending with a bunch sprint in Marseille.
I had no plans for the stage, I was ready to give my riders the day off in many ways, only pulling on the front of the peloton if a dangerous rider managed to somehow get into a break.
As always, my competitive nature would not let me simply protect my leader and I sent Didier into the break, hoping to collect some mountain points and maybe set up an interesting finish.
I was so engrossed in micro-managing this rider, even if his performance was below par, that I paid little attention to the pack.
On the final categorized climb, a lowly fourth category, I tried to push my leader to the front in order to keep him safe from potential crashes in the final kilometers.
Unfortunately, I was too late and Andy Schleck and his protecting rider, Maxime Montfort, hit the deck.
None of them abandoned outright, which tends to happen rarely in Pro Cycling Manager 2013, but getting up and up to speed again takes time, which is in short supply because the peloton raced at more than 50 kilometers per hour towards the finish line.
I put my team on the front to pull as fast as they could but I could only limit the damage done.
I managed to lose quite a bit of time and it’s still up for debate whether I can make it up in the high mountains.
Take a look at the event below:
