14 DAY TRIAL // There are some stages in Pro Cycling Manager 2013 that I do not want to play, either because I know I have no chance to win them or because they can be just too boring.
After the rest day, the organizers of the real life Tour de France decided to schedule a rather straightforward spring stage that would only be somewhat interesting in the final 10 kilometers.
So I decided to simulate a stage for the second time for my diary.
The results were pretty interesting, because a breakaway managed to stay away for the full day, with four men battling for final victory.
Meersman, one of the young capable riders of the peloton, takes the win, and the rest of the group comes home almost one minute later.
Unfortunately, one of my riders, Haimar Zubeldia, who could offer important support in the mountains, has withdrawn from the race after a heavy fall.
This makes my catch-up mission ever harder to complete, especially given the fact that two of my riders are still in pretty bad shape despite the fact that they had a full day to regain energy.
My plan was to constantly put pressure in the mountains, but I might be unable to do that if my team is too tired to stay at the head of the group and set a high pace.
I am somewhat disappointed that the Detailed Simulation option has been taken out of Pro Cycling Manager 2013.
It produced unrealistic results and many veterans avoided it, but it could have been improved by the development team at Cyanide in order to give gamers a middle road between playing every stage, no matter how boring, and a simple simulation that fails to capture the essence of the race.
Tomorrow the time trial returns, this time in its individual incarnation.