14 DAY TRIAL // This is not a true mountain stage, but it can pose problems for most of the peloton and a breakaway should be able to gain a lot of time early on and then stay clear until the riders reach the finish line.
The teams that have a Maillot Jeaune contender will not pull because they know that tomorrow they will have to work quite a lot on a HC climb and then a category 1 finish.
The sprinters will be unable to cope with the undulating nature of the route and so their teams will seek to limit the damage rather than set up another spring finish.
So, once more, I will try to keep Radioshack together and avoid any more falls.
The break this time managed to gather no less than eight riders and that gave it more of a chance to survive until the finish.
But once more, the hopes of lesser teams were dashed as the sprinter powerhouses controlled the race and made sure that it all finished in a fast race to the line, which was once again won by the leader of Argos Shimano, ahead of Greipel and Cavendish, who seems to have been boxed in once more.
This stage also featured some problems with my water bottle use that saw a number of my riders use their strength inefficiently to drop back to the team car to fetch more nourishment.
Proper and timely alimentation is crucial in cycling and Pro Cycling Manager simulates this via water bottles that constantly deplete.
Unfortunately, the mechanic chosen by Cyanide is pretty limited and fails to simulate the devastating impact that hunger can have on a rider and how it can quickly lead to a lost race.
In the game, the only annoyance is an enforced trip to the back of the group, which can be somewhat energy sapping but never ends one’s hopes for victory.
