PCM 2011 Diary – Stage 6: Water, Hills and Failure

Stage 6 is the longest of this year's Tour de France and will see the peloton reach the end with some pretty tired legs, even though the climbs on the route are not too hard to negotiate.

The distance, combine with two hills close to the finish, might put this stage out of the reach of the sprinters and their teams, and a breakaway might actually reach the end in real life and maybe even in Pro Cycling Manager 2011.

The first part of the video for this stage shows me trying to get my rider, Brice Feillu, a man that can climb a bit but not with the best of them, in the breakaway of the day.

The game manages to simulate this process pretty well and a group of riders only manages to stay ahead when attacking with conviction, spending quite a bit of energy and when the bigger group is no longer interested in chasing them and no one team sits by force in front.

I failed to breakaway successfully with Feillu and the resulting break has managed to work well together during the stage, take an intermediate sprint and then pick up some mountain points, before French national hero Sebastian Chavanel made a break for the stage win, taking advantage of those last two hills.

I put two of my helpers, or domestiques in cycling speak, Montfort and Voigt, on the front, pulling at high effort, to bring the French rider back and set up an attack from either Cancellara or one of the Schleck brothers but, despite my efforts, I left it all too late.

Mismanaging my water intake also had something to do with my failure.

I managed to get both second and third spots on the stage, but an individual stage win is still eluding team Leopard-Trek.

Here's how the final section of the stage looks in Pro Cycling Manager 2011: