14 DAY TRIAL // Le Tour de France is the biggest bike race in the world, the premier cycling event competition of the year, and depending on the schedule for the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics, it can be the most watched single sporting event of a 12-month period.
As I have done for a number of years now, I plan to once more play all the 21 stages of the race using the recently launched Pro Cycling Manager 2014, and talk about my performance in a series of diaries that will also offer more details about the core ideas powering the sport.
For a while, my favorite real world team has been Trek Factory Racing, and I plan to use it for my coming simulation effort.
The nine riders I am taking to Le Tour de France include: Frank Schleck, who is my general classification hope, Fabian Cancellara, essential for the cobbled sections and the time trial, Bob Jungels, a Luxembourg rider who can compete for the White Jersey of the best young cyclist, Giacomo Nizzolo, my best sprinter, Jens Voigt, the veteran of the team, and supporting riders Stjin Devolder, Julian Arredondo, Robert Kiserlovski and Riccardo Zoidl.
I know that the line-up has no actual chance of winning Le Tour de France, but I plan to aim for some stage wins, while also trying to stay on the attack as much as possible and force the AI-controlled teams to make mistakes and maybe offer an opening for my own stars.
I thought about using a custom-made team for the simulation but, in a weird move, developer Cyanide has made it harder to use one, so I decided to use my real world favorites rather than choose one of the favorites from the game, like Contador or Froome.
Another quirk of the simulation means that some teams also have weird line-ups, with too many sprinters and a lack of solid support riders.
Le Tour de France is a long and grueling race, made even harder by the fact that riders are aware of the pressure to get results, especially if their team has had a less than stellar season.
Some of the stress cannot be replicated in Pro Cycling Manager 2014, where the combination between fitness level, daily form and rhythm has a much bigger effect on race performance.
The first stage of the 2014 Tour takes place in England, and it will be interesting to see how the sprinters, who are favored for it, cope with the route.