14 DAY TRIAL // Traditionally, rest days for grand tours tend to fall on Mondays, but the organizers have slightly stretched the second week and that means the riders now have a 23-hour window to rest and prepare for a very tough final five days of racing, including some impressive climbs and the fast dash through Paris.
I have talked before about the fact that Pro Cycling Manager 2015 is not good at portraying days off, when the various teams show off riders in public appearances and tend to also do preparation work for future stages.
One thing that gamers and cycling fans can both do during a rest day is contemplate the results and the way the various riders dealt with the challenges on the road.
In the real world, Chris Froome holds an authoritative lead over all his rivals and his team, Sky, has been almost impossible to miss at the head of the peloton.
In my PCM 2015 campaign, Movistar and Quintana are the ones in the lead, able to control the race at will and constantly launching attacks that are hard to respond to.
The interesting thing is that in both situations there's no one factor that can explain their solid results, but an amalgamation linked to the teams, the riders and the events of each stage delivered the current standing.
The road ahead leads to Paris
The 2015 edition of the Tour de France is now in the Alps and the organizers have prepared some very interesting stages, which will force the team leaders to make quick judgment calls as they seek to reach their goals.
The most interesting aspect of the race is how fast the teams will go from the start, considering that the routes are relatively short.
Sky, in the real world, and Movistar, in the game, will probably seek to slow things down as much as possible, trying to make sure that they do not have to deal with too many attackers.
Or they might simply let a solid but unthreatening escape attempt go away, giving them the space to contest the stage win while controlling the attacks for the General Classification contenders.
Some interesting moments will surely capture the imagination of fans over the coming days.