Bauke Mollema finds the power to overcome the favourites

Jul 14, 2015 13:47 GMT  ·  By

Racing after a rest day can be a tricky affair for riders, and the organizers of the Tour de France are not making things easy for the peloton by asking them to get right into a rather difficult mountain stage that features a final climb up the Col de Soudet.

This mountain features some big percentages and irregular gradients and can be the one to create some big gaps, especially if one of the favorites has a bad day and the rest of the powerful riders sense weakness.

Pro Cycling Manager 2015 offers a pretty accurate take on how modern teams approach big climbs, with the teams of the favorites creating trains of riders that protect and guide their leader while trying to preempt any attacks from the peloton.

Trek Factory Racing does not have the specialists that are part of Movistar, Tinkoff or Astana, which means that I will stay a little farther behind, trying to make sure that Bauke Mollema is not exposed and conserves his energy.

The trick is to determine which of the attacks is the important one and respond only to that one before trying to deliver a last-minute punch in order to take the stage win.

Prediction: Bauke Mollema will take the PCM 2015 stage or will be in the top three, while the big four all have a chance in the real world.

Trek victory on Bastille Day

One element that PCM 2015 does not seem to simulate is the French obsession with winning on Bastille Day, which should have led to furious attacks from the Gallic climbers.

Instead we had a relatively tame stage, with a breakaway that was swallowed as the climb started and some weak attacks from second-tier favorites.

I protected Mollema and was able to go with the group of superstars that included Nibali, Froome, Contador, and Quintana.

I then put in my own acceleration in order to get a gap that went over the 30 seconds mark relatively quickly, but no one wanted to work with my rider and I was afraid that the combined force of the others would pull me back.

In the end, I managed to take the tenth stage of Le Tour de France with a few seconds to spare.

Here's how the action happened in PCM 2015:

PCM 2015 Tour de France Diary Stage 10 Images (3 Images)

Bauke Mollema wins in PCM 2015 Tour de France
Group of favorites in PCM 2015Up the mountains in PCM 2015
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