14 DAY TRIAL // There are certain names that have become associated with the Tour de France and its big mountain stages, and when the route of the race spends time in the Pyrenees, fans can be certain that the Col d'Aspin and the Col de Tourmalet will be featured.
The eleventh stage of this year's edition includes the two mountain tops but makes neither of them the end point of the course, which will probably annoy some long-term fans.
Instead, the organizers have chosen to force the peloton to deal with the two major climbs before they face a massive descent from the Tourmalet, and riders will need to find some final reserves of strength to tackle the Cote de Cauterets, which is short and not too difficult.
One aspect of real world cycling that Pro Cycling Manager 2015 does not portray in all its glory is the way a long downhill can influence the outcome of a stage, especially if a racer targets it and scouts the section in advance so that they can prepare their approach.
Prediction: After the solid performance Mollema put in yesterday, I will try to keep him safe and will allow Contador to try and take the stage, which he is probably itching to do.
In the real world, Froome delivered a masterclass performance to beat his rivals in the first uphill finish, and today it's unclear if any of them has a clear response.
A tale about the Pyrenees
The biggest problem with very mountainous stages is that I tend to forget to replenish the food for my riders (represented by the little bidon icons) on the easiest sections and need to burn riders to do that on the slopes.
This time around, I managed to actually empty the energy of just two of the members of my team, but then, after we safely negotiated the Aspin climb, disaster struck.
Bauke Mollema, my leader, was caught in a crash and separated from most members of the team.
He got up and had no injuries, but I was forced to wait for him, then try to set a solid pace to claw back some time.
While going up on the Tourmalet, the gap to the favorites remained high and I launched in pursuit, with Zubeldia protecting my leader for a while.
I was unable to entirely get back all the lost time, but I did finish seventh, which is a solid performance given the situation.
Take a look at how the eleventh stage actually happened in PCM 2015:
