14 DAY TRIAL // This is the antepenultimate stage of the Tour de France 2015 and it might be the hardest one of the lot, even if what comes tomorrow is equally scary, especially for riders who have been racing for close to three weeks.
The two included category-one climbs are Col de Chaussy, at the start, and La Touissure at the end, with the Croix the Fer, which is Hors Categorie, in the middle and another second rate climb thrown in for good measure.
The fact that the stage is relatively short and starts going up quickly means that a solid rider who no longer has GC ambitions might try to go early in order to get the win.
This is the kind of course that makes it hard to create a plan because so much depends on daily form, which Pro Cycling Manager 2015 simulates very well, and on the actions of other riders.
I hope to keep my position and maybe even gain some time.
Prediction: After two days of relative calm, I expect Quintana to finally try a powerful move against Froome and to get the Yellow Jersey in the real world, something he already has in PCM 2015.
La Touissure broke my heart
The initial climb was a hard one to negotiate and before I managed to protect my leader and make sure I was at the front, the peloton had already split and I only had three riders in the first group, which was going all out to make sure that it kept some powerful escapees, including Spilak and Steven Kruijswijk.
The climbs were long and the pace hard, which means that there was no chance for major groups to get in contact with each other. That's why my riders took turns making sure that my leader was comfortable and kept his energy levels up.
Movistar did a lot of work to protect their Yellow Jersey wearer, Quintana, and made sure that the break did not get too advanced, although it was clear that it was unable to bring it all back.
Finally, on La Touissure, the leaders went ahead, I tried to follow but I ended up relatively short, losing a lot of time in the final kilometers, the exact place where most real world gaps are created.
Take a look at the entire stage 19 of Le Tour in PCM 2015:
