14 DAY TRIAL // Back in France the stages are getting longer and this one, at about 190 kilometers, might be a solid chance for a breakaway, as long as the composition is right, and the teams of sprinters fail to organize their chase well.
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 seems more realistic than other titles in the series when it comes to riders who try to get into a small group and drive towards the finish line.
The peloton, especially in the first few days of a grand tour, tends to move fast to shut down escape attempts and rarely do groups of more than three riders form.
Basically the AI controlled riders make sure that the breakaway does not have a real chance and then give it space, only so that they can then reel it in during the final 20 to 30 kilometers, which tends to happen in real life as well.
The problem is that PCM 2015 fails to take into account those small peloton conflicts and rivalries that sometimes allow the riders who are riding at the front of the race to escape their fate and battle out for the win.
Both Bob Jungels and Ricardo Zoidl are the kind of riders that could thrive in a breakaway, and I plan to get one of them in one on stage 5.
Prediction: Kristoff will win the virtual sprint and Cavendish will take it in real life.
Tony Martin produced a very solid performance yesterday to take the stage.
Positioning failure
Unfortunately, I entirely missed the sprint in PCM 2015 because I left my fast men too far behind in the peloton and failed to move them to the front when the other teams put in a huge acceleration.
The usual suspects, Mark Cavendish, and Alexander Kristoff, contested the finish, and the Katusha rider managed to take a small gap in order to become the winner.
Sprints are very hard to organize to a player's advantage, especially when his team is clearly second hand in terms of personnel.
My Yellow Jersey is safe at the moment and I will probably try to keep it until the first rest day, something that Cancellara cannot do in the real world because of the injury to his vertebrae he suffered in that horrific fall.
Here's now the stage played out:
