Online cycling and/or baseball manager type timewasters?

[Sits]

I just bought an Ave/Good/Good (though Guinea-Bissau not Manx) off the forum and will be picking him up in four weeks.

[Levin]

Yes, I'm ready for my next rider to develop now. I was hoping that having 3 riders come in every 2 seasons would give me a good assembly line. Stenson, Perkis & Vencill are Training Camp maxed now.

Part of my reluctance on the transfer front is how opaque the mechanical system is, and I don't want to make a mistake. My starting team leader is ready to retire now, which will give me an ok trainer.

IoM riders on the free hire list.

Name: Edmund Gilruth Nation: Isle of Man Team: None Age: 21 years Birthday: Day 48 Team Spirit: 68% Experience: Level 1

OCM Tour Rank: 4027 th OCM Tour Points: 0 Isle of Man Tour Rank: 21 st Average Skill: 29

Former teams: Team (End of contract) Canard Solutions B (29/1-2021), The Laboratory (7/3-2021)

Stats:

CL: None (27) DH: None (30) HL: None (26)

SP: None (38) FR: None (27) CB: None (26)

TT: None (26) TQ: None (32)

Potential:

CL: Small DH: None HL: Small

SP: Very good FR: Small CB: Small

TT: Small TQ: Small

Name: Clarence Keatley Nation: Isle of Man Team: None Age: 21 years Birthday: Day 82 Team Spirit: N/A Experience: Level 1

OCM Tour Rank: 4027 th OCM Tour Points: 0 Isle of Man Tour Rank: 21 st Top form ready Average Skill: 29

Stats:

CL: None (40) DH: None (26) HL: None (33)

SP: None (27) FR: None (25) CB: None (25)

TT: None (26) TQ: None (32)

Potential:

CL: Average DH: Small HL: Small

SP: Average FR: Average CB: None

TT: None TQ: Small

Name: Shamus Ponto Nation: Isle of Man Team: None Age: 22 years Birthday: Day 1 Team Spirit: N/A Experience: Level 1

OCM Tour Rank: 4027 th OCM Tour Points: 0 Isle of Man Tour Rank: 21 st Top form ready Average Skill: 29

Stats:

CL: None (32) DH: None (25) HL: None (30)

SP: None (40) FR: None (25) CB: None (25)

TT: None (27) TQ: None (31)

Potential:

CL: Small DH: None HL: Small

SP: Small FR: None CB: None

TT: None TQ: None

And that's where I decided to stop wasting my money.

[matt j]

Gilruth had been posted for transfer back in December (180+ Sprinter, VG SP). He'd been on my watch list but other than IoM loyalty, no reason to pick him up at the time (and alas, less now).

By quirk of Division shifting, I had the opportunity to get Kavanagh into two preferred flat race options... on the same day... in different divisions. I was on the fence about it, but the two races are Detroit and then Savannah. Private jet transfer? Slightly scammy, but I need to get points/money/results.

Means I'm going all out for this week with 5 races over 7 days, and 4 of those for Kavanagh. Each of those 4 should get me points (I hope), and small chance at the other with Crumley.

Then everybody needs to take a loooong break.

DM got the IoM team into the WT-B Time trial: Perkis, Tolers, Stenson, Illingworth, Pritchett, Snowden. High level competition for Perkis, with Czech Rep's Komprs being the obvious threat.

[Sits]

Good work Matt and DM.

Elsewhere I stumbled on what may or may not be a decent fantasy cycling game: https://fantasy.road.cc/login. I’ve entered the Volta de Catalunya, this is my lineup for Stage 1:

[Sits]

Sorry that’s huge!

[Levin]

I was disappointed to read on the forum that there are 5 or 6 managers scouting the free hire list comprehensively. And taking the decent riders then flipping them.

It's in the suggestions section, about a new scouting method. My read was that the admin was suggesting that there isn't much point scouting from the free hire list, anyone decent will be picked up within minutes.

[Sits]

That’s a pity. People will always find an angle.

[matt j]

Yup, I mentioned Fighting/Alex upthread, the one who offered me the 200+ IoM Sprinter. Considering that he admits spending 10-12 hours a day doing scouting, often while he is at work, (and has admitted dedicating a year working on his system), I consider that a fine trade-off, though I can see/agree why the overall system looks like it needs an overhaul.

The simplest solution would be to reduce the number of free hire's per day and increase the rate of scouted talents for your team. If it was up to me, I'd even roll it out over some time, gradually reducing one while increasing the other over the course of a season, so everybody has the chance to adapt. I think it makes a more reasonable 'reality' as well, as it's more likely that cycling teams are searching for talent themselves rather than riders just 'throwing themselves' at the mercy of a hire list (I joked about this in one transfer thread). Rejected riders from the 'team' talents then go to the hire list (this does not happen now), so passing on a rider still means you know their potentials.

It's not even as though his method is that inventive, just he's somehow streamlined it or automated portions of it. You watch the 'riders' list for new riders in the young ages groups, then wait for that name to appear as available on the hire list. It's basically a state of constant refreshing for the new name to appear and then=> scout and hire if decent. With 5 or 6 serious people doing that, there are still time gaps (as can be seen by the free hire list), just not many.

Obviously, you have to have cash to spend 'at the moment', and you have to have a good sense as to what the transfer market will support. And be willing to 'search everywhere' which some teams don't do. Plus add in the uncertainty of training anyway, and it's kind of a wash for me....

[delicatemoth]

I think longterm players got into working the free hire list before sponsorships, when money for training was a lot more scarce. Your solution sounds good, my quick fix would be to increase the minimum time a cyclist has to spend on a hiring team to a season, but I'd really like the talent bit to have more meaning.

Picking the team for the ITT was odd, I had to pick six riders just like a normal race, but I assume they don't affect each other.

[matt j]

Yep, agree that a longer first contract is probably necessary too. 90 days for the first contract at least.

[Sits]

Levin incredible win for your boy Baalham in the Altdorf-Ems just now, a breakaway surely? My ponderous climbers were nowhere to be seen, somewhere near the back of the peloton. Congratulations.

[Levin]

I was just going to post about it. Yes, a breakaway. A fantastic result. avg 34 rider, max skill sprinting at 52

[matt j]

Great result for a climbing race, wow. He stayed away from a 92 CL, AV 55 monster.

[Levin]

It would make sense that a breakaway is more likely to succeed if no riders are assigned the Pace Setter role. That may be too logical for the game though and you'd need to know what everyone set tactics wise to find out.

[matt j]

Ha! That would be pretty clever for the engine. A bit like when the peloton doesn't really know how far away the breakaway has gotten, or gets stuck at a train crossing, or the like.

My predictometer 3000 says Perkis 2nd, Komprs 1st in the Goteburg ITT. Stenson with an outside chance at top 20.

[Levin]

Are we in group B now? 4th for Perkis which is still pretty good. My unscientific eye test had him 3rd - 7th.

[matt j]

Yup, delicatemoth has put together a good string of results that not only are we up in WT-B, but have an outside chance of cracking WT-A by the end of the season. Obviously, we need to get some sprint results, but IoM sits 15th on the 'season' points list. Just need to outscore the teams that were in the CoN races.

Next should be a hill race, probably this one:
http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?pag...%20Hauge%20(WT)

So, good old hill riders + some BA tactics seems likely next.

[matt j]

friendly reminder: only a few hours to get in the next WT race delicatemoth ,

I'm honestly getting a bit self conscious keeping this thread going with only 4 of us active now. Should we close up shop here and start a IoM managers forum thread in the "English speaking" section on the official OCM forum?

My great 'throw Kavanagh at every race in a very short period of time' has so far worked pretty well. 1st (and 4th!) in the Division 6 race (Detroit), 2nd in the same day Division 5 (Savannah), 4th in the other Division 5 (Doha - Umm Bab) two days later, and with a Division 4 race to come tomorrow (Biscarrosse Streets) I've dragged Kavanagh's DP all the way down to 66. Anything in the top 9 tomorrow is a massive success from my point of view. Good influx of cash/points, and I've put myself in position for the 60-day plus run of key division 4 races.

[delicatemoth]

Cheers Matt! Snowden is captain, supported by Tilson, Paulus, Dominguez and Carder. Vencill will try his luck in the breakaway.

[caja-dglh]

friendly reminder: only a few hours to get in the next WT race delicatemoth ,

I'm honestly getting a bit self conscious keeping this thread going with only 4 of us active now. Should we close up shop here and start a IoM managers forum thread in the "English speaking" section on the official OCM forum?

I enjoy reading. I regret not being an IoM team when I started but - frankly - would have been rather rubbish anyway. The race to enter races was a big challenge to me getting to grips with the game (plenty times everything was full or I didn't have the mind to plan far in advance).

[Sits]

caja-dglh so does this mean (a) you're just enjoying the thread or (b) you're planning a comeback?

[matt j]

Woot! Racing Kavanagh past the brink of exhaustion has paid of fantastically, a 2nd place today in the Div 4 Biscarrosse (losing only to the 3-time repeat champion). DP down under 60, but an easy 4 day rest before another likely race on day 55 (Dhakeswari tribute).

Then plenty of time to recover before the key Div 4 sequence, same as last season: Grote Prijs van de West-Vlaamse Betonkust (day 63) with the lead in 7 days of rest to.... Streets of Cairo (day 70), Baltimore Invitational (Classic) (Day 74), Taka-Shima (Day 76 - My first chance at three wins in a single race), and Orel-Kursk (Classic) (Day 78). I should have this set of races memorized by now.

WT race in a few hours.

[matt j]

Snowden in with a 4th place in the WT. IoM continues to creep up the WT table. Within a few results of making WT-A now. Only 40 points out of the top 20.

[matt j]

http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?pag...3%BCbeck%20(WT)

Should be next, I think? Sprint race week. Which by 'sprinter skills only' should be something like:
Miles Illingworth
Herman Kavanagh
Neal Crumley
Carroll Ridsdale
Vance Sollee
Jeffrey Perkis !!!

[matt j]

Also, randomly.... the current king of breakaways is IoM rider Connor Hamblen, who has two Division 1 races on BA this season. (He's an AV 40 rider.)