Online cycling and/or baseball manager type timewasters?

[matt j]

Another 190+ Climber appeared briefly on the free hire list, but was spotted and snapped up. Definitely still worth watching even with the big hire list hunters being active.

Sunday reminder delicatemoth for WT sign-up.

Fox River is approaching the big Div 4 stretch now, with a Belgium flat road race today and then into the big rush of races starting next week. Trying to get a decent couple results out of the Sicilian 4 Div tour too. Based on current sign-ups, Crumley might be able to get strong enoughto threaten top 10 in at least one stage. Hopefully he gets a good legs day in one of the races to stay in the GC.

[delicatemoth]

Cheers Matt, team selected. Vencill (captain); SNowden, Farnum, Paulus, Latham, Lowder.

That's a new record of three picks from my own team, they are all team-mates.

[matt j]

It looks like it's gonna be a rough one. Snowden roughly top 20, Vencil not far behind.

[Sits]

It struck me yesterday that I'm existing in a Championship to the Premier League the other three of you inhabit. But I don't mind; I do have a plan albeit one which is clearly going to be slow. But there's a trickle of prizemoney down here to fund things so I'm happy to plod along.

[caja-dglh]

It struck me yesterday that I'm existing in a Championship to the Premier League the other three of you inhabit. But I don't mind; I do have a plan albeit one which is clearly going to be slow. But there's a trickle of prizemoney down here to fund things so I'm happy to plod along.

Maybe I will come back and my Northern Counties will make you feel better.

[Sits]

Maybe I will come back and my Northern Counties will make you feel better.

Go on, you know you want to.

[delicatemoth]

My talent this month is a potential 200+ climber. I didn't know they could come through as old as 24.

[Sits]

That age is annoying isn’t it?

[delicatemoth]

Ha, that wasn't a complaint! Happy to get a rider potentially as good as Carder for 40 grand.

[Levin]

I'm really not sure what my next step is. I'm building up a handy cash reserve but I don't have a rider to spend it on. I've been dissuaded from spending money on scouting and my recent youths have been poor.

It looks like I can skate on in 4/5 with Perkis doing his time trial thing but it's not much fun.

[Sits]

You may have to be lured to the Free Hire thread.

[matt j]

(Corrected my WT predictions up there)

So to me it looks like you've got two or three (or four?) possible routes:

Route 1: watch the transfers forum here in the last 30 days of the season and pick up some seasoned (30-year-old-plus) leadouts, sprinters, and/or potential trainers to support Vencil and build a Sprint/Hill Sprinting team. There should be a lot of riders becoming available and you could also easily pick up a decent Division 4 sprint captain based on what I'm seeing for around 200-250k. Leadouts could be 100k or less. To some degree this would mean cutting a fair bit of the current squad to build up further cash too. Perkis can keep just doing his thing in ITTs with jobbers and riders you don't intend to train.

(Look at what TeamTVM did with his team (he roughly started at the same time as us) and he's up in Division 1 now. His squad isn't 'that' strong, but he's beefed up where he needed to with veterans and supports a decent but only AV 45 Sprinter for a lot of points.)

Route 2: watch the free hire list and transfer forum for the 190+ and 200+ guys. They pop up frequently enough that you could snag 3 or 4 either straight from the list or with a pretty low bid. It does mean still training (which, as mentioned ad nauseum on the forums is the least efficient way to build a squad - but easily 2x more fun).... If you get lucky and spot a 210+ guy, you could go all in and make him a new captain with support from route 1 hires.

Route 3-ish: Breakaways and let Perkis (and Stenson) do his ITT thing for another season. I can see that a TT team seems pretty dull compared to the other options, but it should net you another 300k-400k easy with sponsors, putting you in good position to really go all out for #1 or #2 above. This would not be unusual, see a bunch of big teams revamping their entire approach every couple seasons.

Route 4?: Offer up Perkis on the forum and use the funds from that to rebuild the team anyway you want. Also not that unusual, quite a few teams doing that lately. I still think you'd get 1Million. I mean it it 'feels' like even though Perkis is a great rider, he's not really what you want from the game, so maybe it's time to claim victory for developing him and reap a monetary reward to use in other ways.

[matt j]

Also FYI: I am putting Tolers (tter) up for sale and if no purchasers, will release to hire list at end of season. He just doesn't fit anymore as I already have better LO options on the new signings.

[matt j]

Vencil gets some points! WT-A definitely within reach.

[Sits]

Hunzberger is injured but committed to the Kirchbach race in a few days. So a reshuffle of duties and a roll of the dice:

Albrecht - Captain (just for Matt!)
Treadwell - Super Domestique
Bang/Gaby/Obregon - Pace Setters
Hunzberger - Water Carrier (I hope this works with an injured rider)

[Levin]

Cheers Matt. That's really helpful. I think I'll keep an eye on the transfer forum for a bit. Essentially putting off any decision. I feel a bit guilty about keeping Perkis in Div 4 when he could be out winning the big prizes.

[matt j]

Hunzberger - Water Carrier (I hope this works with an injured rider)

I've never tried. It's a damn good idea though.

[Sits]

I’ve just submitted a race description. A lot of them don’t have a write-up, and I saw “Newquay - Newquay” and though well I’ve been there a few times, so whiled away a pleasant twenty minutes reminiscing about country lanes, Bodmin Moor and farm animals.

[matt j]

Nice! I like it.

I've considered writing one up for "Taka-Shima Street race" which Kavanagh has won twice. Even gone so far as to inspect the area in imagery, but didn't have the guts to start writing yet.

Did get my rider bio for Lou Israel (essentially the same as my press release) approved in the last week though.

Have recently had a lively message back and forth with a 4th division flat race rival who has almost convinced me to let Crumley be a captain more often, and if not, to sell Crumley to him. We'll see how a few more races or early season goes.

Next WT is that downhill race, which would be fantastic to steal any points from. Dean Prochnow I think is the best there, but really Carder is nearly just as good an option if I recall.

[matt j]

(and I've just gone ahead and done that one for Taka-Shima anyway, we'll see if it gets the votes.)

[Sits]

Hunzberger is injured but committed to the Kirchbach race in a few days. So a reshuffle of duties and a roll of the dice:

Albrecht - Captain (just for Matt!)
Treadwell - Super Domestique
Bang/Gaby/Obregon - Pace Setters
Hunzberger - Water Carrier (I hope this works with an injured rider)

Albrecht 12th, Treadwell had a mechanical issue. But on a more positive note:

I've never tried. It's a damn good idea though.

I can confirm that injured riders can be water carriers.

[Sits]

And my race description is up. Turns out I should have checked with Don first. Here’s the race: http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?pag...quay+-+Newquay.

And here is the relevant thread, see bottom of page: http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?pag...=8&post=354616.

[matt j]

Excellent! Two good bits of information discovered. The water carrier thing (which hopefully works for the engine) is a great boost for when that happens, and knowing the correct protocol for the descriptions is really useful. (My bit of information is that there isn't really a way to fix typos after you submit it for voting... so either be a perfect proofreader or just learn to live with your mistakes.)

Writing up Taka-Shima was exactly my sort of thing. Could get addicted to doing that.

[Sits]

Link?

[matt j]

Still being voted on: http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?page=OCMHD

Eventually would be here: http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?pag...0Street%20Race

I took a small bit of liberty as I couldn't find a 'Taka' to 'Shima' route... and Takashima along Lake Miwa looks like a really nice ride and a tourist destination anyway.