Online cycling and/or baseball manager type timewasters?

[Sits]

My 88-CL man Unwin Treadwell only managed 15th in the race supposedly tailor made for him, but Hagen Hunzberger got a 4th in his race an hour ago. He’s now back in training and I think/hope I have enough cash to max him on DH and HL. Depending how far he can get of course.

[matt j]

Kavanagh got a podium in his last club race (to go with the 20th on his national team debut). Tomorrow we've got a 5-man breakway tactic set of one race then the infamous
Turrialba - Irazu Volcano (U23) race, where my German climber Albrecht has a chance for top three easy. (Having snuck into the sign-up before his 23rd birthday.)

This is a week where I can delay and race break everyone (I think) as our DP is all pretty weak. I should have enough buffer room in Division 7 to linger for at least a couple more races (I hope).

[Sits]

My man Hunzberger is still going in the training camp. Now maxed out on CL (75) and DH (76) and I’m on tenterhooks wondering how far he might get on HL before he fizzles out completely. His potential is in the 60s and last time I looked he’d reached 57.

[Sits]

Oh and please don’t remind me how much this will have cost. He’s only 25, he’s got plenty of seasons to pay me back.

[longeared]

Picked up a decent rider off free agency yesterday - a 24 year old climber with 71-57-54 stats. He'd been released by a second division team so not really sure what had gone off there - at a best guess they'd trained him, he'd hit maximum potential and they decided to get rid. I've not scouted him so no idea if there is any more to come but even if there isn't then at this phase of the game that's a usefully strong rider for a while who can be a good domestique or chucked in breakaways.

[matt j]

That's a ridiculously good signing. How much did he cost?

Edit: ha, I go see if there is anyone else with a high AV on the hire list... Highest rider there is... One of my old ones at Fox River.

[matt j]

I've also got some free scouts today delicatemoth , so don't carry the burden for scouting all the Manx riders solo.

Kavanagh continues to rule in Division 7. A happy first place today in the Osijik - Vinkovci, despite yet again almost no help. Cuthbert at least finished top 20.

Eyeing the podium for Wednesday's Kalush Street Race. A 1st place would immediately push me back to division 6, anything else gives me another week down here.

[matt j]

And I've just scouted two young Isle of Man riders, both uninteresting (Snodgrass and Salvins).

[Levin]

I've been wasting my money and looking for decent IoM riders. I've not found much currently on the market.

Forbes Wager - Good TT
Alex Snodgrass - Average CB
Dillon Salvens - Average DH SP CB
Kent Guy - Average CL DH HL SP
Rodney Spears - Average FR TQ
Horatio Pasch - Average FR

Lowell Trask - Former Csiki
Marlon Larcome - Former Locknut
Murray Grabanski - Former Rules
Sterling Downey - Former Rules
Trent Krum - Former Dynamics Good CL
Kiefer Luedke - Former Dynamics Average CL DH SP TT
Buck Greenaway - Former Rules

There are four other neopros I've not scouted yet.

I've burnt through about $100,000 in a couple of days. Waiting for the drop to 8 to get some racing done.

[delicatemoth]

Thanks Matt and Levin, that's really helpful. I'd already scouted Wager (when I scout someone I post the details in the Free Hire #5 thread pn the forum). I won't have any scouting money for a while now. I'd love one of those scout sponsorships.

Team for the next Man race, Thursday's Sapporo-Mount Asahi (http://www.cyclingsimulator.com/?pag...hi+%28WT%29):-

Abner Carder (capt); Quinby Louramore; Merlin Tilson; Irving Iles; Kim Keithley; Kurt Farnum

[Sits]

Yeah thanks Levin.

Anyone mind if I pick up Kent Guy? I have worse riders.

[matt j]

I certainly don't mind. I think if we've posted it on the free hire list (and/or here) we assume somebody else can grab them.

[Sits]

Done! Thanks Levin and Matt. Guy can be a handy Domestique, and I’ll lose someone less useful.

[matt j]

So, a few random things I've picked up or gleaned from forum threads in the last few days I though might be worth sharing (or debating, tbh):

- I expect everyone has figured out the '4','9' pattern for training. I'd go even further and say the '4' pattern is more important. Leaving a rider on a '9' in a skill that has a chance to go up to due to race training can be a very expensive gamble. Happened to me twice with Kavanagh rolling from 9 to 0 on two separate occasions. This cost me a big chunk of money I could have used for training elsewhere. If you are on track to train up to a '9' in a stat, I'm very close to convinced that stopping at '8', letting them ride and then to a single '8-to-9' session before proceeding is worth it. The big money gain is the training camp session that starts at 9 and ends at 4.

- Training to a max stat is hella expensive. A rider on '30' for a stat being raised to just the 'good' range (70-79) will cost on average 72k. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to try and train riders before the sponsorship system, as the money from jobs would have just been a trickle.

- Training to the very good or incredible range is even more expensive than you think. A rider at 63 for a stat to get raised to incredible (90-99) can still cost on average ~118k.

- Total number of points a rider can be trained ranges from 60 to 180. Number of training camp sessions should have no impact on that.

- To see new riders that have been generated that haven't hit the hire list yet, search the main 'start-riders' page and near the back of the list are the recent generated riders with no teams. You can do this by specific country.

- Always search the forum for a rider you intend to hire, especially from the hire list. There is a good chance if the name pops up on a recent thread, somebody has already scouted them (and rejected them)

- Single stat race monsters are a thing, and win races at our level.

- the 3/3/3/3/3 etc races are a complete free for all (from the results I've looked at). They also don't seem that popular, so a good spot for some breakaways or your high average but no great single stat riders

- DP trading (hiring a racer with bad DP, get their DP up, release them) is still a thing, though seems incredibly boring.

- Rank/Division tanking is absolutely a thing. this also seems incredibly boring, but can generate a lot of cash. You need bus drivers to max out the races at the low divisions.

- 5/6 breakaway tactics are a massive boon to your overall team spirit. Particularly for your jobbers.

- Talent scouting is a massive money sink. It's really fun (thinking you'll find a diamond), but it seems getting lucky is very rare. If I didn't have an obvious talent in Kavanagh, I probably would have burnt out on the game very quickly.

- Check the forums for specific race 'type' threads. There is a flat race thread now that I'm finding really useful (and seems a good way to stay engaged with the game).

- Two pretty widely know bugs: starting training at '30' is the same cost as starting at '29'. Once you are able to hire a trainer, the trainer will only last for 10 seasons before no further benefits are given.


----

Kavanagh did win his last race, boosting us up to Div 6 (just barely). I can see us getting points this season in Div 6 however, so I'm feeling more engaged with the game.

[delicatemoth]

Abner Carder placed 2nd for the Isle of Man!

[matt j]

Nice! The Manx Express (no?) can't stay under the radar anymore.

[Sits]

matt j excellent tips, thanks.

delicatemoth - the Pep of international cycling management!

Incidentally if anyone is interested in the rider I released when I picked up Kent Guy, he is:

Viggo Bach (Denmark, 25):
CL Average
DH None
HL Good
SP Small
FR None
CB Small
TQ None
TT Good (full disclosure: I trained 20 points here)

[matt j]

Scouted Isle of Man rider Marc Nitowski today. Nothing special unless someone is desperate for a CB: GD.

[longeared]

Namgung won the u23 race in Mexico this afternoon. Absolutely delighted by that, literally everything I've done in this game during the last fortnight has been based around winning this race and I've spent far longer than is healthy this week researching previous races and dissecting the opposition. The stage couldn't turn out any better than this. Byung-kwang Namgung did a perfect job today.

[Sits]

Namgung won the u23 race in Mexico this afternoon. Absolutely delighted by that, literally everything I've done in this game during the last fortnight has been based around winning this race and I've spent far longer than is healthy this week researching previous races and dissecting the opposition. The stage couldn't turn out any better than this. Byung-kwang Namgung did a perfect job today.

Great work big ears.

[matt j]

Nice u23 win longeared .

Kavanagh missed his chance at back-to-back-to-back wins in flat races, having a crash and finishing only 16th. Cuthbert did his best as vice-captain to finish 8th.

(and still just dropped back to Div 7 with the swap from last season's points.)

[matt j]

20-year-old Boris Gamblin from IoM is about to appear on the hire list, and even though I had 1 free scout left, I couldn't seem to use it on him.

[Levin]

Back in div 7, 1st place in the Watersound Sprints. I'm pretty pleased with my train after that. But it does mean I have 8 other riders who do nothing.

Ah, and one of my riders got bumped up to 50 technique in the race. That's annoying.

[matt j]

Certainly is. money down the drain.

I've bounced from Div 6 to Div 7 a couple times this last week, without really changing total points. It's an active area for teams right now. Managed to get the back-end of my team into the Div 7 tour at least.

My goal right now is to take as many of my team as I can to about the level where old team leader Cuthbert started (GD SP, SM FR/TQ: AV 43). I have three that should make this without too much investment, and then I should have a pretty decent support squad for Kavanagh for the next few seasons. Cuthbert may be benefiting heavily from his high experience, but that template seems to be 'competitive' at Division 6 at least.

Albrecht (GD CL, AV DH/HL) is just not going to be good enough in Division 6, but I can maybe turn him into a tour rider and good one-day support rider.

Have at least 2 (maybe three) that I would still dump the instant I see a very good talent or hire list rider though.

[Sits]

Oh dear, I’ve made a mistake. Because of the way they are displayed in the calendar, and because I’ve never entered one before, I thought individual stages of a tour could be cherry-picked as one-off races. Too late, I discovered my error. So I’m now joining a gaggle of you on the Tour of the Sanreizan.

If that wasn’t enough, have a look at this next Wednesday. Five of the riders competing in Spain are also on the Tour. There could be deaths.