How to best schedule races for riders and how many?

[FriTesso]

Just bought the game last week and I started playing with a CNT team.
I have been watching some Youtube videos of the Decathlon gamer and found that interesting and helpful. Did some races and learned already a lot about tactics and what things I should not do.

However I still have some questions regarding the calendar and number of races.

* If you are signed up for a race, you then need to participate in that race (or can you just not send anyone)?
* How many races should a rider do per month, I suppose it will depend on some of the stats related to Stamina?
* How many days should there be between classic races? Can they for example do 1 race every week (or even more)?
* How do you plan races for your riders?
* How much of an impact do trainer levels have on the riders?

I am looking forward to go into the signing of new riders part, that to me looks the most interesting to strengthen the squad year by year.

I thought that I would find some Guides to the game on the Steam community, I will check for previous versions. However, are there any good forums about this game?

On a separate note, tomorrow I am fortunate to watch some of the best riders in the world when the Ronde van Vlaanderen is passing my house :)

[Chthonic Guardian]

There is a lot of good info @ pcmdaily site. Both guides and in the forums.
A lof of things are the same as in previous versions, with the planner and fitness changing in 2021 and 22.

Decathlon does a good job with setting up objectives and the planner, but some of the forum posts go into more detail about how to set up rest week 8 weeks out from objective etc.
I like his content, but he frustrates me some because he just does same tactic over and over, and doesn't show other stuff in race the new guys like you can and should do.

You can race a rider in clusters, then a break, then another cluster. Usually about 2-3 week clusters.
For top riders that you want to win no more than 3 objectives per season. They can race in more, but only peak them for big races.
I try for 70 or so races per season for riders, give or take 5.

I always get legendary trainers, and they can train up to 8 riders each until they start to lose effectiveness.

[Chthonic Guardian]

This is a post from Brian OConnell on the subject of setting up schedule and training.
Let me add in your first season focus on just your top guys. Your GC leaders, their lieutenants on climbs, sprinters, and top cobble/hill race guys. Learn the ropes and how things works. Then next season expand a little more. You don't want to just become frustrated and weighed down managing every rider on your squad, and quit the game.


"I've never tried the assistant because I've seen comments here and elsewhere that it's bad but someone else might have experience with it.

I always start with the Grand Tours and put my 3x8 into the planner for each. Next I go through all of the objectives up to the end of July. After July doesn't really matter. Then I go through all of the World Tour stage races, then the world tour one days races. Next it's the Pro/HC stage races then the Pro/HC one days. I skip anything that might clash with the EC and WC races and will assign them when riders have been picked for the EC then later the same thing when riders are picked for the WC. This is because the game has an annoying glitch whereby if you have them down for a race on the same day as the WC for example and then they get picked to ride the WC there is no way to remove them from the race you had them down for and they end up missing the WC.

At this point it's time to check how many race days each rider has. I'm looking to keep them at no more than mid 70s in race days so before going to .1 and .2 I'll be expecting them to be in the 60 day region. I'll then go through the .1/.2 races and use them to keep riders busy during grand tours they aren't involved in so they don't complain of no racing and where necessary to make sure of grand tour preparation (i.e. for fitness peak I want them to get 10-12 days or so racing in the 8 weeks leading up to the grand tour. Anymore than that and they might peak too early). In some cases they'll be getting enough days prep. anyway so you won't need them. Prep isn't as important for shorter races as even if they peak early they should be ok (unless you are planning for a 3 week period covering multiple one day races then you need to be as mindful as for grand tours). During all of this I might go into the calendar and add some races in periods I need (like keeping riders happy etc.) but anything you request won't appear on the planner until you progress a day to see if they have accepted you so you need to take that into account.

I do my best to make sure my main grand tour contenders are getting proper rests in between any races especially week long stage races so I'll be mindful of that while assigning them to races. The biggest problem I have is GC guys dropping in fitness very fast during a grand tour and I haven't quite figured out how to get it right yet but the most likely reason is tiredness because of not enough rest between races during the season. I'm only concerned with those 2 or 3 guys who I want to challenge for the win."

Then I take note of all the .1 and .2 races I've skipped and remove them from the calendar. The whole process takes a good hour or two but I enjoy it and treat it as part of the game. All of this is based on PCM 21 as I'm just starting 22 so I could be wrong about certain things but you can rely on Cyanide not having changed that much

[FriTesso]

Thanks Chthonic Guardian, very interesting. I will look at the pcmdaily site.
From your post I already learned that I have way to less races planned for my riders. That is good, more possibilities to earn money and get experience.

Now I am looking forward to getting into the time of year to look at riders for next year and start the signing process.

Also I am wondering, with that many races per year for all the riders; do you manage all the races yourself or also simulate results?
I suppose managing the races yourself result to better performances?

[Chthonic Guardian]

I pretty much do what decathlon does. I race my objective races, though I usually sim the flat stages because I don't have top tier sprint program, just young guys for smaller stage races and one day events.
(I race the classics, both cobbles and hills, and the monuments)

I also don't do TT's and just sim. Sometimes that will bite you, but I just don't feel they are worth the time.
I might do some mountain stages in one week tours, but sim the rest unless it is an objective race like Paris Nice.

I will post an objective schedule for one of my GC guys for Giro, because that one is the trickiest - if you think it will help. Shows when to schedule rest break etc.
This is my 4th season and this was the first time I got it right and all 8 guys were in peak form.

I just entered Aug 1 Transfer after wining TDF with McNulty. Can't keep him because of $$$, but love signing new guys and developing them. Signed 5 riders off of my own U23 team. All 5 star (potential) prospects.

Good luck and enjoy. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

Oh one tip: if you have cash in the bank try to keep your staff to one year extensions every year. Don't renew until after transfers are done, that way their salaries wont count of your transfer budget. Just don't forget to renew them afterward, so you don't have to pay the big cost to sign them.

[Chthonic Guardian]

Here is an objective program that worked perfectly to peak in late first week of Giro and run to end of race.
For Giro I tried having an objective earlier, for Paris Nice or Tirreno, but it nave worked properly and Giro would trigger late.

SO now for my important riders in Giro it is the FIRST objective of season for them, though they do race in earlier races, just not at peak fitness.

Which races you schedule before is up to you, but if you use this schedule you need around 8-10 days of racing before you begin racing Giro, and then the first week of Giro will get you the last points you need to trigger your peak.

You have to manually put the rest week (red line) (very IMPORTANT as it resets your fatigue, so don’t schedule any races for rider during that rest week!), and then manually set the first week of Giro for standard training (Not 100% green).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2958646481

Here is for TDF. Same principals apply. Do what you want through end of April, but then follow general concept after you set that rest week around 7-8 weeks before TDF. After that the fitness peak meter starts and the number of race he races will either trigger peak earlier or later depending on more or less days racing.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2958647286

I am still leanring the new system myself, as it is different from the older versons I played a lot. so I tried to get McNulty to peak for spring classics, but it didn't work right and he couldn't race them.
But as long as you redline reset fatigue properly in early May TDF peak will trigger fine.