Step 1: Say hallo to your cyclists!First, you should take a look at your cyclists. You can find them by selecting
Cyclists in the side menu. When you base a new team, initially there are 12 cyclists in your squad. Soon it will be much more, but more on that later.
Primary skillsIn addition to some general information such as age, fitness and wage you will find the most important skills of a cyclist here, his six primary skills. Those are very important, because they determine the performance of a cyclist most. When you look at these skills you can see, if your cyclist is a sprinter for flat stages, a mountain specialist, an allrounder for the grand tours,… All skills are between 0 and 20. Here you find an overview:
-
Flat: The better the flat skill, the faster the cyclist is on flat terrain
-
Hill: The better the hill skill, the faster the cyclist is on a hilly section
-
Mountain: The better the mountain skill, the faster the cyclist is in the mountains
-
Downhill: The better the downhill skill, the faster the cyclist is in downhills. In addition, a good downhill skill decreases the risk of a fall during a downhill
-
Sprint: The better the sprint skill, the better the cyclist can sprint. This is important for final sprints, intermediate sprints and breakaways (for the attack)
-
Time Trial: The better the time trial skill, the better the cyclist is in time trial. This is important for individual and team time trials and breakaways (during the breakaway)
When you click on the name of a cyclist, you get even more detailed informations about him.
General informations-
Country: The cyclist always has the nationality of the country of his first team
-
Age: The age of the cyclist affects the training speed. The younger the cyclist, the faster he will improve his skills.
-
Health: Normally, your cyclist is healthy and can participate in races. However, it may happen that he get injured during a race or during the training. As long as he is injured, he can of course take part neither race nor the training.
-
Fitness: If a cyclist participates in a race, his fitness decreases. Tired cyclist won't achieve much, while a cyclist with a fitness of 100% will use his full potential. The fitness increases by 20% after each weekly update (on Sunday around 8 p.m.).
-
Height: The height affects the performance of your cyclist on flat terrain. The taller the cyclist, the better he's in flat sections.
-
Weight: The weight affects the performance of your cyclist in mountain parts. The lighter the cyclist, the better he's in the mountains.
Secondary skillsSteering and balance skills affect the risk of a negative incident during the race. Experience and leadership skills affect the performance of the cyclist. The secondary skills of a cyclist are between 0 and 20.
-
Steering: This skill affects the probability of a flat tyre during a race. The worse the steering of a cyclist, the more often he will have a flat tyre.
-
Balance: This skill affects the probability of a fall during a race. The worse the balance skill of a cyclist, the more often he will fall.
-
Experience: The more experience a cyclist has, the better his performance will be.
-
Leadership: The leadership skill of your team leader affects the performance of each of your participating cyclists and the tactical possibilities of your cyclists in the race.
Invisible skillsEvery cyclist in Peloton has some invisible skills:
-
Future Ability: Each primary skill has a hidden Future Ability, that determines how fast your cyclist will train in that skill. The Future Ability is only relevant if the trained skill is above 7 (you can find more informations about the Future Ability in the Wiki).
-
Injury proneness: That skill affects the chance that a cyclist will get injured during training or during a race, caused by a fall.
Step 2: My first race!It's Showtime! Since you know pretty much about the skills of your cyclists, you can participate in your first race now. The page
Calendar is the central starting point for everything about the race. There you will find all races, set the tactics and see the results of the races.
You can participate in a race by selecting
Change in the column
Tactics. Here you can choose the five participating cyclists and a tactic for each of them. You even can buy a special material for that race, but that's not needed in your first season.
Cyclist SelectionThe first race you should use for trial and error. Just pick five cyclists, whose skills look suitable for the terrain of the race (you get detailed information by clicking on the name of the race), and test the different orders such as helper, attacker and final sprinter. Let's see, perhaps you even will achieve a good result! And it's just a matter of time until you have a better understanding about the different tactics and best possible cyclist selection for a certain race or tour.
Important: Don't forget to confirm your tactic with the button
Submit!
Tactical OrdersHere you find just a few informations about the different orders. Your tactical possibilies are limited by the available Tactics Points (5 + leadership skill of your team leader).
Helper: A cyclist with that order will support his teammates as good as possible, for example if they fall or have a flat tyre. A helper with a good terrain skill can also help a teammate with a bad terrain skill, so that he won't loose contact to that group and won't loose time. But he can only help his teammates, if he's in the same group, of course.
Required Tactics Points: 1
Attacker: At some points of the race your cyclists can start a breakaway. Each of these attacking points is associated with a certain terrain. For a successful attack, the sprint skill and terrain (terrain of attacking point) skill are important. For a successful escape to the finish line, the time trial skill and the terrain (terrain after the attacking point) skills are important.
Required Tactics Points: 2 (per attack)
Final Sprinter: If you expect that there won't be a successful breakaway, you can select your best sprinter as final sprinter. Then he will get a bonus on his sprint skill during the final sprint. He should have a good skill in the terrain where the race ends and he should be still in the peloton at the end, of course.
Required Tactics Points: 2
Save Fitness: If a cyclist saves fitness, he will take no initiative during the race and will ride with 60 % effort. The positive effect is that he will loose only 1% of his fitness. This tactic could be useful in a tour. That way a cyclist can save his fitness for one of the following stages.
Required Tactics Points: 4
Effort and FitnessThe higher the effort of your cyclists, the better the will perform. But you have to take care of the fitness of your cyclists, because a cyclist rides just with (effort x fitness) % of his skills. There are a lot of races and you have only 12 cyclists at the beginning.
A rider with 70% effort looses 5% of his fitness, a rider with 100% effort looses 35% of his fitness. During the weekly update the fitness of all cyclist increases by 20%.
In single races, it's reasonable that helper ride with a low effort, while cyclists, that are supposed to win (attacker, final sprinter), ride with higher effort.
In tours your cyclists should ride with low effort, except the cyclists that have a certain goal in that stage (stage win, points for mountain or sprint jersey,...).
General InformationsYou can change the tactics until 15 minutes before the race, so until 12:45 p.m. If you want to take part in a tour, you just have to choose the participating cyclists in the tactics for the first stage of the tour. They will be automatically selected for the other stages.
The calculation of each race will take place around 1:00 p.m. As soon as the races were simulated, you can click on the results. You can check the results immediately or watch the detailed simulation of the race.
After each stage of a tour you also have access to the current standing of the tour. By clicking
Standings you can check who is leading the tour in the different competitions.
Hint: You also can test the tactical orders and the race engine in fun races. These take place on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Step 3: Buy a coach and train your cyclists!Now you have to take the first important and long-term decision: What I want to train?
You can hire a trainer by selecting the option
Hire new trainer on the page
Training. Here you can choose what skills your trainer will have. If you hire a new trainer, the skills are in a range between 0 and 15 (later you can train a skill up to 20).
Skill distributionIt's recommended to choose a trainer with only one good primary skill (10-15), because your cyclists will improve pretty fast then. If you select a trainer with several primary skills at a very low level (1-5), you can train more skills and have to pay a lower salary, but your cyclists will improve very, very slowly.
As soon as you hired your coach, you can start to improve his skill (up to 15 is enough for the beginning). You can do that with the option
Learning skill. You have to pay $10,000 per week and a higher wage for your trainer.
Once you have enough money and gained some experience, your trainer can learn a new skill (or improve his present skill even more).
Skill selectionBut what skill should I choose for my trainer? Well, downhill and especially fitness are not recommended for a beginner, but all other skills are useful and have some advantages.
With a terrain skill (flat, hill, mountain) you can increase your chances in races with that certain terrain.
The skill sprint is important for all sprint decisions (final sprints, points for points and mountain jersey) and necessary for starting a breakaway.
The skill time trial is important for ITTs, TTTs, the time jersey in grand tours and necessary during a breakaway.
But don't forget, good sprint/TT skills are useless without a decent terrain skill, or course.
So, when you choose the skill of your new trainer, it's relevant, in what types of races you want to be successful. Don't worry, no matter what skill you choose, with a smart transfer management you will have cyclists for various types of races in your squad. As already mentioned, later, your trainer can learn a second skill, anyway.
Training SelectionSince you have a new trainer now, you should also send your cyclists to the training regularly. This takes place every Sunday around 20:00 clock (well, perfect time for training…).
By clicking
Training on the side menu you can find an overview of your cyclists. Just select the skill that your cyclist should improve. It makes sense to select only skills in which your trainer has a good skill, too. If he has no clue how to ride in the mountains, your cyclist won't improve their mountain skill, of course. Since your new trainer has only one or two good skills at the beginning, the choice isn't that difficult.
Important: Don't forget to save your selection with the button
Confirm training selection at the bottom of the site!
The training efficiency is irrelevant for you, because you have just 12 cyclists at the moment. Your trainer can train up to 25 riders with full effectiveness. As soon as you send more riders for training, the effectiveness decreases.
Step 4: How to Earn Money?Your team will only improve long-term, if you take care of the finances of your team. The most important sources of income for beginners are prize money in races, the sale of merchandise and money from your sponsor.
SponsorYou can choose a new sponsor by selecting the option
Sponsor on the
Finance page. Now you have to choose one of the three available sponsors. These differ in sign money, weekly money, and in the duration of the term. Later, the amounts will vary depending on the level of the division and the achieved placement of the last season.
Since you will often win in the beginning of the game and promote quickly, a short-term sponsorship agreement is recommended! Then you can choose a better-paid contract in the next season.
MerchandiseFor new teams, the revenue from the sale of merchandise is very important. Therefore, you should always ensure that you have enough merchandise in your shop during the weekly update. You can buy merchandise by selecting
Supporters on the side menu. The more supporters you have, the more merchandise can be sold. There are four different types of merchandise in Peloton:
- Biddons (buying price: $5)
- extremely stylish baseball caps (buying price: $10)
- Sportsbag (buying price: $20)
- T-shirts (buying price: $15)
You can buy a certain number of each article and determine the selling price. The items will be sold during the weekly updates, and you get the difference between the selling and buying price .
Hint: If you set the following selling prices, the half of your supporters will buy one of each article:
- Biddons: $15
- extremely stylish baseball caps: $20
- Sportsbag: $40
- T-shirts: $30
SupportersAfter each race the number of supporters increases (or decreases). How many supporters you win after a race or a tour depends mainly on the success of your cyclists in that race/tour. If you win a race or a jersey, you can expect many new supporters. After the weekly update the number of supporters is reduced to a base amount.
Especially after a successful race week you will have a large number of fans, so you shouldn't forget to buy enough merchandise. Otherwise you will miss some easy money.
Step 5: Find out something about youthscouts!First,
don't buy a youthscout at the beginning of your career. The costs of youthscouts are very high, especially the costs for signing, and also rather poor youthscouts are pretty expensive. In the first seasons you will benefit much more, if you use your budget for a good trainer and some new cyclists.
After some seasons and as soon as you have much money left, you could think about buying a youthscout.
Of course, a youthscout has some positive effects. You can build your own cyclists in the long term (and won't have to buy expensive cyclists on the transfer market), sell talents (although only very good talents can be sold for a high price at the moment) and have better possibilities in youngster competions and U21 races.
Some brief informations about the skills of a youth scouts:
-
Current ability: The better this skill, the better the primary skills of new talents
can be.
-
Steering/Balance: The better this skill, the better the steering and balance skills of new talents
can be.
-
Perception: The better this skill, the higher is the probability to find a new young talent.
Step 6: What teams are my competitors?Perhaps you already participated in your first race, so you should take a look at your division. Here you can find all the teams you compete against this season. You can easily see in the division standing how good (or bad) your team is compared to the other teams.
A new team always starts in a 7th division. In each division are usually 12 teams. In lower divisions are often just a few human opponents. The rest of the teams are bots, so you should have a good chance to promote quickly and to come in a more difficult division.
If you finish the season as best or second best team, you will be promoted to a higher league. On the other hand, the four weakest teams will be relegated to a lower division. In the lowest league that's not possible, of course.
Step 7: Buy another dozen of riders!If you already had a look at the calendar, you surely have noticed, that there are a lot of races per season. If you are using only your 12 original cyclists, they get tired soon and won't show a good performance anymore. Therefore, it makes sense to search for new cyclists. Then you always have fit cyclists and a larger selection of appropriate cyclists for each race. In addition, your coach has a greater benefit, because - as you already know - he can train up to 25 riders with full effectiveness.
Available cyclists can be found on the transferlist. You just have to select the option
Search cyclists on the page
Transfers. Here you will find some filters to specify your search for potential candidates.
Costs per cyclistsSince you have a very limited budget and already had to pay much for your new coach, you should pay a maximum of $10,000-20,0000 per new rider. In lower divisions you don't need a expensive top talent. So, at the beginning of your career, quantity is more important than quality.
Primary skillsIf you search for new cyclists, you should consider the skill of your coach. Along with the skill that you train, you can develop different types of cyclists. Often you can find cyclists with one or two skills at a good level for little money.
For example, if you train mountain, you can develop mountain sprinter (the new cyclist already must have…a good sprint skill), attacker in mountain races (decent sprint/TT skill), attacker in hill/mountain races (good hill, decent sprint/TT skill), attacker in flat/mountain races (good flat, decent sprint/TT skill), specialist for the grand tours (good flat/TT skill),…
The level of the non-trainable skills is sufficient when you're buying the cylist. And after some training the mountain skill, your cyclists will be successful in certain stages. Of course, it's helpful, if the trained skill is already on a good level, too.
Example for a good attacker in a hill/mountain race after some month of training mountain:
Secondary skillsAt the beginning of your career you should especially look for cyclists with good primary skill. Of course, good secondary skills are very helpful, but these are quite expensive and don't affect the performance of the cyclyist as much as the primary skills. Nevertheless, the higher the secondary skills, the better. Especially for time jersey specialists in tours and attacker a decent balance skill (> ~ 7) is recommended, because a fall could cause a massive loss of time.
AgeThe age isn't so important at the beginning, too. Basically, young cyclists are preferred, because they improve faster and you can train them long-term. But an old cyclists with already well-trained skills can help your team immediately and win important prize money. Nevertheless, you should also have a few riders up to 20 years in your squad to participate in U21 race and youngster competitions.
Melres United
