So the question is, are some team specialities impossible to retain in Div 1, and does this mean the best cyclists in these fields will forever be in the 2nd division?
My previous post was a joke of course.
But this is for sure an interesting subject / discussion.
So, I will try to give real contribution although my opinion is just speculation and I'm not sure how this game/div.1A will develop.
For now my opinion is that it is possible to be in 1A with a specialized team.
However, as horace already pointed out ; it is highly dependent on a suited season calendar.
But I think it is enough to stay in 1A in
every season when that specialized team has just a few other point-scoring top-cyclists.
A top GC rider (+helper) can be enough.
Or 2 other top specialists (+2 helpers) can be enough, for example a hills-specialist and a climb-hills specialist. Or other combi's.
There are a lot of points in the GC and in the classic races.
This takes some space in the specialized teams, and in this phase of the game they often chose for an almost full team of specialists.
But that is a (tactical) choice. It can be a choice also to have a less big team of specialists.
And if there is enough space in the team (besides the additional 2 or so topcyclists in another point-scoring specialty) ; also the trick of buying, immediately sending on TC, riding with TC and score points, and selling a.s.a.p. afterwards, so there will be space again to do this trick all over again with another cyclist.
In this way it is possible to stay in 1A with a specialized team.
Also you can anticipate on the new calendar of next season, that is already known before the Giro ends.
Enough time to make 1 really good and suited buy for that new season calendar.
By the way, teams who are specialized in TT ; they have the advantage that there always is a WC TT and that can mean a lot of points.
Although the TT in season 2 was not suited for flat-TT-specialists, but this is an exception and I assume that will not happen often.
To me it seems it is a tactical choice of the manager of a specialized team :
the choice of enough space in your team to stay in 1A, versus the choice to have a full team (and make a lot of money in that way).
And this final part (in parentheses) is important in my opinion, because the smart managers of specialized teams will make the decision to sell some riders when everyone is fully trained, in order to create space in their team to stay on the highest level. They will keep their best specialized riders of course, to go for glory in 1A.
And in my opinion there are also a lot of really smart managers ; they are already adjusting their specialized team before the age of 24 with other riders that benefit of the teamtraining, to get a real good allround team so that they can compete in the top of division 1A, but also go for glory in their original speciality.
It is also possible to do this when the specialized team is fully trained, maybe more expensive. But with selling a few good fully trained specialized riders (and of course you keep the best ones yourself), that gives a good amount of money that you can invest in 2 top cyclists of another specialty.
I'm planning to start a 19yo youth team in a speciality in one of the next seasons.
This is my intention, and I don't know if that plan will be realized so soon, but in CFF3 it is fun to start a 19yo youth team.
In contrast to CFF2, training took forever and the cyclists were just a few seasons on their peak. Also in this way CFF3 is a big improvement.
And when/if I start a 19yo specialized youth team, I have no worries at all that it is possible to stay in 1A for many seasons when they are fully trained. Before the age of 24, it is in my opinion impossible to stay in 1A with a youth team, but that will not be my goal, training them perfectly and prepare my team for 1A will be my main goal in the first 5 seasons.
Hopefully I'm not too positive
that I have no worries at all to compete in 1A with a
semi-specialized team.
And semi-specialized, because I don't see the "need" to compete with a team full of the same specialty. To me it is a weird choice to keep the too many cyclists of the same speciality. And besides that, in the future not a smart tactical choice. Although it is logical that this happens in this phase of the game when CFF3 is just started and nobody has a fully trained team.
I'm curious about other opinions / points of view, on this subject of the quoted question.
