In this first devblog for Tour de France 2023, we'll take a look at rider ratings and two new mechanics introduced this year: Agility and Medium Mountain.
AGILITY NOTE
Agility is a new rating that replaces the Downhill rating. Based on a 5-tier scale (A+, A, B, C and D), it differentiates between riders while playing the game, influencing their ability to turn and react better to changes in the race. Controlling a rider like Tom Pidcock or Mathieu van der Poel, known for their expert handling of trajectories, becomes a completely new experience. Not only is it very different from previous years but also different to controlling less agile riders.
The previous Downhill rating influenced maximum downhill speed and had a very limited impact. Differentiating between riders only happened in high-speed sections. Agility, however, has an effect in all situations. The higher the rating (A+), the greater the rider's ability to turn quickly. This means the rider can take hairpin bends and tight corners at a higher speed than a rider with lower Agility (D). Therefore, every tight bend is a chance to put pressure on less agile riders and to weave in and out of the peloton to gain a better position for the final sprint, for example.
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Adding this new rating required adjustments to the behaviour of opponents so they can use this new ability better. A+ rated riders won't ride at their maximum rating throughout the race. After all, what's the point of a breakaway in a downhill when there are still 100km left until the finish line? The most agile riders will only use their maximum potential when it makes the most sense: during a downhill to the finish line, catching an opponent in the general classification, or during a mass sprint. However, a medium-rated rider (B, for example) can still try to put pressure on his breakaway teammates if he's the most agile among them.
The Agility rating can be reduced by falls. In this situation, regardless of the rider's Agility rating, it drops to the minimum tier for the rest of the stage. It then goes up a tier between each stage as the rider regains confidence in his abilities. To give an example, an A+ rider who has a fall will see his Agility drop to D. His rating will then increase to C in the next stage, then B, and so on until he returns to A+ (provided he doesn't fall again in the meantime).
MEDIUM MOUNTAIN NOTE
As for the Medium Mountain rating, it has been added to help calculate riders' energy consumption more accurately. The mathematical model is essentially based on the Flat, Hill, Mountain, Stamina and Resistance ratings, but these ratings didn't allow us to sufficiently rate all the riders' strengths. Between the Hill rating, which judges the ability to maintain effort for a short duration (around 2 min 30 sec) and the Mountain rating (for more sustained effort around 40 min long), we couldn't show that a rider performed well for more medium-length periods of effort (around 20 min) without setting one of the other two ratings too high.
Adding Medium Mountain solves this issue and highlights certain riders' strengths. For example, for riders comfortable on medium mountains with category 1 or 2 climbs, but start to struggle on longer climbs, we can now lower the Mountain rating while keeping a higher Medium Mountain rating to better target where these riders excel. In addition to this new rating, we've also reclassified certain stages into Medium Mountains to make it clearer which stages are key ones for climbers and the general classification, and which are more open for baroudeurs.
Tour de France 2023 will be available on 8 June 2023.
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