I hope nobody minds but I will do the Suhar race in a shorter report. I'll have to see how long/short, though

Hard not to be pleased with Vague's debut pro season.

I think so, too came back strong after his injury, too!

Sorry about the short report of the Suhar Sand Castle Race. But my motivation wasn't super high with no game thread posts after the preview and it being the final race before the WC.

I'll try to make up for it with a WC preview later this week

I totally missed that the preview was posted! Time to work on a Power response

Yeah, sorry for the lack of activity from my side at least, that's due to organising my Man-Game's team season, will do a major catch-up once the WC time comes

Good to see Matt stepping again into the Top 10 after some disappointing results, and that's not even a completely uphill cross. Nice to notice that me and him have basically ridden at the same time, me struggling to do 20 km in the flat and him getting dirty with mud against a fierce competition
Nonetheless, I sadly noticed that Gormley catched Matt in the World Cup rankings while I was already looking forward to seeing him finish 4th
There still is a good chance to get the 4th in the UCI Ranking though at least.

Haha, it's a shared 4th spot, and there are still 2 races left in the World Cup
He still has a shot at it!

Working on some statistics for the WC preview. But it won't be for today

Keep up the great work Ian we keep reading even if time is a bit tight at the moment for myself.

Cookie monster taking the win and slowly closing Dries in the UCI standings and getting clear air in second. Well worth giving Oman his all!

Monster performance from the cookie, so close but so far for Mikey. Good to see Ronnie putting points into Eldfjasson too.

Yeah, sorry from me as well, Ian, I've just gotten through a really busy patch of homework and the Man-Game (isn't it weird how 4 of the 5 most active people in this game all join the MG at the same time). But I've just got a few more days until holidays, so I should be good then.

Time for the World Championships!

Find the start list here!

Read the official preview here! Send in your tactics!

You can expect a more detailed preview from The Scope on Thursday/Friday. The race shall be reported either Saturday evening or Sunday morning/evening.

So excited now, Swiss tactics and a post from Sylvain either tonight (morning for Europeans) or tomorrow (evening for Europeans)

Loving the preview, had an interesting read on the route description especially
You can expect a post from Matt coming before the race, can't tell the exact day, BTW.

Curious about those posts. I guess some riders will want to push others into the top favorite position, as these things usually go

Also, don't forget to send in tactics if you want to. Some important points can be about the head wind (also changed beaufort in the preview to 2-3), the jumping bars and other general tactics.

Nicely done mate, almost as excited now as I was irl! Expect a post beforehand

Anyone who wants to enter a (new) rider in the U23 World Championship race, send me a message with his name, nationality and what type of rider he is (stats or specialisation...)

He'll then ride in the WC U23 and, obviously, be available to pick him up for the next season.

Okay I went all out on this extensive The Scope Preview of the World Championships. Well, I could've written even more but I thought this was enough

Hope you enjoy it. And maybe see some reaction to it

Wow quality preview coverage of the World Championships. Top!

Amazing preview, but if there is too much climbing for Sylvain, when does the course suit him?

Well that's just The Scope's journalist's opinion. In fact, Lipawsky is definitely a good climber, just below the top, I think.
It's a great course for Lipawsky.

The Scope journalist doesn't have the stats, so he based himself on the results. And Lipawsky has had a few lesser races in the hills. Still, no need to worry

Jeez Ian, that's one of the longest post I've ever seen
It was an amazing read, I think that there are very few people that can invent so well an entire world around a fantasy game, or at least I couldn't be able to do it so well, for sure

Well I'm truly looking forward to the reports, after that Scope's preview I'm sure that Matt will have some things to clear up