Really excited about this starting, I'm going to make a banner now.

Just wondering what you mean by mistakes with teams, is it something like, Munoz said he wanted to ride in a team from Northern Africa but got South Africa, because stuff like that just makes good press realeases.

Okay back home. Consider the sign-ups closed now!

Tomorrow I will add 3 final riders, TMM's American, Kimi Haikkinen (for Jesleyh's rivalry) and another rider for Bikex.

Tomorrow I shall open the game-thread, where I will also reveal the Continental and World Championships routes. After that, the role-playing and the game can really start. I hope we can make it a great first season!

@Smowz - Yes, his combination of riding uphill, sand abilities and power makes him a possible contender for both the Superprestige and the Coca-Cola Trophy. However, a strong winter might screw up some plans, if there is much ice.

So just to confirm, Carlisle is NOT at BP?

He is in French team, Vittel with two others.

Finished my banner, nothing spectacular, but it'll do.

EDIT: Also added Canada, Argentina, Algeria and Slovenia to my races, finally reasonably going outside Europe (Melbourne is the only other one) So I now have done 5 continents, but only 1 race from 4 of them.

Hey Ian,

Great game thread there - hope we see some nice rider contributions in there!

Wanted to ask about this rule:



Is there a list of tactics that we can use? Or do you just want a sentence that you can translate into a 'programmable' tactic. Such as I really want ****** to follow ******'s every move this weekend or I want ***** to stay on the bike as much as possible or I want **** to take the safest routes on the technical sections etc.

Also do you want tactics for the first race now?

I should've suggested Scandinavian races

Looks very nice Ian, as always
I enjoyed reading it all. Is there no indication if a race is ice/snow or not? Or will we only see that when the race starts?

@Smowz - Well, generally there is happening way too much in CX to have only 1 tactic. So you can PM me with a general way of racing you want to use for the race. Your suggested messages are all good. There is no list of tactics because there are millions of possibilities. Upon request I can make a list, though. But I want you to be creative For the first race, you can send in tactics, but I'll make a preview tomorrow (or tonight) with some more details about the race and the favorites!

@Jesleyh - Thanks! I will implement a system where you'll have a good view about the weather conditions. For example: If I say there is 95% chance of ice in Belgium next week, you can be damn sure there will be ice in the Finish race only 1 week after that. I will mostly work with previews, too, where I explain the weather conditions

In the first race preview, tonight or tomorrow, you'll get an indication of the weather.

Very nice preview, Ian!

Now, who dares to go next after Shonak's great post?

Glad you liked the preview, it was fun analysing the teams like that. I really wanted to analyse every single race, too, but I had to get going. So I'll just do them as they come up, one by one. I did include the information of every race underneath the general preview so people can see what their riders want to target.

Also, Shonak's post really blew me away I think we've had a great start in this role-playing game. Bring on the other players

Thanks guys. Loved the Preview by Ian and great post by smowz... I mean, Cookie Monster (great nick for a cyclist haha!)

Yes, I agree. However, I think he misinterpreted the calendar. Opening is in Belgium, not in New Zealand. I wonder what'll happen when he founds himself in New Zealand and finds out that the race is in Belgium

(it reads top - down, then left - right)

Oops oh yeah

Oh well very nice to start in Belgium - though I think the opening three races will be too technical for the likes of Elliot a novice X guy after all. So in spirit his season starts down under - where he has far better chances if him and Lars can keep out of the bars!

First race preview has been posted! Do you like that format?

The race report will be up there tomorrow afternoon. Send in tactics if you want. Also PM if you don't wish to race, though I can't see why not since it's the opening race

Currently undecided how I will handle the fact that I have two completely different sets of riders. May only use on post in the future, especially if there's so little to it. I also apologize for not using a banner yet, I hope I'll come around to do that soon.

It's not obligatory to have a banner, but I prefer it, to keep the overview

UPDATE: Duinencross, opening race, preview now available in Game Thread.
Minor update: Added rule: every player gets one additional post on a day when a race preview or report is posted. Note that each player gets this, not each rider.

This rule is brought in to protect you against premature posting for example today, some have already posted their introduction but since then I posted the race preview. They have a chance to react to that now, too.

So to sum up to post rules:
1 post per day + 1 post per update from me (except when asked permission, then it's 2 + 1 post/hostupdate)

So even if we have 5 riders we can only make 1 post?

If you have 5 riders, you have 1 post per day, except with an exception, for which you have to ask permission.
Except when I post an update, such as the race preview, then you get an additional post. So for today, everyone has 2 posts, except Shonak and trekbmc (who have asked permission to a 2 post limit), who have 3.

This rule is to stop spamming of any sort. If your contribution is good, I won't have any problem with allowing 2 posts. Maybe on the longer term, the great contributors can have even 3 posts, but with the pace not being very high, that won't be necessary most of the time.

EDIT: changed something, check below.


UPDATE: 3rd post updated with a few lists to get to know your strongest opponents.
UPDATE: Rider presentations don't count as the 1 post per day rule. So today/tomorrow you can present all your riders if you want, without the post limit rule.

Mainly because I invented the rule to stop spamming. But presenting your rider won't get out of hand easily, so it's okay