Ok, so i am checking the threads after few days off the site.

Wow, new initiative from Ian, looks good.

Wow, cyclocross, my love. Role playing, my second love

Wow, signups look closed

Slight relief, as 14 pages in few days show how fast and furius this will be.
I was even not able to read the whole thread yet and game is starting three days after announcement.

That's just because of the massive enthusiasm by everyone
It won't be super fast, but I didn't want to linger too long and start as quickly as possible and avoid getting the game stuck before it even starts!

If you want, you can follow the game and come in later, at the next season.
Or if you'd like, you can come in as a U23 rider who comes to compete in a few professional races this year already and comes to the pros full time next year?

That would be nice if i can "play" U23 talent that jumped into the calendar for few races outside of World Cup. You know how i love the cross.

I will try to come up with some background, should i post it later here or via PM. I know that there is strictly role playing thread,but i am yet to read whole rules.

Take your time to catch up and then post your rider here or via pm. We'll work out a calendar for him so he can compete in maybe one competition and a few classics. He can make the leap to the pros full time next season then

So excited for the first race, although I won't be on until tomorrow though (for me) really interesting to read evetybodys introductions so far though.

So far, I think it's going great. Some brilliant role playing in some of those posts. I think it'll be a great season if we keep it up.

Also, just so you know, I did PM Avin with the possibilty that he join for a full season after all (except the opening race, too late for that). Since he was late to see the game and the game was filled like in 2 days instead of 2 weeks as I anticipated, I want to give him a chance to join after all. I hope nobody has problems with that.

EDIT: We'll go with the initial plan, though. Avin will have a U23 rider who competes in some pro races. He can come in full time next season if he wants.

We can go ahead with the racing.

Expect the race between 2 pm and 6 pm today, somewhere

Thanks Ian and good luck to all terrain lovers in their first race.

Personally I don't mind people joining even mid-season. It really was damn fast. It'
s also easily explainable with injury and stuff like that.

Welcome aboard Avin! My czech rider Dobransky hopes for some fellow czech youngsters.

Okay, first report/race is posted now! Check it here!

Feedback is much appreciated! Too long, not detailed enough? Maybe I can include a summary for those who aren't interested to read a full report? Just tell me what you think

That's a great 6th place by Matt! Thanks for your great report Ian!

Loved it! Gratz to the winner

Great first performance by Vague but very very unlucky to have had a crash. It's alright since I hardly expected anything really. Decent positions by my other guys, only Visconti and Vos havn't finished the race.

Enjoyed the report Ian - great suspense really. It will be interesting to see how other races vary - but got the feel of an epic battle lap by lap unfolding.

Great to see Elliot give a solid showing though I get the feeling if he had been at his best he could have finished higher.

23 Kimi Hakinnen 2:06
25 Timi Kokkonen 2:09

That's one for Kimi

Rudy blitz start as planned, great work for him.

Mario Guido got lapped I take it? Ah well, at least he tried

Yeah Timi already mentioned that in his blog

Nice way of reporting Ian

Very happy you all liked the report. I feared it might've been too long. But in the end, I try to write it so that it reads smoothly.

Also, in cyclo-cross it's highly unusual (read: almost impossible) to have a profile where every rider finishes. Getting lapped = abandoning. Also, there are way more technical difficulties than road racing and if you're in 50th position and your bike breaks down, I don't see many riders having the courage to keep going.

So all those not listed were either non-finishers or non-startes.

Glad you liked the report and contrats to our first winner of the season.
As I'm looking for a good pace, not too fast, not too slow, I'm thinking about doing the preview for the 2nd race somewhere tomorrow and racing the Blaarmeersen cross on Wednesday. How does that sound? That gives everyone enough time to react, I think. Could be Thursday, as well.

Also on the pace-topic. I want the start of the season having a relatively fast pace, as we are moving now, because I'll have some internships in January, February and March so some weeks will move slowly then.

I must say there are some fantastic post-race interviews available in the game thread. Luxembourg is ready to be split in half because of a rivalry, an Iceland rider has yet to read the rulebook on cyclo-cross, Finland is also home to two rivaling riders and we get some interesting insights in the race of Francis Vague.

Also, it's amazing that two different riders (Bernard and Akdeniz) came up with exactly the same answer when being interviewed about their aim this year

UPDATE: I'll be collecting all results in the third post of this thread. So you can always look back on a particular race to see the results without having to find the actual race report in the game thread.

Bye,Gregory,your girlfriend seems to have come.

was my favourite part

Bernard is clearly a clone of Akdeniz, making Schiltz the one true Luxembourger in the game

This is BY FAR the best one

Because they are similar type,I didn't think of this when creating the riders