Don't do it TMM.... you don't really like cyclo-cross... yo certainly don't know about it... don't do it!
Ok i might not be the most active guy but you know i'll be solid. Tried to make him realistic to his background so hopefully he'll only stand out in a few races rather than often.

Name: Mikel Hammarling (Yes Mikel, Karls' Uncle. Remember how his background was as a CX rider? Knocked 15 years off his current age to make him more realistic)
Nationality: Swedish
DoB: 07/07/1988
Height:
Weight:
Speciality: Intelligent Rider
Weakness: Poor Finisher (Bad on final lap/s)
Biography: Has ridden for a selection of regional teams in Sweden and is now looking to branch out in an attempt to go pro and break into the top level. He's a smart racer but can get carried away in the closing stages, taking too many risks which often hurts his race. Not greatly talented as a CX rider but he's not bad either, though honeslty might be better suited to the road scene.

Stats
Technical: Medium
Sand: Very Low
Uphill: Low
Cobblestones: Very High
Sprinting: Medium
Explosiveness: Low
Flat: High
Power: High
Running: Very Low
Snow/Ice: Very High
Jumping: Very Low

And TMM is in!
Great
With a mixture of cobbles and ice, he'll stand out in a limited amount of races, like you hope. Glad to have a Hammarling in the game. Wouldn't be any good without any Hammarling

I was thinking about doing that, but because I won't be the most active, I didn't want to take that.

I'll also join the rush for Icy riders, since it gave me a good idea for a rider.

Name: Hafthor Eldfjallsson
Nationality (region): Iceland (Europe)
Date of Birth: 26/11/1988
Specialty: An aggressive rider, with a burst at the start
Weakness: Sand
Biography: Born on the small island of Heimaey, which was once nearly destroyed by a lava flow, the strong Icelander excels at the start of races and is no stranger to Icy conditions. His power can sometimes come at the expense of good bike handling, however.

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): Low
Sand: Very low
Uphill: Medium
Cobblestones: Low
Sprinting: Medium
Explosiveness: Very high
Flat (TT/riding hard): Medium
Power: High
Running: Medium
Snow/Ice: High
Jumping: Low

trekbmc - Glad you thought about that


Okay, some more details are coming up here. With the permission of SportingNonsense, I shall create a second thread which will strictly be for all role-playing. I will post the races and the results and the classifications there, and you will be allowed to post comments there, in-character. But I'll explain it again later, don't worry.

Also, I have the list of all the riders and I'll be assigning each rider an activity score. Now you don't need to worry about that too much. I'd rather you post interesting insights and nice posts to read than spam the role-playing thread. It's not about quantity. It's just a way for me to see who's (fairly) active and who is not at all, nothing more. I'll come up with some minor rules before setting up the thread, though. Like a max of posts per amount of time etc.

Name: Francis N. Vague
Nationality (region): Belgium, Wallonia
Date of Birth: 1995/7/11
Height: * 1.82
Weight: * 61 kg
Specialty: HYYYPE - Being branded as one of the most promising youngsters, hype is all around Francis N. Vague and as such he can be sure of incredible fan support, granting him an extra motivation when it matters. Which should be often enough for him.
Weakness: Overconfident – Despite lacking the experience, Vague goes into this season with a high confidence. Probably too much? This makes him tend to race over his limit, giving the possibility of fading for one or two (more?) laps mid-race or later.
Biography:

Arguably the most talented CX rider of his age, Francis enjoyed fantastic junior and U23 campaigns until he decided to join the elite ranks. With two World Championship jerseys (Junior, U23) in his closet, many Cyclo-Cross fans have waited for him to contribute to the elite races and to prove his outstanding talent against the world best riders. Though still lacking race experience in the top ranks, he aims in his first elite season for some nice races, where he hopes to make a lasting impression.

With Belgium having lost considerable ground in its dominance of the Cyclo-Cross events to other nations, Francis is a welcome sign so far. However, his only weakness might be for some the fact that he’s from Wallonia.

Vague prefers Cyclo-Cross, though many fans and experts expect him to switch to the road until some time. But first, he’ll have to win every last damn race in Cyclo-Cross. He is natural gifted to the course riding, especially excelling in bike handling and downhill skills. He’s greatest strength must be his incredible punch at steep climbs, allowing him to take many steep ramps on the bike whilst others have to dismount theirs.

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): high
Sand: medium
Uphill: very high
Cobblestones: medium
Sprinting: medium
Explosiveness: very high
Flat (TT/riding hard): low
Power: high
Running: medium
Snow/Ice: high
Jumping: high
 




Name: Blazej Dobransky
Nationality (region): Czech Republic, Tabor
Date of Birth: 1971/2/21
Height: * 1.65
Weight: *59 kg
Specialty: Knows How To Finish – No Chance he will abandon. Ever. Maybe when the world goes down mid-race.
Weakness: - Really Old; He’s old and age hasn’t been kind to him like to other riders. Pretty self explanatory.
Biography:
A true oldtimer in the peloton and well-established. He has won some races and has seen many faces come and go, yet he’s still here to race on and on. His goal remains the same as always: Never disabandon a race. He holds his current record of almost 200 finished races without DNF in high regard, but he’s probably the only one who really cares about it.

His goal is to win one more time the Czech National Championships. Then he will quit. Or at least, that’s what he keeps saying.


Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): medium
Sand: medium
Uphill: very low
Cobblestones: low
Sprinting: medium
Explosiveness: very low
Flat (TT/riding hard): medium
Power: medium
Running: high
Snow/Ice: medium
Jumping: very low

And to complete my trio:

Name: Christian Schiltz
Nationality (region): Luxembourg (Europe)
Date of Birth: 2/11/1994
Specialty: Nothing obvious - it is unclear at this stage whether Cobbles, Sprint or Uphills will ultimately become his main specialty.
Weakness: For a rider who has hopes to be a good sprinter one day, his explosiveness is far from impressive.
Biography: The Luxembourg youngster looks up to Jempy Drucker as an inspiration, with the latter now adept on the road at cobblestones and sprinting, having previously focused on the cyclocross discipline. As such, Schiltz hopes to follow in his footsteps. There is also a slight Schleck inspiration too, viewed in his deceivingly useful climbing abilities.

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): Low
Sand: Low
Uphill: Medium
Cobblestones: Medium
Sprinting: Medium
Explosiveness: Very low
Flat (TT/riding hard): Medium
Power: Low
Running: Medium
Snow/Ice: Very low
Jumping: Medium

Decided to make a race, I will probably make a few more later (I mostly make in European and realistic Nations, so apart from this one, expect ones from Belgium, Netherlands, France, Czech Republic, etc. from me):

Place (nation, city): Switzerland Geneve

Technical information: [enter a number between 1 - 5, with 1 being very low / nothing and 5 being very high
Technicality: 2
Sand: 5
Uphill: 4
Length of 1 lap: 3.2km
Cobbled sections: 4
Final sprint (length of the final straight road): 55 metres

Other Information: A very tough course, beginning with a sharp descent, which turns off onto a cobbled climb, a half-cobbled descent before a long sandy section, which has a short energy sapping climb followed by the real killer, a very steep, sandy climb, that peaks 55m before the finish line, leading onto the final straight. This course was originally made as Switzerland's bid to host the world champs, but after losing it they released this course as a race.

Profile and Route in spoiler (these can be changed to make it easier to make or more reasonable as a race):

Name: Rik van Fleming
Nationality (region): Belgium, Flanders
Date of Birth: 1985/2/8
Height: * 1.90
Weight: * 75 kg
Specialty: *Incredible Finish
Weakness: No Race Initiave, At All
Biography:
Rik van Fleming enjoyed some great success in his career, winning even the World Cup at some point. But van Fleming’s strategies only worked for so long. When it became clear that he lacks any sort of race initiave and is simply here to suck your wheel ‘till the finish and then outsprints you, riders soon developed common strategies against him.

As a result of three seasons full of struggles, hardships and boo's by the fans, van Fleming’s level has significantly reduced and he is now merely a shadow of himself. However, he’s finish is still easily one of the best in the pack.

Lately he has made (sorta) a comeback by winning the Belgian National Championship last year, whose course has been dubbed as the most easy one parcour in the past 3 decades. Will Van Fleming once more rise to infamous prominence by being the dickish Gerrans of Cyclo-Cross?

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): Medium
Sand: Medium
Uphill: Medium
Cobblestones: Medium
Sprinting: Very High
Explosiveness: Very High
Flat (TT/riding hard): High
Power: Very High
Running: Medium
Snow/Ice: High
Jumping: Medium

Thanks for the entires once more!
I increase the limit for riders to 7. But remember that if you enter 7 riders, a whole bunch will end up as pack fillers. But at least they'll be your pack fillers

Two packfillers. Jeez, I love creating those guys.

Name: Gorka Etxebarria
Nationality (region): Spain, Basque
Date of Birth: 1980/11/12
Height: * 1.72
Weight: * 52 kg
Specialty: Basque Climbing Goat
Weakness: Prone to landing with his face in the mud
Biography:
After the folding of Euskaltel – Euskadi, Gorka Extebarria was looking for a contract on the road but as it turned out, squads were full and he was sorta not in demand anymore? Go figure. As a result, he spent his winter training and came into touch with Cyclo-Cross. He is all new to this sport and boy, you really saw it in his first year. His record for crashing in a single lap(!) during a race lies at 6 times. By now he is a fairly consistent performer, being somewhere mid-table, slightly improving with times. Some youtube videos hold collections of his many (sometimes awkward) crashes. Despite his improvement, there’ll probably will always be enough material of seeing his face in the mud. His hope is to establish himself in CX and be granted a second spring.

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): Low
Sand: Low
Uphill: High
Cobblestones: Very Low
Sprinting: Medium
Explosiveness: Medium
Flat (TT/riding hard): Low
Power: Medium
Running: Very, very low
Snow/Ice: Abysmal low
Jumping: Sorta okay-ish (low)



Name: Bert Vos
Nationality (region): Belgian, Flanders
Date of Birth: 13. May 1987
Height: * 1.75
Weight: * 61 kg
Specialty: Vos Cousin – that makes you sorta cool
Weakness: Vos Kinda Lame Cousin – She’s really just that much better than him.
Biography:
Marianne Vos has some relatives in Flanders (as it turns out, wow!) and Bert is her cousin. He used to train with her, always getting beat. He thought he’d have an advantage in the mud but even there she stick it to him all too many times.

Bert still stayed with the sport and became an okay-ish professional. His biggest strength must be also his weakness: He is the cousin of Marianne Vos. Always compared to her, always being asked about her. He is more known in the field by his nick “Vos’ cousin� than his own name. Awkward.

Stats: [Choose between: very low, low, medium, high, very high]
Bike Handling (technical): Medium
Sand: Low
Uphill: Low
Cobblestones: Medium
Sprinting: Medium
Explosiveness: Low
Flat (TT/riding hard): Medium
Power: Medium
Running: Medium
Snow/Ice: Medium
Jumping: Low

Hey Ian, I'm making a few more stages, but before I make too many, is that how you want the stages? (I mean I'll make ones with different profiles and routes, but is that the idea and set-up you want? Thanks

btw: For all the races I've posted and will post, I've been pretty exact, so they are editable if needed to make it better/easier to make.

But he's freaking Irish!

I shall be creating a few races and a few riders soon.

Ok, got two more races, I might make some for Czech Republic, Netherlands and Luembourg next. Anyway, here are two, they are editable if needed.

Place (nation, city): France, Trouée d'Arenberg (near Wallers)

Technical information: [enter a number between 1 - 5, with 1 being very low / nothing and 5 being very high
Technicality: 3
Sand: 1
Uphill: 1
Length of 1 lap: 5km
Cobbled sections: 5
Final sprint (length of the final straight road): 1.1km

Other information: A cobbled circuit with a 2.4 km section of cobbles, none other than the trouée d'Arenberg, It is slightly uphill, but not enough to matter at all so the winner will be a rider who can handle cobblestone plus the mud and grass of the back straight.


Route and profile in spoiler:



Place (nation, city): Belgium, Ghent

Technical information: [enter a number between 1 - 5, with 1 being very low / nothing and 5 being very high
Technicality: 5
Sand:1
Uphill: 4
Length of 1 lap: 3.3km
Cobbled sections: 2
Final sprint (length of the final straight road): 600 metres

Other information:

A real decenders circuit, the climb may be decisive, but the incredibly technical descent is the real decider. The final sprint also comes right off that descent, so it will decide which rider/group will win, real daredevil decenders will be able to get away or catch up to a group on the descent as well. The cobblestones at the start of the climb will push give better cobblestone riders an edge at the start of the climb, so better climbers may have to catch back up. But of course, if there is snow, ice or mud, everything will change.





EDIT:

Also, can we add snow/ice and mud as factors or will they be decided on the day?

Team 1 -- WILL CONTAIN ALL RIDERS LISTED
Name: BP Cyclocross
Nationality: United Kingdom
Budget: Medium

OP NTTHRASH?

I don't believe it to be overpowered. The riders marked "very high" is several categories are often buffeted with a lot of issues like inexperience or little technical knowledge. Also, try not to double post.

really?

1. I agree with jandal your riders are particulary strong, but there isn't a rule against that.

2. A couple of your riders have conflictions, like rider 8 is technically challenged and has very high in bike handling.

3. You have 8 riders, 7 is the maximum.

Of course I can't enforce anything, but I just wanted to point that stuff ou.