I'm having some of the best gameplay I ever had.

So started a stage racer but already trained on barroudeur, time trial, puncher... to get a real all-rounder, with different qualities. Therefor my main stats aren't ridiculously high yet, but me back-up stats are getting there. Started with a 19 year old so it's good he's not super yet.

In those 2.2u races or whatever () I'm having such amazing races. Won a mountain stage, lost the lead in a hilly stage. The next mountain stage I managed to get 5th and for the last mountain stage I was in 5th and my team mate climber in 2nd. I decided to try and help my team mate and still end top 5 myself, too.

Profile included 3 big climbs on a short distance (stage only 130 km or zo).

Took it easy on the first climb so was in the middle of the peloton and it completely blew apart! Two riders of my team waited for me and we spend all day trying to catch back up with the front peloton! The final 50 km I had to do the chasing myself. Verdict: lost 8 minutes that day.

Love it!

Alreayd 5 victories, though, but started with easy/normal settings because I was afraid of the low starting stats. Slowly upping difficulty, though. But in the end, it's quite nice, too. It's still realistic because there are all U23 races or 2.2 (no victories there yet, though).

So my guy will probably finish as one of the best U23. Signed a contract with Bretagne after that (could've gone for a better team but my guy's from Bretagne and he's only 19 so next year he's 20 and a WT team would be too soon). But when he gets in the PCT, victories will be harder to come by and he'll work for team leaders.

(inspired by a program I saw on Belgian cyclists where Jasper Stuyven said he wants to win again. He won a lot in U23 but now with the pros it's harder to win, of course)

Definitely a very interesting mode.
Also I like that the more you learn, the longer it lasts or probably the more prestigious races you need to perform well.

That said, Cyanide really needs to slow down progressions for your rider.

In January already I got a +3 to the main stats.
In March another +2 and in June again +2.

So I was basically one of the best sprinters already in half a year in a simulated test.

Almost wetting myself in anticipation of trying this out

I'm having a lot of fun with this mode too. Progression seems fast though. Maybe they should decrease the XP from training. I started as a 19 year old stage racer and I'm already at 73 MO in early May despite training mostly in other areas. At this rate I'll be a contender for Tour de France next year unless progression slows down as the level increase.

Progression does slow down as your level increases. I think it's like Pokémon where every new level needs more xp.
So progression will probably be a bit faster again when you hit WT (and finish first WT race etc, new achievements for xp) and then continue to grow steadily.

Its a bit fast, but I'd rather have it a bit too fast than a bit too slow, you know

can you choose the races you want to start, or does the team select the races for you?

You can choose yourself.

You need to ride small races first. As soon as you get your first win, HC races become possible to ride as well and so on.

Good to know, thanks, Ian! And yes, I agree, it's much better than if it was too slow.

Can your captain/leder give out commands? when you an "teammate" do you have to figure it out yourself, how to help your captain/leder?

Does the number of training days per week affect how much xp you get at the end of that week ? Is 5 better than 0 or is it the same ?

Is anyone else having problems with fitness in the second season? My training graph says that my fitness should be around 80 %, but in races it is only mediocre.

It's probably still 80% which if you go by the last 3 pcm games 85 fitness and lower and is coded yellow IIRC. If you want a green circle or better rating it's got to be above 85.

Graph now says it should be 100 % after some intense training. Condition is still only mediocre. It's really annoying because my rider is not effective in races at all.

Are you sure you're looking at the right line ?

What line is 100%, and what is "condition" ?

AFAIK there is freshness, fitness, tiredness and rhythm. Is condition fitness ?

So you can have 100% fitness but say only have medicore rhythm or freshness.

Is there actually anything you can do with the money?
Or is it just a trophy?

I am 100 % certain. The fitness graph is the blue one. It showed that my fitness should be great, but it was only mediocre. No matter what I'm doing it won't go above mediocre. Now I cancelled a lot of races to get my rider some rest (tiredness was not high enough to be the problem). I hope that will reset the condition so that it will work as intended again.

Perhaps it's because you are too tired (the red line.) If the red line is above 25 you perform worse. Also where does it display the word "medicore" ? I only see a circle. Are you just saying that the circle is orange/yellow ?

Oh nvm i missed where you said tiredness wasnt a problem ...

I started by winning Cyanide Cup 3, but no wins after that. Problem is that I picked a stage racer and training for that for a couple of levels, but at the low divisions, almost no stages have mountains. It's either flat or hilly. So I swapped my training for puncher and we'll see if stuff improves.

Yea I'm in exactly the same boat as you. Won the 3rd Cup but after that all the races are flat for a while.

I also had a problem with the Roompot ZLM tour since they used national teams the TTT wouldn't load properly so I had to simulate it :/

Great mod, as I knew allready when I played the closed beta! But, yes the riders deffintly develop to fast. I started as a 19year old stage races rider and my stats toward end of season 1:


Everything is in Norwegian since I cant chose anyother languages and hope the order of the stats is the same for languages and not like Football Manager where its differant order between norwegian and english version...

But the main stats: Time Trial: 79, Mountain: 77, hills: 72, RES: 72. That is to high for a 19year old in his first season...

So I managed to get a 5th place on the World Championship in time trial in my 1st season...