One of which comes from actual professional road racing. Another one, too, but at a lower level.
One of which has had a real job for a long time.
Most of the others are young people, looking to jump on this bandwagon from the start!
Do you want some sort of comic relief riders too? Not "bizarre backstories and funny names"-guys, but maybe some honest villains who try to cheat and fails?
Waghlon wrote:
Do you want some sort of comic relief riders too? Not "bizarre backstories and funny names"-guys, but maybe some honest villains who try to cheat and fails?
We need SN in for some serious contenders like Bakari.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Waghlon wrote:
Do you want some sort of comic relief riders too? Not "bizarre backstories and funny names"-guys, but maybe some honest villains who try to cheat and fails?
Interesting question that I have no immediate reaction to.
In CX:AND, we had plenty of humor, though, without having to have some sort of comic relief per se.
Bakari (SN) was a great character, but still believable.
Cook (Smowz) was a fantastic character, always a great read and a good laugh, despite being one of the biggest riders in that particular world.
In a way I really appreciate your post already with Kastrup (I already call him Bicycle Repair Man in my head). It's great humor in itself without breaking away from the game too often.
Don't need a jar jar binks. Maybe that's the best way to describe it
Name: Julianas Kristasis Sex: M Nationality (region): Lithuania/Ghana [born in Palanga (Lithuania), riding under the flag of Ghana] Date of Birth: 14/7/1993 Height: 1.88 m Weight: 82 kg Weather Abilities: working very well in hot temperatures, less affected by humid air
Stats:
Flat Riding: medium
Climbing: low
Bike Handling: high
Stamina: very low
Accelaration: high
Sprint Speed: very high
Recuperation: low
Attacking Spirit: very low
Repairs: high
Off-Road: high
Food Management: high
Biography/The Story behind the Story:
Julianas was born in Palanga, a small coast town in Lithuania. As the second son of two teachers he learned one thing early: To never become similar to his parents.
In his younger years Julianas was a decent cyclist, on the road he was okay but in the former soviet region he grew into a more than decent track cyclist, on his way to a good career. Things started to turn around at the age of 16, where the very intelligent guy was about to attend his last year of school. Julianas came home with a friend of his, telling about his sexual values (he is bi-sexual, had his first friend there).
From then on his parents distanced further from him, and Julianas went away from home at the age of 17. Not to study however, but to start a gap year. Volunteering for Amnesty International and a regional homeless resocialisation project in his schooltime led to the idea to go to Africa for one year, where he worked on a ranch in South Africa's Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park for half a year.
But after that he didn't came back to start, as intended, social studies. Instead he moved to southern Botsvana to join a self-servicing village of a minority closely related to the San. There he spent one year, even growing into the honor of receiving the membership of the village, something only born-into's can receive at any point.
After that experience he never came back to Lithuania; instead he started studying cultural relationships in Addis Abeba. Though it only took one semester for him to then join a volunteer project in Latin America, where he firstly worked on building up a destroyed village in Guatemala. After that he spent three months in Peru, helping a fisher's village to build up a new working way suffering from the huge El Nino.
Coming back from that he went on to take the flight home to Addis Abeba via Dakar and Accra. Traveling through Senegal was a great thing for him, also meeting up with and old member from the Botsvanian village close to Lokgwabe, where his fight for local education was rewarded so well. In Accra though things changed, as he got kidnapped on the street.
After his surprised kidnappers found out that Julianas had a) absolutely nothing on offer for them, as nobody from the "white world" cared about him and b) no problem to communicate with them (beneath English and Lithuanian he speaks perfect French, Spanish, some German and Russian and several dialects in Africaans), they decided to rob him and leave him alone.
Julianas, with absolutely nothing than pants and himself, tried to make his way in Ghana. After two hard months in Accra, where surviving between the civil war, hunger, pain and the occuring problems with him being white was all he cared about, a person he met on a market in Accram took Julianas to Kojina. The village close to the Cote d'Ivore and near by the Krokosue Forest Reserve, where he built up a new life.
Soon the rather black white guy was well-known and accepted in the town for his large contributions in terms of technical knowledge on any imaginable problem. And not only did help on that, he also took over a bigger role in the negotiations with the chinese neo-colonialists, of which short-term offers the village of Kojina was able to resist as one of the few villages around.
Telling his unbelievable story to the local guys made him kind of a town hero, in combination with the positive influence he had on infrastructure and education. 10 months into the Kojina time the governeur of the village visited Julianas, who still lived together with Arikas (the guy that took Julianas with him) family, and gave him a special present for all his efforts for the village: An old bike. Julianas, with the help of the villages mechanic (if you want to call him that) Chibuike, completely repaired and renewed it; it turned out that it was built back in 1976.
With this bike on his hand Julianas started cycling again, but not as a sport. To cover long distances for the village, when there was no other vehicle on offer. The younger guys in the village grew interest in cycling while hearing the story of Julianas, so at one point he had the option to race again. It was a hilarious coincidence however on that 30th Serptember of 2015:
Four weeks later a guy on a truck (how else!?!) joined the village, asking for Japheth, telling that they needed a cyclist. It turned out that the national squad of Ghana needed a rider for the Tour du Faso, and they needed a rider. Somebody from there had to have recognized that there was a (former) cyclist in this village, and that they needed him now because in 18 hours 400kms away the Tour du Faso would start. The problem was: That guy wasn't even from Ghana, but from Lithuania.
But only for 2 hours more, because in exchange for 5 bikes for the village and the promise of new equipment for the local school Julianas Kristasis had a passport from Ghana and headed, on the backside of a truck with his old bike, towards Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Well, it was 10 days of pain and Julianas finished second last, but what an experience that was. On the flat stage to Boromo he even finished in the Top 10 in the sprint.
Most interesting however was that talk to Mekseb Debesay. Riding for a team called Bike Aid he talked about that amazing project, and beneath meeting nice guys I also learned about the power of cycling.
6 months letter a letter from Germany reached me, telling that they want to contribute to Japheths love for cycling. Matthias Schnapka, who matches the heigth of him, donated his old bike to Japheth.
It never arrived here. As didn't the new equipment for the school. Or as only 2/5 bikes from the government arrived, and they were rotten. Telling that to the BikeAid Team represented by Mathias, they arranged a surprise visit for 2016, after the Tour de Cote d'Ivore. Japheth didn't finally got his bike, but a jersey from the team signated from all. He took it tears in his eyes. What a nice team. And they also had something for me:
A one-way flight to the United-States for 2017. They told me that there was a chance to earn the bike if I really have it. They told me about this race, where my bike should be perfectly fitting for. I can't imagine anything for that to be honest, but for having the chance to bring Japheth his bike it's worth a shot.
Julianas is riding for Ghana, but he is a citizen of the wold. He won't be able to finance anything if it isn't for donations from others or prize money he earns. But he'll try at the Trekking Americo to do it and earn the bike. For Africa. For Japheth. For Cycling.
Name: Rudy Vecker
Sex: M
Nationality (region): Luxembourg
Date of Birth: 06/12/1988
Height: * 176cm
Weight: * 70kg
Biography: Raised in Luxembourg city and born nearby in France, but like many Luxembourg nationals, everything but from Luxembourg in heritage.
Rudy grew up riding road and he had, you might say, a natural gift for it, "The Next Schleck" he was often called during his junior years and rightfully so, given his temperament for the mountains and this "Schleck" could even propel a time trial bike! (not winningly but you can't ask for too much). However on the bike, the rider Rudy truly embodied was Fausto Coppi, with the Italian's smooth aquiline style and perhaps the Italian's sensitivity.
That's only riding though, racing he had every skill required except the simple tactical skills, some days he would attack incessantly but refuse to stay away without a companion and sometimes even with one. Often as a prelude to a bad day, he would chat loudly to the other riders and sometimes he would simply take up pacing the pack without caring about the wind, leading to his eventual defeat. It was as if he was so nervous about failure that he would crucify himself to have an excuse. It wasn't like he couldn't win though, occasionally he just had a golden day and would time a perfect attack to glide to an effortless victory.
After his junior years however, Rudy faced a problem, professional teams demand consistency and more importantly teamwork, as a 19 year old in the pro ranks, you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself for your team but Rudy simply wouldn't, or maybe he couldn't but it was cited that he had bad relations with teammates - often he would feign only being able to speak basic English, French or German to riders he 'didn't want to talk to'. It's not that he was vain and thought he could do better - or maybe he was. Another time he simply didn't show up for a race, no reason provided, it's fair to say his personality didn't gel with the team dynamic and he was quickly dropped from his team and really tried to get another shot at the pro ranks.
Then he really got into something new, races organised by local organisers with long races on retro equipment and pitting the resilience of the riders as much as their abilities against each other, best of all, it was individual. So over time he began develop into a talent in this sport, competing in European races while studying, in 2012 he began attempting to race the majority of the international races and was more than a talent in the field. But midway through the 2015 season, he abandoned a race and did not show again, neither all of 2016, the reasons unexplained and ambiguous. Now however in 2017 the promise of an official lead has brought him back, there are some question marks over his form but sometimes it seems that Rudy lives for ambiguous punctuation, so perhaps all is normal for an abnormal rider, with some of his junior problems gone and some exacerbated beyond reason and a confusing attitude towards journalism.
Weather Abilities: He absolutely hates the rain but as long as he isn't descending it's ok, he doesn't mind the cold as long as it's not below 5 degrees but he quite likes the heat.
Stats: [choose between: very low - low - medium - high - very high]
Flat Riding: Medium
Climbing: Very High
Bike Handling: High
Stamina: High
Accelaration: Very High
Sprint Speed: Medium
Recuperation: High
Attacking Spirit: Very High
Repairs: High
Off-Road: Low
Food Management: Medium
Give me a few days to work up which Hammarling family member will appear, and of course there'll also be a female rider!
Won't get them posted until Sunday evening/Monday, but doesn't sound like that'll be an issue.
TheManxMissile wrote:
Give me a few days to work up which Hammarling family member will appear, and of course there'll also be a female rider!
Won't get them posted until Sunday evening/Monday, but doesn't sound like that'll be an issue.
Not at all. I'm waiting at least a week from initial launch to the first stage.
At the moment I'm already working on the races for the 2nd season. Also making the excel file which I'll need to run the game. So I've got plenty of work left before kick-off.
Good news. I already have 9 confirmed race days for the 2nd season (first season will go fast with only 3 races provisionally), including a first trip into France!
Some nice posts in Game Thread, lovely also Milwaukee
To All:Some thoughts I've been having on n° of participants, some random ideas. Let me know what you think about it:
- We could just do the races with the registered members. Small groups, more chance to win, too.
- I (we) could increase the pack size to like 35 - 40 to start, with some bots added, some stronger than others.
This is the main choice between: do you (plural, all players) want to race every race with only your riders and have someone win every time, or is it nicer to race within a peloton and win more rarely (especially in the beginning). Let me know your thoughts!
Besides that I'm also thinking this:
- For each race I'd add a couple of "locals" who subscribed to the race.
OR/AND
- Players can (beside their 2 riders) also enter a guest rider per race, one from around the area. They can 'control' him/her and give the rider a voice in the game thread if you want. After that they return to their lives again, or maybe join the bots of they were pretty decent.
Let me know what you think, might be important to come to an agreement about which direction we're going in!
Pack size of around 30-50 depending on the prize money, more the prize, more the greed, more the entries.
Most of those 'extras' to be locals, everyone from school kids to 'gym-bikers' to golden 'yesteryear cyclist' oldies. Add in some journeymen from nearby countries and we've got a nice brew
trekbmc wrote:
imo, it'd be better to have a field of bots because otherwise it'd seem a bit too small a field. The local riders idea is excellent too.
Pack size of around 30-50 depending on the prize money, more the prize, more the greed, more the entries.
Most of those 'extras' to be locals, everyone from school kids to 'gym-bikers' to golden 'yesteryear cyclist' oldies. Add in some journeymen from nearby countries and we've got a nice brew
Thanks for the input.
Though a whole bunch of local riders for every single race gives me a lot of new work. Especially for countries where I have to actively search for realistic names
But I guess it could be done, I could get some help maybe, too.
I like the ideas put forward and it sounds good, would agree with a certain number of permanent bots and the locals ofc makes perfect sense.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Thanks for the input
For example, I threw together these five (permanent) bots, with a bit of a backstory. Some of these would already make up the top of the sport, at least the first year.
Let me know what you think.
Rider 1
Name: Chris Lou Anderson
Sex: M
Nationality (region): Canada (Vancouver)
Date of Birth: 12/04/1989
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 73 kg
Biography: Anderson has already had a fairly successful career as a mountainbiker. He's a consistent rider, but has a hard time winning. Considered to be between 15-20th of the world for about seven years in a row now, Anderson decided there isn't enough progression and feels the Ultimate Cycling League is a perfect chance to go in a new direction with more chance of success. While the sport is young and he is still young enough to make the transition. He waves mountainbiking goodbye for this new opportunity.
Weather Abilities: Obviously prefers the cold. Can't be too hot.
Stats: [choose between: very low - low - medium - high - very high]
Flat Riding: High
Climbing: High
Bike Handling: Very High
Stamina: Medium
Accelaration: Medium
Sprint Speed: Low
Recuperation: High
Attacking Spirit: Medium
Repairs: Low
Off-Road: Very High
Food Management: Medium
Rider 2
Name: Peter Venturi
Sex: M
Nationality (region): Italy (Tuscany)
Date of Birth: 27/01/1982
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 64 kg
Biography: A man with a past, Venturi has been out of the professional cycling milieu for a few years now. At the height of his road racing career, he was caught doping and banned for a few years, as well as stripped of his biggest accomplishment, winning the mountain classification in the Giro d'Italia and a stage. Venturi retired from professional cycling, even after his ban was over. Redeemed and missing the action, he thinks Ultimate Cycling might give him a second chance. He hopes the people will not judge him too harshly and that he can still do what he loves most: riding a bike.
Weather Abilities: Pretty neutral. Doesn't like rain as much, though.
Stats: [choose between: very low - low - medium - high - very high]
Flat Riding: Medium
Climbing: High
Bike Handling: Medium
Stamina: High
Accelaration: Very High
Sprint Speed: Medium
Recuperation: High
Attacking Spirit: High
Repairs: Medium
Off-Road: Low
Food Management: Medium
Rider 3
Name: Jeanne Serreau
Sex: F
Nationality (region): Switzerland (Romandie)
Date of Birth: 02/03/1993
Height: 177 cm
Weight: 64 kg
Biography: Jeanne is 24 years old and already a big name in cyclo-cross. Early in 2017, she took her first World Championship in cyclo-cross, along with her second consecutive World Cup trophy. Her interest in bikes dates back as far as she can remember and she's always been handy with bikes, too. She's a natural talent in the field and she is eager to see where she can end up in Ultimate Cycling, a unique chance to test herself in a diverse and unisex field. Her main focus remains cyclo-cross, but she feels she can combine both perfectly with Ultimate Cycling (at least for now) restricted to the Summer months.
Weather Abilities: she's a cyclo-crosser, so nothing can hurt her!
Stats: [choose between: very low - low - medium - high - very high]
Flat Riding: High
Climbing: Low
Bike Handling: Very High
Stamina: High
Accelaration: High
Sprint Speed: High
Recuperation: Medium
Attacking Spirit: Medium
Repairs: High
Off-Road: Very High
Food Management: Low
Rider 4
Name: Wallace Lester
Sex: M
Nationality (region): Australia (Canberra)
Date of Birth: 08/12/1987
Height: 187 cm
Weight: 74 kg
Biography: Wallace is an adventurer, plain and simple. His big talent is his athletic ability and his daring. Aged 30, he has already had a life a lot of people would be jealous about. He's done mountaineering, canoeing down a wild river, hangliding, mountain biking and snowboarding, among other things. Missing work a lot, he couldn't hold a job for long for a few years. When he started filming and blogging about his hobbies, he slowly got more attention. His blog is now one of the most popular ones in Australia, and he can actually live on the revenue from sponsors and ads. He noticed this thing called Ultimate Cycling and knew he had found his next challenge.
Weather Abilities: He'll go through a storm if necessary.
Stats: [choose between: very low - low - medium - high - very high]
Flat Riding: High
Climbing: Medium
Bike Handling: Medium
Stamina: Very High
Accelaration: Medium
Sprint Speed: Medium
Recuperation: Very High
Attacking Spirit: High
Repairs: High
Off-Road: High
Food Management: Very High
Rider 5
Name: Pierre Vermaelen
Sex: M
Nationality (region): Belgium (Flanders)
Date of Birth: 13/11/1981
Height: 191 cm
Weight: 76 kg
Biography: Pierre has always been the odd one between his friends. When he was 19 years old, he started a hobby that included getting on old race bikes and riding old races no longer on the calendar. Bordeax - Paris, crazy races like that. At first, he did it alone, with his girlfriend cheering him on and giving him support, following in a car or on a motorcycle.
Aged 26, he noticed people organised races like that and he quickly learned he was actually quite good at it. Within the very small milieu of old-race-bikes-racing he is a very familiar name. Now, he sees a dream come true, with Ultimate Cycling becoming an official sport. Despite him turning 36 later this year, he feels he can still be a pioneer for the sport and enjoy a few more years at the top level.
Weather Abilities: He's a trained professional in this sport. Though he prefers moderate temperatures, nothing too extreme.
Stats: [choose between: very low - low - medium - high - very high]
Flat Riding: Very High
Climbing: Medium
Bike Handling: High
Stamina: Very High
Accelaration: Medium
Sprint Speed: Low
Recuperation: Very High
Attacking Spirit: Very High
Repairs: High
Off-Road: Medium
Food Management: Medium
Love them So is this in the CX: AND universe or not with that unknown CX WC
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
jandal7 wrote:
Love them So is this in the CX: AND universe or not with that unknown CX WC
It was, but there's really no reason to. So probably not
Indeed
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Luxembourg
also Milwaukee 
