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New PT and PTHC Races in 2018
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Posted on 07-12-2025 08:57
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 10-06-2018 22:39
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ProTour teams will each have 15 additional Race Days in 2018, with new races being brought in to both the PT and PTHC race categories.
 Nederland Tour
Firstly, a new Dutch race on the calendar, the Nederland Tour will likely require a combination of hill and sprinting skills to come out on top. The hardest tests, Stage 1 and Stage 3, both come in the Limburg region. Stage 1 ends in an uphill sprint, and while Stage 3 has a flat finish, there are numerous hills encountered earlier in the stage. Stage 2 is the Rucphen region.
Nederland Tour will adopt the 'F1' time bonuses system, with bonus seconds available for the first 10 finishers. It also comes with a race clash. Strade Bianche is becoming a PTHC race, with an adjusted profile, and will take place at the same time.
 Tour of the Battenkill
Not a new race to the MG, now going into it's 7th edition. Mostly a PCT race, but in CT last year, this year returning with an upgraded route - ready for the PT teams to contest the race.
But will this see a full strength field? For the first time there will be a cobbled race clash for some ProTour teams, as this race will compete against one of the PTHC cobbled classics.
After a successful implementation last season, PTHC sees an expansion for 2018. Now each band will have 20 race days, rather than 15. This increase means more races, and will see a greater variety in the types of race on offer.
A race across the Balkan peninsula, from Slovenia through to Greece, incorporating 6 nations in total. Featuring a series of challenges for the puncheurs of the peloton.
1 | HI/FL | Ljubljana (SVN) - Samobor/Zagreb (CRO) | 187km MO/HI 0.20
2 | Flat | Zagreb (CRO) - Prijedor (BIH) | 160km
3 | Hilltop | Banja Luka (BIH) - Kute (BIH) | 168km MO/HI 0.00
4 | HI/FL | Sarajevo (BIH) - Bileca (BIH) | 170km MO/HI 0.10
5 | Hilltop | Bileca (BIH) - Dubrovnik (CRO) | 195km MO/HI 0.00
6 | Hill | Dubrovnik (CRO) - Podgorica (MNE) | 168km MO/HI 0.30
7 | Flat | Podgorica (MNE) - Tirana (ALB) | 166km
8 | Hilltop | Berat (ALB) - Ioannina (GRE) | 225km MO/HI 0.10
 Tour du Maroc
After being a D2 race back in the 2012 season, the Tour du Maroc returns, and it takes on the mantle of the PTHC hill/mountain combination stage race. This is a race which we should expect to be open until the very end.
Deutschland Tour will remain a PTHC race, but will focus on the Niedersachen region only for 2018, favouring the time triallists, and the sprinters as well.
 Scandinavia Open
The Scandinavia Open Road Race has been a regular presence on the calendar, with 8 editions completed to date. For the 9th, there is a change - it is not simply a road race anymore, but a stage race! It remains a race in the hills, but now features a prologue, in addition to two road stages.
 Wyscig Krakow
The World Championship route from 2016 has found a permanent place on the ManGame calendar. Already three riders have experience with victory over this course, Lahcen Saber (B Worlds), Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (U23) and of course Sam Bewley.
 Apex Mountain Classic
Canadian organisers were not satisfied with the outcome of the Lac Megantic Classic this season, and have therefore shifted attention to an alternative part of the country, over in British Colombia.
The Apex Mountain Classic will be the first time that a downhill-finish mountain classic will be available to PT teams.
 Riga - Jurmala GP
The other part of the Canadian change is the need for an additional sprinter's classic in PTHC, and this sees the addition to the schedule of a Latvian race. Beginning in the outskirts of Riga, the race heads west for an outer circuit, before homing in on the coastal city of Jurmala for the finish.
 Rund um Koln
Flat races need not all to be designed to favour the pure sprinters, and a classic ManGame example of this is Rund um Koln. With hills throughout the majority of the race, and a flat finish in Koln, the finish wasn't often easy to predict - although Tom Boonen did sprint to victory in the race's most recent two editions, in 2013 and 2014. After a few years off the calendar, the German race returns, and this time with an uphill finish, that the now-retired Boonen would not have welcomed.
 Pro Hallstatt Classic
Finally, Austrian terrain will offer up another alternative type of race for the PTHC calendar - a classic that very much will require dual-climbing expertise, with a Hill/Mo rating of 0.6. Whether it will be awarded a hill or mountain rating in particular will be subject to gameplay testing.
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Particular credit must go to tsmoha, for creation of Balkans, Maroc, and Apex; for upgrading Battenkill; and providing the base zcts for Koln and Hallstatt. Nederland Tour uses adjusted versions of three stages from the Stage DB, designed by biggassi, Margh Norway and Germano71 respectively.
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| Ollfardh |
Posted on 10-06-2018 23:00
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Tour de France Champion
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I'm not a fan of increasing PTHC to 20 race days. Last season it was already hard to score points as a PCT team, this will only make it more frustrating.
Secondly, out of the 25 new profiles added, only 1 of them has cobbles. This could use some more balancing.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 10-06-2018 23:04
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Classics Specialist
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Kinda annoying to see Battenkill move out of our reach. Easily one of my favourite races in the past season  Treat it well PT :/
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 10-06-2018 23:13
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Ollfardh wrote:
I'm not a fan of increasing PTHC to 20 race days. Last season it was already hard to score points as a PCT team, this will only make it more frustrating.
Secondly, out of the 25 new profiles added, only 1 of them has cobbles. This could use some more balancing.
Last season 40% of PTHC points were scored by PCT teams.
Meanwhile, the proportion of PTHC cobbled race days will be the same as last season. You're possibly interpreting them all as additions, whereas in reality some of these are replacing previous PTHC races of the same terrain type.
You're also jumping to conclusions before seeing the full picture of what the calendar will be for PCT teams. There are some interesting new cobbled races coming in HC and C1 
Edited by SportingNonsense on 10-06-2018 23:25
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 10-06-2018 23:28
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I love the profiles here, absolutely! Love the Krakow course (and the stage is gorgeous), will want to report it again after Worlds  Same with Battenkill, the other new ones are lovely too!
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| trekbmc |
Posted on 11-06-2018 00:09
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Wow, love these courses! 
Looks like a big effort has been made to include some really interesting and nice races that will really be a pleasure to watch whether or not you are in it. Especially how even flat races have little twists to make them more interesting while not being weighted against the sprinters and Apex looks so extreme.
From my own (selfish) team perspective, my love for Wyscig Krakow as Kaspa's dream race, Pro Hallstatt Classic and Balkans International knows no bounds.
Huge thanks to tsmoha, SN and everybody else involved with this!
"What done is, is one." - Benji Naesen
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| whitejersey |
Posted on 11-06-2018 00:14
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SN, I don't doubt it but Battenkill being a close to home cobbled race also plays a big part, as well as Farrar winning it on hometurf! Maybe some stronger competition will make more use out of the race profile than CT riders did tho!
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| Roman |
Posted on 11-06-2018 01:37
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I really like all these new additions, especially the new Balkan race, looks like a Pais Vasco variant.
Only have two small suggestion: would like to see the new race in the Netherlands named as 'Ronde van Nederland'. Would be a really nice comeback of a former real race that was sadly replaced by Eneco Tour. And also a race name 'Wyscig Krakow' is a bit weird, in English it means 'Race Krakow'. A more realistic name for that race would be something like Tour/Race of Malopolska = 'Malopolski Wyscig'. That is the real name of one of the oldest historical Polish races that runs around Krakow.
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| ember |
Posted on 11-06-2018 07:56
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Wow, this gets me excited! Some really nice looking races, that's for sure. Thanks a lot to tsmoha and SN for the work.
There's a couple of races there that I'd love to target with my current team as well, both looking at the cobbles and mountainous hilly stuff, but really difficult to say as you really can't tell before the complete PTHC bands are published.
But surely, this is looking great, and also a nice touch in general for the game, with lots of new routes and race names  |
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 11-06-2018 10:18
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Feedback on race names is welcome. I like to try and make them more authentic and less generic, but it's helpful to draw on those who know the languages better!
whitejersey wrote:
SN, I don't doubt it but Battenkill being a close to home cobbled race also plays a big part, as well as Farrar winning it on hometurf! Maybe some stronger competition will make more use out of the race profile than CT riders did tho!
I'm sure you'll get to ride Battenkill again in future, and there'll still be American race opportunities for you. And certainly the intention is that CT has interesting profiles as well!
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| Vien |
Posted on 11-06-2018 10:39
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Some very interesting new profiles there. Also helpful to see the MO/HIL stats put up, makes it less of a guessing game. Good work, I'm hyped!
As for the Nederland Tour, I'd say Ronde van Zuid-Nederland (South-NL) would be best. I guess if you want to have some fun you could call it the Hammer Series as well, as it's in the same region. But that might get confusing. |
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| tastasol |
Posted on 11-06-2018 10:41
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Classics Specialist
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Some nice, new races. Great to see Scandinavian Open taking the step up to a stage race, looks like a profile that could suit (almost) home boy Boasson Hagen good. Wisniowski is also cheering massively after seeing the race in Krakow
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| DubbelDekker |
Posted on 11-06-2018 15:31
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Some excellent additions to the calendar. Well done.
Having all the MO/HI ratios in the upcoming 2018 race profile posts would make me super happy.
And I second the 'Ronde van Nederland' suggestion. It's the exact Dutch equivalent of 'Tour de France' and 'Giro d'Italia'. It sounds very natural to a native speaker.
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 11-06-2018 22:07
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Cool additions there.
Althuogh I have to agree with whitejersey, take Battenkill away from PT
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 12-06-2018 05:52
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Balkans Int. looks very interesting, as well as tbh. All seem like fine additions!
Indosat - ANZ HQ
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| SotD |
Posted on 12-06-2018 06:49
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4 Stage races and just 1 timetrial seems like a mismatch to me. Especially seeing that the only one is a 3km uphill prologue.
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| roturn |
Posted on 12-06-2018 06:54
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SotD wrote:
4 Stage races and just 1 timetrial seems like a mismatch to me. Especially seeing that the only one is a 3km uphill prologue.
Wait for the full picture with all changes. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 12-06-2018 07:06
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Imo, SN did a great job with the calendar for next year! It should be an interesting season planning for managers in all divisions. Thanks for putting up this preview thread the heat is up!
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-06-2018 07:40
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roturn wrote:
SotD wrote:
4 Stage races and just 1 timetrial seems like a mismatch to me. Especially seeing that the only one is a 3km uphill prologue.
Wait for the full picture with all changes.
Or more to the point, the non-changes. Pretty much every other PT/PTHC stage race has some kind of time trialling in it. Including the new Deutschland route, which was referenced but not posted.
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| Scorchio |
Posted on 12-06-2018 14:59
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Great to see some interesting new profiles for the new upcoming season. Extension of the calendar race days should create less 'stagnant' race planning for PT teams as less obvious where the key riders will specifically spend their precious RD's. A few terrain clashes has also been suggested and seems to be being implemented. Good work guys, look forwad to full calendar reveals.
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