What is it?
Road To Glory is a Story Game where you start as a 19-year-old neo-pro about to be signed by one of the teams in the world of cycling. You lead your cyclist through his career, choosing whichever path you want to take towards glory.

Game Summary
The first step is to select a specialization for your cyclist. Your cyclist is allocated a specific amount of stat-points which forms the base from which he starts to grow.

Next, you will be given a choice of teams to select as your first destination. Details about each team’s riders, and their strengths and weaknesses will be posted before the team selection process. Choose your team wisely to maximize the growth potential of your riders.

As races are covered in the season, your cyclist takes part in them and his results award him points, which in turn affect his growth potential, which determines the amount of statpoints he receives at the end of the season for growth.

Rider Creation
Set-up your rider with the following details:
• Name
• Nationality
• Specialization
• Favourite Team (from the ones in the game)
• Career Goal
• Height
• Weight

Besides this, feel free to put up a small write-up about your rider, maybe a paragraph or two, giving more details about their background, traits, etc. This may or may not influence the first and corresponding contract offers. Please read the rules in the spoiler below before signing up with your riders.

Rider Creation Rules

List of Available Nationalities

Selecting Specialization and Statpoints
Select a specialization for your cyclist from one of the following:
1. Stage Racer
2. Climber
3. Puncher
4. Sprinter
5. Northern Classics
6. Classics (mix between Puncher and Northern Classics)
7. Time-Trialist
8. Fighter
9. Barouder
10. Roluer

Riders with each type of specialization get a different combination of stat-points, plus some stat-points will be available for customization. There will be a ceiling for every type of stat at every age.

At the end of the season, each rider will receive some statpoints which you can assign to them as you want. The stat-points a rider receives is equal to their Growth Potential.

There will be no statpoint increase for a rider beyond the age of 30.

Growth Potentials (GP)
Every rider will start with a GP of 9. GP ranges will vary as below:
• Rider age <21: GP will be 9
• Rider age 21+: GP will range from 9-14
Rider GPs will take a jump from 9 to 11 (default value) when they reach age 21. GPs can be higher or lower than 11 at age 21 depending on the GP recalculation rules defined below.

Every two years (aged 20, 22, 24, and so on), after that season, their GPs will be recalculated depending on their results.

The recalculations will follow a 30-40-30 rule, wherein the top 30% performers will receive a +1 GP boost, the next 40% riders will retain their previous GP, and the bottom 30% performers will receive a -1 GP deduction.

• If a situation arises where a rider is alone in the lowest GP band during GP recalculation, he will automatically receive a +1 GP boost during the next recalculation.
• If a situation arises where a rider is alone in the highest GP band during GP recalculation, he will remain in that GP band during the next recalculation.
• The last GP recalculation for a rider will happen when they are 34 years old, after that season is over.
• The amount of statpoints a rider receives at the end of the season will be equal to their GP.
• Statpoints increase will be done after GP recalculations.
• The higher the GP, the more coveted is the rider in the peloton (actual stats are also important). In this regard, GP is also a reflection of rider reputation.

Rider Scoring
Points will be awarded to riders depending on their results. These points will be used to make GP recalculations at the end of every two years. Points awarded for each race will depend on the category of the race the rider attended.

The points file is available here (no change from last season): https://www.dropb....xlsx?dl=0

Selecting Teams and Contracts
Once riders have been created and their statpoints assigned, you will receive contract offers from three teams for your rider. Team options that you receive will depend on the riders needed by a team and nationality. Two of these offers will be from teams matching the criteria above. The third offer will be from a wildcard team.

Contract lengths vary from 1 to 3 years in the game. It is more likely that your first contract will be of either 1 or 2 years. You might get a 3 year contract if you match a team’s requirements perfectly.

For every consequent contract discussion, your rider will receive offers from teams depending once again on riders they need, nationality, your rider’s stats and GP. A champion team will wish to sign a rider with a higher GP. Similarly, a lower ranked team is more likely to chase a rider with a lower GP. This is not to say that we will be looking at a situation where the best riders will only be signed by the best teams. A contract offer will be a result of a combination of all four factors mentioned above. The relative weights depend on the team in question.

Teams
There will be 22 teams in this game, with 21 teams continuing from last season (BMC and Aqua Blue do not continue), and 1 new team joining. All teams will take part in all races. All teams will be in the same division.

For cyclists at their peak, teams will follow an IRL pattern of recruiting riders, for example, Quickstep will have a tendency to recruit more classics specialists while Movistar will prefer climbers/punchers. Region focused teams will prefer riders who are either from their focus regions or from other countries speaking their language. For young cyclists, teams will tend to recruit riders for specializations they lack in, so as to allow the young cyclists enough space to grow. Again, this does not mean that there will be no variability in recruitment. Cases like the Izagirres and the Herradas leaving Movistar to join Bahrain Merida and Cofidis respectively may also happen. Also, a team having three stage racers will almost never look for another stage racer even if there’s a strong stage racer with high GP available. I will change some of the teams’ recruiting patterns, to better cover the globe, but will mention those when the teams are introduced.

A team standings will be maintained as both a Points race and an Olympic format of the count of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals won by each. Better teams will tend to go after better riders, both in terms of stats and GP. It has to be remembered that the final act of receiving a contract from a team depends on a combination of Stats, GP, Specialization and Focus Region. Each team will have its own unique weight for these factors, by which they will shortlist potential new recruits.

The Team List is available in the spoiler below. The team details will be made available here.

Team List

Calendar
The calendar will consist of 43 races, and 185 RDs, along with the U22 World Championships. It will consist of the following break-up:
1. 3 Grand Tours – 63 RDs
2. 5 Monuments – 5 RDs
3. 15 Stage Races – 97 RDs
4. 19 One Day Classics – 19 RDs
5. U22 World Championships: Road Race

Note
• Only those races will be played in 3D which have custom riders. The others will be simulated.

Riders will pick their own calendars based on the rules in the spoiler below. Non-custom riders will be picked by me for every team for each race.

The calendar will be made available here.

Calendar Selection Rules

Trainings
You can select trainings for your young riders in blocks of 5 days. You can train your rider for a maximum of three blocks, i.e. for 15 days, in a year. However, it is to be remembered that training your riders will reduce available RDs for your riders by the number of days for which you train them. Each block of training adds to the rider’s score which will be used in GP recalculations.

The trade-off between training and races is that your rider will lose possibly higher points from race results in exchange of guaranteed improvement from training. The amount of points that a rider will receive for training is available in the points file.

Riders above the age of 25 cannot be trained and training effectiveness reduces as the riders become older.

There will be no training specialization to be decided.

Race Reporting
Race reports will include a short write-up on the key events of the race, with a focus on how the custom riders got along. Stage and Race results for a stage race and Race results for a classic will be included at the end. Races without any custom riders will only have the stage and final results, as applicable.

Reports will be available in the Calendar and Race Results page.

Miscellaneous
• The game is currently in the year 2019.

• All riders retire at the age of 36, after that season. However, you are free to retire your custom riders at the end of any season and start over. Riders can be handed over from one person to another, even exchanged by mutual agreement, after a season. However, you are not allowed to be in control of more than one rider at a time.

• Riders begin to decline from the age of 33, before the season starts. Rate of decline depends on GP at the time and is faster for a lower GP. Riders will decline faster for non-specialization stats (for a sprinter the non-specialization stats would be MON, HIL, etc.).

• As far as possible, races will have different variants every season depending on what I have available. Feel free to suggest race routes. Also feel free to suggest new races to be introduced in place of some of the races already on the calendar. There isn’t much scope of increasing the size of the calendar for the time being.

• At the end of a season, other riders in teams might be retained or released depending on what I feel the team needs going ahead. Custom riders are free to share their thoughts on who they feel should join their team/not continue in their team if they want. This may or may not be considered when I take those decisions.

Cheers

Latest DB: https://www.dropb....xlsx?dl=0
Points File: https://www.dropb....xlsx?dl=0
Riders: To be updated
Career Progression: https://www.dropb....xlsx?dl=0
Calendar: https://www.pcmda...st_1351578
Race Selection: To be updated

1. Sign-Ups - Open
2. Contracts for Free Agents - Done
3. Calendar Reveal - Done
4. Rider Development (for returning riders) and Stat Allotment (for new riders)
5. Race Selection - Ongoing
6. Season Begins

Ulrich Ulriksen wrote:
I am interested in joining. Have an idea for a cyclist but also willing to pick up a rider for someone dropping out if that works better.