Hi, i am new to the forum, but would like to share part of my experience, which may be useful for beginners at Pro cycling manager. I am playing the game since a lot of years and love to do it again every year. Don't have to much time to play on 3D mode, so prefer to do the races on simulation, but my real joy came from managing a winning team.
Every time i am starting with the worst team in the continental league and in couple of years i am trying to get to World tour league and eventualy to win Tour de France. Always i am playing on extreme level of difficulty to get maximum pleasure from wins and defeats.
Probably in my next post i will describe how my career is developing with current team Amore and Vita (My next year sponsor will be 8up, but here are some very useful tips for beginners.
1. Select a team
As i said, i prefer to start with some very week team. Also it's nice that this team is not from some of the big cycling countries, because it's very tough to get into Top 5 or Top 10 in Italian/Spanish championships with weak riders and be sure it will be your most important objective even if you start with small team.
Try to select a team with fewer riders, because you do not need to wait contract experial to most of your competitors before sign new names.
Of course it's seems easier to select Sky or Radioshack, but what do you think will happens if Froome or Cancelara broke their hand for the most important races? you will not be able to complete your objectives and your budget will go down.
2. Making a budget
I like the new way of getting the budget. It's far more realistic, then the previous years. Of course money are never enough, but you get big plus in changing your season goals. And you have very nice amount of starting money to pay for your trainings, gear or just to cover the difference between sponsor budget and salaries.
First thing to do is to get rid off your staff if you start with weak team. You do not need scouts and in the beginning you do not need so much trainers. Maybe the doctor is the most important part of the staff, because he take down the recovery time for your cyclist (Here the big plus or probably bug for your injured riders is that during their recovery time they do not lose fitness points and keeps the same fitness as it's like they are healthy).
Do not be in a hurry to sign with new riders. Use your first season for a buffer one. Just wait one year and couple of your current contracts with some not so good or not so useful competitors will be over. Sign at the start of the game with one or two names with low salaries (My favorite one guy is Andrey Kunitski, good puncheur and TT-ist).
3. Making a riding plan
This is the most important part of the Game. Take your time, do not hurry and think how you will be able to take the best. If you play with weaker team, select the races that you will have a chance. There is no sense to participate in others, except to get some rhythm. You need to check and see how many of your goal races are suitable to your roster and you may complete the objectives. Try to select 2.2 races (weaker multi stage races) or 1.2 races (weaker one day races). The others may be very tough to you. Also try to concentrate on some earlier season races, where big teams do not participate and their riders are not in form (I am always selecting Tour of Malaisia, when i am at Continental or Pro Continental league, which is 2HC).
Try to ride a race, which is close to your goal race, just to get some rhythm. The other advice is try to select some goal races close to each other in order to keep fitness and rhythm high enough.
If you start from lower league, do not try to race 1.1, 2.1, or HC races, because it will be very difficult to you to get good results. They are still quite competitive for you, if you don't have good riders. It's just waste of your season peak.
Do not worry if you have small number of competitions. The most important is to complete your goals and to get good results at the races that you have chances of getting good results.
It's very important to see what your riders like. For example they may want to ride Tour de France, but if you are in Lower leagues you don't have a chance to participate on it. Look at your schedule of races that you select as good chance to get results and try them if they will be liked by your riders (It's on Objective menu). Do not worry if some of your riders do not like the most important races. The will be unhappy, but if you get good results they will change their attitude (not always:, but according to my experience rider happiness is not so major factor).
So now you have list of races, you set some "green" objectives to your riders in their personal schedule. Finally just make in advance which rider on what tour/race, according to the race peaks of each riders.
4. Transfers
Probably the most trilling part. Everybody will like to have Cancelara or Froome, but those guys are very expensive. Always make transfers based on what kind of competitor you need. The worst thing is that you know your season goals from the sponsor at the beginning of the next season, when you are not allowed to make transfers, except for the first season, when you may sign some free riders.
Who are the most valuable cyclist compared by qualities and price? The answer is TT-ers. You may get very strong TT-ers with 75-76 TT/Prologue skill for 2000-3000. They may boost up a little their skills with trainings and will be TOP 3 contenders for almost every time trail, except for World tour races and WCH TT. You may gain a lot of points from them and even to get some more points from tours with a lot of TT-ing like Olimpia tour (you need some of them to have good cobble skills for last stage). The most expensive guys are those, who have good mountain skills and then are the good sprinters. Fairly cheep are hill climbers (up to 73-74 skill) so you may use them very well in lower league with success.
Do not accept right away the money they want from you. Even in the most difficult level you are able to get down 1000 or 2000 from their monthly money. For example i have an amassing chance to sign Jacob Fuglsang (Moun78, Hill76, TT74 in the time of signing) for less money. He wanted 17 000 per month, but i manage to get him for 14 000. For a small team like me it's great deal.
Select precisely who are the most important guys, who are with finishing contracts before offer any contract. If you do not check all good offers and just start to propose to every rider you like, then in some moment you may reach some very good lad, but your season budget for salaries will be empty before you signed anyone (you must wait 3 days after your offer to get the response of the riders). At the same time if you bargain too much with some valuable lad, it's very possible that other team may sign with him before you.
5. Trainings
Another essential part of the game. Here the new thing is that no more you may boost up hugely the stats of your riders with 3 training camps in a row for one quality. Right now it's made more real. They give you some ups at the skill after the first camp and then on the second you get just a small part of bonus comparing to first camp.
I am always using most expensive camps, because they are giving the best bonus. Also i train just the guys that have chances to get some points from competitions, not the gregars or those who are out of condition.
Recognition stages are giving very nice bonus for your Grand tour stars so if you want to have nice results on key stages you must go there for sure.
Always prepare your race schedule on the way that you will have time for training camps and remember that the effect of the bonus is lasting just 42 days! Then you must stage another camp
6. Gear
According to my experience the Gear is not making big difference. It's good to have the best velo, but if you struggle in the money, its better to spend 36 k per year for a cyclist like Andrei Kunitski, then to buy some things from the shop. When you get into higher ranks and there comes millions of money in budget, you may buy whatever you want.
7. Race Tactics
To win races and points you need not only good team, but to give good orders to them. First you must select your gear. Make one set for flat stages and one for hilly/mountain. It's the same for TT-s. The selection for each race must be done at the start of the season. You need to include in the team the guys who are with the best possible fitness. If the fitness of a competitor is 1 or 2 - he will be able to fight for good places... Below that will be almost impossible if you don't have Froome, Sagan or Cancelara in their most beloved races. The roles of the team are very important. Always put for the Leader the guy who is in best form. They need some team mates. The weaker cyclist you may use to hunt down breakaways. Put 2-3 guys to hunt down those groups. Then the stronger left them just as team mates and they will not only help your leader, but also will be in contention for the places. I personally don't like how Cyanide put the chances of the breakaways riders from your team to win. Before you've got a lot of chances to succeed, but now even with Taylor Phiney in my team i never score a placing from breakaway and this is the reason i never use riders to go on breakaway. At the same time there are a lot of successful breakaways (if you don't put some of your gregars to hunt them down) with guys, who do not have good fighter skills, resistance or even specific terrain skills. Kind of strange, but this is the game.)
8. Youth talents
Here is the best treasure of the game. Do not use scouting, because you will lose time and money for some guys who may be noting special. Instead of that follow closely U23 calendar and results there. You may find some amazing talents there, who will sign with you for just 2000 per month for the next 3 years. The actual salary of some of those guys may reach 10-12 000.
How to see who is the best youth player. Just see the results from one day races and tours. If you search for climbers, just check who is winning or is close to win in this stages. Tour of Berlin got a Prologue and a TT. You may found there very nice TT-ers. You will not know the stats of the guys until you sign them or sponsor them, but i prefer to sign directly with some of the winners from U23 races.
9 Promotion
You must earn points to go to the next League. Once again you must select very carefully the races. In some of them you will meet very strong opponents, which will crush you and you will not have a chance to take points. But at the same time there are other competitions that are giving good points with weaker riders (Tour of Malaisia, Tour of Britain). Most of the races that are taking place at the same time as the Grand Tour races, are very nice, because the big stars wants glory at Giro, Tour or Vuelta.
10. Sponsors
As i said your first target must be completing the goals. You see all the time the sponsor confidence. You need the bar fill as much as possible on 1 of July and on 25 October. On the first date it starts the time for negotiating new riders. If your bar is green to max, then you will have some bigger salary cap then current. If you are down to red, this cap will will go down as well and you will not be able to sign new guys. One the 25 of October you get your actual budget for the next season. So if you are green enough on sponsor bar you will be happy.
When your current contract with the sponsor is coming to an end you will receive a lot of offers. If i remember well they will start to come from June. Do not hurry. Wait to get more and more offers and select the best one. My advice is to get short terms offers and to get sponsors from the countries you've got strong riders (So it means that you must complete goals from more liked races from your star riders, who got some kind of bonus if they race in their own country)
Great guide! All I would say is that gear doesn't make a difference.
Also I don't use stat-boosting training camps...it feels like cheating.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
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2. Making a budget
I totally disagree on the staff part.
The doctor is the most unneeded staff. You have to get rid of him unless you have way to much money. Reasons: He can only heal one cyclist at a time. He does nothing most of the time. Only a very expensive doctor can reduce the recovery time noticeable. The bug is not linked to the doctor, cyclists don't lose fitness when injured.
Scouts are the most important staff because the U23 races are bugged so this is your only chance to find young riders from the desired countries. This especially important if you play with a small team.
3. Making a riding plan + 5. Trainings
These two descriptions don't match.
If you are using training camps, you can easily win any race unless you are a very bad player. So either stay realistic with the season planning AND the training camps or go wild on both.
8. Youth talents
It is not realistic for a small Continental team to hire good riders from all around the world. You should rather sign young riders from the country or region of the team.
Overall
Of course it is not forbidden to play unrealistic but I would rather recommend to edit the budget and get all the staff and gear you want instead of exploiting the game.
Why would you want to edit the budget to get staff, it's part of the challenge...
Agree about the doctor being unimportant, though. If you have the money get scouts, then trainers.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Even the worst Doc can reduce your healing time for a broken bone (~2 months) by weak or two. U23 tours give you enough info to select the best guys. Some years it's very competative and young riders do not participete in more then one competition. Other years you may see dominant guys, winning a lot and when you sign with them you will find that they are far better then the best young talent find by ten scouts at a time.
However it's just my own exp.
Lachi, the real cycling gives you a chance to make training camps. Do u ever play with 1star team from Continental division and try to boost their U68 all round stats with training camps and then to win some competition? Or did you ever play with Sky or Radioshack on extreme level?
I'm not fan of training camps either.
Yes, I know that you can do it in real life, bit the thing is that it gives you an unfair advantage over the AI, which can't use them.
, but here are some very useful tips for beginners.
