So the Tour de France has begun with wins for Cancellara, McEwen and Steegmens.
Ive decided to try and answer a big question on the minds of PCM players - how realistic is it? Well I'm about to find out.
Each day I will race the day's stage and in the evening post a news article to keep you updated on what happened in France and in PCM.
I will be using PCM 07 (I would use 06 too, but it doesnt work anymore) and I will use the 'Official' Real Name database, the GCT database and a database of my own, having edited stats from the Real Name database.
Thanks to Jape I can keep the startlists realistic and I will encounter the problem of 21 teams by Ousting Bouygues Telecom ~ As Agritubel and Barloworld look set to have better results than them. I will play as either Agritubel or Barloworld.
Coming up later will be the British stages of the tour, and hopefully I will soon be able to catch up to date with real-life.
Due to hosting problems, the file has been temporarily removed.
PCMdaily.com has started a cooperation with the German CyM Team, meaning that the users of PCMdaily will be the very first to get updates on their popular DB. The German CyM Team of 14 members, 13 Germans and 1 Dane. They have released several databases, not only for PCM, but also for Cycling Manager (the first versions of the game). Now, they are focusing entirely on Pro Cycling Manager 2007, and in the future, their projects will be released exclusively on PCM.daily.
And today, we can present the second edition of the GCT DB. It's pretty much the same as the first version, but now it's compatible with the latest patch (1.0.1.0). It contains real names for riders, teams and races. It has updated stats, contains all the right jerseys, real race and team logos, rider photos for 99 % of the riders, and the fictive Ergomo team has been replaced by Rabobank's Espoirs team.
Yesterday, the first patch was released. Today, Le Tour de France starts. It's perfect timing, isn't it? While you're waiting for the start of the prologue, here's the Weekly News in its 30th edition.
Submit your cycling photos
In the coming weeks, some of you will be able to watch a Tour de France stage. If you decide to bring along your digital camera we would really like to see your photos. Therefore, we have created a new photo album to which you can submit your photos. You are of course very welcome to post any other photos you have taken if you want to - we'd like them all! ;)
On-going Site Events If you're very quick you might be able to sign up for JustinWK's GT (TdF) Game. In that game, you have to choose 12 riders and for each stage, your team will be given points for its performance. You can read much more about it here: http://www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=17&thread_id=585 But remember, you have to sign up NOW since Le Tour starts in a few hours ;)
Our crew member, Crommy, has also started a game -- it's a Treasure Hunt! Basically, you will be given a hint, and afterwards you will have to figure out the answer before you're given a new hint. The first to find the answer for the third hint wins. So if you're a real pirate, try out his game here: http://www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=17&thread_id=603
Several new stories have also been started. Crew-member SportingNonsence, who has written a lot of PCM06 stories, has now started his first PCM07 story. It's a story about Tour of Britain, and Mark Cavendish is of course also participating ;) You can read it here: http://www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=22&thread_id=582
The German Patch Due to some extra protection in the German CD-version a seperate patch is needed for the German version. It still hasn't been released, but according to the publisher, it should be released today. But since it's Saturday, it's unlikely that Cyanide will release it today. It's much more likely that it will be released in the beginning of next week (Monday or Tuesday).
PPDB 2007 V2 to be released soon The PPDB team has been working on a new version of its 2007 DB (for PCM06) ever since the first version was released. Several bugs have been fixed, and in one of the coming days, the second version should be released. As always, there's no "official" date, but we'll keep you updated.
PCM.daily searches crew - again Back in March, we searched for crew and found some competent people. Since then, we developed and to keep up the standards - maybe even raise them - we are now searching for even more new people. We don't have any requirements except that we expect you to be good at English and that you're interested in doing some work. It's not a really time-consuming job, but we expect you to be around ;) The "job" is (of course) unpaid.
The crew will be divided into groups:
Download Database Updaters - this job is about updating the download database with the newest files. This requires you to have knowledge about FTP uploading and a basic knowledge of how linking works. It's not that difficult, but you won't get this job unless I know you and have some trust in you ;) Who knows - you might end up deleting the entire database ;)
News Spies - this job is simply about gathering news from other communities such as the French, Dutch and German ones. If the news are worth writing a seperate news article that's also needed, but otherwise reporting the news to me is enough.
Event Manager - we always want to be creative and innovative, and therefore we need a person to focus solely on starting new events at this site.
Article Writers - currently, we don't have enough people to write all the articles we would have liked to. Therefore, we are searching for people with knowledge about cycling and / or PCM who wants to write a new article for us once in a while.
If you are interested in any of the above jobs, send me a PM with your application. Write which job you're interested in and why we should choose you. Thank you!
As promised yesterday, Cyanide's "official" real name database has been released. It's compatible with the new patch and is currently the only database which works fully with it. It contains real names for teams, riders and races.
Update: The people who downloaded the DL-version of the patch before 11:56 (CET) will have to redownload it. By accident, we had uploaded the patch from yesterday (v. 1.0.0.1). Today's version is called 1.0.1.0 and is now available through the link. Sorry for any inconvenience.
The first official patch has now been released. Here's the press announcement:
"The first official Pro Cycling Manager 2007 patch is now available.
This patch is NOT compatible with the German RadSport Manager Pro 2007. A specific RadSport Manager patch will be released shortly.
To get maximum benefit, we recommend that you start a new career. For example, game databases created with v1.0.0.0 will not be fully updated !
Please note that there are 2 distinct patches. One for the CD version of the game, the second for the downloaded version of the game :
3D * Fixed memory leak problem * Fixed the dark appearance of riders when the Shader level was set on "low" * Correction to problems with certain road textures when Shader level was set on "low" * Fixed crash occurring with some video cards when starting a 3D race with shaders set on "high" * Correction to slow movement of cursor in 3D races * Correction to "floating" spectators in stands at finishing line.
CAREER * Unemployed riders now react more positively to offers from continental teams * Less AI managers lose their jobs at the end of the season * Correction to crash on stage 8 of Supergiro di Italia 2008 * Correction to crash on stage 1 of Gran vuelta a España 2008 * "Average" (AVG) of abilities is updated every week * Display problem which allowed training progress bar to go beyond 100%. * Correction to bug which, on very rare occasions, could provoke a crash at the start of a major tour (Season 2007) * Correction to display of jerseys during world championships
INTERFACE * Fixed the wrong list of favourites displayed when a second race was played immediately after a first one. * Custom Stages/Teams : fixed a crash occurring when clicking on a team name on the participating teams choice page * Display relative times on intermediate sprints * Corrections to "Season Stats" page in career mode * Corrections to "Achievements" on rider data sheet * Various corrections to texts that were too wide for tables * Display of monetary amounts (salary, transfer value) is more uniform (example : 125.200 €) * Results page : sorting by "team" should now be done by alphabetical order * Added a column displaying next year contract details in on "Pro Reports" tab * CN-ITT pictogram now displayed on the relevant pages (instead of the more general CN pictogram) * Rider data sheet : fixed an inversion between the Sprint and the Acceleration abilities when displaying "Training" information. * Scouting page : fixed a bug preventing young riders from being found in the Russian and Australian areas. * Scouting page : image added for "Flanders" area * Changed the date when the definitive season classifications are calculated. Used to cause display problems. * Fixed problem to sorting by salary on "Search" and "Shortlist" menus. * Correction to a crash on stage presentation page when clicking on a team info link.
DATABASE * Changes and updates of rider stats * Updated objectives for Cya Top Tour teams and some Continental teams * Changed the race category for Tour of Australia and Qinghai Lake Road * Correction to experience level of some riders who had level > 4. * Fixed characteristics of some equipment * National champion jersey added for Fumiyuki Beppu, George Hincapie, Thomas Lövkvist and Jussi Veikkanen. * The 6th stage of the "Österreich Rundfahrt" is considered a road race and no longer an individual time-trial
IN-RACE * Riders finishing outside time limit now taken into account. The interface is not active yet so names are not displayed. * Adjustments to "Race-day condition" : The extremes of -5, -4 and +4, +5 happen less often
This patch is NOT compatible with the German RadSport Manager Pro 2007. A specific RadSport Manager patch will be released shortly. 
