It's that time of year once again. No, not Christmas, but the PCM.daily Awards Season!

As usual it is up to you to nominate and later decide the winners of the most important awards in internet history.

Nominations can be made by PMing me, SportingNonsense, up to 3 candidates for each Award category. For a full list of rules and awards, check out the Information / General Discussion thread.

Voting will start on January 1st, so you have until then to submit your nominations.

Vote: New PCM.daily Banner!

The competition to design the new PCM.Daily Banner has been running for a few weeks. SN has just opened the voting today! There are 4 Banners to choose from and to cast your vote simply take part in the poll at the top of the thread. Voting is open and the winner will be announced in the next Weekly News.

PCM.Daily DB Stats Update

Might seem like deja vu but the DB team is almost ready to give us another Stats Update. The work continues on a v2 and on the 2015 DB which has lead to this Stats Update. Some improvments have been made the the matrix and a low of domestiques have been tweaked. For a full rundown of what to expect read Alakagoms post here.

Man-Game Madness

Le Tour de France is upon us. Week One is complete and it's been a tale of gaps. Quickstep have possibly the team of the week with the Wildcard entry winning the opening 2 stages. Taylor Phinney of Wikipedia navigated the splits and time trial to hold the race lead. A number of pre-race favorites have lost time on the flat so expect some great climbing action.

Matty Goss kicked off a great week for Oz when he won the Zimnyanya GP. Michael Rogers capped the PCT action by winning the Isle of Man ITT by less than a second over Metinvest's Mikhail Ignatiev. The CT teams having been battling at the Tour de Pologne where after 5 stages the race lead is held by Nordeus rider Grega Bole.

Finally we've had two rankings updates! One for the PT and one for the PCT/CT. The rankings battles are shaping up and the final months will be real scraps for promotions and relegations.

Story Games Summary

Busy times if you're involved in any games. EPIC began it's off-season by crowning Team Sky winners of the 2013 season. Rider Progression is currently underway as everyone begins preparations for the 2014 season. Finally the Velo d'Or awards are being held here. There is still time to join EPIC as well!

The ICL is also moving through it's off-season and transfers are half-way complete. The teams are taking shape and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks. Racing should be back in the new year.

Thread of the Week

Depths of December and the site has quietened down to just those die-hard members. The Story sections are increaseing in activity and Astana's ongoing discussion keeps the Cycling threads ticking over. My Thread of the Week this week goes to The Amazing Race for the complications arising by traveling from Staniago to Tokyo, or in one teams case, not traveling.

The first piece of Pro Cycling Manager 2015 related news has landed. Cyanide have begun their process of finding Beta testers to try out the 1st version of PCM15. As usual they are hosting the search process over on the official Cyanide forum and you can find all of the relevant instructions and information there. The deadline is December 19th.

They are looking for 50 people to try it out and most interestingly is mention of a brand new game mode! Be-a-pro? Cyclocross? Career Track? Lets get those theories flying people!

Banner Competition Still Continues

Our search for a new PCM.Daily banner intensifies! Currently we have three submissions and would like to get hold of some more! To enter PM your 1024px x 110px entry to SportingNonsense. With only four entries why not give it a go? Full details can be found here. Also, if you are planning on making a banner but are not ready to submit please PM SN

Stories of the Month

It's nice to see the Story sections continuing and growing in the off-season. PC14 Stories are finally starting to establish themselves. zuff's The 1980s is still just as interesting and unique as ever. jseadog1's The Members Story is probably the most popular PCM14 story currently and is moving fast than anything he's done before. We've also had the return of Jack O'Conner from Dippofix and two new stories in The Aragòn Story by arre123 and Blood, Sweat and Tears by sgdanny.

PCM13 probably provides the best quality at the moment though. tsmoha and his NRS 2015 is well underway again providing awesome action Down Under. Cycleman123 and Fabio Melani went to Le Tour. baseballlover312 and Dan Martin are at the Dauphine. The Yates Brothers from JoeArmstrong13 tear up a new season, and Martijn North from the_hoyle also begins his new season. Karl Hammarling from TheManxMissile tackled his first Tour de France. Finally we've also seen aCross the road: Mud, Sweat & Gears from Shonak make a return.

Busy busy story writing and reading times. All of the above mentioned stories are well worth checking out and support those writers who put a lot of time into their work. Sorry if i didn't mention your story.

Man-Game Madness

It's Tour time! Roturn has given us the preview and the biggest race of the year is about to get underway. This also means we've finished both Suisse and the Dauphine where Andy Schleck of Vesuvio and Rein Taaramae of Bouygues Telecom took crucial victories. The PT also took in the Classique du Grand-Duche hilly classic won by Yuri Trofimov of Tinkoff.

A selection of the PCT and CT's best time trialists headed to Mexico for the Monterrey TTT event. Oz Cycling Project came away winners in a closer than expected contest.

Story Game Summary

EPIC again brings the action! Both Beijing and Hainan concluded this week. Both races saw good results for various EPIC riders as the regular season is now just one race from completion! If you want to join in there is no better tim than right now and you do so here.

The World Championships. Last week the U23 provided amazing action and the Elite race was no less epic. I won't spoil the result here and just simply say that you mus must MUST go and read Shonak's incredible report which is possibley the best report all year long (including Man-Game!)

Thread of the Week

Another relatively quiet week on the site apart from the above actions. The Amazing Race rolls onwards and continues to impress and shock. Pedro is as popular as it ever is. The cycling related threads are full of 2015 rumor and anticipation discussion. But this week my Thread of the Week is 4 Truths 1 Lie as one of the most consistently popular games and it's actually growing. Plus we get to find out all sorts of fun facts about other members!

PCM.Daily Skype Group

One of the most interesting things this week has been been jihardy's initiative to startup a Skype Group. Membership has varied slightly but is around 15 people currently. A nice place to randomly chat about anything, a really nice concept. For more information go the the thread here.

Banner Competition Continues

Our search for a new PCM.Daily banner intensifies! Currently we have three submissions and would like to get hold of some more! To enter PM your 1024px x 110px entry to SportingNonsense. With only three enteries why not give it a go? Full details can be found here.

Womens DB

Most people are focusing on their 2015 DB's but TheManxMissile has delivered a DB based on the 2014 Womens cycling season. Currently in a developmental state it includes 18WT teams, 1PCT team and 1CT team. There's a few real jerseys and with some more help it could become something really quite good. Check out the thread here.

Man-Game Madness

It's all about the PT right now! The Dauphine and Suisse are running simultaneously and are both delivering plenty of high class action from the divisions best riders. Rein Taaramae of Bouygues Telecom leads the Dauphine after 5 stages, whilst Andy Schleck of Vesuvio-Accumalux leads Suisse after 6 stages. Both races look set for some great final days.

The CT sprinters were also out in force for the Rutas de America. However it was Eddie Stobarts Cameron Wurf who stole the show by half a wheel. It was an incredible finale with breakaway Wurf giving everything for the win.

Story Games Summary

EPIC's World Championships continued with both the Elite ITT and U23 RR. The ITT was won, unsurprisingly, by Tony Martin ahead of Cancellara and Wiggins. The best action was reserved for the U23 RR held yesterday.

Jorge Cristobal Riquelme of Chile attacked perfectly to win the event. Thomas Hinault of France outsprinted Christian Schroder of Germany for 2nd place. The race was packed with action from the gun and the EPIC riders really delivered a show for the fans. I really recommend reading Shonak's report right here.

Thread of the Week

Finally we come to Thread of the Week. Winter's hitting hard and cycling discussion continues to drop away. Luckily this week provided a few off-topic talking points, primarily brought to us from the good old U.S.of.A. This weeks thread of the week is Café Pedro 10: Mostly Harmless courtesy of Thanksgiving.