In the absence of Pellizotti2, who's enjoying beach life in Oman, I'm taking a break from tweeting various chicken news and give you the latest news of PCM and PCM.daily.

2014 Roster Update released
As promised in last week's Weekly News, we have something lined up for those of you who can't wait to get started with next year's season: a 2014 Roster Update for PCM.daily's Expansion Pack.

Needless to say, riders are still being hired and fired each day, so by tomorrow it's already outdated. But if that doesn't stop you from starting career or perhaps just a Tour de France with the new Trek team, be my guest and download the update.

It's voting time - what's your Story of the Month?
As per (recent) tradition, you now have the chance to honour the best stories of the month. October's poll just opened with no less than five nominations: Ian Boswell by welker3257, Nordic Cycling by Atlantius, NRS 2014 by tsmoha, Qatar Optics 2020 by The Rider and Team Type 1 - Achieving the Dream by sutty68.

In the subcategory, honouring the newly started stories, you'll find three candidates in form of baia, Pellizotti2 and TheManxMissile.

So if you've enjoyed any of these stories, now is the time to show them some love and vote. Check this thread for more info.

New cool sound for PCM
Sometimes the most simple ideas are the best. This is also the case here which is why I simply have to mention it even though it's just a simple sound file.

PCM.daily admin Rin thought of something to make the podium scenes in PCM just a little bit cooler - so he replaced the standard and rather boring clapping sound with the music (and clapping) from the Tour de France podium ceremony.

I'm not saying you'll want to watch every podium in PCM from here on, but it does add a little twist to it.

Turn back time ... to 1961
Not ready for 2014 yet? No problem. There are plenty of alternatives, including Stylus' 1961 database which is slowly progressing towards the final release.

In fact, it's now so close that Stylus has released a demo which makes it possible for you to play with all the legends of the time, for example Jacques Anquetil, Charly Gaul, Federico Bahamontes and André Darrigade - just to mention a few.

So what are you waiting for - go ahead and get it, and don't forget to give some feedback to Stylus.

With the end of October approaching, here's a little message from Mresuperstar regarding the next Story of the Month awards:

Story of the Month - Twist

It's that time of the month again! Story of the Month nominations will be released next week Thursday. In the meantime, story writers keep an eye on your inbox as a new twist is in effect.

Instead of having Mresuperstar write up your summary, he is passing the ball off to you. This is your chance to sell your story to the public. More details will be passed on to nominations tomorrow.

Basic 2014 update to be released for the Expansion Pack

Good news for those of you who'd like to begin a career at the start of next season rather than 2013: CrueTrue has been putting together a small update for the Expansion Pack with updated team rosters. Please note that this is only a quick update, so don't expect a bunch of new teams, races, stages, graphics, etc.

The release is estimated to be at some point during next week, so look out for that if you're interested!

Most popular fantasy game on Daily: American Football

(Also written by Mresuperstar, due to my lack of knowledge in this subject)

The NFL Fantasy game, in it's third season, is almost halfway through. The competition has been fierce with 20 teams all battling to make 8 playoff spots. Entering week 8 of the competition half of the teams either have a record of 4-3 or 3-4. It's anybody's game still. Crucial trades and free agent pickups have been used as a great asset to shift momentum, and now season-ending injuries are starting to cause havoc.

The reigning champion jseadog1 has positioned himself nicely in 3rd behind fellow American members NTTHRASH and baseballlover312. But that could change this week as your fellow American admin Mre looks to knock him down a peg.

Each week sees a dramatic shake up in the standings, but for now the Americans are holding serve in their own fantasy game. How long will it last? Time will tell.

With the awaited Daily DB released last Thursday, there's little doubt regarding the biggest news of this week. However, I'm assuming most (if not all) of you are already aware of that, so no need to include it here, I guess!

Windows 8.1 and older PCMs no good mix

The new Windows 8.1 operating system may bring some new features, but for those of you who are still enjoying PCM12 or an even older version - it might be worth thinking twice before updating. Why? It's simple - the games wont run. The problem was first noticed by emmea90, who reported to Cyanide - who confirmed the issue.

PCM13 does on the other hand work with 8.1, but only through running PCM.exe and PCM-protection.exe as an administrator.

Buckle up - the European cycling season is over

For those of us living in Europe, it's time to say goodbye to the 2013 season. Today's Chrono des Nations events marked the final stop on the calendar. While Tony Martin enjoys yet another win, us fans will have to start preparing for how to survive the next couple of months without any races to watch. Is it January yet?

Plussbank reaches 2014 while The Comeback makes a comeback

After starting out all the way back in late July, Froomedog99's Team Plussbank story has now built up an entire season's headstart as the Norwegian squad advances into 2014 after a first year steered by the talented Sondre Holst Enger. The new year's racing is yet to begin, but there are some great-looking squad previews to check out before then. Click here to have a look right away!

In the meantime, an (not so) old friend has made its return to the site: Mresuperstar's "The Comeback"! After rapidly speeding past 30 pages during June and July, the popular story took a temporary break to wait for the Daily DB to be released. Stop by and welcome Travis Newton back!

Well, it took a while, but better late than never, as (some) people say :-)

We have been teasing enough, and by now you probably know about all the features that PCM.daily's Expansion Pack comes with. If not, let me summarize: More of everything - and plenty of other great improvements.

Seriously, though - we are confident you will like this. Career mode will be more varied by ever before with the extensive list of new teams and races, not to mention the many, many (!) variants. We have also added lots of new real-name sponsors that you can try to lure into paying for your team. In addition to this, 3D mode will be pretty - we promise. Lots of equipment and thousands of new shirts will do the trick.

... but as said, you know this by now. So let's go - it's download time.

Update 17/10, 9:44: We are definitely releasing today.

Just a short note to say that we're still working on the PCM.daily DB, mainly fixing a few things that we discovered to be somewhat broken while testing - for example, a few stages that crashed, a helmet that didn't look as well as it should and other minor stuff like that.

It is lluuiiggii that has to give the final go for the release, but I'm hopeful it will be this evening. I guess we will just have to wait and see, though.