New features in 2021 that add even more realism to PCM:
- All 21 official stages of the Tour de France 2021
- A new objective system
- European Championships and national teams
- New licensed brands (Lazer, Specialized, Vision, Rudy Project, Corima, HJC, Canyon, POC, Merida)
- Improved peloton behaviour
- Quick simulations are more like real races
An extensive Career mode
In Pro Cycling Manager's Career mode, you can create your own team or manage an existing team and take it to the top.
You are the Sporting Director of this team and are responsible for making the best decisions:
- Rider recruitment: build your dream team based on your results
- Sponsorship: attract sponsors to increase your budget
- Finances: you need to have healthy finances to retain the trust of your sponsors and recruit new riders
- Equipment: manage your R&D team to improve your equipment and ensure the best performance
- Staff recruitment: you also need to recruit your staff (trainers, scouts to discover new talent, and doctors) to help you manage your team
- Training: send out scouts to unearth future cycling stars and manage your development team to potentially include them in the professional team
Climb to the top in Pro Cyclist mode
In this mode you create your own rider, join a team and improve your skills to try and win the world's most prestigious races… The Yellow Jersey awaits!
Complete the objectives set by your manager to stand out and increase your negotiating power for future contracts in your team… or in another. Be careful of poor career decisions!
Pro Cyclist mode features a skill tree for levelling up your rider based on objectives completed.
Once you have proved yourself, you will become your team's leader, just like Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar and Thibaut Pinot. Your teammates will then work to help you.
New objectives system
We have revised the objectives system to make it more realistic and to offer you more freedom.
You can now set any number of objectives for all your riders (but too many objectives will certainly affect their fatigue). But you will have to constantly reconsider your choices during the season because unforeseen circumstances (fatigue, calendar changes, etc.) will affect the morale of your riders.
We have also developed a new AI to manage riders' objectives and to improve allocation of leaders in the season's important races.
This new system also involves changes to the condition and fatigue system:
- Race types taken into account in terms of fatigue management, with some races and conditions more demanding than others: the Classics with cobbles, weather, competing for ranking in the general classification in multi-day races
- All this provides more dynamic gameplay: based on a provisional calendar, you may need to revise your plans during the year, i.e. cancel an important race at the last moment before a major objective because your rider has already reached his fatigue limits
- Improvements to the AI's condition/fatigue management, especially regarding fitness for mid-season (Tour de France) and end of season (La Vuelta and World Championships/Classics) objectives
NEW: European Championships and national teams
We have added the European Championships (online races and time trials) in the season calendar. These two races work like the World Championships, i.e. by national selection.
This means:
- Distinctive jerseys for the winners, like the World Championships
- Improved AI for national selections, for the World Championships and European Championships. More realistic criteria for building teams and fixing problems with the old system (certain leaders wouldn't take part in an event even though the course suited them)
- New national teams in the database to ensure there are enough teams for European races
- Redesigned “National Teams” page
NEW: More realistic weather
Weather has a greater impact on fatigue and your riders' morale: certain races are known to involve a level of risk tied to weather. This now has an effect on riders and their fatigue.
In Career mode, weather is now consistent in stage races. We have used real meteorological data to create realistic weather from day to day.
NEW: New brands and official equipment added
Pro Cycling Manager 2021 offers even more content with over 800 riders, 80 teams, 260 races and 700 stages.
To add more realism, we have added new official brands:
- Lazer (helmets)
- Specialized (helmets, frames, wheels)
- Vision (wheels)
- Rudy Project (helmets)
- Corima (wheels)
- HJC (helmets)
- POC (helmets)
- Merida (frames)
- Canyon (frames)
We have also added a range of official roadside elements of the Tour (kilometre arches, banners, etc.).
Miscellaneous
- Improved peloton behaviour in sprints, especially in finishes with many bends
- Continuing our efforts to improve the Manager interface, we have redesigned the teams page and added new statistics for riders (appearances in top races, race day details and results)
- Improved quick simulations for more realism:
o Improved results and consideration of cobbles (e.g. Paris-Roubaix)
o Improved hilly Classics. Consideration of the Hill characteristic and settings to improve the realism of results, such as the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège
o Stage 21 taken into account in Grand Tours. For added realism, flat stages that occur on the last day of a race, such as the Tour de France, now end in a sprint finish
o Improved gaps in time-trial stages. The gaps are now a little larger for improved realism when simulating these stages - Rule added to allow the best pro continental teams to receive an invitation to all World Tour races (for the best) and all races taking place on a single day (for runner-up). Modders can adjust this parameter in the database
