Pro Cycling Manager 2021

Pro Cycling Manager 2021 puts you in charge of a cycling team as its sporting director, or lets you create a rider and pursue a career as a professional cyclist. It includes more than 800 riders, 80 teams, 260 races and 700 stages, including all 21 official stages of the Tour de France 2021.

Manage your team

In Career mode, you can create a team or take charge of an existing one and work to bring it to the top. You make decisions about recruitment, sponsorship, finances, equipment, staff and training. Build your roster around your results, keep finances healthy to retain sponsors and recruit riders, and manage an R&D team to improve equipment. Recruit trainers, scouts and doctors, and send scouts to find future stars for your development team, who may progress to the professional squad.

You can set any number of objectives for your riders, though too many can increase their fatigue. Their morale can also be affected by fatigue, calendar changes and other unforeseen circumstances, so you may need to revise plans during the season. The AI has been updated to manage rider objectives and assign leaders for important races.

Develop your rider

In Pro Cyclist mode, you create a rider, join a team and develop their skills while aiming to win major races and the Yellow Jersey. Completing objectives set by your manager helps you stand out and improves your negotiating power for future contracts, either with your current team or another. A skill tree lets you level up based on completed objectives. Once you become the team leader, your teammates work to support you.

Plan condition and fatigue

Race type and conditions affect fatigue: cobbled Classics, weather and efforts to contend for the general classification in multi-day races can all demand more from riders. You work from a provisional calendar and may have to change plans during the year, including cancelling a major race if a rider has reached their fatigue limit. The AI’s condition and fatigue management has also been improved for objectives in the middle and at the end of the season, including the Tour de France, La Vuelta, the World Championships and Classics.

In Career mode, weather remains consistent throughout stage races, with day-to-day conditions based on real meteorological data. Weather also affects rider fatigue and morale, including the risks associated with certain races.

Race for national teams

The season calendar includes the European Championships, with online races and time trials contested by national selections, in the same way as the World Championships. Winners receive distinctive jerseys. National-team AI has been improved for both championships, with revised selection criteria and fixes for cases where suited leaders were left out. The database also includes additional national teams for European races, and the National Teams page has been redesigned.

Races and equipment

The game adds licensed brands and official equipment: Lazer helmets; Specialized helmets, frames and wheels; Vision wheels; Rudy Project helmets; Corima wheels; HJC helmets; POC helmets; Merida frames; and Canyon frames. Official Tour roadside elements, including kilometre arches and banners, are also included.

Peloton behaviour has been improved in sprints, especially on finishes with many bends. Quick simulations have been adjusted for more realistic results, including cobbled races such as Paris-Roubaix, hilly Classics such as Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and the final stages of Grand Tours. Flat final stages can now end in a sprint finish, and time-trial simulations produce somewhat larger time gaps. The teams page and rider statistics have also been revised, with details including appearances in top races, race-day information and results.

A rule allows the best pro continental teams to receive invitations to World Tour races and single-day races: the best can be invited to all World Tour races, while the runner-up can be invited to all single-day races. Modders can adjust this rule in the database.