14 DAY TRIAL // The best way to enjoy Pro Cycling Manager 2014 is to pick a favorite team or just choose the one that includes the rider you like best and then go through a full season, picking races, following objectives, trying to coax as much performances as possible from the roster and getting sponsors to deliver more money for the next season.
When I lack time, I might try to play a single-day classic or a stage race, but the bulk of my time with the Cyanide title is linked to the Career mode and here, for each new season that starts in early January, one of the most important moments is the first week.
I once more take command of my beloved Trek Factory Racing, although their performances have declined in the last few years, and I plan to use Cancellara and a slew of other riders, some of the them veterans like the Schlecks and other newcomers like Aredondo, to win as many important races as possible.
In the first six days of Pro Cycling Manager 2014, the gamer, regardless of his team choice, needs to deal with a variety of issues: the trainers that will handle each rider and their specialization work, the fitness schedules that they will follow, the objectives that they will target in the coming year and the races, apart from the obligatory ones, that the team will attend.
At the same time, some staff might need to be hired, there are some decisions to make about the way equipment will be used and the player can also choose to send his riders to a special training camp in order to get them ready for the start of the season.
Their effects might be small in the short term, but they, especially the fitness schedule and the objectives, are the sort of early tweaks that can decisively affect the way the superstars perform against other top riders.
The results in turn will be important to sponsors and the way they will support the team in the future.
So I set Cancellara, clearly the best athlete that I can command, to focus on the cobbled classics and then try to support the rest of the squad during Le Tour de France in July.
At the same time, I tried to make sure that I had at least one promising rider prepared for each of the three Grand Tours, in order to try to get both a stage victory and a good placing in the general classification.