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Introduction
Cycling Simulator is a free online cycling manager settled in a fictional cycling universe where the players take control of their own cycling team. Players from all over the world compete nationally and internationally to become the best manager out there.
Game Basics
When playing Cycling Simulator, you become the manager of your own cycling team, and it's up to you to lead the team to success. You can invest in young talents and improve their training, hire experienced riders to ensure your success or something completely different. Which path you choose is up to yourself and is one of the many choices you will have to make as a manager.
Hire staff, buy the right equipment, set your tactics and plan the future for your team. Face the challenges you meet when you are trying to rule the rankings. You don't have to manage your team more than one or two times a week, though many players find the joy to come back more often and we hope you will as well!
The Beginning
In the beginning of the game, you'll receive 15 riders and 100.000$. From there, it's your assignment to make your riders perform in races in order to earn money and gain success. Your team will start out in the lowest division where you will compete against other completely new teams. Once you get your first result (a top 3 position), you'll move up to the next division where the competition gets slightly harder.
Beginner's Advice
It may seem complicated in the beginning, but when you cut the game down to its core, it's actually quite simple. In the beginning you should focus on the simple aspects such as racing (which is the most important part of the game) and training. Later on, as you get to know the game better, you can expand your horizon.
There's a lot of help to find in this manual, as well as on the forum. The community is friendly and there are many kind players willing to help newcomers.
Since Cycling Simulator is a manager game there's no exact method working it. It comes down to priorities and choices. Who knows, maybe you have the recipe for creating a successful cycling team!
Team
Behind every team is an organization consisting of the manager, the staff and her riders. The riders are the core of the team, while the staff contributes to the team in a positive way. It's up to you, the manager, to establish a good organization with success, popularity and economic growth.
The Team Page
The team page is the center of your team and can be found in the left menu by following the link with the same name as your team. The page contains an overview of your own tea, including information on ranking, outfits, riders, and much more. A similar profile is available for other teams and you can check them out down the road if you meet them in competition
One of the most important things on your team profile is the table of riders, which is explained in the manual's chapter on riders.
Information on ranking as well as available cash is listed in the left menu to constantly give you an overview of your situation.
Outfit
Each team has its own outfit which can be designed by the manager and changed as often as the manager wants to - it's completely free of charge. By the end of every season, the teams' jerseys will be saved in the historic database.
When designing the jersey for your team, the jersey is seperated into three sections:
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Body
Arms
Sides
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Each part can have its own colour and design and it's up each manager to come up with a combination he or she likes. The outfit can be changed by following the link below the jsery, which by standard is white, at the team profile page.
Results
Your own team's result is displayed in the left menu, while you'll find the results of other teams on their profile page. Clicking the title of the result box leads you to an overview page of the 10 most recent races your or another team participated in with a top 9 result list available. This can also be found by follow the "Team" menu in the top and picking the sublink called "Results".
Results are mostly positions in the top three resulting in a podium. There are however exceptions. In classics, tours and the world championships any position in the top nine is considered as a result. These results are the ones displayed and counted.
Ranking
Every team is a part of the global rankings. By winning races or finishing in good positions the team gains points and thereby moves up on the ranking. The team with the most point is ranked 1st, the second highest score is 2nd, and so on.
National Ranking
Besides the global rankings, there's also the national ranking. Each team can compare themselves to the other teams from the given nation by comparing the same points that count in the global rankings.
The ranking is mentioned next to a flag symbolising either a national rank by showing the national flag or a global rank by showing a "world flag" (Looking like this:  ).
Riders
The riders are what makes the team. Without the riders, there would be no team and no racing. Each team must have at least 9 riders on the roster. Riders have different abilities and different talents. The talent is unknown but can be partly known by using the talent scout.
Abilities/Stats
There's a total of 8 abilities and two factors defining the riders' shape and motivation - these are called stats. All of them are based on numbers from 1 to 99 where 99 is the best possible. The abilities are as follows:
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Climbing
Downhill
Hills
Sprinting
Flat Road
Cobblestone
Technique
Time Trial
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CL
DH
HL
SP
FR
CB
TQ
TT
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While the two remaining stats are:
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Discipline
Race Shape
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DP
RS
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When listening riders in a table it would be hard to get an overview if it wasn't for the helping colours. Abilities ranging from 50 and up are coloured in different colours matching the specific range the stat is within. The colours are as follows:
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50-59 is highlighted as blue
60-69 is highlighted as dark blue
70-79 is highlighted as green
80-89 is highlighted as dark green
90-99 is highlighted as red
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Next to the listed highlights are two highlights for race shape and discipline. These highlights are intended as warnings to those managers who might not notice, that their riders are getting out of shape. Yellow highlighted race shape or discipline indicates the stat is disturbingly low while an orange highlight indicates that the stat has reach the lowest value possible.
The stats are further elaborated at the end of this chapter.
Age and Retirement
Riders all have an age increasing over their career. Each season counts as one year. Every rider will keep riding as long as a team finds him interesting. This means that riders only retire once they are without a team and unable to find a new team.
Riders' performance decrease as they age. Once a rider reached age 28, his performance will start reducing by 4% a season. The drop is calculated on a day to day basis to avoid thresholds. A rider does though increase his performance as he gain experience - read about this below.
When it comes to youth competitions in tours the maximum age in order to compete is 25. Only riders who start the season by the age of 24 can compete in the youth competitions no matter when the birthday is.
Ready to retire
When a rider reaches a certain age, he will be ready to retire. This means that the rider will not go to the transfer list if he is released. Instead he will retire and remain as a rider who retired with the team. Retired riders can later be used as staff on your team. Riders want to retire at different ages. When a rider who is ready to retire is released, the team still receives the release value.
Experience
Every rider has an experience level that increases as the rider earns more experience from racing. The increase in experience depends on the level of competition. The more difficult the race is (depending primarily on divisions, but also classics influences this), the bigger experience gain.
The benefit from experience depends on the most experienced rider in the race. Technically, the most experienced rider will set the "standard". Anyone with less experience than him will have his performance reduced with up to 50%. The 50% reduction only happens if a rider is completely inexperienced compared to an experienced rider. In most common cases, it will be a matter of 1-10%, and rare cases it might even go up to 20%. It all depends on who is racing who.
Experience Levels
Experience is indexed with levels. The higher experience level, the better performance. The levels range from 1 to 9. Below is a table displaying how big the performance reduction is compared to the different levels.
| Levels | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 1 | 0% | 2,6% | 7,2% | 14,0% | 21,7% | 29,3% | 34,7% | 38,3% | 40,9% |
| 2 | | 0% | 4,8% | 12,1% | 20,1% | 28,2% | 33,8% | 37,7% | 40,4% |
| 3 | | | 0% | 8,0% | 16,1% | 25,9% | 32,1% | 36,4% | 39,4% |
| 4 | | | | 0% | 10,6% | 21,2% | 28,6% | 33,6% | 37,3% |
| 5 | | | | | 0% | 13,5% | 22,9% | 29,4% | 33,9% |
| 6 | | | | | | 0% | 12,9% | 21,8% | 28,0% |
| 7 | | | | | | | 0% | 12,0% | 20,4% |
| 8 | | | | | | | | 0% | 11,0% |
| 9 | | | | | | | | | 0% |
The above table only takes the level thresholds in consideration. The actual reduction will depend on where the rider is between the two levels, but the table gives a good indication as to how the reduction is settled.
Riders can only earn experience when they enter a race with at least 65 discipline and if they are not injured.
Keep in mind that the experience levels are just an visualization on the experience. What actually matters is the experience index behind the levels. This also means that the levels have different coverage. In general, it gets harder and harder for a rider to gain a level, yet the actual experience gain is always beneficial. One exception to this is level 1 which in most cases has a big coverage in order to cover many of very unexperienced riders. It will therefore in most cases take a while for a rider to go past level 1.
Talent and Potential
Each rider has a talent. Some are born to be better than others. The talent may vary from stat to stat, and the potential and value of a rider is often evaluated from a rider's full potential in all stats, as one single ability alone won't do much.
The potential decides how good a rider can get in the various stats, ranging from 35 to 99. Instead of describing the potential with numbers, the potential is mentioned with labels such as Small, Average, Good and more. Each label refers to a range of numbers which can be seen below. As with the stats, the potentials also match the colouring highlights.
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Absolutely none
None
Small
Average
Good
Very good
Incredible
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30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70-79
80-89
90-99
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Besides the specific potential known (once scouted) there's an unknown potential determining the overall outcome of a rider. This means that a good visual potential won't do it all alone, as not everyone can reach their full potential. The overall potential sets a limit as to how much training the rider can receive regardless of the potential in the specific stats.
In order to see a rider's potential you must use the talent scout.
Ranking
Just like the teams, the riders also have their individual rankings both nationally and internationally. The points counted are those generated by the rider throughout the season - even if the rider changes team. The leading rider in each nation will be riding races in he national jersey which is normally used by the national team.
Examples of national jerseys:
        
Abilitiess/Stats Explained
The various stats aren't as much worth as they can be combine. For instance a rider who's good at climbing would be preferred to be good at downhilling as well, as these often feature in the same races. The higher value, the better result.
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Climbing specifies a rider's ability to climb mountains. A high value will result in an advantage in the mountains when riding uphill.
Downhill specifies a rider's descending skills. If a rider is a strong downhiller, he'll use less efforts on the descends.
Hills specifies a rider's ability to climb short climbs steep or not. Hills and mountains are different in the sense that hills are usually below 3km while mountains are longer and different talent is demanded for the two sorts of climbs.
Sprinting specifies how fast a rider is in a sprint and in acceleration. Sprinting is used at any race at the end, but the route might be so demanding that even a strong sprinter will be exhausted by the sprint.
Flat Road specifies how strong a rider is on purely flat roads and is a good expression of power. The flat road ability is also relevant when it comes to performance in the wind.
Cobblestone specifies how well the rider is able to ride on cobblestones and gravel.
Technique specifies the rider's technique on a bike used for both downhilling, positioning in the peloton, sprinting, cobblestones, etc.
Time Trial specifies how good a rider is on his own riding against the clock.
Discipline is a combination of many things such as motivation, engagement, fitness, preparations, race "hunger", and much more. Riders restore discipline by having breaks from racing. Riders with low discipline are more likely to crash or get injured during races.
Race Shape specifies how fit a rider is when it comes to racing alone. It's not enough to be fit - you also have to be used to the racing, speed, intervals ,etc. The race shape factor increases by every race but drops over time.
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Rider Types
There are many different rider types, as they can be combined differently. The basic and typical types are however riders for the mountains, sprints or time trials.
Riders for the mountains mainly need climbing and downhill. The weighting can vary a lot - some riders are better downhills while others prefer a lot of climbing. As supporting abilities, hills, sprinting and technique is often preferred. By combining the stats and potentials, you can create advanced rider types as a climbing rider who's a good finisher.
Sprinting riders obviously need sprinting as their primary ability, while flat road and technique are important as well. Again, it's possible to make a sprinting rider strong on small climbs (hills or climbing) as well in order to expand his repertoire. Alternatively, the sprinter might become a good timetrailist and do well on short prologues.
A time trial rider is hard to define in a specific way. The time trial ability is of course the main factor, but depending on the rider's purpose he may be strong in climbing or hills while flat road and technique are often considered as the most important secondary stats for a time trialist.
The options are many, and it's up to the various team managers to shape the riders the way they want them for the team. Different managers share different opinions on the topic though there are some somewhat fixed guidelines as mentioned above.
Top form
Riders are able to reach top form. When a rider is in top form, his performance will be increase by 10%.
To get in top form, a rider must reach high values of both discipline and race shape at the same time. When both values are 90 or above, the top form will trigger. Top form will last for 12 days. Between each top form, a rider must get a rest. When reaching a discipline value of 65 or less while having a race shape of 75 or less, the rider has had enough rest and will be ready to achieve a new top form. A rider can only trigger his top form 45 days after the last time he triggered the top form.
Team Spirit
A rider's team spirit indicates how well the rider performs in a team. The team spirit has no influence on the rider's performance on his own.
On a team with full team spirit, the riders benefit from each other as much as possible, making the supporting riders contribute.
The team spirit is measured in percentage. The percentage decides how much a supportive rider will contribute to the captain. If a rider's team spirit is 75%, he will contribute with 75% of his maximum contribution in a supportive role.
Team Spirit Influence
Many different factors influence a rider's total team spirit. Below you'll find a list of the factors and an indication as to how they will influence ("+" meaning positively, "-" meaning negatively).
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Discipline
Race Shape
Staff
Rider jobs
Comfort
Team wins
Team results
Personal wins
Personal results
Team injuries
Personal injuries
Time since last free role
Transfers in/out*
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+/-
+/-
+
-
+/-
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
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* Riders who were hired within the latest month does not get their team spirit affected by transfers.
Races/Tours
Cycling, as well as Cycling Simulator, is all about the racing whether it's tours or one-day races. It's the results on the bikes that decide a team's success. First of all, the rankings are generated from the race results, but perhaps more importantly, a team's income is highly depending on the results.
Race Profiles
Each race or stage in a tour has its own profile based on numbers like the riders' abilities. The numbers are however single digits including some randomness. For instance, a rider will show a climbing stat of 70 where a race profile will show 7, which covers the values from 70 to 79.
The numbers in the race profiles display the importance of the various stats. The stat with the highest number is the most important and riders who have their strengths here will benefit from it. The race profiles can vary a lot and suit different riders. In some races, downhill will be more important that the climbing itself, which most likely means that the stage finishes after descending a mountain.
On the other hand, the abilities like flat road and technique may be more important in a flat street race than the sprinting ability, despite the fact that the race is most likely to end in a sprint.
When a race profile has a sprint value of 4 or more, the finish is a flat sprint, while a value below 4 symbolizes an uphill finish. The lower value, the steeper climb at the end and the less influence will the actual sprinting abilities of the riders have at the result.
If a race has many hills or other difficulties for a sprinter, this may exhaust the rider in a way that will make him unable to win in the end, which basically means that the winner of a mass-sprint isn't necessarily the fastest sprinter, but rather the strongest sprinter who got through the race by using as few efforts as possible in order to be fit for the finish.
The above icons and numbers could be an example of a race profile. In this case, the race will strongly suit climbing riders who are strong in climbing and downhill. Besides that, the riders will be able to benefit from the other stats as well, though they are not as important. The sprinting value is at 2, which means that the finish is a medium steep uphill finish.
If you're unsure of what the icons mean, you can always place the mouse on the icons to figure it out. For simplicity, the symbols are placed in the same order as the stats in the rider tables.
Above the race profile on the race page, you'll see a text description of the race profile, which might help you understanding the race profiles in the beginning. Once you are familiar with the race profiles, you'll find the numbers easy to analyze and you will be able to "read" and understand the profile in a glimpse. Until then, it's recommended that you spent some time analyzing the race for your own good, as it will benefit you a lot if you are able to pick the right riders and races.
Wind
With high wind speeds, your riders will perform worse if they are not strong in the wind. The flat road stat controls this. The performance loss due to wind is divided into two pieces. One that the rider's own flat road stat influences, and one that his wind breaker (if he has one) influences. In both cases, the maximum drop in performance is 15% for a rider with 30 in flat roads or below at maximum wind speed.
A rider with 99 in flat roads will reduce the above mentioned maximum drop of 15% to a drop of just 4%. The same goes for the wind breaker who will protect his captain from the wind.
Prizes and Points
When finishing inside the top 9 in a race, you'll earn prize money and points for the ranking. The beginners division is though slightly different, as you only win points by finishing on the podium here. The prize money and points can vary from race to race but mostly follows a structure based on the division. How many points and how much money you can win at the races can be found on the race page where you'll as standard see the prizes for the top 3. Extending the boxes will show the full top 9 prizes.
The points for the top 3 is set by the race organizers, where after the points drop 10 per each position. If the amount of points reaches 10, it will drop just 2 points per position. If the amount of points reaches 2 before the top 9 is complete, the remaining positions will not be rewarded any points.
Participating and Joining Restrictions
8 days before a race is scheduled, the sign-up will be opened and teams that meet the joining restrictions are invited to take part. Each division has its own joining criteria based on the ranking and you'll only be able to take part in those where your team fits in with its ranking. These races will automatically be shown to you on the calendar page, which will be explained in the chapter "Calendar", so the races will automatically adjust to your rank.
Once you are signed up for a race, you are stuck with your participation as the race organizers expect your participation as well as the sponsors of the race, fans and the likes are looking forward to see your team racing. The commitment to the races also means that you cannot change which riders you want to participate after you have signed up. This also means that you'll still take part in the races even though you move up to the next division or down.
When you are able to sign up for a race, you'll see a link at the right below the list of teams participating teams. Pressing it will lead you to a page where you pick your team and the tactics. Once your team is set, you press the link to sign up the team, and you'll be ready to race. You cannot sign up riders who are injured, on training camps, doing jobs or available for transfer.
The "Tactics" chapter will explain the sign-up process further.
Each team is limited to a certain amount of sign-ups, which is depending on the amount of bus drivers (read the "Staff" chapter). By default, without hiring any bus drivers, you are able to sign up for 3 races at a time and it's not recommended for new teams to go beyond this limit, due to the cost of the riders' discipline.
Teams/Riders Participating
At the bottom of the race page, you'll see a rider table of all the riders participating. This is useful to compare the riders in the different disciplines and to get an idea of who might be winning the race. In the participating box, you are able to see the teams attending the race and you are able to see the riders sent by the team by pressing the name.
Former Winners
Each race keeps track of the winners and the results from earlier editions. These can be seen in the box with winners and will be mentioned by rider name and team followed by a number identifying which edition of the race the result belongs to. Pressing the edition number will show the extended result list which may vary in length for each team, as it's possible to change this setup at the settings page, which can be found in the menu in the left called "Team Menu".
If a rider changes team after winning a race, his former team will still be listed as the winner. His new team will only be attached to his new results. Your own riders are highlighted as well as your team name, which makes them/it easy to spot.
Racing
24 hours before a race, the riders will be taken of race break (for further information, read the chapter "Race Break") and they are now doing the final preparations for the race, such as travelling, checking the route, and more. This will happen automatically and all you have to do as the manager is to wait. The same thing goes for the race itself. Once the tactics are set, you can only hope that your riders will be strong enough to ensure a result for your team. The race will happen automatically, and you'll be informed about the result when you login next time.
When a rider is signed up for a race, he is not able to do actions like participating in training camps or doing alternative jobs for the team. You can however sign him up for several races, though it's recommended that you spare your riders in order to ensure that they have high discipline (cf. "Race Break").
Discipline and Race Shape
Every time a rider attends a race, his discipline will fall and it must be recovered through breaks from racing (read the chapter "Race Break"). The race shape does though increase, as the rider gets the experience from the racing. The race shape increases from 6 to 8 after each race, while the discipline decreases depending on the race. Long and hard races are more likely to cause a bigger loss of discipline than short races, which also means that your riders lose more discipline in the top divisions than they would in the lower divisions. It may therefore become harder to balance the two attributes once you climb the ranks.
The most prestigious classics (such as Zürich-Bern-Zürich and Norwich-London in the Top Division) are known to cause a loss of 14 discipline points while regular races in the Beginners Division only demand 7 discipline points.
During tours the discipline loss and race shape gain is modified, meaning that the overall outcome of a rider's discipline after a full tour is slightly bigger loss than a regular one-day race. The same goes for the race shape that during tours increases from 0 to 2 per stage. Each stage has its own discipline loss where the minimum is 1. It may be an advantage to let your riders save energy on certain stages by riding as practise.
Tours
Tours are put together by a bunch of stages looking to find the overall winner of the tour in the general classification based on time. The general classification is most likely to be settled on mountain stages or time trials. However, some tours are based in flat regions meaning that bonus seconds in sprints might be essential or perhaps the time trial alone.
The length of the tour can vary a lot. Some are short tours with only 3 or 4 stages, where others are much longer. The different setup and length each tour has makes the potential winners vary a lot. To win a tour, you must most likely have a strong rider and all the luck you can get, as well as you need to time his form perfectly, as you would want you rider to perform consistently over the important stages in the tour.
A tour is often opened by a short time trial known as a prologue. These are different to the regular time trials in the sense that there's not as much time to win and the race profile looks quite differently. On short time trials, sprinters might be able to do well along the side of the regular time trialists simply due to the short route. The prologues are mainly there to settle who gets to ride the in the leader's jersey and to get some small time differences from the start.
Other competitions
Apart from the general classification that is in every tour, there may also be a sprinter's competition or a youth competition. The youth competition works like the general classification except that the riders must be turn 25 years old in that season or younger. The sprinter's competition is based on sprinting points won on each stage in the race. Regular sprinting races count more in this competition.
Each of the competitions has its own leader's jersey that the riders, once they are in lead of the competition, will ride in. The overall winner of the competition after the tour will win the jersey and add it to his own palmarès as well as his team's.
King's stage
Each tour has a so called "King's stage", which is the expected stage to be the hardest - and therefore the one with the highest chances of big time gaps. At the tour's profile page, you'll see the stages listed with one of them being hightlighted as the "King's stage". The "King's stage" is most often also the most prestigious stage to win along with the finishing stage of the tour that often is set as a popular straight forward sprinting stage.
Ranking
The rankings are based on the points won in races. The higher positions in races, the more points won. In the Top Division there are most points to be won, and the points won are lowered all the way down to the Beginner's division.
The ranking only counts points scored during the recent 3 months (90 days) which is the same length as the season. This means that in order to stay on the top, a team most continuously perform. This gives a constant ranking that is at any time reflecting the team's strength and resetting the ranks is unnecessary.
Each nation has its own ranking list next to the global rankings. The national rankings are based on the same points as the global rankings but instead of counting all the teams listed, it only counts those from a given nation. Since the different nations vary in popularity, the level of prestige of being number one in the national rankings may vary a lot. It can though be quite interesting to compete in the national ranking as an add-on to the global rankings.
The rankings are both for riders individually and for the teams. Points scored by a rider count in the rider's own ranking as well as for the entire team.
Symbols
When it comes to the rankings, there are various symbols to make it easier to read quickly - one of them being the flags. The flags symbolizes the various national rankings while the global ranking is referred to by a "World" flag ().
At the ranking page, you'll find numbers followed by either a red or a green triangle point in different directions. These indicate a team's recent movement on the rankings, for instance two positions up would be showed as the number two followed by a green triangle pointing upwards.
Divisions
As an overall guide line, the races are based on divisions. The divisions make sure that teams only are able to race races and tours that fit their level of competition.
New teams are always starting in the lowest division also known as "Beginners Division". As soon as a new team scores any amount of points, the team moves up to the next division which ensures that only new teams compete in the lowest division.
The divisions are as follows:
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1 | | to | 50 | | Division 1 - Top Division | |
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23941 | | to | - | | Division 11 - Beginners Division | |
Secondary Divisions
Between the divisions you'll be finding secondary divisions to make the transition less hard. These are named with the primary division's name followed by a dot and the number of the secondary division. For instance, there are two divisions between Division 1 and Division 2. These are called Division 1.1 and Division 1.2. Between Division 2 and 3 you'll find Division 2.1, etc.
The secondary divisions are different in the way, that teams from two divisions can join: the highest ranked in the lower of the divisions and the lowest ranked in the higher division.
Race Break
Race breaks are essential for riders and the team's success. In order to stay in good shape, the riders need breaks from the racing as they cannot keep going. The race breaks increase riders' discipline which makes the riders perform better and decreases the risk of injuries.
Being on a race break, it doesn't mean that a rider isn't training meanwhile. It's to be seen as the rider's daily training including his preparations, rides, motivation, and more. The rider does though only improve his discipline, which is an essential factor when it comes to his shape. In order to improve his actual abilities such as climbing or sprinting he will have to go on training camps for that purpose.
The benefit from the race breaks depend on the length. The longer breaks, the better. There's however a limit of 5 days for the breaks. Any break longer than 5 days only give the benefit of the limited 5 days. If you on the other hand want your riders to go on a break for longer than 5 days, you can always split it up into two, so that he takes another break after the first one.
When a rider starts a race break, the amount of discipline the rider has is important. With low discipline, the increase is higher and the increase goes gradually down the higher the starting point of discipline is. The highest gain in discipline over 5 days is 25 which is achieved only with low discipline (50 or less). The minimum gained is 5 over 5 days, which happens when the discipline starts on 85 or above.
The examples mentioned above are for standard situations. Hiring a recovery doctor will influence on the outcome of the race breaks for the better. Read more about this in chapter 11 about staff.
Performance
The riders' performance in races depend on the discipline, and it is to be seen as an important stat as the abilities. The importance of discipline is comparable to a race profile saying "10". Even though this is actually more than any race can have in its profile, discipline isn't that important dude to the fact that most riders race with equal discipline and race shape levels. On the other hand, differences in the discipline can be quite influential on the result.
Sometimes it can be hard to get both the race shape and the discipline high, which once again evens things out between the riders. Unless a rider's shape has been timed perfectly resulting in very high discipline and race shape at the same time the gain in high discipline may be lost in "low" race shape.
Injury
Discipline is also an important factor when it comes to injuries. The amount of discipline decides how likely a rider is to get injured where high discipline lowers the risk. With a discipline level of 80 or above, the risk of getting injured is only 1%, while 70 or above correspond with a risk of 2%. It's recommend to avoid racing with a discipline below 50 (preferably 60 as well) as this is where the risk of injury increases rapidly and your riders are very likely to get injured where injuries normally with a decent level of discipline aren't very common.
Injuries set back a rider a bit and can vary in length. The length has nothing to do with the amount of discipline and is purely based on how heavy the injury is. The maximum length is however 10 days while the shortest is 5 days. With any injury, your rider will not be able to participate in races, training camps, racing breaks or doing other things for the team. His only job will be to get well. If however, the rider is already signed up for races, he is obligated to show up due to the arrangements with the race organizer who expects the rider attending the race. This will cost the rider some more discipline, but will not worsen the situation.
Training
While the daily training is covered by the race breaks, riders have to intensify their training in periods in order to get better. This can be done by going on training camps.
Training camps improve the riders' abilities by focusing solely on one stat at a time. The increase in abilities can vary from 1 to 5 and costs money per point increased depending on the starting point.
When a rider is on a training camp, he is unable to take part in other actions with the team such as alternative jobs, races, breaks, etc. The training camp is however quite short and the rider will quickly be available again.
When sending a rider on a training camp, you'll have to pick the focus of the training camp being one of the stats. Afterwards, you'll have to wait until your rider is done. After one hour, the first point will be increased. Hereafter it takes 2 hours per point. The rider can at any time be taken off the training camp - even within the first hour which however doesn't result in a gain.
When you are about to take back a rider from a training camp, you will face the price which you have to accept. It's therefore very important that you use the function carefully. If you however cannot pay for the training, you'll be able to get your rider back without any gain.
Once a training camp has been completed, you can decide if you want to put your rider on yet another camp to become even better. The riders do however need races in between every 4th training camp, as it's impossible to keep improving without getting the experience and practise from the races.
Pricing
The prices vary depending on the starting point of the ability trained as it increases all the way up, making it more and more expensive. The prices can be seen in the following table:
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20 - 29
30 - 39
40 - 49
50 - 59
60 - 69
70 - 79
80 - 89
90 - 99
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500 $/point
1000 $/point
1500 $/point
2000 $/point
3000 $/point
4000 $/point
5000 $/point
8000 $/point
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Limits
Riders can't improve endlessly, as they have a maximum potential. You will however always be able to send your rider on a training camp. This means that once your rider no longer increases his stats while being on a training camp that he reached his potential. The potential can be reached for a specific stat or for the rider in general. More about the potentials can be found in the chapter on riders.
Talent Scout
When you want to know how good a rider can become through training, you can use the talent scout. The talent scout will give you a brief scouting report on a rider whereafter you are able to see a rider's full potential from his profile.
Scouting a rider helps you decide his training as well as figuring out the rider's value. Every rider has a different potential, some worse than others, though almost any rider has a use to the right team. The talent scout can help you find the right riders for yours.
It's advised to scout riders before training them, as you should make sure you don't make a good talent go to waste by training him in the wrong direction.
Pricing
The talent scout is not free. Every time you hire the talent scout to look out for a rider, you'll have to pay 4.000$. This quickly gets expensive, and the talent scout option should therefore be used carefully.
How it works
When you've found a rider you are interested in and want to check his potential, you write in his name at the talent scout page in order to scout him. You'll firstly be asked to pick the right rider, in case there is more than one with the same name, whereafter you'll be asked to confirm due to the price for scouting reports. When confirmed, you'll receive a short scouting report on the rider giving you a short overview. The full potential can be seen in the rider's profile where it's now visible.
Quick Scout
When you're familiar with the scouting system, there's a quicker way to do this. However, the quicker method also means that you more easily spend money, which is why this should be used with caution for your own good.
At the settings page, you have the option to decide if you want quick scouting enabled or disabled. When enabled, quick scouting allows you to scout a rider directly from his profile, leaving the process at the talent scout page out. This saves you time, and you are able to see the full potential immediately. Instead of receiving a full report, you are also able to scout a single stat directly form the rider profile. This action costs 1.000$.
Economy
An essential part of the management of your cycling team is the team's economy. In order to be under constant development, your team will need an income. Income comes from prize money, which is the main income, merchandise sales or alternative jobs for your riders. Apart from this, releasing riders or selling out of your equipment are also quick ways of earning some quick cash.
Overview
The economy page under the team menu contains an overview of your current economical situation, listing current income and expenses. The overall balance will reveal if you earned money or lost money recently. It's however normal for a team to be short on cash in periods, in order to ensure the team's development. One of the high expenses are training, which alone is limited to the team's own interest here in. At the same time, training is also the key to future success and is most likely not a bad investment.
Alternative jobs
With the main income being prize money from races, it can be hard to get the economics to go well in periods with few or no results. Luckily, people outside the team might be interested in your rider for alternative jobs, such as TV appearances, shop openings, etc. As the team manager, you are enable to send your riders to such jobs in order to get some financial support for the team. However, riders prefer to ride their bikes for a living, and the jobs can never out pay the prize money from races. It can on the other hand be a good contribution to a good economy and turn out to be a very important solution in hard times.
The jobs vary in length and pay, and different amounts of discipline points are lost after each job, due to the demotivating factor combined with the effort doing on anything but racing.
How it works
When you want to send a rider to an alternative job, select the job in the list showing available jobs. Here after you will be told to select which rider you would like to assign to the job. This rider must not be busy doing anything else - racing, training, etc. - and he will be unavailable to you until he gets back from this job.
When a job has been started, it will disappear for a while until someone else might be interested in hiring a rider for such a job again. This takes approximately 2 weeks.
Equipment
Equipment is essential in every cycling race and can be found on many different levels ranging from equipment to beginners and high-end top quality products.
There are different types of equipment available for your team, ranging from bike equipment like wheels to accessories energy bars. Each type has its own level of benefit, manufactures and prices.
With each product comes a description that explains the benefit. The overall lines of the equipment and benefit follows in this chapter and can make it easier for you as a team manager to understand what to focus on.
New Managers and Equipment
It's recommended for new managers to avoid most equipment purchases due to the high price compared to the benefits.
Clothing
When it comes to clothing, both the design and performance of products are important. Buying better team outfits for the team can give more possibilities to the design hereof as well as an aerodynamic advantage.
Frames and Wheels
The frame and the wheels (along with the group sets) are the main parts of the bike and are rated in 4 different abilities:
- Uphill (contributes to climbing and hills)
- Flat (contributes to flat road and sprinting)
- Durability (contributes to downhill and cobblestone)
- Time trial (contributes to time trial)
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Rating example:
 
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Each ability can maximum receive 5 stars, where 5 stars is the absolute best. The rating can vary from product to product - some may be all-round while others are dedicated to a specific ability.
The benefit gained from equipment depends on the race profile. A strong rider will not benefit as much as a less good rider. Each star represents a 2% bonus for a rider with 50 in a discipline while the bonus is only 1% for a rider 90 in the same stat. The relation between the benefit expressed as percent and the stats is shown in the graph below.
The percentage benefit compared to stats. - Y: % bonus, X: stat level.
Frames and wheels are both rather expensive. Especially frames can be very hard to afford.
Group Sets
Group sets are much more simple. The better group set, the higher performance. The benefit is depending on the riders' performance in races and adds a given percentage. The group sets are however also quite expensive. Compared to a more aerodynamic outfit that gives 2% better performance like the best group sets, the high-end group sets are 30 times as expensive.
Accessories
Accessories are various things that can help out your team. Each product contains a description of how it is helping out like the canteens and energy bars that increases riders' performance by 2%.
Canteens and Energy Bars
Canteens and energy bars are used in each race if the team have any - even in practise races. This means that 6 of each will be used each race and each of the 6 riders will benefit from it. The canteens and energy bars are despite their rather cheap price regular expenses that rapidly increases the performance of riders. When using both products, the riders will receive a total benefit of 4%.
Comfort
Some equipment will increase or decrease comfort. Comfort is influencing the team spirit. Each comfort point is equal to half a team spirit percentage point.
Staff
Behind each team is an organization with you as the team manager at the top.
As a team manager, you are able to hire additional staff in order to improve your team including doctors, mechanics and bus drivers. Each type of staff has its own advantages.
The staff is managed from the Staff page which can be found in the Team menu.
Bus drivers
Bus drivers are central if you want to go racing a lot. Without any bus drivers, you are able to sign up for 3 races at a time. For each bus driver you hire, you are able to sign up for additionally 2 races. 3 races at a time is however enough for most teams and additional bus drivers should only be considered in rare cases on big teams.
Each bus driver costs 20.000$ and there's a limit of 3 drivers per team.
Doctors
Doctors can help the overall performance of the team as well be in charge of first aid in races or help the riders recover from races, training or injuries more rapidly.
The doctors have different specialities. Each doctor contributes to the team with his speciality alone. A doctor's quality is based on stats in the same sense as when it comes to riders. The higher stat in a given ability, the better doctor. Below you'll find a description of each doctor type.
To hire a doctor you must pay a one time fee of 20.000$. Here after, you are able to improve the doctor by paying 5.000$ for a 5 stat increment. You are able to hire a total of 3 doctors, which eventually will force you to make a choice, in case you want to take full advantage of having doctors.
Recovery (RE)
The recovery doctor helps riders recover from races and training by making their discipline increase with higher speed. A recovery doctor will make each race break more beneficial depending on his stats. With a doctor with 50 in recovery, the increase in discipline will at any time be 5% higher. With a doctor with 95 in recovery, the increase in discipline will be 14%. The bonus increase is always rounded down.
Injury (IN)
The injury doctor helps the riders recover from injuries. Whenever one of your riders get injured, the injury doctor will shorten the injury period by up to one full day. An injury doctor with 50 in injury (the starting amount) will reduce the length of any injury by the length of half a day, while a top injury doctor (95 in injury) will reduce the length by a full day.
First Aid (FA)
When a rider crashes in a race and gets injured, a first aid doctor will reduce the damages and the rider will be able to finish the race. The rider's performance will of course be reduced, but it might still be enough to make a difference in the race, rather than leaving it right away.
Health (HE)
Any top athlete pays a lot of attention to health. By hiring a health doctor for your team, you'll be able to improve the riders' performances by up to 2.3%. A health doctor with 50 in health (the starting amount) will provide a bonus of 0.5% while the best doctor of its kind (95 in health) will increase rider performance by 2.3%.
Mechanics
Mechanics can improve the performance of the equipment during races which eventually will pay off in a better performance from the riders. The mechanics are also able to increase the safety as well as solving mechanical problems during races.
The mechanics have different specialities. Each mechanic contributes to the team with his speciality alone. A mechanic's quality is based on stats in the same sense as when it comes to riders. The higher stat in a given ability, the better mechanic. Below you'll find a description of each mechanic type.
To hire a mechanic you must pay a one time fee of 20.000$. Here after, you are able to improve the mechanic by paying 5.000$ for a 5 stat increment. You are able to hire a total of 2 mechanics, which eventually will force you to make a choice, in case you want to take full advantage of having mechanics.
Service (SE)
The service mechanic makes sure that the equipment is perfectly fit for a race, which will increase the riders' performance by up to 2.3%. A service mechanic with 50 in service (the starting amount) will provide a bonus of 0.5% while the best service mechanic (95 in service) will increase performance by 2.3%.
Race (RA)
The race mechanic helps the riders during races in case they have mechanical issues such as punctures or other defects, which will reduce the negative influence here off. The higher stat the mechanic has, the faster will he operate, making the reduction of affect depend on the race mechanic's skill level.
Safety (SA)
The safety mechanic looks through the equipment focusing purely on safety which reduces the risk of riders crashing (and therefore also injuries). The higher stat the lower risk crashes/injuries.
Tactics
When it comes to races or tours, tactics play an important factor on the result.
The tactics in Cycling Simulator are set before races and cannot change during a race. Once the setup has been made, the team will stick to the plan. The tactics can be changed all the way up until the race starts.
Tactics are controlled through the rider roles. Each rider role has its own description and use. The roles depend on the type of the race. Read about the different setups below.
In order to get the full benefit from having a team set up to help a captain, the team must have a good team spirit. Read more about this below.
Basic tactics are initially set during the sign up process for a race. For further and more detailed tactics see the Tactics page under Races. The detailed tactics page offers more possibilities and the use of subroles can potentially increase the team's performance.
Roles in Road Races
Captain
The captain is the team leader and a protected rider, which ensures him a benefit from supporting riders. The team leader gets his performance enhanced through the help of all supporting riders - both lead outs and team mates (read about the benefit from each below).
Vice Captain
The vice captain is the second team leader and a protected rider, which ensures him a benefit from team mates. The team leader gets his performance enhanced through the help of solely team mates (read about the benefit from each below). Having two captains will not reduce the benefit in any way (except for the obvious fact that the second captain could appear as a team mate for the first captain instead of being a vice captain).
Sprinter
The sprinter is a protected rider, which ensures him a benefit from lead outs. The sprinter gets his performance enhanced through the help of solely lead outs (read about the benefit from each below). Having a sprinter on the team along the side of a captain will not reduce the benefit in any way (except for the obvious fact that the sprinter could appear as a lead out for the captain instead of being a sprinter himself).
Team Mate
The team mate is a supporting role. The team mate's job is to support a protected rider, catch break aways by taking relays in the peloton, prepare for the captain's attack, or similar. The team mates support the captain or a vice captain. The benefit gained from a team mate depends on the route and is based on the team mate's abilities in climbing, downhill, hills, flat roads and cobblestone. The benefit gained per team mate is comparable to 10% of the team mate's abilities. The team mate's own performance is on the other hand reduced by what is comparable to 10%, which makes it harder for him to perform on his own.
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Pace Setter
This type of lead out rider does the general job of supporting his captain as explained above. This is the standard setting.
Wind Breaker
The wind breaker breaks the wind for his captain. Instead of giving a bonus to his captain, he'll protect the captain from losing too much from the reduction due to wind. The wind break can potentially change a 15% reduction to a 4% reduction (read more on this in the Races/Tours chapter under Wind). This is the maximum. Milder wind speeds will cause a smaller performance reduction. Next to his wind breaking assignment, the wind breaker will also provide a help to his captain comparable to 1,25% of his own strength (compared to the 10% a pace setter provides). Only one wind breaker is beneficial.
Water Carrier
The water carrier enables the canteens and energy bars. Without a water carrier on your team, your riders won't use the canteens and energy bards and you won't lose any either. Apart from providing water and energy bars for his fellow riders, the water carrier will also provide a benefit of 3,33% for his captain. Only one rider on this role is beneficial.
Downhill Guide
The downhill guide is much comparable to the pace setter, only with a high focus on downhill. The downhill guide will help the captain on the descends by leading the way. He'll show the captain how to handle the curves and bends on the downhill while also keeping the captain out of the wind. The correct use of this may even provide a bigger benefit than the 10% known from the pace setter. Multiple riders can have this role.
Pave Pacer
The pave pacer takes the lead on the cobblestone paves and makes the race a lot harder for those who are not used to the paves. By using his technical abilities combined with his raw strength, the rider sets his captain in the best possible situation on the cobbles while he wears out the competitors.
Hill Helper
The hill helper takes the lead on the hills and makes the race a lot harder for those who are not strong here. By control the tempo uphill, the hill helper will put his captain in the best position possible on the hills, while also trying to drop the riders who might have a hard time climbing up the hills. Sometimes, the riders who are strong in the big mountains can do a good job on the shorter hills by setting the pace for their captains who have more punch.
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Lead Out
The lead out is a supporting role. The lead out's job is to protect the sprinter through the stage, catch break aways and launch the sprinter into a perfect position for the mass sprint. The lead outs support the captain or a sprinter. The benefit gained from a lead out depends on the route and is based on the lead out's abilities in sprinting, technique and flat roads. The benefit gained per lead out is comparable to 10% of the lead out's abilities. The lead out's own performance is reduced by what is comparable to 10%, which makes it harder for him to perform on his own. The lead out role is divided into various subroles with different benefits. See below.
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Lead Out 1
This type of lead out rider does the general job of supporting his captain during the race and enters a special role towards the end. The Lead Out 1 is the first rider in a classic sprinting train. The rider will take the lead in the peloton with about 10 km to go of a race in order to keep the captain at the front. This means that the sprinting stat is less important for this role, and that strong time trialists often will perform well on this spot.
Lead Out 2
This type of lead out rider does the general job of supporting his captain during the race and enters a special role towards the end. The Lead Out 2 is the second rider in a classic sprinting train. The rider will take the lead in the peloton with about 2 to 5 km to go of a race in order to keep the captain at the front and out of trouble. The job is technical and demands a lot of power, as the battle for positions is tapering off.
Lead Out Sprinter
This type of lead out rider does the general job of supporting his captain during the race and enters a special role towards the end. The Lead Out Sprinter is the last rider in the sprinting train. The rider will launch the sprint on the final kilometer with his captain on his wheel in order to put the captain in a perfect position for the sprint.
Wind Breaker
The wind breaker breaks the wind for his captain. Instead of giving a bonus to his captain, he'll protect the captain from losing too much from the reduction due to wind. The wind break can potentially change a 15% reduction to a 4% reduction (read more on this in the Races/Tours chapter under Wind). This is the maximum. Milder wind speeds will cause a smaller performance reduction. Next to his wind breaking assignment, the wind breaker will also provide a help to his captain comparable to 1,25% of his own strength (compared to the 10% a pace setter provides). Only one wind breaker is beneficial.
Water Carrier
The water carrier enables the canteens and energy bars. Without a water carrier on your team, your riders won't use the canteens and energy bards and you won't lose any either. Apart from providing water and energy bars for his fellow riders, the water carrier will also provide a benefit of 3,33% for his captain. Only one rider on this role is beneficial.
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Break Away
The break away is a free role. Riders set with this role will try on their own hand to win the race by breaking away some time during the race/stage. Some routes are well suited for break aways, particular those with many hills or cobblestone pavés. The break away rider will have a lot of his faith during races be controlled by pure luck. With the right amount of luck, the break away rider will be able to beat even the strongest riders in the race. On the other hand, if the rider fails his attempts, his performance will be reduced.
Practise
The practise role is intended for training/preparations. When a rider is set to ride the race for practise, he will only race the race to get experience and to get in shape. Technically, the practise role leads to riders losing less discipline after racing yet getting the same increase in race shape as normal, which makes it ideal for balancing race shape and discipline. The practise rider's performance will be unnoticed and such a rider has no chance of winning a race.
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Low effort
Low effort for practise riders causes half the reduction of discipline while the rider's increase in race shape remain unchanged. This is the standard setting.
High effort
High effort for a practise rider results in the regular loss of discipline and double race shape gain.
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Roles in Time Trials
Steady
The steady role in time trials is a role intended for people looking for a stabile performance on the time trial. The rider will not take any chances in turns or push too hard in the beginning, which ensures that he won't drop his speed towards the final kilometers on the route.
Risky
The risky role in time trials is a role intended for people willing to put everything at stake. The rider will push the speed through turns increasing the risk of crashing or miss calculating the turn. The rider will also push himself harder than he normally would, hoping that he is capable of keeping up the pace until the very end in order to win as much time as possible. However, such an effort is as the role name implies risky, and the rider risks to get exhausted during the race and thereby not give his best performance.
Combining Roles
When setting up tactics for the races, there are many things to consider. The most important thing is however always the route, which affects the benefit gained directly.
There's no easy and correct answer for the best setup, though it might be adviced as a general setting to use team mates for climbing stages and lead outs for sprinting races. What to do in hilly stages, street races, cobblestone races, etc., is not as simple and a part of the various managers' jobs.
Advice and inspiration
If a team is very strong compared to the competitors, it might be possible for a team to pull of quite risky, yet beneficial tactics if used with luck, tactic of having the best rider as a supporting rider for the second best rider. The idea is, that the best rider might be able to get a result on his own, while the second best rider through the benefit from team mates might be able to as well. This can potentially lead to two riders in top nine instead of just one. On the other hand, the safe tactics would be to focus on the best rider.
In general, when setting the tactics for races, it's important to focus on which setup gives the better performance either for a particular rider or for the team as a whole.
Team Spirit's influence on Tactics
As mentioned earlier, the team spirit has a very important influence on tactics. This makes it almost impossible for teams with very low team spirit to benefit from setting up the perfect team of team mates and lead outs. It does though not affect each rider's own performance, meaning that the captain (vice captain or sprinter as well) will still perform as if he had no supporting riders. A rider trying to break away does not need any team spirit either to pursue the luck.
The team spirit affects the above mentioned benefit from supporting riders directly - both up and down. Teams with high team spirit will be able to get a large benefit by working together. It does though take a team spirit of below 10% in order for the benefit from supporting riders to be useless, which means that even a team spirit of 40% or 50% is enough to help the captain, yet a team spirit of 80% or above is obviously far better.
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Content
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