14 DAY TRIAL // Cycling is one of the great passions of my life, the Tour de France is the biggest race in the professional calendar, and as a gamer, I can tackle the race using my favorite team with the newly launched Pro Cycling Manager 2015, from Cyanide and Focus Home Interactive.
I plan to once again run all the 21 stages in the cycling sim, controlling the rider of Trek Factory Racing, trying to win as many stages and rankings as possible while also trying to have a more in-depth look at the mechanics of the title.
Pro Cycling Manager 2015 is in much better shape right now than previous titles in the series were, and the core engine has been tweaked in some interesting ways to better reflect the way the sport exists in the real world.
I have chosen not to use any mods from the community other than a real name database to make things easier to follow, and I plan on posting both a report about the stage and video for all the 21 stages of the race.
Today is not about racing but choices
How much should a player who is interested in sports stay close to the real world when setting up their game? This is one of the biggest questions I had to deal before actually starting any stage in the Tour.
When playing FIFA or Football Manager, I don't necessarily follow the real-life transfer policy of the club that I control, but I struggled with the team selection for the virtual race.
My team is Trek Factory Racing, and they have already announced that their nine-man lineup consists of Fabian Cancellara, Julian Arredondo, Bauke Mollema, Haimar Zubeldia, Bob Jungels, Markel Irizar, Gregory Rast, Laurent Didier and Stijn Devolder.
I have no problem taking the first five men in my PCM 2015 version of Le Tour, but after plenty of thinking, I chose to replace the last four.
I will instead pick up Fabio Felline, Giacomo Nizzolo, Ricardo Zoidl and Frank Schleck, which should give me a real sprint option and some more firepower in the crucial mountain stages.
Bauke Mollema will be the leader of Trek Factory Racing at the Tour de France and will try to get as high on the general classification as possible.