Professional cycling is the ultimate test of human endurance, on the part of the riders, and ingenuity on the part of the people giving the team their orders. It’s both tougher and more complicated than you may realize.
Live Cycling Manager 2 is here to school you. Developed by Xagu Studios, and part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund, the game covers every conceivable aspect of managing a cycling team, from race tactics to renting transport.
The game challenges you to create a club and manage it completely, like some kind of omnipotent cycling despot.
That means hiring the best cyclists, trainers, doctors, scouts, mechanics, physiotherapists, drivers, and so on. You’ll need to control finances, manage injuries, and deal with the day to day logistics of getting a team of top athletes from race to race in tip top condition.
And how do you keep everybody in tip top condition? Training, of course, which means acquiring the right equipment, getting into training camps, and sticking to a training schedule.
The ride of your life
You’ve also got to hire and fire staff, register for races, make rider selections, handle transfers, and even design your team kit. Plus, you need to negotiate with manufacturers to get the best prices on the best bikes, and secure sponsors for your team.
You could really do with an assistant.
There are 40 teams to compete with over a full racing season that includes events like hill climbs, time trials, flat races, half-mountains, and more. Every type of tour is present and correct: Giro, Vuelta, Volta, and one-day races. There are over 240 stages in the game, in places as far afield as France, Spain, Italy, the USA, Belgium, and Japan.
As well as devising strategies for particular races, and modifying them in real time as the race plays out in 3D, you need to manage the fitness and fatigue levels of your riders over the whole season, as well as scouting for new riders for the coming seasons.
We’ve barely scratched the surface. Live Cycling Manager 2 is a phenomenally detailed cycling management game, and you can download it right now on Google Play and the App Store.
Xagu Studios is a beneficiary of the grant programme “Boosting the Video Game Sector“ promoted by Red.es. Co-financed programme through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of Multiregional OP for Spain ERDF 2014-20.