Managing a cycling team
Pro Cycling Manager 2020 puts you in charge of a professional cycling team. The job covers finances, recruitment, training plans and race strategy, and this edition adds rider morale as a core system. Your cyclists make requests, such as inclusion in races or signing a new rider, and you decide whether to agree. Those answers change morale, which in turn affects performance. The transfer window matters too, since it is where you keep the squad balanced. During races, motivation ties back to morale and to events like wearing a jersey or winning the previous stage, and a fully motivated rider can perform when the pace lifts or the final sprint is set up. The calendar includes over 230 races and 650 stages, from the Tour de France to La Vuelta and the World Tour classics, plus the 21 official stages of the Tour de France 2020. A redesigned dashboard, an assistant for planning races, and more aggressive and adventurous AI round out the management tools.
Playing together
Online mode lets you race against up to 15 other players from around the world, so a group can take each other on across the game's stages. Each player still runs their own team and decisions, which keeps the competitive side intact while everyone plays the same event.
Before you start
Career mode is the main path, where you build a team over time and handle morale, transfers and race planning. Pro Cyclist mode is a different route: you play as your own rider and pursue a career to the highest summits. The game is tagged as singleplayer as well as team-based and competitive, so expect the management work to be yours even when the racing goes online.