Running a cycling team from the director's seat
Pro Cycling Manager 2024 puts you in the role of a sports director at the world's top races. You pick which team to manage, set the challenges you want to take on, and then call the shots during each race to lead your riders to victory. Off the road you handle the business side: sponsorship contracts, rider contracts, recruitment and the equipment budget. Contract length depends on the team and can now run for multiple years, so a signing is a commitment you live with across several seasons.
Sponsors are the backbone of your annual budget. You present your objectives to them at the start of the year and earn their trust through the races that follow. The objective system now covers seasonal and long-term goals, with a wider range of targets such as stage wins, advertising visibility and winning the most prestigious races. Race objectives are more realistic, and small sponsors can be satisfied by advertising exposure at major races rather than only by results. Each sponsor comes with its own expectations and regional recruitment restrictions, so a Colombian sponsor may require you to recruit Colombian riders. You can now partner with multiple sponsors at once, but you have to keep all of them happy or risk souring the partnership. Choosing sponsors is therefore a strategic decision that shapes the direction your team takes.
How a group plays this together
The game supports online PvP, so you and your friends can race against each other rather than only against the AI. Each player still runs their own team and makes their own calls, and the outcome on the road comes down to how you set up your riders and handle the race. The interface is mouse-driven, which keeps the controls simple to pick up when you are comparing tactics between races.
What to know before you start
Race performance has a big effect on how your riders develop, and investing in better equipment brings the incremental gains pro teams chase. Small optimizations add up, so the management work between races matters as much as the racing itself. Dirt roads now factor into AI behaviour, which changes how the computer riders handle certain stages.
This edition includes the official route of the Tour de France 2024, a new assistant to guide the interactive parts of the game, redesigned Search and Sponsor Objectives pages and Squad tab, a revamped information interface with a new Sports Director section, and the AI handling of dirt roads. Expect a game that is as much about planning, contracts and objectives as it is about the racing itself.