The basics
You pick a team of nine riders to compete in various races over the year. You score points based on how well they do over the season. You can change your team along the way to pick the best riders for the different races.
Getting started
First, you need to register on road.cc, if you haven't already. Then you'll need to come back to the game and set up your team. If you're logged in to the main site, the game should set your account up automatically. You can choose a team name when you first log in, and you can change it at any time by clicking on [my account] in the top bar when you're logged in.
Your team and different types of rider
Your team consists of nine riders. The riders in the game are classified as star riders and domestiques. You can pick any nine riders within your game budget of 150 credits, but only two riders from any one team.
The star riders are the stars of the professional teams. They fall into four categories:
•General Classification (GC) riders are the ones best equipped to do well overall in the longer, multi-stage races. They tend to be good at everything, with an emphasis on climbing and time trialling, which are the disciplines that allow you to gain most time over your rivals in a big tour.
•Sprinters (PC, or Points Classification) are the men to back on flat stages where there's likely to be a bunch sprint.
•Climbers (KM, or King of the Mountains) will come to the fore on the hilly stages.
•All rounders (AR) are good at everything. They're certainly capable of winning individual tour stages, and one-day races.
The Domestiques (DS)are the workhorses of the peloton. Their role is to support the star riders from their team. They also tend to make up the breakaway groups that are a feature of all professional bike racing.
How a rider's type and value is calculated
Each rider is classified and valued for a competition based on their game scores from the past 12 months. Their values are weighted based on the type of competition; for example sprinters will be more expensive in competitions with a high proportion of flat stages.
The basic classification criteria are:
•GC – top ranked riders to 60% or more points from high mountain stages, summit finishes and individual time trials
•PC – highly ranked riders with 60% or more points from flat stages
•KM – highly ranked riders with 50% or more points from high mountain stages and summit finishes
•AR – other highly ranked riders
Rider values are calculated from a rider's ranking based on their weighted score for a competition. All the riders from the participating teams in a competition are considered. The highest possible value is 40 credits and the lowest is 3 credits.
