Title: Cycling Manager
Publishing House: Cyanide France
Released: 2001
Platform: PC

Cycling Manager allows the player to manage a cycling team of hir choice through one season. All the teams of 2001 are featured, with the most final lists of riders they could produce before the game was rushed off. All the races of note are included, down to third category (the lowest). You can lead Lance Armstrong to yet more victories, if you like. You can ride classics, major tours and World Cup races, and all sorts of other things that aren't considered interesting to Brits.

It's highly tactical, and the challenge lies in managing your team of nine in a way that is constructive. Making one cyclist win is surprisingly easy, but using the whole team is more difficult and much more interesting.

You can toggle the effort they make, when to eat, when to attack, when to sprint, when to chase and when to leave the computer to carry out your pre-race tactics in peace.

The worst thing about this game is the truly appalling English translation provided for Anglophone users. It's not just funny, sometimes you're actually confused as to what is going on. Hm. Play it in French until you know what's going on, then play it in English.

The game plays very well and is quite addictive. The profiles of each race are for the most part faithful reproductions of the courses they depict. CM2 is out in June, and it promises to be a far superior product. Go here: www.cycling-manager.com for more information.