At a recent preview session in Paris, I got to try out Pro Cycling Manager 2025, the PC-only team management simulation that is due to drop at the same time as the new Tour de France 2025 game.
Also put together by Cyanide and released by NACON, this is essentially the Football Manager of Pro Cycling, and whilst an undoubtedly niche offering that will appeal only to fans of the sport and the inner workings of pro cycling, it is undoubtedly a comprehensive and extremely impressive database of what makes events like the Tour de France tick and all of the machinations of how pro cycling teams operate.
You essentially become the manager of a cycling team and have to manage them through multiple seasons of the sport, including the legendary and most coveted prize in the sport, the Tour de France.
It is, like the Tour de France 2025 game, engineered on the Unreal Engine, and as such the actual graphical representations of the races – a bit like when matches are displayed in Football Manager titles – are much more visually impressive as ever before, and add a layer of immersion to what could be quite a dry experience otherwise.
The game allows you to interact with sponsors, social media and press, to recruit and manage bespoke teams of riders from across a huge range of licensed pros including recognisable names like Pogačar and UK based ex-team Sky INEOS Grenadiers, and attempt to become the most successful director on the planet.
You have to consider things that you may not have realised are a thing in the sport, such as different types of riders who excel at different elements of racing like sprinting or endurance, hill climbing, and finishing, or riders that are good at executing a breakaway. By the end of the hands-on session I felt like even though I was a novice to the world of stuff like the Tour de France, I had been sufficiently educated to have a crack at managing a set of elite riders.
It all looks great with an easy to interact with interface and menus that are easy to navigate. There are great representations of the riders and the licensed gear, bikes, and sponsorship companies, and of course the simulated races are now near enough exactly like those in the main Tour de France game, albeit without the physical control elements. You can fast forward through the gruelling stages and races if you wish, or just sit and watch them unfold like you would if watching them on TV. It will appeal to people obsessed with statistics and minutiae of management, much like the other great sports management sims, and a lot of work has gone into this from Cyanide to deliver on every front.
Pro Cycling Manager 2025 is an intricate, comprehensive, and detailed title that will provide cycling fans with the opportunity to feel like they are the supremo of a top team, and is likely to be a popular title for fans of the genre, and sport.
Pro Cycling Manager 2025 is coming to PC on June 5th. Preview impressions based on hands-on at event with travel and accommodation paid for by publisher.
