There was a time, back when I had energy, when I was into Cycling and Mountain Bike racing. Then I got older, my vision worsened, put on a bit of a spare tire and somehow manged to glue myself to a desk. Good thing there are outlet games out there for the old dreamers like me. It’s not too often we see unique titles like this one, but Pro Cycling Manager, with a Tour de France backdrop, has actually been around since 2006. Cyanide Studio and Focus Home Interactive are releasing their 2008 version of the Cycling game with a sweaty pack of new features including online multiplayer capabilities. Look for the PSP version, too with a release date of June 19th. Check out the new screens below:

Pro Cycling Manager

The management side of the game has been given extra depth with many new elements. It has an entirely new stamina system, a more realistic progression curve for each rider, a complete skills editor and a new young talent recruiting system with a more aggressive AI.

This year, the racing is even more realistic, with a reworked feeding system, an enhanced game interface and the most advanced rider AI yet plus highly detailed rider models and animations. The 2008 edition also includes a new improved user interface, lighting system and more detailed, richer environments with a large variety of buildings and landscapes.

For the first time in the series, impressive “track racing” events are available. Choose track events such as cycle speedway, Kierin and elimination to challenge your team’s track racing skills. All of these features combined make this new edition the most complete and exciting recreation of professional cycling.

Far from just a simple port of the PC version, the PSP version of Pro Cycling – Tour de France 2008 has been specially designed to make use of the unique features of the Sony PSP while offering optimized gameplay. Racing is the true attraction of this version thanks to the ability to participate in the greatest international cycling competitions, including the new track races, and the Tour de France 2008 which has been faithfully recreated. So choose the team you wish to bring to the top amongst one of the 18 official teams available and all the star players. This 2008 edition lets you challenge your friends in multiplayer mode via LAN or via the PSP WiFi features.

About Focus Home Interactive

Founded in 1996, Focus Home Interactive is a French publishing and distribution company based near Paris, France. Known for the diversity, quality and originality of its catalogue, Focus now publishes and distributes many of its titles throughout Europe and also world-wide in both boxed retail and digital distribution formats. The last five years have been very successful for Focus in France, with many of its PC licenses becoming top-sellers. Focus has also published several original titles, including the adventure game Runaway, the renowned Cycling Manager and the much-loved TrackMania. The coming months will be exciting and full of surprises with the release of high-quality games such as Blood Bowl, TrackMania DS, Runaway: A Twist of Fate, Sherlock Holmes and sport games dedicated to major events such as the America’s Cup or the Tour de France.

About Cyanide Studio

Cyanide is a French game development studio, based in the Paris region. It currently employs forty people. Best known for its sport management sims Cycling Manager and Pro Rugby Manager, Cyanide broke the mold in the heroic-fantasy universe with its 2004 release of Chaos League, Loki and currently is working on the video game adaptation of Games Workshop’s famous board game: Blood Bowl.