Video: Pro Cycling Manager 2020 trailer – the official videogame of a race that might not happen

A trailer’s just been released for the two official games of the Tour de France. Considering the status of the race is somewhat up in the air at the minute, this is either perfectly or atrociously timed, depending on which way you look at it. (Maybe it’ll be the only chance to see the 21 stages of the 2020 edition.)

Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme this week pointed out that "only two world wars have stopped the Tour de France" – but then he also said that they’d finish this year’s Paris-Nice and they didn’t.

The announcement of the official Tour de France game this week therefore seems a touch bizarre.

Starting out life as Cycling Manager in 2001, strategy game Pro Cycling Manager is updated annually to coincide with cycling’s biggest race. In 2010, it was joined by Le Tour de France, a more action focused game which is available on consoles.

New features in this year’s edition of Pro Cycling Manager include managing the morale of your riders (not their morals, as my colleague Simon suggested), a new stage planning system to help assign your team members and a more dynamic and aggressive AI that forces you to adapt and improve your strategy.

Updates to the console version include the addition of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a redesigned interface, improved time trialling and more sophisticated AI.

They’re also floating “a unique immersive aspect thanks to a new feature that will be revealed soon,” which rather invites speculation given what’s going on at the minute.

Tour de France 2020 and Pro Cycling Manager 2020 will be available on June 4, 2020 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It could prove a collectors’ item.