If you ask me, it's long overdue, but as you say: Better late than never.

Today - two months before the release - Cyanide has released the very first screenshot of Pro Cycling Manager 2012.

And while doing so, they also announced that a new rider model is one of the changes in PCM12. It doesn't look like we'll have to worry about new jersey designs, but that's still uncertain.

We still don't know much about Cyanide's Tour de France titles for XBOX and Playstation 3 - in fact, so far, we haven't heard anything else than that this year's version should be a lot better than last year's which Cyanide seem to charactize as an experiment.

But some info has surfaced on ToTheGame.com which reveals what's probably on the back cover of the game. It doesn't say a whole lot, but it does say that the graphics will be better, that there's a 1 vs. 1 online mode, a database editor is included with the game and that more commands will be available. It also sounds like that just the 21 stages of the Tour de France will be playable, just like in 2011.

You can read for yourself here.

Convinced to buy the game? Well, look out for this cover:

After having been hosted by CyM-Italy for a couple of years, the organization of the official World Championship in Pro Cycling Manager returns to PCMBenelux in 2011.

CyM-Italy had plenty of success with the organization, but decided to hand it over due to lack of time.

The subscription has already been opened, and you can now sign up to participate in all events from road race to track omnium. No hurry, though - registration is open from now and until the 20th of April.

Racing is set to start on the 23rd of April and will end on the 26th of May.

In general, the championship will probably look quite a lot like the ones hosted by CyM-Italy. However, it seems there's more emphasis on the team track events - an experiment tried out by CyM-Italy last year.

No word on prizes yet, but I'm sure there's plenty of fun waiting for those who decide to take part. Head over to PCMBenelux to get the full info.

Well, with Pro Cycling Manager 2012 getting closer and closer, it's not all that unusual that we're getting more and more information.

Latest bit is not the most important part, especially since many have switched to digital downloads, but for unknown reasons, people tend to like to comment the cover anyhow.

Well, here it is.

Update: It does seem like we angered some communities and Cyanide with the fake screenshots part of the joke. That's quite understandable when you think about it, and we apologize. No offence was intended.

Not a year without an April Fools joke, right?

We've had plenty of jokes over the year - everything from a certain girl singing "Friday, Friday" to a doped Johan Museeuw on the cover of Pro Cycling Manager.

This year we decided to let FBI shut us down using the take-down banner you get when you visit Megaupload.com. And it does seem like we got some of you.

Our loyal Thomas Dekker-fan Ruben even took it as far as creating a thread on PCMBenelux where he complains about the stupid Americans. He isn't the only one, though - I've seen people tricked in other communities, though (yes, I'm looking at you, Maddrengen).

But that's not all. Remember how we fooled PCMNorge back in 2010? Well, we took a few screenshots of PCM11, added a PCM12 logo and sent them to a few sites. Guess who was the only site to publish them? PCMNorge! Quite entertaining - again.

So - thanks for playing along again this year. It's been fun, and we're already looking forward to next year.