E-Cycling - Interview Sebastian Wolf: What does a Sports Director of Digital Cycling do?

Interview with Sebastian Wolf on the topic of e-cycling

TOUR: What does a Sports Director Digital Cycling do?

Sebastian Wolf: The tasks are very similar to road cycling. The World Cup is the annual competition held with the national team. In addition to being nominated, I also sit in the virtual team car at the races, so to speak. There are also hills and slipstreams in the virtual world. For example, I indicate the best moment for an attack.

The structures are not yet ready - Sebastian Wolf on the future of e-cycling

TOUR: How did the World Championships go from your or the German perspective?

Sebastian Wolf: The previous, purely digital format had advantages, as everyone could take part from home without travelling with their equipment. For the sport as a whole, however, it was good that the Live event gave. Roller trainers were originally developed by the manufacturers as training equipment and not with the intention of competitive sport. For example, temperature fluctuations can result in certain deviations.

In elite sport, little things like this make a big difference. Thanks to standardised and officially approved roller trainers, these questions did not arise at the live event - or to put it another way: at least deliberate manipulation is ruled out. We had a total of five athletes at the start and were able to build on the successes of recent years. With the World champion title for Jason Osborne and the sixth place for Merle Brunée we are of course very happy.

The future of digital cycling

TOUR: In which direction will e-cycling develop?

Sebastian Wolf: Similar to mountain biking 25 years ago, for example, the structures have not yet been finalised. There is certainly a prospect of Olympic e-sports games. However, the races will be held on commercial platforms. These will also have a say in where the journey takes us. Either way, the importance is growing extremely quickly. Ten to twenty cyclists worldwide can already finance themselves as e-athletes. However, there are discrepancies between performance and support. The teams perform at World Tour level, but usually work with just one coach.

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