After the KISS-Pro Leaguewhich Zwift launched at the beginning of 2019 and offers ambitious competitions around the virtual Tour de France in summer 2020the US company is now taking the next step together with the UCI: On Wednesday, 9 December 2020, the Zwift training platform the first cycling world championships in eCycling were held.
In addition to the men's and women's elite races, the Zwift will host a series of community-focused events, including the Nations Challenge (5 and 6 December 2020) - an opportunity for every Zwift user to ride for their country. As part of the Zwift PowerUp Podcast Recon Rides, current and former UCI World Champions will ride the roller and share stories from professional cycling via podcast.
Indoor World Cycling Championships: Who's going?
A total of twenty national cycling federations have announced their teams for the start of the first UCI Zwift Cycling Esports World Championships. In addition, a number of riders with indoor experience have been given wild card starting places, meaning that a total of 22 nations will be represented. Many of the athletes come from different areas of professional sport, including Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists, current and former UCI World Champions from many disciplines, as well as professional triathletes.
The top names include: Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (South Africa), Esteban Chaves (Colombia), Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands), Lawson Craddock (USA), Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) and Lionel Sanders (Canada). These well-known names from road cycling will be joined by riders from cycling esports such as Lionel Vujasin (Belgium), Ollie Jones (New Zealand) and Cecilia Hansen (Sweden). They may be relatively unknown compared to the professionals of the World Tour, but they will certainly be among the favourites for the rainbow jerseys.
The German team will compete with a mixture of experienced cycling pros from the World Tour and the Women's World Tour and amateurs with an affinity for Zwift. Tanja Erath, Hannah Ludwig and Christa Riffel (all Canyon - SRAM), as well as Franziska Brauße (Ceratizit - WNT) and Finja Smekal (Drops) will start for the women. The German men's squad is made up of Jonas Koch (CCC), Jason Osborne (RV 1899 Hocheim), Lucas Carstensen (Bike Aid), Miguel Heidemann (Leopard) and Jonas Rapp (Hrinkow Advarics Cycleang). The complete start lists for each event can be found on the Event page.
Track, schedule and TV times Indoor World Championships
Both the women's and men's competitions will be held on Zwift's fictional island world of Watopia. A total of 50.035 kilometres with a difference in altitude of 483 metres have to be overcome. Two climbs are tackled twice on the circuit, with the last hill forming the short final climb. TV channel Eurosport will broadcast the event according to its own programme schedule on Wednesday, 9 December 2020 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on pay-TV channel Eurosport 2 and via the Eurosport Player. According to the Zwift website, the race will start at 14:45 German time.
In addition to virtual world champion jerseys and medals, there is also prize money for the top three. The winner will receive 8,000 euros, while the second and third-placed teams will receive 4,000 and 2,000 euros respectively.
