Zwift Academy: How to win the talent competition

How do you win the Zwift Academy? A new study has investigated how to win the popular competition for a professional contract on the online platform Zwift. The researchers from the Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health at the University of Milan analysed more than 2,000 training sessions of an Academy winner over the past four years. While the athlete initially alternated between long, moderate units and shorter, high-intensity training sessions with recovery days in between, the structure of his training changed significantly over time.

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The duration of the medium intensity (MIT) and high intensity (HIT) training sessions was gradually increased. Simply put, he did not train more often in the MIT or HIT range - but his individual training sessions lasted longer because intensity and volume were combined. The athlete who was ultimately rewarded with a professional contract trained between 50 and 110 hours per month. According to the authors, this corresponds to the average training volume of World Tour professionals. And even when it came to winning the Zwift Academy - i.e. an indoor competition - the rider trained mainly on the road and only on the roller in winter.