Cycling Esports World Championships part of a new trend

Virtual cycling is the new big thing in that particular sport, and these days, manufacturers of roller trainers can barely keep up with demand. Winter temperatures and restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic have helped fuel this boom. Now the sport's world governing body (UCI) is organizing the first Cycling Esports World Championships on December 8 and 9. 

Among the participants will be Germany's Jason Osborne, who is actually a rower who has qualified to compete in the lightweight scull at next summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo. But Osborne also works out on the stationary bike. Last year, he won the 2,000-meter event at the world indoor championships. 

Because he already rode a bike as part of his balance training, it wasn't a big leap to start to start entering virtual bike races. This past spring, he won on the Alpe du Zwift, the virtual equivalent of Alpe d'Huez, the legendary Alpine ascent of the Tour de France. 

Currently Osborne is at the German rowers' training camp in Portugal. After a few training sessions on the water, he'll set up his roller trainer and log on to the Zwift platform to compete in the World Championships as a member of Germany's virtual cycling team. 

"Unfortunately, the choice of course was a bit simple," Osborne told DW. "It's the Watopia Hilly Route, which covers 52 kilometers (32 miles) with an altitude differential of about 400 meters. Personally, I find that a pretty boring. I would have liked to have seen more mountains there, like an Alpe du Zwift," for example.

Anti-doping rules also apply in e-cycling 

He has already won on this very mountain, in a race of the German E-Racing-Bundesliga. Although there are no big mountains in the virtual world championship, Osborne still thinks he has a good opportunity, because some potential opponents, who have a lot of experience with the algorithms of the track because they do a lot of virtual rides using Zwift, are not eligible to take part in the Esports World Championships.

"The reason is the anti-doping regulations," Tim Böhme told DW. "We were only allowed to nominate athletes who are registered in the anti-doping testing pool. These are either professional or elite riders – or someone like Jason, who is in the testing pool for rowing." 

Böhme is the head coach of the virtual athletes at the BDR, Germany's cycling association. He put together the German squad for the Esports World Championships, and also founded the German Cycling Academy (GCA). The GCA organized the E-Racing Bundesliga during the summer and has been organizing virtual training rides and the GCA Cup racing series since November 2019 – before the outbreak of the pandemic. Through the GCA, Böhme is aiming to build up a virtual cycling national team. 

Not a simulation of outdoors

"This is a cycling discipline that is developing in its own right," Böhme stressed. "It's not meant to simulate cycling outdoors. There are gamification tools that make this quite a unique discipline." 

Böhme alluded to the aero helmet, which can be used to reduce virtual air resistance for a short period of time. There is also a tool for weight reduction – both of which are available at the Esports World Championships.  

What makes e-cycling different from other cycling disciplines is power transfer. You have to pedal in e-cycling too, but the conditions are different.

"Slipstream riding is just as much a part of it as it is on the road. You conserve power in a group, but you can't pull away from the group. Once you've fallen back, it's very difficult to reach the group again," explained the German coach. "You also have to pedal downhill in e-cycling. Overall, Böhme said, "high power output over 20 to 30 seconds" is required. 

 Seasoned, professional riders 

Therefore, e-cycling is primarily something for riders with explosive speed, so it will be interesting to see how endurance riders like Colombia's Rigoberto Uran perform. The former Tour de France runner-up and 2012 Olympic silver medalist is among the riders registered for the World Championships, as is Italy's Alberto Bettiol, who won the Tour of Flanders in 2019. 

Weight plays a critical role in virtual races. Twenty-four hours before the start of the World Championships there will be an official weigh-in for the riders. Just like in boxing, the cyclists can do things like trying to sweat out enough liquid to make weight. 

However, the equipment is a separate issue entirely. The UCI is supplying the bikes and rollers to be used in the World Championships. And each participant must also document his performance via a second measurement source. This is to help identify performance curves that aren't plausible.

Such control mechanisms are essential if e-cycling is going to have any kind of a future as a competitive sport. 

"I think e-cycling is a good thing. During the coronavirus pandemic in particular, it's an extra motivating factor for many," said Jason Osborne. 

"I hope that it will continue to develop, that there will soon be real e-cycling teams that do it fulltime, just like the teams on the road do now. I think it would be cool if this became a big thing."

However, when he switches from rowing to cycling, as he plans to following next summer's Olympics – it will be to the road version of the sport, as the professional infrastructure already exists. Despite the boom in e-cycling, the outdoor version of the sport remains dominant.