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British Cycling announces eRacing national championships on ZwiftBritish Cycling on Zwift

British Cycling announces eRacing national championships on Zwift

Zwift also to provide structured training plans to British Cycling members
by Alex Bowden
Thu, Dec 06, 2018 12:45
6

British Cycling is to launch a new virtual reality championship on Zwift. Starting in February, riders will compete for a national jersey across a series of short races, including a time trial and an elimination race.

There will be a series of qualifying rounds culminating in a final between the top ranked riders.

Anyone can compete in the race, but to qualify for the finals and the national title, you must be a British Cycling member.

The news comes after the UCI announced it would create an eSports World Championships and said it was drawing up rules for virtual cycling races.

Eric Min, Zwift CEO and co-founder, said: “Wearing your country’s national stripes is a huge honour, but relatively few ever get the chance to compete.

“But that is not the case with the British Cycling eRacing Championships, powered by Zwift, as everyone in the country is eligible to throw their hat into the ring. We are looking at dates in February and March 2019, so now is a good time as ever to start training and keep in shape this winter.”

The development is part of a broader partnership between the two organisations that will also see the two combine to deliver structured training plans to British Cycling members, with virtual rides with the Great Britain Cycling Team, progression tracking and exclusive in-game items available through the platform.

British Cycling’s Commercial Director, Jonathan Rigby, commented: “The eSports market is particularly exciting for cycling as it enables so many more people to participate and be active.

“We are thrilled to be exploring this new territory with Zwift to innovate in cycle sport. Their technology and our cycling expertise will together allow communities of cyclists to get more out of riding bikes for competition and for fun.

“We are also excited about what this could mean for identifying talent. We are proud to have a wealth of gifted riders competing on the world stage and we are confident that Zwift technology will enable us to unearth more future stars.”

Zwift
British Cycling
eRacing
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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6 comments

Avatar
janusz0 | 4 years ago
0 likes

Virtual reality check: What's to stop me and a mate putting our tandem on the turbo trainer? or one of those motors that drives a tyre? 

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 4 years ago
1 like

"The eSports market is particularly exciting for cycling as it enables so many more people to participate and be active"

is a lie.

It costs a lot of money, this isn't what people new to cycling take up before actually cycling on a real bike/ZIFT is not the draw. You not only need a bike but a turbo trainer, a sensor of some sort oh and the £12/month. If you really want to do it as intended you need a smart trainer, more £££

This absolutely will not introduce "many" more people to be active, BC are full of shit!

Avatar
madcarew replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 4 years ago
1 like

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

"The eSports market is particularly exciting for cycling as it enables so many more people to participate and be active"

is a lie.

It costs a lot of money, this isn't what people new to cycling take up before actually cycling on a real bike/ZIFT is not the draw. You not only need a bike but a turbo trainer, a sensor of some sort oh and the £12/month. If you really want to do it as intended you need a smart trainer, more £££

This absolutely will not introduce "many" more people to be active, BC are full of shit!

A pretty easy parallel is rowing, and rowing machines. More people use rowing machines than row on the water. All your counter arguments to BC's 'shit' are relevant to indoor rowing, but with the opposite result to what you are predicting. Perhaps it's not BC who is FOS? 

Before coating a group of people with liberal helpings of invective, do you have any evidence to back up your position, or are you just spouting supposition based shit?

 

Avatar
ChasP replied to madcarew | 4 years ago
0 likes

madcarew wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

"The eSports market is particularly exciting for cycling as it enables so many more people to participate and be active"

is a lie.

It costs a lot of money, this isn't what people new to cycling take up before actually cycling on a real bike/ZIFT is not the draw. You not only need a bike but a turbo trainer, a sensor of some sort oh and the £12/month. If you really want to do it as intended you need a smart trainer, more £££

This absolutely will not introduce "many" more people to be active, BC are full of shit!

A pretty easy parallel is rowing, and rowing machines. More people use rowing machines than row on the water. All your counter arguments to BC's 'shit' are relevant to indoor rowing, but with the opposite result to what you are predicting. Perhaps it's not BC who is FOS? 

Before coating a group of people with liberal helpings of invective, do you have any evidence to back up your position, or are you just spouting supposition based shit?

 

I'll disagree with both of you, I think BC mean more people are likely to compete not start cycling and that seems reasonable, also rowing machines don't require the use of a boat...

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds replied to madcarew | 4 years ago
0 likes

madcarew wrote:

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

"The eSports market is particularly exciting for cycling as it enables so many more people to participate and be active"

is a lie.

It costs a lot of money, this isn't what people new to cycling take up before actually cycling on a real bike/ZIFT is not the draw. You not only need a bike but a turbo trainer, a sensor of some sort oh and the £12/month. If you really want to do it as intended you need a smart trainer, more £££

This absolutely will not introduce "many" more people to be active, BC are full of shit!

A pretty easy parallel is rowing, and rowing machines. More people use rowing machines than row on the water. All your counter arguments to BC's 'shit' are relevant to indoor rowing, but with the opposite result to what you are predicting. Perhaps it's not BC who is FOS? 

Before coating a group of people with liberal helpings of invective, do you have any evidence to back up your position, or are you just spouting supposition based shit?

 

Not comparable for one thing because a simple rowing machine is not what ZWIFT is, is it? A bicycle can be used on a road and on an indoor trainer, a rowing machine cannot. A comparison would be like saying many more people will become active due to having a rowing machine with an interactive rowing machine that needs special add ons, a computer plus a monthly charge. The people buying into that will more likely to already row on the water, so it's simply not going to change much if anything in terms of numbers but show me some stats from the exercise rowing world with increases in active persons due to an interactive rowing machine.

They've parternered up simply to take more £££ and spun a lie they cannot prove to sell the service, it won't increase the number of people being active due to ZWIFT but it might sell more BC memberships and ZWIFT subscribers.

You are wrong and BC are a bunch of liars to try to make money.

Avatar
Condor flyer | 4 years ago
2 likes

If this means eriders will now spend more time virtual reality training and therefore won't be out on the roads then good ridence -  I'll be served much quicker at my favourite cafe.

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