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news
British Cyclling Zwift eRacing Championship 2019 (picture copyright Simon Wilkinson, SWPix (8).jpgBritish eRacing champions reflect on their wins last night in ground-breaking event
The inaugural British national eRacing champions have been reflecting on their victories yesterday at the BT Sports studios at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where both saw off nine other riders over three events to claim the national jerseys that they will be entitled to sport on Zwift over the next 12 months.
The virtual racing platform partnered with British Cycling to stage the world-first event, with the first two events – the elimination race and the points race – streamed online in the afternoon and BT Sport broadcasting the decisive scratch race in the evening.
Former GB rower Rosamund Bradbury took victory in the women’s event, while the men’s title went to Cameron Jeffers, who saw off the challenge of no fewer than four riders from UCI Continental team Madison-Genesis.
The women’s Wahoo Scratch Race saw Bradbury hold off Kiss Racing Team’s Mary Wilkinson to win the sprint, while Vision Racing’s Sharon Bird won the bronze medal, finishing 1 point ahead of the Welsh rider, Leah Dixon.
Bradbury said afterwards: “I’m feeling great now! It was pretty hard in that final race, it was so tactical.
“I got a good power up for the sprinting really early on, so I had to decide whether to use it and hope I’d get another one later or save it. And I went to save it and I’m glad I did. It really helped for the final sprint.
“At the beginning of today, I didn’t know what to expect. I could see I was quite strong on the sprints.
“But this last race, there were hills. And I’m obviously one of the bigger riders and don’t have the advantage. But my rowing experience has really helped me. I’ve still got the power I used to.”
Jeffers, meanwhile, entered the men’s Wahoo Scratch Race with a 13-point advantage after finishing second in the elimination race to Madison Genesis rider Tom Moses before winning the points race.
He was beaten to the line by James Phillips in the final race, but had done enough to clinch the overall title from the Canyon ZCC rider, with Moses completing the podium.
“It’s all a little bit surreal really,” Jeffers said afterwards. “I finished 12th in the qualifiers, then due to two guys dropping out of the finals I managed to promote myself to 10th and got a position in today’s finals.
“I came to this race knowing that Madison Genesis had four guys in the line-up and in terms of out and out power numbers they were probably the strongest guys here.
“I knew I didn’t necessarily have the numbers, but the advantage that I could get over the four guys is course knowledge and knowing where to put the power down and where to attack.
“I’ve done a lot of course research, a lot of riding and racing on Zwift, and researching the different power ups,” he added. “So, all of that put together, I managed to pull off the win.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
You can put cyclocross, track cycling and mountain biking and any kind of casual road biking in the same category if you think Zwift racing isn’t “real” cycling.
Cycling comes in so many different forms, Zwift racing is a brilliant way to compete without having to travel or risk being involved in early season crashes. It’s not going to replace any other form of cycling, it’s just a new one to add to the list.
The national jersey is just as deserved as any other.
You can put cyclocross, track cycling and mountain biking and any kind of casual road biking in the same category if you think Zwift racing isn’t “real” cycling.
Cycling comes in so many different forms, Zwift racing is a brilliant way to compete without having to travel or risk being involved in early season crashes. It’s not going to replace any other form of cycling, it’s just a new one to add to the list.
The national jersey is just as deserved as any other.
I got the high score on one of those arcade punching machines once
Cycling Subuteo, ok FIFA2019.
“Power ups”???!?!?
it’s an esport like Starcraft
Bradbury said “But this last race there were hills. And I’m obviously one of the bigger riders and don’t have the advantage”. Errrr no, it’s a virtual race, you weren’t riding anywhere. Even if you were the size of a small moon, it wouldn’t make any difference. I watched a bit of this ‘championship’ WTF, I mean WTALF. What ever happened to actually having to ride on a road, to be crowned a ‘world champ’. What a load of shite.
Except that the zwift algorithm changes the resistance according to your weight, so yes it would matter if you were the size of a small moon when it came to winning the races because you would have to put out 2.4 gigawatts for 30 seconds up a computer generated incline to remain in the race.
I assume that in your world indoor bowls, indoor football, darts, indoor athletics are all a load of shite as well because they're an adaptation of an outdoor sport played indoors on modified equipment.
This is zwift racing. It's not bike racing. It uses some of the same skill sets, and some different ones. It still involves massive amounts of fitness, a competetive attitude, willingness to suffer and the balls to give it a try. In other words, it's a sport. Don't knock it till you've tried it.
Where's the fun in waiting to try it before sharpening our critical faculties?
Zwift calculate drag from height and weight from the rider. Power produced by rider in the algorithm gives a speed and resistance for turbo Its extremely realistic. Indoor racing is already booming.
well cant say Ive ever found a button on my bike that I can hit that magically reduces my weight for 15seconds, much as Id like one,so whats the point in modelling extreme realism, if they are just going to chuck aload of power up gimmicks at it, and I still dont understand how having 4 people from the same team in a virtual race made any difference, it had all the thrill factor of watching people play a computer game down at an arcade
Its not for spectators, the likes of Zwift is for those who take part. Power ups happen at lap intervals and add a tactical advantage element.
Its still basically the same as racing, tactics, fitness are the main elements. So you dont like it, fair enough, many do and its a rapidly growing sector of cycling.
I dont like it as a sport,Ive got no issue with it as a training tool, but it actually had more live tv coverage devoted to it than the womens world tour races this last week have got or will get in the UK. if broadcasters want to show cycling as a sport, theres plenty of it out there in real life crying out for broadcast coverage, without inventing new jazzed up versions.
and I dont think national jerseys should be awarded for it, we dont have national jerseys handed out for spin classes, and to me Zwift is just a form of a spin class, which is perfectly fine as a way to engage people so they dont stare at concrete garage walls going stiry crazy on the turbo all the time, but thats not a sport to me.
A little bit of research would have helped you before making comments.