Zwift cycling simulator gets serious

Sydney’s Crane Bar was transformed to accommodate stationary cyclists riding in the Zwift SRAM Send It series.

Zwift is a cycling app that combines racing, group riding and structured training programs with a massive multiplayer game environment.

The future of indoor stationary cycling and two-wheeled e-sports came to Sydney last week in a blaze of colour and set to a thumping techno beat with the final race of the Zwift SRAM Send It series.

The stylish surrounds of Crane Bar in Potts Point were transformed last Tuesday to accommodate serried rows of Wahoo Kickr indoor trainers, bikes and flat screens, with some of Australia’s strongest National Road Series cyclists battling it out in a live e-racing finale broadcast to a global audience.

For those who came in late, Zwift is a cycling app that combines racing, group riding and structured training programs with a massive multiplayer game environment to unleash sweat, watts and a good time for all who enjoy the fine art of suffering. The watts produced by the cyclists on an indoor trainer are crunched by Zwift’s algorithm along with weight and gradient to calculate speed along the Zwift courses, modelled after real life World Cup courses as well as the fictional cycling paradise of Watopia.

With close to 200 people, most of them cyclists of various stripes, crammed into Crane Bar, it was standing and pedalling room only. The Australia/New Zealand territory manager for Zwift, former pro rider Wesley Sulzberger, explained that the race was the final of a series of six held around the nation, which pitted hundreds of cyclists from around Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Eastern Europe against each other over courses of 34km-36km in length, with big names such as SBS Tour de France commentator Matt Keenan lending a hand to introduce some races.

With the men averaging almost five watts per kilogram and the women not far behind, it takes a supremely fit cyclist to prevail. Ollie Jones from New Zealand won the men’s race and Samara Sheppard the women’s.

Samara Sheppard, a New Zealand national mountain bike racing champion and ambassador for Specialized, was racing in the flesh in Crane Bar, along with Anna Booth, of the Sydney University Staminade team and Kate Banerjee for KOM Financial. Also racing live was Cameron Roberts of GPM Stulz, the overall men’s winner of the series.

“Zwift racing is hard, and you often see some pretty high averages. However, there is a skill to racing Zwift — you need to know where to save energy and how to best use powerups (limited time boosts that reduce a cyclist’s weight for climbs or increase their aerodynamic or drafting ability),” Jones said.

“The best Zwift racers are often able to win even without being the most powerful rider. Just like racing on the road, you need to know how to race tactically.”

Sulzberger said globally there had been a total of 1.3 million Zwift accounts created. Australia was the third biggest market behind the USA and UK and had seen over 63,000 accounts created on the Zwift platform, with 53,836,111 kilometres ridden by Australian Zwifters to date.

“We have run a few very successful trials and from January through to March, we held the KISS Super League, which is the first e-sport to bring real world professional sportsmen and women to an e-sports competition,” Sulzberger said.

Zwift has also held a National Federation competition. In January, Cycling Australia awarded a real-life Australian National Champions Jersey and medal to the winners of the Zwift National Criterium Championship. The next big thing is the Zwift Classics — a series of one-day races that will run through to September.

“Again, we have a mix of professional and amateur riders competing,” said Sulzberger.

“The focus for us with the classics is on refining our broadcast streaming and also on experimenting with race formats.

“As far as prizemoney goes, yes there is prizemoney which is equal for both men’s and women’s competitions.

“Prizemoney is something that we felt we needed to offer the competing riders, but we are not disclosing the prize pots.

“The teams can make good money from the racing as things stand, but our long-term ambition is to offer even more attractive purses as we look to create a sustainable sport.”