eCycling recognised by UCI

Wonder if anyone’s hacked their smart trainer so it can report +10 watts. That would be interesting!

Takes a while for that sort of hack to be democratised online, but there are some very tech savvy riders.

Either way it will all add to the drama and intrigue to come. Loving how Zwift is changing the sport.

Also love how tough virtual racing is. Really does reward insane fitness.

I’ve never raced on Zwift nor spend too much time on it.
But I think it’s good that the UCI is getting involved, this might draw in new companies or investors.

Who knows what the future of indoor biking might bring, they already added ‘steering’ with the MTB showcase at Eurobike.
Perhaps in the future there will be a kind of rig/simulator that will have rollers on them and will maneuver with the corners and pitch up or down, forcing the cyclist to balance more than they do now on a normal trainer.

Whilst it isn’t something I would enjoy watching now, it might evolve later on in something that would.
I think people shouldn’t get too hung up on the current possibilities, limitations and possible cheating.
It’s a start and we will see how it evolves in the next couple of years.

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If only you had the option NOT to watch…

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Zwift partnering with the UCI for e-cycling serves only the ego of the team at Zwift rather than the actual needs of the market and broader cycling community. I guess I’m not surprised, but I’m just sad.

It is deeply disappointing that they chose to go this route for their esport and I’ve been holding out on rendering a judgement in the hopes that they recognize their mistakes, but at this point, it’s obvious that it’s too late.

It is a massive and fundamental misunderstanding of what a successful esport needs to provide to both viewers and potential competitors and they basically just limited themselves to a tiny fraction of their potential audience.

Someone will come along in the next couple of years and eat Zwift’s lunch. Maybe I’ll have to do it at this point, honestly.

I’m interested to hear what alternative route they could have taken at this point?

Literally any other route that doesn’t involve going after a flat to shrinking viewership sport/format that has consistent difficulty in maintaining stable brands for viewers to follow.

The UCI is the only group that wins with this deal and Zwift just sacrificed the opportunity to do something much bigger in the quest for “legitimacy”.

Zwift’s fundamental problem is that they don’t seem to understand what makes:

  • A game fun to play (every sport is ultimately a game)
  • A competition fun to watch
  • How fun competitions drive a funnel back to playing

Partnering with the UCI ultimately forces them into a very narrow box where “fun” is rigidly defined to the current formats that are aligned with professional cycling, viewership is limited to strange and archaic rules with horrible rev share for teams, and reinforces the stereotypical aspirational path that continues to fail at attracting new and broader groups of people to cycling.

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OK, I see where you’re coming from.

As I understand, the UCI have partnered with Zwift for the 2020 World eCycling Championship. After that it’ll be up for grabs again. I wonder if it will force some of the competitors to up their game. However, they will need to up the game considerably for them to be legitimate rivals to Zwift.

Zwift really is the only choice for this. It’s the only platform with the infrastructure and user base neccessary for this to work this time. I see it as the UCI will use Zwift to host their event.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy the occasional Zwift race and it fits my version of “fun”.

I just don’t think Zwift needs the UCI at all. The EWS didn’t need the UCI.

My great hope was that Zwift racing/competition could be something that goes beyond the current definition of “fun”. Execution notwithstanding CVRcade was actually in the right direction, but they clearly didn’t take the amount of time to do it right or figure out the problems.

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Perhaps we will see groups like KISS or others take the wheel and make a presence in Zwift racing, outside of the UCI umbrella, a bit like CVR did?

But that may not be possible now since the UCI might see any large move like that as a threat to their position in this area?

As others, I am hesitant and skeptical that the UCI involvement will yield meaningful fruit. I think thinks like Zwift Power and ZADA were already setting good direction for regulation and cheating. I hope those still continue because I think the grass roots push was the reason for the success in the first place.

Why is it e-cycling? What does ‘e’ stand for? I thought e as in e-bike means electrical. :thinking:

All good points. The live viewership for yesterday’s zwift Yorkshire races goes to show that trainer riding is a long way from filling arenas…

If I’m being honest, I’m more than happy with the platform as it is, but’s it’s because I’m a bike racer, not a gamer. Ive never been into video games and the esports phenomenon is beyond me. This feels different because of the athletic ability required to compete.

Curious to see where it goes.

As far as racing, as I said above, I don’t like race broadcasts. I do however watch Ash Beech’s race streams, and I’d imagine that’s the appeal of watching gamer streams is that there’s the interaction with the player. This guy (as much as the suffering allows) interacts with the viewers and can answer questions and acknowledge the well wishes. Race broadcasts don’t capture a lot of what I think probably makes game streaming popular. I know there’s some gaming stuff done in live audiences and broadcast on cable tv, but I doubt it’s as popular as people of twitch or whatever platform.

Sooo…I want to ride inside to pretend I’m riding outside instead of just riding outside? :man_shrugging:

egad?

Well if you are worried about crashing you might or don’t having a nice climate to ride in or don’t have single tracks in your neighbourhood.

But I was referring more to eCycling as a form of entertainment to watch.

Not so much doing it myself, but watch on TV for instance

It’s quite easy - you only need to plug a man-in-the-middle processor that introduces whatever bias you want between the trainer and the app. With wireless broadcasting (ANT+ or BT), this is even easier. The best way to protect against that is to hold the events in a common physical location, have the organizers provide, test and calibrate the trainers, use the trainers to measure all data including power, and hard-wire the communication channel between the app/servers and the trainers. Then, as others have said, you are back to the same place cheating-wise as with an actual road race: mechanical cheating and doping.

Guy I worked with a few years ago presented the hack at DefCon last month: https://edope.bike

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17 posts were merged into an existing topic: First British Cycling e-racing champion stripped for cheating

Just like sanctioning e-bikes events, e-racing, virtual racing, or whatever brings more people to the sport which brings more money which is good for sponsors and the UCI.

In a statement published on the company website, Endura complained that “progress in technical apparel is limited by the governing body and the prize for innovation is seeing technological advances banned. Endura reached a fork in the road and have chosen to avoid the developmental dead end currently being enforced by the UCI.”

I guess Endura just didn’t pay the UCI enough. :laughing: