Aussies ready to tackle brutal e-sports worlds course on Zwift

Australia brings a strong team to the UCI e-sport world championships on Zwift, with the squad looking to improve on Sarah Gigante's second place and Ben Hill's fifth in the last edition of the worlds.

An image of the finish for the E-sports Cycling world championships on Zwift. Source: Zwift

The UCI E-sports cycling world championships will be raced this weekend, with live coverage on SBS On Demand from 5.00am AEDT of all the action from the women’s and men’s races that will decide the 2022 e-sports world champions.

It will be an early start for the Australian-based riders competing on the New York Knickerbocker course, however the odd hour of the 5.00am start to the racing will not be too unusual for the Australians used to competing on the Zwift platform. 

The hilly course will offer a tough challenge, with the 1.4 kilometre climb at 6.1 per cent containing several flat sections, with the climbing portions holding sustained, tough sections that will likely make the difference in deciding the overall winner.

Source: Zwift

On the women's side, the race will be directed by Kate Bates, the former cycling star on road and track with a wealth of experience on Zwift as a rider and commentator.

“We’ve got an exceptionally good team, both with the men and the women," said Bates, extolling the virtues of the team. "Sarah was second in 2020, and we’ve not only got strong athletes, but ones who are a lot more specialised to e-sports and the gamification aspect. It’s harder to just jump on a trainer and get a result than maybe it used to be."

Racing on Zwift is generally shorter and more intense than road races, with power-ups and slightly different drafting simulations from reality playing into a different experience from a traditional bike race on the road.

"A lot of people get caught up in the watts per kilo," said Bates, "there’s quite a bit of racecraft to it and it’s quite different to real life... both in the style of racing and the way to manipulate the tactics in the game.

"With someone like Bre (Vine), she doesn’t have that much experience on the road but has raced a lot on Zwift. The team has a lot of balance in that regard, Vicki Whitelaw is also a really good e-racer along with her history on the road.

"Then you’ve got the climbers in our team, and if you’re just looking at the numbers, then you’d definitely run the highlighter under their names."

Headling the team is Sarah Gigante, finally making her return to racing after a series of false starts at the recent National Road Series events, the Tour of Gippsland and the Women's Warrnambool Cycling Classic, which she pulled out of due to a COVID diagnosis. Back in virtual green and gold, the question will be whether she will be able to recapture her pre-heart condition form from 2021 that had her marked as one of the hottest properties in cycling.

"Sarah’s a really unique athlete," said Bates. "She’s had a lot of challenges already in her career and she’s been really mentally resilient in dealing with those.

"She’s also very honest in an appraisal of her own form and so ahead of the weekend, she wants the team to have confidence in her and to ride for her but she’s also said that if she doesn’t feel good then she’ll let everyone know, let them know early.

"I like that and it shows a great deal of maturity. If she has the form that we hope she has, then she’s one to watch for sure."

Bates' role as DS is different from that of a traditional bike race as well, with the sheer amount of information available on screen meaning that Bates' job is as much to tell the riders what is going on and if someone is making an attack as to advise on tactics. 

"I try to take the load of the sensory," said Bates. "There’s a lot to watch on Zwift and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Watching what’s going on in the race, monitoring other people’s powers, watching out for the orange (high intensity efforts)… it is different from real life because you can’t look over your shoulder and see someone out of their seat about to accelerate."

Ben Hill was the top Australian men's performer in the last edition, the CCS Cycling rider on the road and AERO in the virtual world talking his preference in preparation for the Zwift worlds over Melbourne to Warrnambool, where Hill finished fifth. Hill is a new father, and has to fit in his training schedule with new arrival Ava's demand, something that works a lot better with the more intense efforts required on Zwift.  

“The world championships have been more of my focus than the Warrnambool," said Hill on the Australian Cycling Insider podcast. "You train hard for the Warrny and sometimes it’s just a bunch sprint. I know what I’m getting with Zwift and I can do some good training with that in my lifestyle these days. A lot of one-two hour sessions. I’m really looking forward to that this week."

With Vine and Bogna winners of the Zwift Academy and Ovett a victor of a stage of the virtual Tour de France, there's a lot of in-game experience and performance as part of the squad, with the hardest job of all being picking a leader, with the role to be split in three.

“We have a very strong team," said Hill. "Aiden Sinclair and Torben (Partridge-Madsen) are very strong, while Sam (Hill, Ben’s brother) and Alex Bogna are fresh off the Zwift Academy and know the platform well.

"We believe Jay Vine, Freddy Ovett and myself could all have a chance to win it, and we’re trying to tread a fine line, giving us all an opportunity to win the race."

The UCI E-sports cycling world championships will be raced this weekend, with live coverage on SBS On Demand from 5.00am AEDT of all the action from the women’s and men’s races that will decide the 2022 e-sports world champions.