Manon: The very first Cycling Esports World Championships is taking place. Some of the
very best riders in the world, competing for the UCI rainbow jersey.
Simon: We thought we would join one of those riders to find out just what it's like to
race the esports worlds from inside your garage. They're coming back to you, Max, they're coming
back to you. Come on. Manon: Max just hit his power-up, going to
go for a big effort of this climb now. First position. Go on, Max.
Simon: 1 kilometer to go to the world champs, mate, and you're in the lead group, you [bleep]
got this. Come on. The first world championship is taking place, fittingly, on Zwift. 54 women
and 78 men are racing over 50 kilometers of the virtual riding paradise of Watopia. Now,
esports is very much its own discipline. This is not a replacement for road racing, it's
another opportunity to see our favorite stars battling it out side by side with riders from
other disciplines too. We will show you just what it takes to race it, and because this
even is so new, we'll also take you through the details of the races and how the UCI and
Zwift are working to make sure that the results are completely credible.
Manon: This is Max Stedman, a pro road racer for Canyon DHB and a member of the British
national team for the Esports World Championships. Thank you very much for having us in the garage
of dream, Max. Max Stedman: That's all right. Lovely, lovely
venue for it. Manon: It is. Now Max is a professional road
racer, but not all the cyclists are. Some are cyclocross riders and some are dedicated
esports riders. Have you got much experience on Zwift, Max?
Max: Yes, quite a bit. I've done almost 30 races? I'm quite looking forward to it. I
reckon I've got enough experience to hopefully bag a good result.
Manon: Cool. Have you represented Great Britain before?
Max: Yes, on three occasions before this. Tour Alsace in 2018, the under-23 world champs
in Innsbruck in 2018, and last year, I got to do the Olympic test event in Tokyo, which
was pretty cool. Manon: Wow. Now, Esports World Championships.
Max: Now, Esports World Championships. Manon: A little bit different.
Max: Yes, a lot different, to be honest. I think it's almost like a different discipline.
I think you'll see in the race later, there's guys from completely just esports backgrounds
and road races and Tour de France top fivers like Rigoberto Urán. It's a pretty cool mix.
Manon: All right. Less than an hour to go, so all the best. I'll just leave you to it
to get ready. Simon: As you can see, in the corner screen,
there is less than an hour to go until the start of the men's race. But that means that
the women are already on course, and it's the same course, remember. Now, I could barely
contain myself when I saw the star-studded lineup. Utterly incredible. Not least the
fact that the Netherlands are fielding both Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vlueten,
basically the two strongest riders in the world.
Now, whilst Max sorts himself out, we are going to tackle a burning question. Which
is, how can you make sure that a virtual race is completely legitimate? Normally, Zwift
have a number of checks and balances that they employ for racing. The more prestigious
the race, the greater the number of checks. For this, they brought out the ultimate safeguard,
which is that all riders are going to be using the same equipment. Max was sent a Tacx NEO
2T trainer through the post and because it's a smart trainer, it's going to measure his
power. It's got accuracy to 1% which is quite incredible,
really, because plus or minus 1% is potentially less of a difference than a rider's choice
of chain lever. All the riders are using exactly the same equipment. In fact, this could be
more equal than a traditional race. Because Zwift have also removed any potential advantage
that a rider could gain from equipment in-game. That will be a completely level playing field.
No aerodynamics gains, no weight gains to be had from choices of bikes.
At this point, we should probably address the elephant in the room, which is the fact
that Max has still got his mudguards and his saddlebag on his bike. Which despite myself,
and man, I'm pleading with him to remove them, he's going for it, which I guess is another
first at UCI World Championships. The second thing that the riders have had to do is submit
two videos to Zwift in the 24 hours before the event, showing themselves measuring their
height and their weight. Because those two things, manipulating their power and manipulating
their height and weight data are basically the two biggest ways you could cheat virtually.
There's zero chance of a rider actually doing that.
There are more complex methods, and for that, you have something called ZADA, which is the
Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis unit. We'll touch on that a little bit later. Now, the
UCI are clearly really serious about this. In their dedicated esports rule book, because,
of course, there's a UCI esports rule book, they've said if any rider is caught data doping,
that's my words, not theirs, then they could be hit with a one-year ban from competition.
Not just e-competition but all competitions, road, track, mountain bike, cyclocross, whatever.
[music] Manon: Just checking back in with the women
race and it's nearly over. There's a one-kilometer uphill finish to go. Do you want to see how
it pans out, Max? Max: Yes, I would quite like to see how it
pans out. Manon: Right. I'll get back to you.
Commentator: There you go. There's the gap but it's minute to Gigante who sits on a wheel
ready on poise. Lauren Stephens in third place. 100 meters now to go with Ashleigh Moolman
at the front. Gigante ready to come around but Ashleigh Moolman still going to the line.
Moolman pulls out again, Moolman going all the way. It's Ashleigh Moolman Pasio who takes
the world champion's jersey. Presenter: As you say, an extra special honor
to be the first to pull on a rainbow bands jersey in esports, the first woman, of course,
as well, that makes today and your achievement all the more special. Doesn't it?
Ashleigh Moolman Pasio: It does indeed and of course on my birthday so now it's time
to celebrate. [laughter]
Ashleigh: Oh, there we go. Presenter: It's because you put in such an
effort. There we go. [laughs] Congratulations. Watch the laptop. [laughs]
Simon: Wow, that was awesome. I'm not going to lie, I don't know whether Max is getting
nervous but I am. Manon, are you getting nervous? Manon: Yes. My heart rate is starting to go.
Simon: This is no traditional world championships but there's still quite a bit of atmosphere
building here. It's kind of bringing back memories from lining up on world championships
start lines from years past. Manon: You've got a good memory, Si.
Simon: What's that supposed to mean Manon? Was it--?
Manon: Just that it's quite long ago. No? Simon: It's not that long.
Manon: How long ago are we talking now? Simon: 13 years since the last.
Manon: Right. Wow. Final preparations before the race now, Max. and I've just seen you've
taken a gel but it looks a little bit different to the ones you usually see.
Max: From Science in Sport there. Turbo+ with a bit of menthol for cooling and a good solid
150 milligrams of caffeine. That'll get me buzzed.
Manon: Keep you nice and cool. I have to say, I'm pretty cold in here. I've got about three
layers on. Is this the perfect temperature for you to be racing in?
Max: I'll be sticking the fan on in a bit so it might get a little bit colder.
Manon: I guessed you're racing around three o'clock and that's quite a good time. Other
people, it'll be the middle of the night, really early morning for them. Are you happy
about that? Max: It's like they've organized it for us
at three o'clock. Three o'clock is fairly a nice start, to be honest.
Manon: Can I ask about your team tactics for this race?
Max: I've been chatting to Andy Tennant a lot, he's a teammate, and Rob Scott. They
are just going to try and do what they can to get me into the second climb. There you'll
see that's the first real big one. Manon: I see you've got quite a few screens
going on here. Can you talk me through this? Max: Down here is the live stream. You'll
see all the other riders coming up which is bizarre in itself. Then we got a Zwift screen
here which is what I'll be watching. This is Zwift Power live events. When the race
starts this will update every 30 seconds with everyone's average power, heart rate, normalized
power, the heart rate now so I can keep an eye on what people are averaging for the race
and what I need to do. Manon: Who are you looking out for? Who are
the big names that you'll be watching today? Max: Holden Comeau from the USA, Freddy Ovett
from Australia will be good. Don't think you can discount a fair chunk of the world tour
riders but you're not really sure if they are looking at this or whether they are just
coming back from a little bit of a break. Manon: Right. We'll get out of your hair.
Best of luck, Max. Simon: Final countdown now. 30 seconds to
go. There are some big powerhouse riders in this event. Thomas de Gendt, Edvald Boasson
Hagen. I cannot wait to see the kind of numbers that they and Max are putting out in this
race. Zwift races normally start super hard so I am very intrigued to know what is going
to happen when the gun goes. 10 seconds to go.
[music] Simon: Three, two, one, go, go, go, go. The
UCI Esports World Champs is going. [music]
Commentator: Putting out almost 400 watts there Max Stedman. Up the left-hand side,
you can see out the saddleback in it now. Heading away to 90 reps per minute.
[music] Manon: 30 minutes into the race and Max has
made the front splits, so going really well so far. Looking really comfortable, actually.
One thing that did make me laugh, in the Zwift rider meeting that they had, all the riders
have to have virtual socks on. It was a must apparently.
Simon: Now, some people might think that's a bit of a dig at the Canadian triathlete
Lionel Sanders, who is lining up and is taking part today. But actually no, this is a stipulation
in all Zwift pro races that I've seen this year, and perhaps even before that as well.
There we go, compulsory socks. The UCI would be loving that, wouldn't they? Max has been
putting in some serious effort so far. We've had two big climbs, haven't we, I think. The
numbers look pretty eye-watering but bear in mind that Max is just 53 kilos. It's staggering.
It's split twice, and it's eased back off both times. Manon, what are you thinking?
Manon: Yes, it looks pretty savage. I mean, I saw his heart rate go up to 202 on that
climb, and you can't even imagine what that's going to be like at the finish, so yes, excited.
Simon: He looks pretty calm for a heart rate of 202, isn't he?
[music] Simon: Now I've mentioned ZADA a while back.
Now, things have settled down just a little bit for us, if not Max, I thought it was time
to revisit that topic. ZADA was a community-run enterprise called Zwift Anti-Doping Agency,
that was started in 2016 as a way of making sure that results in Zwift racing were credible.
It used to be a process of making a rider prove that they were capable of producing
the kind of power that they said they were in-game, and then once verified, you were
on your way. It became clear, though, that ZADA were the
guardians of an increasingly large project, and they were struggling to actually keep
up with the volume of Zwift races out there. Zwift themselves have taken over the project,
they've renamed the acronym, so it's now Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis, and they've put
a load of resource behind it. They also changed their focus a little bit, from verifying riders
to verifying performances. Just like in real life, it means that you can be sure that every
result you see is therefore fair and credible. Now, their methods seem quite sophisticated
to my simple mind at least, but there were two recent, how do you say, positive tests
where they dived into the power files in order to show that there'd been some kind of data
manipulation taking place. The UCI, as I mentioned, is taking this super seriously, so in their
esports guidelines, they've said that if there's any evidence of a rider actually doing just
that, manipulating data, then they will be sanctioned for a year, not just from e-racing,
but for all racing as well. It's properly serious business.
Manon: Now, Max has had a little bit of a mechanical and not a flat tire, or a slip
chain, his HDMI cable has stopped working. The virtual kind of mechanical, so we've now
gone from the big screen to the laptop. Aside from the fact that we're in Max's garage and
he's racing in the virtual world, another big difference is the power-ups. For those
of you who are familiar with Zwift, will know about the power-ups. They are awarded at random
at specific points in the race, and in this race, there are two to choose from.
There's the aero hat, which makes you more aero for 15 seconds, and the lightweight,
which makes you 10% lighter for 15 seconds. Allocation for these is like a lottery and
that might seem a little bit unfair, but in reality, it's an uphill finish at 5% so they'll
be pretty equal in the end. You just have to deploy them correctly. How much Zwift experience
will come into this at the end? Well, we'll soon find out, but I feel like it might be
quite a lot. Simon: We are in the closing stages now. There's
just 2k to go. Max is still looking super composed but just imagine the level of pain
he's going to be in with just two kilometers to go, but there's all to play for. He's in
the lead group. Max: [unintelligible 00:13:52]
Simon: He's just giving some race directions there. I've got goosebumps, I'm so excited.
It's an uphill finish to the line, it suits Max down to the ground. There's a rainbow
jersey up for grabs on the finish line. Come on, Max, come on. You've got this. Come on.
Go, go, go, go, go. Commentator: Another acceleration from Osborne,
look at that, 12 watts a kilo, and he's got a great gap here. Osborne is out there for
Germany, and the Germans are on the way to glory. There's the power-up used to turn round
the corner and the finish line is in sight. Three seconds for Osborne here, and the Germans
are going to be the champions. It's Osborne who's going to be the world champion for the
first time in esports. A trendsetter and Germany have it, followed by Dal-Cin and Foldager.
It's Osborne who is the world champion. Simon: Yes, mate, come on, go, go, go, go,
go. [cheers]
Simon: [bleep] hell. Max, that was amazing. That you so much for
having us in the garage of dreams. It's been a real privilege to see behind-the-scenes
of the first esports worlds. [crosstalk] Max: Cheers for joining. I really appreciate
it, and hopefully, it makes a good video [unintelligible 00:15:06] experience for everyone. I'm pretty
sure that probably won't ever happen again. I imagine the next one will be hopefully post-pandemic
in some sort of arena. First and last, potentially. Simon: That's right, yes.
Manon: You're probably the first rider to get 28th in the world in a world championships,
with mudguards, a saddlebag, and a light on. Fair play.
Max: [unintelligible 00:15:24] Manon: Winter bike. [laughs]
Simon: I don't know whether that's class, Max, or just poor preparation. Either way,
it's cool, it's cool. Please give this a big thumbs up if you've enjoyed it and a big well
done again to Max. Max: Cheers.
[00:15:39] [END OF AUDIO]