Introduction 🙌 | Chasing Down A Dream | Zwift Academy

Introductory Episode for Chasing Down A Dream | Zwift Academy – airing on Eurosport and Discovery Plus on February 20th 2024.

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When I start cycling of course you had to win races to be detected being at the right place at the right time with the right legs the power meter uh changed the complete game in cycling the process of talent detection it just all changed 2016 they told me that they were

Going to try and host a global cycling Tal ID competition Canyon sham came onto the scene it still is a super opportunity for Young Riders that maybe want a different part to becoming Pro well next year I’m going to be professional cyclist it’s truly revolutionize a sport that desperately needs it

To find your way through to to professional career as a youngster when back in my day it was more a question of just get out there race your bike um you had to get in front of Scouts and so on back in the day the pathway was a

Relatively simple one it was Club Regional national team and then you’d have the opportunity to perform in the biggest races in the world as an under 23 or as an so you sort of um went through your Junior years and then you had a couple of years as in the elite

Category and it was just a question of being at the right place at the right time with the right legs and for the teams to be looking for your type of riding and then that would be your path way to turn in Pro and then through that

You’ve got the Stager system which is basically Talent is identified and they’re taken generally in August and as we all know this is happening with younger and younger Riders now both across men’s women’s um straight from the Juniors now is common straight to World Tour that was utterly unheard of

20 30 years ago even 10 years ago really as a wrong Rider I was doing uh all kind of races like um local races like caras like we said uh National races or International races and uh yeah remember it was uh yeah a lot of time

When I was with the national teams uh even uh coach from other countries coming to already speak to me was able to buy myself a ticket to South Africa for a sort of a proam race down there like I said right legs at the right time with the right people watching and that

Race in South Africa for me was very much that particular moment I had the boss uh and the owner of the of krop the sponsor um basically come and and said have you thought about turning professional and I said to them just show me where I’ll be

There for my first contract as a pro I decided to race for France for Fran de um the reason was um to avoid a little bit the the pressure of the media uh we know that Belgium media quite a hard on Young Riders domestic British teams

Wanted me to ride for them but I chose to go and race in France as an amateur living in a service course which was a converted police station and I was in the best team in France did the Olympics and wasn’t coached But ultimately I didn’t turn pro till I was

30 well in women’s cycling it was really different in comparison to the men’s because they simply weren’t those big professional teams there was maybe one one or two pro teams and the other Riders would write for clap teams that would not provide them much other than bicycles and very low salaries or non

Salaries you were also trying to juggle it alongside either a part-time job some were were full-time jobs I kind of gave up on the sport in terms of of competition I decided to get back to work because it didn’t feel like a viable career path because it was such

Slim pickings in terms of the opportunities to be seen by those top teams I think for women’s cycling it was definitely a lot more challenges cuz there were at the time there wasn’t the money available uh you know it was even professional uh women cycling was still

Only the very very very best that that got paid anywhere near enough to potentially break even or or maybe make a a living out of it traditionally to get noticed you had to be seen in races but for some particular countries that’s certainly a lot harder procycling mostly takes place

In Europe and if you cannot get there if if you cannot be seen by you know the the decision makers it’s really hard to find your way to Europe I think for most of the countries like Australia and America they would have found it even more difficult they would have had

To go through potentially the national team path to get maybe a few races in in Europe in front of the right crowds everyone wants to race in Europe and so all the logistical challenges that come with that whether that be visas or spending a long time away from

Home you know as we say from Australia and America you’re you’re pretty much on the other side of the world a long way from home and often speaking different languages those guys they come for 8 to 10 months to Europe they have an extra motivation because they left everything

Behind them to succeed in cycling they didn’t had any hobby only cycling and uh e what they could and and and just sleep you know so and repeat every day so sometimes it explains also why they are they are better cycling has changed over the last

20 years it’s a lot faster today the teams are more professional they have more support they have more science better material when I started uh as a pro uh in for dig we were I think if I remember well 19 Riders but today it’s uh mostly 27 26 Riders by team but it

Means that you race on three schedules or sometimes three race in the same weekend or on the same week wow it’s it’s a big change from from the moment I started in 2014 the Women’s World Tour in just in the last few years has developed kind of beyond recognition almost

There’s so much growth right now uh the calendar is much bigger the teams are much deeper each year we were getting more important iconic races which also attracted more sponsor in 2023 we had a massive increase in the number of race days so we went up to I think it was 88

Race days that were planned uh in the Women’s World Tour which was almost 20 more than there was in previous years and of course having tour different friends F A with all of the sudden like created this like a huge passion and love for women’s cycling and that means that there’s a

Lot of new opportunities for Riders to come into the scene there’s more spots teams are now Fielding two squads throughout the season which is incredibly important there was a point where we were starting to think you know are there enough riders that are necessarily going to be able to meet

Those demands of the world tour the minimum salary in the world tour has totally changed the game I think young uh talented Riders um can sort of see women cycling as a proper career choice bigger teams more Riders essentially a deeper talent pool we had to find another way of recognizing and finding

New talent and that’s when the revolution of data happened the power meter uh changed the complete game in cycling I think it was 2010 2015 and from then on it all changed the the process of talent detection the the process of of coaching of following up

It just all changed we had some kind of objective thing to measure the performance so over time you just had these extra layers of data of which basically um then with the Advent of the internet this open source information that everybody had access to at a very low price point suddenly everybody could

Train like the best funded Elite athletes in the world the power meter just gave us a constant flow of uh of information actually uh on each hour of training on each hour of racing so yeah that was a big game changer before signing in Rider you ask him the password of his uh

Databased and you just go analyze all his training and his races and uh and you see uh his real potential so it’s easier today for the for the teams to detect the the real talents you cannot uh underestimated or ignore uh data anymore as we see now how

Which Riders go to which races it’s extremely important to to put the right Rider on the right race on the right moment otherwise uh it’s almost impossible to be successful I think now we’ve got a a wealth of uh options for us to choose

From in terms of how we can look at the potential of riders so we’re not just relying on you know looking at race results and being able to try and compare a race in one country to another a complete power profile is um like the physiological um traits that

That you need to be successful in women’s cycling so ideally you know um a relatively good Sprint um good you know short power 1 minutes 5 minutes 10 minutes 20 minutes um half an hour a modern world tour cyclist what is needed to to be at that level producing one

Hour 5 WTS a kilo that is not that big anymore in in World Tour cycling so then the question is okay what kind of specific things are we looking for in some kind of athletes to make the difference and it didn’t take too long to discover that you could find a

Pathway to the pros using data alone let’s go back to 2016 uh I had recently met the people from zwift and then they told me that they were going to try and host a global cycling Talent ID competition in their video game and they were going to do it

With a women’s team it was a women’s only um and they signed up for zift Academy and they had to do like a series of like over 25 workouts in in three months by the end of it 1100 women had joined the program Canyon sham came onto

The scene and this team um they approached us and were interested in doing some sort of talent ID through the video game and we had already been thinking uh about a project like this because of GT Academy which was Nissan and PlayStation’s game in um Gran Turismo to win a real life driving

Opportunity they were looking to do things differently the idea was not only to have another cycling team but be also be try to be disruptive to a very traditional sport we’ve tried to yeah bring some Modern comp components into it it was so successful that first year in terms of um you know

Really creating an exciting new Pathway to the pros getting a ton of media attention so the next year because of all that media attention uh the Academy I believe doubled inside we had about 2500 women it was definitely a success from the start but the amount of people

Who were very critical about this concept at the very beginning was um was interesting and in 2017 when the men’s one came online it was generally these were just riders that were racing on zwift and as it got more popular and the profile of zift Academy got bigger there

Were riders that were looking at it and thinking wow I can get so I can get on the development team of World Tour Team every year the the the competitors becoming stronger and have have a new level as they understand this is a very honest Pathway to get into

Professional cycling it’s pretty much grown to the point where this path last year I believe we had over 160,000 across the men’s and women’s programs I think we’ve got a brilliant opportunity to to find a real talent in there looking at the physical capabilities of the rider and then when

We can finally meet them and and Whittle it down we can fine-tune the the other aspects as well but I think it provides such a a vast scope of riders that we could try and tap to as a talent scout you can only be at

One place at the same time you can check One race and that’s it with some something like zwift I sometimes dream of that if my computer would be uh constantly connected to each zwift rider in the world when he does something five or a 10 minute power outcome that

Is yeah something that I need to know that might that my computer just gives some kind of popup that would be uh that would be great essentially zwift given its reach is basically casting this enormous net um with a certain set of prerequisites and just bring it in and it’s basically cast over

The entire world on a certain moment when the opportunity came to have have Swift as a partner we were immediately ly happy to be honest and then of course uh Jay Vine came Jay Vine won the Swift Academy in 20 I guess and it seemed to be that uh

It was the the tool to find the the right Rider on the right moment the Swift Academy offers a massive platform for Riders who feel that they maybe haven’t got spotted and maybe haven’t got seen by any of the scouts or had the opportunity the fund available maybe

That’s the the Big Challenge right now especially for for the coaches who are going through all of the data that’s coming there is to to not miss that one little nugget um you know that that comes through the the program that maybe isn’t the rider that you’re looking for

But could potentially turn out to be that next Superstar it still is a super super nice opportunity for Young Riders that maybe want a different part to becoming Pro um it’s quite unusual but I think the P already showed that there’s some really good riders coming from it

As well we can see a lot of riders coming from Z that they’re there in the final they can fight for the the world tour victories or World Tour podiums not only in a woman’s cycling but also in men’s cycling the Hidden Gem I hope it’s

I hope it’s not hidden I hope it’s just not known to us yet they want a certain sort of Rider so year on year the the process that Riders go through to get to the final will actually shift and change according to the source of rides they

Want on their roster one year they might want a rou a and a sprinter another year they want a climber it’s a big game changer or life changer for a lot of people and of course it’s also all all or nothing and only one uh one athlete can

Succeed hi my name’s Alex um and I won zft Academy in 2022 it was last year that I completed the zft academy workouts so I moved back from uni to live back with my mom so I completed them back in the shed down the end of the garden giving it everything um and

Then it soon really quickly progressed like a few weeks later I was out in Spain competing at the zft Academy finals so it was a bit of a whirlwind experience but yeah something I will won’t ever regret doing Alex congratulations when I was announced that I was the winner I was yeah just

Over the moon I couldn’t really couldn’t really come to terms with it for quite a long time I was just thinking about well next year I’m going to be professional cyclist like how how cool is that my name is Ella Harris I am 25 years old

I’m from denan which is in the south island of New Zealand and at the time of doing the zift Academy I was almost at a Crossroads I wanted to go to Europe to race because I knew Europe was the Pinnacle of professional cycling the selection process going through the Z

Academy from the uh preliminary rounds then to the semi-finals then to the finals at the team camp in Malaga it to be there was incredible and then to be announced as the winner was a weight lifted off my shoulders because I came to want the Ultimate Prize a lot going

To the zwift academy finals was my first time in Europe so then I went back home I decompressed a little bit and then it was like wow I’m about to start a new life in 2020 we were in quite a harsh lockdown in Melbourne and then one of my

Friends suggested that I do with damy so I tried it out there would go when I was doing the workouts I was at Uni um but all online so it’s quite easy to work around that and just working at a local supermarket and living with my parents

And riding as much as I could it was really big because IID always wanted to become a professional cyclist and then all of a sudden this opportunity came about and it was pretty big shock being 18 years old and having to move over the other side of the world it was summer uh

I was probably at my grandmother house in the mountains in Italy at that moment probably I gave up uh the pro cycling dream let’s say I knew about zft Academy but it was in my mind it was something really far and not realistic but I

Thought yeah we we can try this year and actually it worked out pretty well so next year I’m joining the world tour and so I I reached my uh the goal I had since I was a just a kid when I won zft Academy my life changed completely in probably one

Month of course we heard uh this these voices people were skeptic about it um and I think it’s rather logical and we can not ignore the fact that Jay vanine shows incredible numbers he was wearing the bka dot Jersey in in the VTA he w a

Stage there um he did other nice things but still he struggles with uh staying on the bike from time to time it’s one thing to be in your garage or basement you know giving it everything you got when you can you can absolutely fall over your bike and no there’s no

Consequences but now you’re in a pack next to some of the best riders in the world the cameras are on you the pressure is on you see a lot more about the the full potential of the rider and what they can handle and it’s tough you

Can detect a rider that is like as strong as we never saw we don’t have a guarantee that he’s going to win the to Def Force because to win a to the force you have to be with the best on the flat stage avoid the crashes uh be in good

Position at the bottom of the climb there is you know another element of bike racing in this not just the pure power is how you’re able to to read the bike race position yourself in the bunch how you handle the bike um you know the awareness that you have and and

Intelligence that you have on on on a bike the positioning is super important and then you really have to be uh be uh confident on the bike um I think nowadays just putting on a rain jacket and everything is is quite okay everybody can do it but for sure it’s

Really difficult to be in the right spot at the right moment I think jayvine is a good example took us two years to make him a real Road cyclist we were 100% sure that he had the numbers and then the thing is okay how can we transfer

This into a real uh Road cyclist who can also yeah have all the other skills that you need first race was pretty scary I decided to to change my brakes to European brakes cuz I had Aussie brakes which are front right and left back and I remember just likeed skting

Everywhere because I wasn’t used to it so that was quite scary um and I just remember the pure numbers like thinking I was moving to the front and looking back and being like at the back again I didn’t feel like I was really lacking the legs it was just being able to position

And read the race to the first race uh there was a lot of stress in me one thing is like doing zwift workouts and winning zwift Academy another thing is to race with other 200 guys that are as good as you and probably even better I didn’t really

Know how to conduct myself as a professional athlete and looking after those marginal Gams and making sure that I was doing everything right from nutrition lifestyle sleep just going about regular things at a race it’s not just about can you ride on a like ride

Strong on a bike like you can on Swift there’s so many more aspects to it that you don’t ever get to see if you just watch a cycling race like the whole aspects of like training effectively uh at races you have to work with so many different people like the swan and the

Mechanics and the sports directors and having meetings before races I think there probably are more routs into the professional Paton now but you have to be better to make that initial step I think zift is a great uh platform to be used uh as Talent ID um especially in countries outside of

Europe where it’s really difficult uh for them you know to be noticed it’s truly revolutionized a sport that desperately needs it cycling has been done one way for a very long time and that’s kept a lot of talent out of the sport so anything we can all do to

Create new Pathways to create new opportunities for Riders to show what they’re made of to really to see how far they want to take it and to really be able to chase their bike dreams for men’s and women’s cycling the zift academy is become a real legitimate way

To aim for a professional contract if you want to make it to the top of the sport the zwift academy is a proven success and again this year 100,000 people have started that Journey we’ve got six finalists but there can only be two winners