EPISODE 1 💪 | Chasing Down A Dream | Zwift Academy

Episode 1 for Chasing Down A Dream |” Zwift Academy – airing on Eurosport and Discovery Plus from February 20th 2024.

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Over 100,000 people started zift Academy completing six workouts and two races to qualify for this final I’m mtia I’m 24 and I’m From Italy and we’re down to just six three men and three women I am Maddie as everyone calls me I’m from blo Fontaine South Africa our finalists have made it

Through the grueling work counts in races on Swift my name is Lis kitsy I’m from Germany and they’ve never been closer to their dream of becoming a professional Rider they believe that they have got what it takes I’m a shimmen I come from Slovenia I am a veterinarian and they’ll be here

With two of the biggest teams in the men’s and women’s world Canyon stram racing and Alpa IND Deering my name is Katie I’m from London I work in finance can you imagine just a few weeks ago they were living their normal lives from

A student to a coach to a vet to even a Trader in the city riding at home on zwift in their bedroom or garage I’m Anon I come from cologne I’m 24 years old and now they’re going to ride with the world champion matchu Vander Paul

And the third place in the overall of the Tor France F Rift CA you also get a bit nervous when you see some bigger Riders it was a little bit unreal and I think I still have to process and for the next 4 days our finalists are going to be

Tested the coaches who set the progam pramming game have very specific data for all the Riders and there is no doubt they are extremely strong athletes but now we want to see if they can back those numbers up on the road the three finalists when they first arrived it’s always really really

Interesting uh I think they’re all a little bit nervous and that’s the most natural thing this is what they want to do this they’re looking at this as their future they just popped in to our environment our training camp we are used to be here we are familiar with

Each other for them it’s really completely new there was some stress for sure noticeable also in numbers and we saw the blood pressure of some guys normally a doctor will come then and say you have to uh take rest for 3 days it was a strange emotion of course I’m happy to

Be here but I’m also in race mode you know there is also a little bit of uh some nerves I’m mtia I’m 24 uh I grew up doing Athletics uh middle distance running and I was at National level I did some national championships but then I stopped because

Of an injury and I started cycling at 20 years old I grew up with a inspiration from Ian baso and I think he he is the main reason why I get got passionate to right now one of of my biggest idles is Prim strogish because of the unusual path to the top

The main thing that I want to do with my life is to live in the sport environment and to have a job in the sport environment of course the dream job is to be an athlete but uh that’s also what I’m pursuing outside of uh of the sport

To be a coach or something that’s still in the sport maybe it’s okay good morning all short pre-training briefing a bit longer than normal uh first of all I would like to introduce three new colleagues for the week Matia Anon and Luis they will join us on

Training and by the end of the week someone needs to give his contract to those guys it’s a joke I just ask if they can introduce themselves so we know a bit more where you’re from all in 30 seconds introduce yourself who are you where are you from well I’m Lou I’m 19

Years old I’m from North Germany and uh my speciality is a bit time trialing yeah I’m Anton I’m 24 years old I’m from cologne in Germany as well uh my specialty is propably climbing and besides training I also study Sport Science yeah I’m Matia I’m From Italy

And um I also study Sports Science and um yeah I’m so let’s say climber also a little bit of TT uh definitely not a sprinter so yeah today I put my hands forward we have a 4-Hour ride on the schedule uh we take it easy um we have just some kind of

Practical drills uh somewhere on the loop in poo uh there we will have some activation drills we will have some Sprints we will just try to rotate a bit with the team close to each other just try to feel a bit try to integrate in the group and in the last hour somewhere

That will be between K 990 and 100 we have another quite straight section where we do the activation drills of the first hour again and hopefully you still are as good as in the first hour on your 5 to 20 second uh intervals okay good hour one was basically a steady

Ride with several really intense Sprints of between 10 seconds and 30 seconds essentially to activate the muscles that feeling that you have when you are close to Ma and you hope not to do something stupid but that just I think it’s it’s the same for everybody three two one

Go the first time I Sprint against mat I wasn’t maybe too big of a gear so you accelerated like twice as fast as me so I didn’t had any chance but still a nice experience so you’re preparing for cyclocross worlds now but most on the road not so much on the cycl

Crost but I just did a lot of py RAC so yeah you are us yeah yeah it’s also important for them that they feel at EAS a bit would be a shame if we missed out on somebody’s true potential just because he nervous a bit so I think it’s important that they’ll

Just have the feeling they’re training with with some friends three two one you saw overgeared when they pulled off a bit forced on the bike not one combination bike and Rider sprinting is not my quality nice Anton was seemed very very relaxed there’s always an eye on you but uh I

Try just to ride normal and Lou again just seemed a little bit nervous yes I was a bit nervous to make a mistake or to bring somebody down the mid portion of the ride was ridden at a steady tempo with a pretty good speed and all the climbs the

Pressure was applied on some very technical descents that was quite revealing I think it would be really important to show that we know how to stay in the group stay relaxed basically be Riders and not only we maybe you can send me to me later and then the final

Hour there was more of what we saw in hour number one so some big Sprints some activations 2 by two the reason that we have Sprints at the beginning and the end is to see how the rers will cope with the accumulation of fatigue there no secret the AL in the

Kic is a very strong uh Sprint squad or contingent in a grand tour when we have uh eight Riders usually three or four will be dedicated to the lead out uh being last man second last and third last what makes app and the trinic so successful in the lead outs is the is

The culture here and all the guys we know each other quite well there’s 100% trust this year I did a lot of lead outs for Yas which I really enjoy doing doing also because when I dropped him off at 200 M he was basically unbeatable we

Have the culture in the team and we trying to analyze a lot of things as well in the Sprint we trying to learn from our mistakes and of course we will keep making mistakes but all the mistakes we made yeah every time we can make a small progression I think this

Really part of the success at a certain moment you just have to know what you are really good at and try to go hun 100% for that we have some kind of sprinting DNA uh where we try to build uh a team around certain sprinters we have yper Phillips and we have Kaden

Gr but it’s building a strong Squad lead out wise around that Sprinter that makes actually uh looking the Sprinter that good we have three really strong Riders uh profiles 100% sure on the sprinting part yeah we don’t have anyone who would fit in in some kind of sprinting train or

Even even performing the Sprint itself Anon had some Punchy qualities which were okay Matia and Louie for sure not my first impression they have more the physiology of a GC Rider tomorrow it has to be confirmed if they are that good and if it’s in that direction two of them are already 24

Years old the other one is 19 so Daddy has for me already a small Advantage yeah he’s quite young 19 years so maybe I can count of a bit of inexperience but maybe the team likes a younger Rider better well I will be totally honest at

This moment I don’t have any favorite at all my name is Luis kitsy I work at a local supermarket in a warehouse sometimes it’s a bit difficult because if you ride 170 kilom in the morning and don’t even have time to eat it’s sometimes a bit difficult

I’ would say I’m a funny guy who like spending time with my friends with my brother especially my family we always do hiking and so we climb mountains since we can walk at an age of 13 I started to do a bit more Sports at first I wanted to

Become a body Builder after I finished school last year in April I said to myself well maybe you can try to become a professional cyclist so I said to myself give you one year to try it the performances in the under 23 category weren’t that good because I

Broke my hand and had lots of illness and things like that and the Swift Academy was kind of a last opportunity to become a professional cyclist the first impressions are really good I think we’ve got three really strong cyclists ready to show their best selves

And to learn as they go as well which was something that is really important for me Katie uh 26 she’s working in finance so she’s obviously a intelligent woman it’s a bit surreal being here just being in the environment with the team seeing the Riders seeing the whole

Support group behind the Riders it’s just incredible L is an interesting one she is a very bubbly character I was trying to be as like chill as possible someone who would bring good morale to the team and and try and lift the spirit Maddie I have had a conversation

With in the past and I know that she is uh one that is really trying to do everything she can to improve her weaknesses this is so real I’m actually here this is exciting she came here super motivated and super dialed into this task there has to be some nerves

Otherwise it wouldn’t be important but it’s just learning how to control it let the butterflies fly in the same direction and not all just like when I was growing up I did like all of the sports I could basically do at school I did hockey tennis netball cross country running athletic swimming

You name it I did it so the beginning I trained with him quite soon even in primary schools he started running away from me I couldn’t keep up and then with the swimming she very soon she started swimming away from me I couldn’t keep up

Come on line a couple of years later I couldn’t keep up with uh in in cycling and since there there is this history the L funny enough one of the South African cycling teams uh found me on straa by the end of 2021 the races started again

And then all of a sudden I was winning the races one after the other like boom boom boom boom boom one teammate friends with Ashley Morman pasio they got to talking um in terms of helping me get into Europe I got a email from the world Cycling

Center boom B Bing I ended up at the center I was part of the world Cycling Center women’s Continental team based in Switzerland end of last year coming back from Switzerland um didn’t have a contract for for this season I mean I can’t can’t live up of my parents forever I applied

For the zft Academy as a one of the ways to try and find my way back to Europe I didn’t necessarily actually think I would get very far it was quite a shock finding out like hey you’re going to Spain we’d like to invite you for the

Final like Swift Academy has been a blessing and that it has reignited the fire inside to keep pushing and keep pursuing the dream so day one will’ll do the inside test these inside tests are really really tough is going to be brutal come on laara last bit go go go

And I expect that the Riders give absolutely everything that they can in this test because from the results we get a full metabolic profile of the Riders so we can really paint a clear picture of the capabilities of the Riders As We Said Today is just about

Giving your very best we want to see what you can do on the bike but also have some fun when we’re out riding as well make sure you fuel yourself the it will be super important it’s not an easy day so they start off with a

202 full gas Sprint then we had a a 3 minute test a 6 minute and a 12 minute I’ve done one um it was awful I hated every minute of it I don’t want to do one again it’s going to start drawing up a picture in terms of what what

They’re capable of doing we got a lot of collected data and it gives us a very good comparison against the riders that we currently have on the team it’s going to be absolutely brutal and if it’s not you haven’t done done it hard well enough action that’s what you call 100% effort

Really nice effort girls well done we keep riding now so just nice and easy recover the legs you go around this band on this band to the left you’ll see two lollipops two big red either side okay that’s where you’re going to start so you’ll get you know 30 seconds just easy

Easy spinning into when you finish your your 3 minutes you keep riding for another 10 minutes easy okay at that point drink drink if you feel you need a gel ticket come come back down here you’ll descend probably 5 minutes uh and then we go again for the 6 Minute one

Okay every one of the reps has to be done in the saddle which is quite different for you know a lot of riders would struggle with that and then uh 3 minutes 6 minutes and 12 minute efforts all from a seated position quite strange hour how was it good good good yes how

Can be it was looking good I was I was happy with the numbers yeah Laura’s uh very interesting she also comes with a degree of maturity and in a physical standpoint because she has been in the sport a long time come on KY really good really really

Good kitty comes from a generation that is that is new to the sport her cycling experience is predominantly on Swift Daddy how was it I exceed the numbers I had in my hits yeah good J Mar’s a very interesting uh athlete for us because she’s you know

Was not far off our selection a number of years ago so this is really her second role of the dice she came back for for another um stronger athlete more experienced athlete she was super smooth going up the climbs um she looked really strong I thought maybe I’d start to freak out

In the middle at least of the 6 minute or the 12 minute like oh my goodness I need to hold the power I need to there’s so much on the line I was riding on a rocket ship today so it was amazing you guys gave us really fast

Bikes the 12 minutes was the hardest for me the numbers were really strange and I was like doing full gas all the time was like what we saw that uh by the end she was a little bit struggling with the gears come on laara last bit now come on

I thought like the numbers were really off oh not good I don’t know I could not hold the vs I was just from the start from the start I couldn’t hold I had some BS in mind and I couldn’t hold it and then I thought maybe power meter was wrongly celebrated

Like itself or something come on ktie come on everything you got now everything you got the fact that she was so strong on Swift made us feel you know fascinated to actually see her in the in the real world and confirmed to us that um she in

A in a short few years of of cycling has an incredible engine um I didn’t look at my numbers deliberately um because I didn’t want to be disheartened by it yes please yeah thank you done how far did you get around that corner um I

Thought where the team were at the top I don’t know if that’s the top did you get right to the top was that 12 minutes yeah I think so or maybe just short off okay that’s fine that’s good squeeze it all out it’s easy afterwards it could what it should have I

Tried from Katie we learned that uh she has she has the best numbers I don’t really know what the other girls numbers are I didn’t want to ask because I don’t want to like really get unmotivated or something with the numbers you know I just want to focus on

Myself I would say kitty would have the edge uh over the rest of the girls since since we’ve been with zift Academy all the girls that we’ve tested you know they would belong in a in a prop pelaton from a an actual physical standpoint it couldn’t be decided purely just on the

Numbers what we’re looking to do over the next few days is also look at the way that the Riders are on the bike how are they interacting with their teammates you know everything that goes into being a professional cyclist it’s not just about how many watts you can push