EPISODE 2 💥 | Chasing Down A Dream | Zwift Academy

Episode 2 for Chasing Down A Dream |” Zwift Academy – airing on Eurosport and Discovery Plus from February 20th 2024.

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100,000 people started zwift Academy and we’re down to just six three men and three women it’s going to be brutal go go go there was some stress I was a bit nervous to bring somebody down Anon had some buchy qualities MAA and L not she has the best number it’s not

Just about how many watts you can push these Riders had never met each other before rft Academy they knew of each other once the final list was revealed I’ve spoken to the Riders and they said immediately the first thing they did was check out zwift and straa look at their

Data look at the climbs look at their strengths look at their weaknesses of course I have to look up their straa activities to see how they performed that doing a bit of research and looking at the numbers to compare myself against them the last month I

Checked a little bit who could be the finalist and so I knew one of them because I I was sure he would be in the final but the other guy the German competitor I didn’t knew him before they didn’t know me because I’m not vet in

Social media so it’s kind of hard to find me he’s actually on the same level if not higher I think we are pretty close the power numbers from the Swift Academy workouts were all pretty similar so it’s going to be a tight fight second day on our uh training camp

The Riders will perform an inside test we just have an easy 20 to 203 case we meet up at the top of Val deu there we give you the target powers and that’s it the test itself it’s about four Progressive intervals they will just do uh three times 6 minutes progressively

Let’s say around four five almost five and a half wats a kilo and then they also do a 4minute allout day one was just a general assessment for the men’s finalists then day two is going to be our first opportunity to really see what these guys have got we have something um yeah

Which we call ological data charts of the rider to make some kind of typology based on that we can have an idea okay genetically he is close to a real Sprinter he is close to let’s say uh a marathon runner we try to scale the profile somewhere there and from there

On we start thinking okay what can we do with this guy so you saw the two coins the lowest one is the start of the 6 minutes and the highest one is the one from the 4 minutes m IA 340 Louis 340 Anon 315 one of the most important days

Today because we see for the first time numbers we have to make some kind of assumption on the first uh six minute interval on the power that we think okay this is where we start with and from there on we just progress and make it hard here in 15 minutes you ready yes

For this test to work we need the rider to actually produce lactate on each effort but it wasn’t the case for our finalists for the finalist uh there was nothing happening in the body at 5 FS a kilo hey Lou I just the hard day for sport

Signs so they had to do it all over again and they were a little baffled by it sometimes we underestimate one or two Riders out of the 30 today we missed uh 100% of our zift finalists two times I have to say it this is the best

Level in the zwift academy that I saw the last three to four years actually Louis is still very young he’s about small 68 kilos with a uh 6 Minute intervals I was quite satisfied because they were not that exhausting 4 minute allout test and that it wasn’t that good as I hop

For 6 watt per kilo already they all have about a threshold and FTP power that is relatively above six Watts a kilo that’s huge producing that with only 19 years old we think there is some kind of margin to develop that in a proper way in in yeah in a top

Environment you don’t know where the his limits actually uh are me 490 I think 490 time 90 yes uh I think 3 minutes 50 3 we have one guy who is standing out there a little bit on type of Rider and that is Matia he is the most GC Rider

Type of the tree also GC profile but already 24 years old is it good enough to do the effort for us as a team to try to fit him in we are not sure about it yet after yesterday the Sprints we saw that he can never fit in our classical team

Or in our lead out team so it’s confirmed now that he is a GC guy the question was will it be good enough yet and after today we have to say yes well he has a quite low anerobic capacity but he is able to uh go in a

Very efficient way very long on the fat burning capacity uh so he is very efficient ient in producing energy which also means from day to day that he is a GC rouer that he will recover pretty well in between the stages I think it

Was a good day I had the chance to show my My Level and to show how hard I train to get here so I think I I can be happy with that the next question now will be can you produce those great numbers after some fatigue coming in

Anon he is lightweight guy when we have to compare them to the trees so he is the guy with about 62 kilos my father is a quite good athlete uh so we did the first rides always together uh this is how I grew up pretty much riding with my father

The first sport I did was a bit of Athletics so mostly running and then when I was 11 years old I uh changed to Triathlon 3 years ago I changed to cycling because I had some problems with running and a lot of injuries so I thought maybe I need a little change and

Then I started focusing just on cycling I was always very ambitious I think in the beginning maybe also a bit too ambitious my parents had always to uh calm me down a bit I wanted to train more and they said no you you’re just 13

14 years old and they said no today is just a rest day and I was screaming I want to go for a ride Anon Ison is I’m getting a bit older I’m now 20 4 and because of my late switch to cycling it’s hard to get into the really good

Teams or make the step into World Tour or at least Pro Tour and I think Swift Academy is a good opportunity if you can join a really big team like Alene it’s a probably one of the last chances I would say to get into uh professional cycling

From Anon you expect uh real high relative numbers uh he has to make the difference there we have to say he also did that he has the highest FTP relative power of the tree and he is quite well in balance with his punch Capac capacities also his General level is

Really high but for the moment he is not the purest GC Rider of the Tre 6 and a half watt kilo down which is really good already he has still uh some punch qualities left andon can you tell me time and power uh uh 300 3 minutes 50

And I’m not 100% sure I think 472 but I didn’t look in the last maybe 20 seconds yeah he looks it’s more like uh our Dan type of Rider uh so Boston things next question is then how is it possible 24 years old this qualities

Uphill where was he how did it come that nobody saw him before our first um thing is always looking at the general quality and yeah the general quality is extremely high I think uh we all quite impressed the judges probably only three candidates and all three are high a very

High level already so it won’t be easy but it will be up to us to pick the right one but I think it’s fair to say just based on the stats alone at this point Anton seem to have the edge if I just look at the

Numbers I would say that Anon is in the lead for now but I’m still there with the age gap of four to five years within the finalists and there the big question mark is can Louis close the gap um I grew up in France um in the

Alps uh so quite a Sporting Community I got into cross country skiing um really enjoyed it and as part of summer training it was like running uh cycling just general fitness I moved to London started work I work in finance for a bank on a trading floor I’ve done some traff on at

University I joined the local Cycling Club just because I wanted to meet people that were enthusiastic about their hobby whatever it was well for a long time I used a w bike and I wasn’t even on zift what zift has added to the journey is very much the of human

Interaction all of a sudden you’re competing against real people you sort of want to outperform everyone else not just for yourself but because that you know there are other people slogging away in their sort of pain cave somewhere makes me feel part of a broader Community ktie hill with a big effort

Over the top she’s going to hold on and take the points on the line Katy Hill for team ionian and I think what’s amazing with zift is how it enables all this cycling in a way that can fit in around life my mom is my coach means that our

Relationship is like multifaceted and that she’s my mom she’s also my coach and I think we try and draw the line between the two she approached me 3 or 4 years ago now and said Can can you help me she said I’m trying really really hard but

I’m not getting anywhere over time we just kind of gradually built it up and it’s culminated in this which is just so exciting for both of us day you’re cold yeah B sorry if you’re doing any uh Sprints before you sprint against them yeah so where we are

Final W second day so what you already know is that we’re going to do endurance ride which going to be 5 hours within this endurance ride we will have some tasks where we going to see your skills okay so it’s 131 km um you see in

The routes as a hilly rout and at the start after Climer 13 each Rider each Swift Rider is going to be paired with one pro and you do a 20 second Sprint order is um Zoe you sprint against l AGA you spint against Katie and Casia you spint against

Maddie gay girls will’ll start shortly go up up up up up they paired us up with some of the World Tour Riders who could have gone better my arms in there are still cold know Med is not the Sprinter my opponent was Zoe Beed so uh H I said this maybe

Won’t go so smooth after one second she was gone like Bo I was certainly was a very humbling experience for them but an important one nonetheless we’re not looking at any of the Riders being able to deliver a result in a bunch Sprint but the Sprint Capac capacity is so important in

Cycling just to be able to respond to those moves that are going being able to yeah jump on the wheel of someone that’s attacking try and get away yourself cycling isn’t just at one pace it’s kind of that constant stop start in particular races so you have to have

That snap and if you don’t have it then you make life really difficult for yourself we want to win krm wants to win and and you know whether that is a classic whether that is a GC win whether it is a World’s win Olympics win we want

To win we want to be the best we always have the freedom to try things and we are not afraid to to go for it and be aggressive and we have nothing to lose you know we we really work well together on and off the bike and that’s

What makes us you know such a fierce competitor for everybody on the in the pelaton I love working for others and supporting others and like trying to allow them to believe in their dreams and like capture it especially with young riters it’s fantastic that we have the canyon tram

Generation team and I think for Canyon tram they really led the way before it became allowed almost by the UCI to have an official development team joining the generation team gives his winner of the Swift Academy a slightly more calm approach to turning professional it provides them a better stepping stone

Into the world of professional cycling that has changed for the professional team you need to deliver the results here we are happy that uh that the Riders are developing actually this this a team to make mistakes but more importantly to learn from those mistakes in the middle section of the ride there

Was multiple skill tests dropping back to the car to pick up bead on um taking uh instructions from the car going back and two from the group you got the eagle eyes in the back of the car that we’re always watching them so in 5Ks we’ve G bottles from the side of the

Road we’re really trying to keep an eye on them at all times and then also getting feedback from the Riders uh from the well tour team also as to how they’re riding in the group and you know how they seem as people I was messaging some friends this

Morning um asking for advice on how to um take a bottle from a car they were really helpful and sent me a YouTube video to watch um so massive thanks to them ah perfect put on some bigger Gear watch out with the car oh nice you’re already better than most of the

Peleton how’s the saddle did Kitty come back for uh leave her Jersey back the first time she came back to the car she was like she got the bottle and she was really confident with it because she’s probably never done this in a race before was really really good yeah you

Got to put the expectations on yeah that yeah L you like this exactly exactly so I can so I can yeah yeah yeah thank you push yeah hello I was uh asking him uh how should I like pick it to the that I can like get a little bit

Of heal you know thank you just this yes okay so in around 5 km we’re going to start the pce line efforts and rolling through just to see how they could handle running close to the wheel in front and keep that pace high but importantly nice and smooth

The thing that struck me the most to differentiate the three finalists was the skill of Maddie and of Laura in particular whilst Katie although she clearly was strong was just a little bit hesitant on the wheels okay good hold it there good job stop give him a beat

Maybe so girls in the final Sprint we have ra with Laura AGA with Katie and NASA with Maddie okay let’s the motorcycles move up let’s the motorcycles move up we’ll start the first one the second Sprint I had with the Ricarda Barfield very well and uh like I

Went past her so I think it was goodur was able to put more power after the 4-Hour ride than in end the beginning in the end of the race like when you go uh to a Sprint in a little group especially with climbers I may be uh the strongest that’s massively important

Important because you need to be able to deliver that sort of power at the back end of a race if you’re going to win bike races or play a part in their ultimate outcome her physiology is is more like a climber SL time trist I would say for that type of Rider she

Have also a really Snappy Sprint so I think it’s it’s all good that there is something that we can definitely build on uh absolute power is very important as well in the Sprint for the speed that can be generated um so Lara had the edge on that she was

3 and 1/2 km an hour faster at her Peak speed um than ktie for example Mar was was basically somewhere somewhere in the middle so at the end of day two and the gaps already marginal we got three very strong finalist here but for me it had

To be Lara she was explosive in the Sprints she didn’t fatigue too much at the end and technically she was superb I’m laa shimmen I come from Slovenia I’m 33 years old I’m a veterinarian and a hobby cyclist I work in the veterinary faculty uh I’m assistant professor for

Parasitology and I work in parasitology laboratory I got a very good job proposal to do my PhD and become a doctor of science it’s very important also for my career after cycling when I was a kid I did many sports I was a very sporty child I did running climbing trees uh roller

Skating but then when I was a teenager I started with triatlon and from that I went into Cy L with triatlon I was a national champion I won many competitions as an amateur cyclist I was also a amateur world champion two times in road race between cycling and my career as a

Veterinarian I always had to combine it a little bit becoming a professional cyclist was a Dream from the beginning being think in Slovenia was not the best country to get known by uh cycling teams because we are small I always um ask some friends who have big firms please let’s do a

Woman pro team but I didn’t manage yet but I I was working on this already we see that some Riders have better technical skills some Riders have a better punch the physical numbers uh that they were putting out in the inside test it’s splitting hairs between the three of

Them every Rider comes with pros and cons there’s no Rider that would be a bad fit for the team let’s put it that way