{"id":277032,"date":"2025-11-11T20:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/277032\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T20:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:23:11","slug":"why-pro-cycling-teams-are-still-gambling-on-virtual-racers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/277032\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Pro Cycling Teams Are Still Gambling on Virtual Racers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated November 11, 2025 11:07AM<\/p>\n

WorldTour teams are still plucking watt-monsters from Zwift<\/a> and MyWhoosh<\/a> and tossing them into the peloton in the hope that they\u2019ll become the next Jay Vine<\/a>, or better still, Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But history shows the path from online w\/kg competitions to the nuanced and nasty open road is riddled with real-world potholes.<\/p>\n

In fact, Vine and fellow Zwift Academy winner Neve Bradbury<\/a> are the only Esport graduates to have emerged from this problematic pathway with any serious success.<\/p>\n

The trend isn\u2019t stopping WorldTour team Picnic-PostNL from gambling on another virtual great, however.<\/p>\n

The Dutch team this month handed prolific Zwift racer Mattia Gaffuri a two-year-deal in the hopes of translating raw [online] watts into IRL racing wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis numbers are outstanding,\u201d Picnic-PostNL head coach Rudi Kemna celebrated in a team statement<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

A two-time Zwift Academy finalist, Gaffuri has been within a PowerUp or two of winning a deal with Alpecin-Deceuninck.<\/p>\n

Now, after some dabbling in gravel and a short spell as trainee with Team Polti-VisitMalta, he\u2019s gotten his golden ticket to the top.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see Mattia as a rider who, in a few years, can potentially compete in the finales of the Ardennes classics. In the grand tours, he\u2019s going to be an important piece of the puzzle for our finishers Max [Poole] and Oscar [Onley],\u201d coach Kemna said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed some truly impressive things while riding as a stagiaire, so we\u2019re very happy to have him on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zwift and MyWhoosh provide easy pickings for pro teams
\n\"ZwiftOnline racing offers a deep talent pool for pro teams to pick from. (Photo: Zwift)<\/p>\n

Unlike some Erace converts, Gaffuri is more than just a \u201cZwift guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Italian is an accomplished cycling coach and long-time grassroots racer, too.<\/p>\n

But his path to the top of \u201creal cycling\u201d began on the indoor trainer, via the Zwift Academy.<\/p>\n

E-racing platforms have been providing teams like Picnic with an easy-access talent pool ever since Zwift transformed basement pain caves into virtual race courses.<\/p>\n

The app\u2019s \u201cacademy\u201d has sent riders into Alpecin-Decuninck and Canyon-SRAM jerseys every year since the program launched in 2016. More recently, the rise of the UCI esport world championships<\/a> made the niche more lucrative, more competitive, and a legit \u201csport\u201d dominated by watt-per-kilo monsters.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why top teams are scouring the results sheets of Zwift and MyWhoosh races just as closely as they do those of the wordwide junior leagues.<\/p>\n

Online racing platforms deliver performance metrics at the click of a button rather than a laborious back and forth with teenagers and their parents-turned-coaches.<\/p>\n

And for any team with a few thousand spare Euros, online racers with pro-level power are a tempting proposition.<\/p>\n

All that\u2019s left to do is find another 30 watts and deliver a few lessons in race-craft, right?<\/p>\n

Far from it.<\/p>\n

When racing becomes more than a fitness competition
\n\"\"Team UAE superdomestique Vine has seen huge success after coming up through e-racing \u2013 many others haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

A rocky road separates an athlete\u2019s spare room \u201csuffer center\u201d and the elbows and accelerations of the open road.<\/p>\n

As 2024 Zwift Academy winner Noah Ramsay discovered, the subtle skills of navigating the peloton and the repeatability of daylong performance have proven pitfalls for many former online racers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t remember the parcours throughly. So on these flat stages I couldn\u2019t remember what sectors I had to be at the front or move up, or how to position myself in the crosswinds,\u201d Ramsay told Canadian Cyclist<\/a> of his faltering first races with Alpecin-Deceuninck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky to make it through everything, even though I got caught up in a couple of crashes,\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n

In fact, of the 17 Zwift Academy graduates [there was only a female program in the inagural 2016 edition \u2013 ed], 2020 graduates Vine and Bradbury are the only two to have seen serious long-term success. Separately, 2022 UCI Esport world champion Loes Adegeest just signed a two-year deal with Lidl-Trek after she was picked up by FDJ-Suez by virtue of her virtual prowess.<\/p>\n

And the rest?<\/p>\n

They soon retired or stuck it out to become pack-fodder.<\/p>\n

Crashes, consistency, and the outrageous level of competition have all been cited for the disappointing careers of riders who might rarely have raced before they hopped onto Zwift.<\/p>\n

Of course, the injuries and changes of heart that impact all racers have also played a part.<\/p>\n

The risks and rewards of online racers
\n\"2020Big money is up for grabs at hte UCI esports worlds (now held on MyWhoosh) and other racing leagues. (Photo: Zwift)<\/p>\n

Virtual recruitment may be low-lift work for pro teams, but it\u2019s proving a gamble.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s maybe why it seems even the Zwift Academy teams are starting to rethink their levels of investment.<\/p>\n

Both Alpecin-Deceuninck and Canyon-SRAM now grant winners contracts to their development squads rather than their full WorldTour operations. It\u2019s a lower-risk, lower pay option for the teams and an easier transition for the riders.<\/p>\n

However, Eracers aren\u2019t only being pushed away from the real world.<\/p>\n

Increasingly lucrative virtual leagues are tempting top athletes back\u00a0to their indoor trainers.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u2019s expected that two riders who went full circle from Eracing to the road and back will dominate the UCI Esport worlds this weekend.<\/p>\n

Reigning Esports champion Jason Osborne and co-favorite Michael Vink both spent short, largely unsuccessful spells with Alpecin-Deceuninck and UAE Emirates after they were scouted on the basis of their virtual palmar\u00e8s.<\/p>\n

Online racing offers big money, maximum safety
\n\"\"Osborne won $15k when he won the 2024 UCI Esport worlds. (Photo: MyWhoosh)<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s easy to see why Vink and Osborne chose the indoor trainers over the mid-pack of the pro peloton.<\/p>\n

Osborne earned $15k last winter<\/a> when he won the virtual rainbow jersey. The German stands to win the same again on Saturday at the 2025 UCI worlds. That\u2019s more than what Poga\u010dar was handed along with his rainbow stripes in Zurich or Kigali.<\/p>\n

MyWhoosh offers a $60k total prize pot for its Abu Dhabi-hosted events this weekend.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s only the start \u2013 the Emirati platform\u2019s weekly race series dishes out in the region of $100k in winnings per month. The rival Zwift Games series offers a smaller but not to be sniffed at purse of $113k.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say I hated my time in the WorldTour,\u201d Osborne said last winter after he won the 2024 worlds. \u201cIt was a great experience, but it was time to move on to what I enjoyed most, and that\u2019s Ecycling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old told the Virtual Velo podcast<\/a> that, like so many other virtual graduates, he found the pro sport to be too suffocating and too dangerous.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to jump whenever they want you to. It always felt like, I wouldn\u2019t say slavery, but like they were in too much control,\u201d Osborne told Virtual Velo. \u201cIt\u2019s at a point where it\u2019s not worth it. It\u2019s not worth the risk of crashing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaffuri: \u2018Once I set my mind to something, I commit\u2019
\n\"ZwiftGaffuri raced as stagiaire for Polti and now steps up to a full-time WorldTour contract. (Photo: Silvia Colombo\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that riders like with roots on the trainer return to the safety of their pain caves. The cash prizes are very real, and very big.<\/p>\n

Will Picnic-PostNL\u2019s new signing Gaffuri buck the trend and remain outdoors?<\/p>\n

He\u2019s confident he\u2019s logged out of Eracing for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite consistent on the bike, and off the bike I\u2019d say I\u2019m a quick learner: once I set my mind to something, I really commit to it,\u201d Gaffuri said in team statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident that my ability to learn and adapt, plus the support of the team, will help me take big steps in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

And for team Picnic? Well, you miss every shot you don\u2019t take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated November 11, 2025 11:07AM WorldTour teams are still plucking watt-monsters from Zwift and MyWhoosh and tossing them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,54263,82,83235,126569,126570,110799,126571,54267],"class_list":["post-277032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-parent_category-road","tag-sports","tag-tag-jay-vine","tag-tag-mywhoosh","tag-tag-uci-esports-world-championships","tag-tag-zwift","tag-tag-zwift-racing","tag-type-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}