This Woman Is Documenting Her Zwift Journey, One Doodle at a Time
Olya Perevalova Cohen wasn’t sure what perils lay ahead as she embarked on her Tour de Zwift journey in January: Would she bonk five minutes in? Would her Zwift setup lose its connection? Or worse—would she get dropped? An avid doodler, she took to sketching scenes from every stage of the virtual riding competition, and the results are both adorable and all too relatable.
Not only is sketching fun for Cohen, but it also serves as motivation. Cohen regularly posts her illustrations to her Instagram account and a supportive Facebook group for Zwift riders (she also has an Etsy page for custom illustrations). After a while, her friends and followers came to expect to see her Zwift-themed sketches.
“Doing the cartoons [I] was sort of like, well if I don’t finish it, at least my friends will still have a laugh,” Cohen told Bicycling.
Cohen, who lives in Houston, Texas, and works as a Russian-English interpreter at NASA, started Zwifting in 2016 then picked it up more seriously last year after deciding to try Tour de Zwift. It’s the “biggest, multi-stage event” on Zwift, similar to a fondo.
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Cohen first experienced virtual riding in a group during last year’s Tour de Zwift, and that’s when she decided to start illustrating her rides with regularity. She illustrated this year’s Tour de Zwift as well, drawing multiple sketches for each stage. She tends to sketch her emotions throughout the ride or moments that resonate with her, like “various points within the stage where I feel like I’m dying or I’m feeling good,” she said. “I don’t overthink it too much.”
And sometimes, she admits she’s “thinking about whether or not it was smart to sign up for this.” But even that often becomes fodder for a good comic that day.
For this year’s Tour de Zwift, Cohen completed a few Group A rides (the tougher, longer option), along with mostly Group B rides. By her side, throughout every virtual challenge and indoor ride—and in every single one of her sketches—is her faithful canine sidekick, Pepe.
“She’s a mutt, but she looks very much like a German Shepherd,” Cohen said. “We call her a German Shepherd so she doesn’t get offended!”
Pepe gets excited whenever she hears Cohen boot up Zwift, and she’s always there to offer Cohen her support.
“She’s really into Zwifting. Whatever she’s doing, she stops and comes running and brings all her toys by the bike,” Cohen said. “If I’m putting in a lot of effort, she comes over and gives me nose nudges.”
Pepe really is at her side for every ride she does, because Cohen says she pretty much only bikes indoors. (Though we know she’s not alone.) The last time she did ride outside, her thumbs were numb for two days from gripping the handlebar so tight.
“I’m useless on the bike,” she said. “I can’t control where it goes.”
When Cohen heads outside for a workout, she’s typically running. But she loves that Zwift helps her train inside when she needs to.
“Zwift is a life-saver for me in terms of maintaining fitness,” she said.
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