Zwift’s First E-Sports League Race Was Fast, Hard, and Full of Attacks
British pro racer Ian Bibby won a new kind of cycling race on Wednesday, taking the first-ever title in Zwift’s all-virtual KISS Super League race series.
The online cycling game announced the launch of its very own e-sports league in December. This week, it kicked off the league’s first 10-race series, with 55 pro men mounting trainers in The Pinarello Store, a high-end London bike shop, and racing the 25-mile course around Zwift’s Watopia Island and up the Volcano Climb.
The race started fast, with the front group holding speeds of about 28-35 mph. Repeated attacks helped whittle the field down to about 20 riders within the first 10 minutes. Video footage from the riders’ perspective, which streamed live on Facebook and YouTube, revealed that many were consistently pushing upward of 5 w/kg throughout the race. It was sometimes unclear if a rider intended to make a measured attack or simply push the pace, but frequent surges continued the entire time.
The race employed the game’s “double drafting” function, with smart trainers producing double the relief of a normal draft. Since bike handling wasn’t a factor-though tactics were, to some extent-the playing field was different than one we’d see in an outdoor race. Zwift-specialist teams (the Zwift All-Stars and Dream Team) had more of an advantage due to their gaming experience, though real-world UCI teams, like Bibby’s Madison Genesis, also competed.
Even without any actual pavement, factors like timing and strategy played as important of a role as they would in an outdoor race, though they were a bit ambiguous due to the obvious lack of road, wind, and pack feedback.
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The course’s 875 feet of elevation mostly came into the final climb, which riders approached as an aggressive bunch. The final sprint was initiated by Tom Moses of Madison Genesis, whom teammate Bibby surpassed to take two riders from the Zwift All-Stars, Mathieu Drujon and Justin Purificati, who would go on to place second and third. Matteo Sobrero of DD4Q finished fourth.
The men’s KISS Super League includes 15 teams: four UCI Pro Continental teams, nine UCI Continental teams, and two teams from the Zwift community. The women’s league consists of six pro teams and two Zwift community teams, and is scheduled to begin races in February.
Though this was the inaugural Kiss Super League race, it wasn’t the first time Zwift held an official cycling event. Last year the game held its own National Championship, and earlier this month in Australia it hosted the world’s first online bike race officially sanctioned by a national governing body.
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