The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has confirmed the first UCI Cycling Esports World Championships will be held on 8th-9th December 2020.
Plans to host the first UCI Cycling Esports World Championships were originally unveiled in September 2019 by UCI President, David Lappartient at the UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, Great Britain.
“It’s with great pleasure that we are able to confirm the dates and plans for the first UCI Cycling Esports World Championships,” said Lappartient. “The year has certainly been a challenging one for all, but we are now back to enjoying racing and have a new UCI World Championships to look forward to at the end of 2020.
“Virtual races were hugely popular during the period that competitions ceased, and I truly believe in the potential of esports to help grow participation in our sport. This is a historic moment.”
The 2020 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships will take place entirely virtually within ‘the world’s biggest virtual cycling destination, Watopia’ on Zwift. Both men’s and women’s races will take place on identical courses, over equal distances. Exact route details will be unveiled in the coming months.
Participants will be competing entirely remotely from their own residences or training bases. Unlike recent Zwift events, like the Virtual Tour de France, all focus will be on the first over the line. For the winners, there will be a newly designed rainbow jersey that will, of course, be awarded virtually.
The winners will also receive physical jerseys which they will be able to wear in esports competitions for the following year.
“We’re delighted to finally be able to unveil the plans for the first UCI Cycling Esports World Championships,” said Eric Min, Zwift CEO and Co-Founder.
“2020 has been a big year for esports as it has helped fill the gap left by traditional sport. We look forward to establishing this as a new discipline of the sport – not one to plug gaps, but one that’s truly complementary to other disciplines, whether that be road, cyclo-cross or mountain bike.
“There’s a huge opportunity to grow the sport with esports and I’m proud that together with the UCI, we are able to lead the way.”
The UCI will be inviting National Cycling Federations to take part in the 2020 event. Similar to the UCI Road World Championships, National Federations will be allocated a number of places determined by certain criteria. These include: the UCI Road Rankings (as of June 2020), the number of riders in the anti-doping Registered Testing Pool and the number of eligible riders on the Zwift platform.
More detailed criteria, which will be released in due course, will aim to ensure that all five continents are represented for both women and men and that the maximum possible number of entries for both genders will be the same.
Automatic invitations will go to 20 National Federations (Italy, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Australia, Spain, USA, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Colombia, New Zealand, South Africa, Norway, Ireland, Japan) for the men’s event and to 13 National Federations (Netherlands, Italy, Australia, France, USA, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan) for the women’s event.
Additional wildcard invitations may be awarded to individual riders by the UCI.
Further information on route details and National Federation spots will be unveiled in the coming months.
