Used to racing together sporting the distinctive WCC Team kit, Maude Elaine le Roux (RSA), Natalia Franco (COL) and Luciana Roland (ARG) will wear their respective national colours when they take to their Wahoo KICKR smart trainers in the centre of the UCI WCC’s velodrome on 18 February.
The three women will be among some 85 to 90 cyclists participating in the women’s race of this year’s UCI Cycling Esports World Championships. As well as a few athletes competing from an In Real Life (IRL) event in Glasgow, Scotland (Great Britain), the rest of the participants will connect to the competition from their homes or training centres. For the three WCC Team members, that means the UCI WCC in Aigle, Switzerland.
Natalia Franco will arrive in Aigle in the coming days, having just competed in the Colombian National Championships where she finished in 5th place.
She competed in the first-ever UCI Cycling Esports World Championships in 2020, and trains regularly on Zwift, the global online training platform and partner of the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships.
“I love the social part of Zwift because you can connect with people around the world and do different group rides,” says the Colombian. “It’s so much fun to connect with people and push each other to your limits. It’s extremely hard and you can get to levels sometimes you cannot reach on the road because you don’t have those extra variables of traffic or traffic lights…. You are full focus and just riding hard.”
She welcomes the new format of this year’s UCI World Championships, which will include three short and explosive events - The Punch, The Climb and The Podium – with only the fastest riders in each going through to the next event.
“I think the new format is going to be way better for the spectators. Definitely the Climb is going to be my favourite because I’m a climber, and I love sustained efforts. So we’re going to suffer a lot on the first ones but survive the next ones.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun!”
Her WCC Team colleague Maude Elaine le Roux will draw on her past experience racing as a member of pro esports team Wahoo LeCol, before joining the WCC Team and concentrating on riding outside. She will return to Aigle after this weekend’s South African National Championships, and is particularly looking forward to sharing the cycling esports experience with her teammates.
“I am extremely excited about this. Usually with Zwift racing you are suffering alone in your room or pain-cave, so being able to race with two of my teammates next to me will be such a cool experience. I think it will help us push more. It’ll be like when we race on the road together – when you know your teammates are there with you, you are willing and able to suffer a little bit more. Shared pain is easier to handle, right?
“It’s going to be a hard evening of racing, but that’s what makes it great. This “three-race” format will make it a different kind of hard as you have this short space between races to try to recover as best as possible before going full gas again. You certainly don’t want to burn all your matches in the first race, but you also want to make sure you get through to the next round. You have to race smart. I think it will highlight the “gamification” side of esports, so it will be an interesting and exciting evening.”
Alongside Natalia and Maude Elaine, Argentina's Luciana Roland will be participating in her first-ever cycling esports competition.
“I have just been on a training camp in Spain and the weather was super good so I was mostly riding outside,” she says. “Now we are doing some specific workouts on the trainer so I am prepared on the physical side but not so much on the tactical side. That is not so easy, and I have been asking lots of questions!
“I just want to enjoy it. We will suffer but it should be fun. I love riding my bike so even if I’m suffering at the time, if afterwards I feel I have done my best, I am happy. I like a new challenge, I like learning, and I will learn something for sure!”
Advice from the expert
The three women have benefitted from advice from the first-ever women’s UCI World Champion for cycling esports, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio. The South African will not be participating this year but has provided them with tips about how to prepare and how to approach the three-race format.
“Hopefully we can use these tips to make the best of the experience and fly the WCC name high,” said fellow South African Maude Elaine le Roux. “I hope to make her proud.”
Photo: Luciana Roland trains at the UCI World Cycling Centre