The UCI leaves Zwift and points again to the Emirates

MyWhoosh, the virtual cycling application based in the United Arab Emirates, steals the hegemony from Zwift after signing a collaboration contract with the UCI for the next 3 years. This implies that the Virtual Cycling World Championships will be held on this platform from 2024 onwards.

MyWhoosh will host the Virtual Cycling World Championships between 2024 and 2026

A hard blow to the hegemony of Zwift as the reference platform in virtual cycling. The popular online cycling application enjoyed not only the favoritism of the majority of interactive roller users but also the favor of the UCI, which chose Zwift in 2020 for the dispute of the first Virtual Cycling World Championships, a situation that has been maintained until last February when the 2023 edition took place with Glasgow, in the form of a virtual circuit that reproduced the one that real cyclists covered a couple of weeks ago.

Now, the UCI has just announced a new contract for the next three years with the virtual cycling platform MyWhoosh based in Abu Dhabi, which represents a significant commitment on the part of the Emirati company to grow and reduce market share from Zwift, today, the reference in virtual cycling.

"MyWhoosh and the UCI will work closely in the organization of the Virtual Cycling World Championship establishing severe mechanisms to control the race. This collaboration signifies the beginning of a transformation stage for MyWhoosh and the relevance of virtual cycling bringing the benefits and excitement of competition to homes all over the world" declared Akhtar Saeed Hashmi, CEO and Operations Director of the Emirati firm.

For his part, the president of the UCI, David Lappartient highlighted the commitment to cycling in Abu Dhabi, a city that hosted the 2022 Urban Cycling World Championships and has been selected as the venue for the Road Cycling World Championships for the year 2024, to which will obviously be added the Virtual Cycling Championships, although these, through the network of networks.