From virtual cycling to a professional contract

The talent search program Zwift Academy that the popular virtual cycling platform carries out in collaboration with the Alpecin-Deceuninck teams on the men's side and Canyon//SRAM on the women's side has already chosen the two winners of its eighth edition who have earned a one-year professional contract with these two teams.

Zwift Academy 2024 already has winners

8 years ago, from the virtual cycling platform Zwift, the reference in terms of training tools on the roller, the Zwift Academy project was born, a project that emerged in collaboration with the Alpecin team with which Zwift has been linked for years and the Canyon//SRAM on its women's side.

The objective was clear, to search for talent among those cyclists who make massive use of this application for their training. Cyclists who may have had a different trajectory, different from the classic one of passing from schools through the different competition categories until reaching professionalism if they have all the qualities and are lucky enough to have all the pieces fit together.

Zwift Academy aims to find cyclists with qualities for professional cycling among those who come from other sports, who have not had the opportunity to follow the classic path in cycling either because they arrived late to it or because they reside in countries without that tradition in this sport. All through a series of virtual competitions and training sessions to make a selection with which to choose the finalists who would go to the final test at the winter team gatherings and where the winners are chosen.

In this 2023-2024 more than 108,000 applicants have taken part in the virtual part of the Zwift Academy. Of them, 6 finalists who attended the Canyon//SRAM and Alpecin-Deceuninck gatherings in the town of Denia in Alicante where they entered the teams' routine, did the same training as the professionals, and, of course, the typical tests faced in these gatherings that served to determine the real level on the road of the three finalists.

The team directors with everything in hand: the numbers, the way they handle themselves on the bike, the way they interact with the rest of the team members, the discipline in the training sessions carried out, etc. ended up choosing South African cyclist Maddie Le Roux and German Louis Kitzki.

Maddie impressed with her strength and experience in competition. "She demonstrated her value by standing out in supporting her leaders during the race in Zwift" highlighted Canyon//SRAM's chosen director Adam Szabó. On the other hand, Louis secured his spot thanks to his talent, ambition, and potential in a final that was extremely close between the three contenders. "He has the combination of a young age and awareness that his weaknesses are just points to work on. Louis in our opinion has the most workable profile in the long term" pointed out Kristof Kegel, performance director of Alpecin-Deceuninck.