15 Pro teams confirmed for inaugural Zwift esports race series
A total of 15 Professional Continental and Continental teams will take part in the inaugural pro esports cycling league series, with the first race held in London at the Pinarello store on Wednesday 23rd January.
Organised on the Zwift virtual platform, the KISS Super League is a 10-race series with teams of four riders racing against each other every week. The races will award on points, with riders' points accumulated in to a team total that decides the 'winning' team. Heart rate monitors are mandatory while all riders have to race on organiser-provided power metres, with weigh-ins also expected. In-game virtual power-ups will also be awarded, adding an extra twist to the racing.
A women's race series is set to begin on Tuesday February 5, with Canyon-SRAM and Cervelo-Bigla among the teams competing. Zwift hopes to launch its first e-racing game for amateurs by the end of the month.
The races will be shown live on Facebook, with a scheduled time of 7:00PM GMT, 2:00pm EST and 6:00AM AEDT. On Wednesday, the men will race for 40.2km on Zwift's Watopia Volcano Climb After Party circuit, which was used for stage 4 of the Tour de Zwift ride series. Around 36km of the route is quite flat, but half the route's vertical 286m vertical gain comes in the final four kilometres on the volcano.
The 15 teams competing in this first series are Hagens Berman Aexeon, Israel Cycling Academy, Cofidis, Novo Nordisk, Dimension Data U23, Canyon-DHB p/b Bloor Homes, Team Wiggins-Le Col, Arapahoe-Hincapie p/b BMC, Madison Genesis, Oliver's Real Food Racing, SEG Racing Academy, Pro Racing Sunshine Coast of Australia, Ribble Pro Cycling from Britain, plus a Zwift Community All Stars team and a Zwift Academy Dream Team.
"Pro cycling has embraced Zwift as a training platform and Zwift has proven itself as a talent ID platform for pro cycling," said Eric Min, Zwift CEO. "Now is the time to push on with esports and in doing so build value for pro cycling.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com