NEWS

Lockdown cycle race success

One of our Upper Five students, Helena, has been doing some virtual cycle races via Zwift which is a Virtual cycling and running app that allows you to race and ride in a virtual cycling world on a smart trainer indoors. Each rider has an avatar and you are riding around with as many as 7000 thousand other people depending on the type of ride or event.

She tells us, "I use a smart trainer to connect with my laptop, allowing me to see where I am riding and record race results. Zwift is a global cycling community that allows riders from all around the world to connect, this includes top elite riders like Geraint Thomas, Chris Froom and many more female cyclists who usually race in the real world when it is safe to do so.

At the start of lockdown, I was invited to join a mixed team of riders which then led to me being invited to join a women's team called the Drafting Dinos including women from all around the world. A couple of weeks ago my team managed to come in the top teams in our racing category which resulted in us being asked to an invite-only racing league called Platinum. The race series that I take part in is organised by WTRL Racing. In our first ever event in this category we came 1st in the B category for my time zone and 10th overall in the world.

The races are very tough and tiring often lasting an hour, they push me and my team to our limits reaching speeds of up to 55kph and my maximum heart rate of over 200BPM. You race in many different worlds like London, France, New York, and the Zwift own virtual world called Watopia. These races end up being tougher than races that can be experienced when racing for Guernsey Velo Club in the Summer so it’s great training."

Along with team time trials (TTT) I have also been taking part in my own individual road races and my highest scoring position was 2nd this evening. These happen every Tuesday and the TTT's are every Thursday. 

Zwift has greatly helped my mental health through lockdown as it has given me a headspace away from the real world and has allowed me to keep active during lockdown when the weather hasn't been the best. It has meant that I kept in touch with the other people I normally cycle with for we talk though the Discord App.

So far, I have contributed to 398km of the TLC Virtual challenge and this evening I raced a 25 km race placing 2nd out of 16 other women."