Velos is a long-standing Zwift team hosting a wide range of group rides and races appealing to cyclists at all levels. Our team has a reputation for valuing beginning D riders equally to the strongest and most experienced A+ racers, and places a high priority on fair and honest racing by all members. Velos has several teams participating in the Thursday WTRL TTT series, including a no-drop training team that has brought many beginners into the sport who have gained skills and advanced to more competitive teams.
Many teams participate in the longstanding weekly TTT series, but Velos might be the first to bring an international TTT team to a real-world team time trial race. This is our story.
The team’s directeur sportif, Vienna-based Leon Addie, has taken part several times in one of the world’s most prestigious amateur time trial races: King of the Lake, held annually around Attersee—a lake east of Salzburg in the Salzkammergut, Austria. Velos has hosted several team meetups in the UK and Spain, and in early 2025 an idea germinated to set a team meetup around the King of the Lake event. Would virtual TTT experience translate to a real-world team time trial race? This seemed a fantastic way to find out!
Last year, four riders took part in a TTT team, with Leon racing solo. The experience was so successful that Velos organized a larger gathering for the September 2026 event. With 16 members representing 5 countries (5 from the UK, 4 from Austria, 4 from Germany, 2 from The Netherlands, and 1 from the USA), Velos brought one of the largest rosters of any team at the event (and the only multinational team). The race organizers took notice.
Background on King of the Lake and Velos Participation
King of the Lake is a 47.2 km circuit of Attersee, one of the most beautiful lakes in Europe, on a flat-to-rolling course with several punchy hills on the second half of the circuit (310m total elevation gain). Entry is gained through a lottery. We were fortunate to win enough entries to accommodate all 16 of our riders. One notable feature of this amateur event is that the entire course is closed to vehicles (with the exception of marshals and other officials). The race also benefits from tremendous regional fan support.
Riders and Race Preparation
Four riders participated in the individual time trial field as part of the Velos contingent: Team Owner Stephen Whitcombe (UK), Leon Addie (Austria), Kristian Möller (Germany: Miller on Zwift and guest racing as a longtime friend of Velos, who recently beat Eric in ZRL’s own Austria race in Innsbruck), and Bart Deleij (The Netherlands). Bart has a strong pedigree racing in the real world; he represented The Netherlands at the 2023 UCI World Championships in Scotland (Road Race, Gran Fondo Amateur Field), and placed 3rd at the 2024 MTB marathon Nationals (Amateurs) and 12th in the Elite field in 2025. Deleij joined Velos representatives at Attersee, which saw an exceptionally strong elite field this year, including winner Max Walscheid (newly retired Lidl-Trek world pro from Germany).
Velos fielded two 4x TTT men’s teams: 3 Brits and one Austrian raced as UK(ish); 2 Germans, 1 Dutchman, and 1 Brit as EU(ish). Our 4x women’s team included Michaela Griebler and Katharina Baumgartner from Austria, Sylvia Schürger from Germany, and me from California (the oldest woman in the entire field and the person who traveled furthest to the start line).
Our men’s teams raced to power tables that dictated pulls and recovery for all 4 riders. Racing TTTs in WTRL has given all our riders considerable experience with maximizing power expenditure, drafting, and smooth rotations. The draft effect in Zwift translated well to the real world. With unequal power on our women’s team, we chose to stay in starting formation with the most powerful rider on the front down to me 4th as a much older D rider tucked in the draft.
26 September 2026: Race Day
Saturday morning dawned clear and glorious: blue skies, sunny and warm, calm winds. Our women’s team met after breakfast, registered, and attached race numbers and transponders to record our precise finish time (taken on the third rider across the line). The roads were closed, but one designated side road offered a great place to warm up and settle the nerves.
Fifteen minutes from our assigned time, we entered the start queue. The impact of looking down a ramp from a start house and hearing an announcer call out your team and racers’ names, then GO!, is indescribable. From first pedal strokes, nerves turned to attention on wheels ahead. In an instant, we formed into a tight paceline.
The scenery is breathtaking: lush forests, towering granite cliffs, and the crystalline waters of Attersee were a constant on our right. Community support was off the charts, with more than 5000 spectators lining the course, shaking bells and cheering our team by name… it was like participating in the Tour de France Femme avec Zwift!
Entering the finishing straight, we spotted our amazing team cheerleader Debbie Evans holding her hand-sewn GO VELOS sign. For a newer teammate to travel from the UK to Austria not to race—simply to cheer others on—speaks volumes about the Velos ethos. Members of our team shouted encouragement at the start and were waiting to congratulate each other at the finish. It was an experience none of us will ever forget, and many are already looking ahead to 2027.
