The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has announced that Wahoo Fitness, as the “Official Smart Trainer Partner” of the 2023 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, will be providing the latest KICKR Smart Trainer to participants in the 2023 Esports Worlds.
According to the press release, over 100 women and 100 men from all 5 continents are expected to take part in the competition, which happens on Zwift February 18, 2023.
75% of the rider selections were made by National Federations, while the remaining 25% qualified via Continental Qualifier events held on Zwift November 12-13, 2022. Those who qualified via the Continentals had to do so using a trainer with claimed +-1% accuracy. But for the Worlds, the UCI needed to ensure that all riders were on the same equipment, to ensure a level playing field. That’s where Wahoo came in…
Crucial Quality
Wahoo’s latest KICKR (6th generation) is widely regarded as the top trainer on the market in specifications and reliability. Released in September 2022, it boasts +-1% accuracy as well as auto-calibration and wifi connectivity. These three qualities combined make it the obvious choice for the Worlds competition:
- +-1% accuracy means the power numbers sent to Zwift will be a very close reflection of the actual power being put out by each rider
- Auto-calibration helps ensure that riders aren’t tampering with the manual calibration in order to inflate power numbers
- Wifi connectivity reduces the chance of dropouts and (according to Wahoo) significant increases in data transfer speed, delivering on-screen stats over 65% faster than before
More Worlds Info
While the 2023 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships is happening February 18th, most of the UCI Worlds races will happen in August in Glasgow, Scotland.
The UCI’s press release says, “a race hub with 10 athletes will be set up in Glasgow, Scotland, the epicentre of the first UCI Cycling World Championships, which will take place from 3 to 13 August 2023 and will comprise 13 separate UCI World Championships. A similar infrastructure will be set up at the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC), the UCI’s training and education centre. Three trainee athletes from the UCI WCC will compete in the 2023 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships: Luciana Roland (ARG), Maude Elaine le Roux (RSA) and Natalia Franco (COL).”
The Esports Worlds will be held on Zwift’s new Scotland map, which will be available soon in specific events. Watch Zwift Insider for more details on all things Scotland!
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