150,000 riders from around the globe participated in this year’s Zwift Academy Road, but only 10 (5 men and 5 women) made it to the finals.
This year, for the first time ever, both groups of finalists arrived in Mallorca to stay at the Zwift Academy Beach House and battle it out in the Zwift Academy finals. It’s like Survivor, but on bikes. And we get to follow them through a 5-episode video series from GCN, which launches today!
The riders had 5 days to impress the judges. Who are the judges? Canyon//SRAM’s Director Sportiff Beth Duryea and Performance Director Lars Teutenberg, and Alpecin-Fenix’s Director Sportiff Christoph Roodhooft and Performance Manager Kristoff De Kegel.
After meeting the 10 finalists, we get to watch the riders complete an indoor fitness test where they hit maximal efforts across a range of time intervals. This delivers crucial data to the judges, as shown below.
Fitness Test Results: Women
Functional Threshold Power
| 1 | Maud Oudeman | 256W | 4.5 w/kg |
| 2 | Imogen Alton | 246W | 4.2 w/kg |
| 3 | Rachael Wales | 214W | 4.1 w/kg |
| 4 | Caitlin Conyers | 230W | 4.0 w/kg |
| 5 | Willemijn Prins | 234W | 3.9 w/kg |
VLamax
| 1 | Caitlin Conyers | 0.63 mmol/l/s | 452W |
| 2 | Imogen Alton | 0.53 mmol/l/s | 394W |
| 3 | Maud Oudeman | 0.54 mmol/l/s | 389W |
| 4 | Willemijn Prins | 0.51 mmol/l/s | 389W |
| 5 | Rachael Wales | 0.45 mmol/l/s | 293W |
Fitness Test Results: Men
Functional Threshold Power
| 1 | Sam Hill | 395W | 5.5 w/kg |
| 2 | Byron Munton | 327W | 5.4 w/kg |
| 3 | Mads Rahbek | 335W | 5.3 w/kg |
| 4 | Alex Bogna | 335W | 5.1 w/kg |
| 5 | Cooper Sayers | 332W | 5.0 w/kg |
VLamax
| 1 | Cooper Sayers | 0.66 mmol/l/s | 576W |
| 2 | Alex Bogna | 0.63 mmol/l/s | 545W |
| 3 | Sam Hill | 0.49 mmol/l/s | 461W |
| 4 | Mads Rahbek | 0.46 mmol/l/s | 383W |
| 5 | Byron Munton | 0.48 mmol/l/s | 381W |
After the tests, GCN’s Daniel Lloyd discusses the women’s results with the Canyon/SRAM judges, while Si Richardson discusses the men’s results with the Alpecin-Fenix judges.
Riders of the Day
At the end of each day, the judges are being asked to elect a rider of the day. Here are the riders for day 1:
- Cooper Sayers
- Maud Oudeman
Watch Episode 1
Next Up
In tomorrow’s episode, the finalists head outdoors. They’ll take on a heartbreaking hill climb and go against the pros in a sprint leadout!
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