Editor’s note: if you’ve been following the daily Zwift Academy Finals series from GCN, you’ll already know who won the Zwift Academy Road finals in Mallorca. But we wanted to publish an official post dedicated to the winners, so here’s the nice press release from Zwift with more info on the ZA Road Program, Maud, and Alex.
Zwift, the online global fitness platform born from gaming, has announced Maud Oudeman and Alex Bogna as the winners of the 2021 Zwift Academy Road program, following a week-long final held in Mallorca. Oudeman will join CANYON//SRAM Racing and Bogna will join Alpecin-Fenix from 1st Jan 2022.
Zwift Academy Road saw a record of over 150,000 riders take part in 2021, with many benefiting from the structured workouts and seeing improvements across the Baseline and Finish Line rides. Many of those may well dream of becoming a professional cyclist, but for a few there was the potential that a dream could become reality as the global online talent ID-program once again was offering the opportunity to turn professional and follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ella Harris, Jay Vine and Neve Bradbury.
The 2021 Zwift Academy Road program was the first time men’s and women’s programs were combined, and the finals were no different, with both the men’s and women’s finalists competing together at the same camp in Mallorca, Spain. The contenders faced daily challenges, both on Zwift and on the famous Mallorcan climbs. All the action was captured in a 5-episode series hosted by GCN, which you can watch here.
Winner of the women’s Zwift Academy, Maud Oudeman excelled at every task thrown at her over the week, winning multiple ‘rider of the day’ accolades and proving a popular fit with her new teammates at CANYON//SRAM Racing.
“I can’t believe it!” says Oudeman. “The week was so amazing but also a tough test. I was so thrilled to make the finals and I can’t believe my dream is coming true. I cannot wait to race for CANYON//SRAM Racing and I’m really excited to continue to learn, improve and help the team as much as I can next year.”
On the men’s side, Alex Bogna kept the Australian winning streak alive by demonstrating his skill and impressive power on the famed climbs of Mallorca. He left nothing to chance in the final Zwift race and stormed away from the other riders to take the win on the Epic KOM.
“I have no words”, says Bogna. “Zwift Academy is just such a fantastic opportunity, when I found out I’d made it to the Finals I was so happy. I wanted to have a great week of riding and really give myself a chance of winning the contract. Honestly, I’m in shock this is the opportunity of a lifetime.”
CANYON//SRAM Racing Team Manager, Ronny Lauke: “The Zwift Academy continues to identify raw talent that has the ability to become top level cyclists in the sport. The recent winners have all shown this with their impact on road cycling and results. In 2021, it was great that the Zwift Academy Finals were able to be held as a camp again. The level of competitiveness among the riders was very strong. Maud stood out with her consistent results and powerful performances throughout the week. We look forward to welcoming her as a member of the team.”
Stay tuned for further content over the coming months as Zwift follows the journey of these two new pro’s in their debut seasons with their new teams at https://www.zwift.com/uk/academy/zaroad
Questions or Comments?
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It was a really enjoyable series to watch, I think Zwift can be very proud about this project and the teams very happy with their new riders.
Especially Canyon-Sam, I have to admit I don’t know much about women cycling so I don’t know if Maud can be competitive, but she completely destroyed the competition, it wasn’t close at any point.
Looking forward to seeing them progress in the peloton, if Jay Vine is anyone to go by, great times will be ahead of them.
It will be interesting to see if any of the others get contracts as well. All finalists were incredibly talented!
imogen got picked up by a Aussie conti team. so she will be doing some racing yet.
oh cool … I appreciate to hear this … hopefully the others will get a similar chance, too
I watched the series on GCN, they’re both great but Maud is an absolute MACHINE!
All 10 ZA-finalists showed strong performances with many REAL drops ;-). They represented the whole Zwift community with 150.000 Academy-participants very well ! Big congrats to both winners and good luck for this crazy outdoor cycling thing in 2022 ;-).
In the men’s competition, I would say (between the 3 Aussies) it was more a decision which type of rider Alpecin-Fenix was looking for. But for sure, Alex made the best development during the camp.
In the women’s competition, the impressive talented Maud stood out from the crowd ! And my personal sympathies earned EVER-smiling Caitlin from “cycling-no-(wo)man’s-land” Bermuda Islands, who only started seriously at the age of 27 !!! I can’t imagine how strong she could be if she had found her passion a bit earlier. Go for the Olympics 2024 Caitlin !!! Thumbs pressed !
Also GCN and the whole staff from both Pro Teams made good jobs. This series was really fun to watch, much better than other so called “reality” shows. After the 1st episode, I couldn’t stop and watched all 5 in a row late into the night.
Maud is a best! My chin dropped while watching the final challenge. Everyone was impressive, but she was on another level. Well deserved. Felt a bit bad for Sam, but I guess the pros know what they are looking for. Alex is definitely a character. Can’t wait to follow these guys professional careers. Best of luck!