Leading the way in the new reality of Cycling eSports.
In the new reality we currently find ourselves in, it’s safe to say that one of my roles at Canyon has pivoted slightly and the other has stayed exactly the same.
The one that has changed is my role in managing our partnerships with other businesses — who are finding new ways to engage with their customers in lockdown and who are (often) forced to ride indoors. My other role is managing Canyon’s eSports team — which I started over a year ago at the beginning of 2019. Unsurprisingly, nothing has changed in this regard, as the team itself is already futureproofed by nature and everybody else is now looking to us to see what they can emulate.
A few days back, I celebrated my 5th anniversary since taking my first ride on Zwift back in those halcyon beta days. There are few people who have had quite the same exposure to the platform and it’s what lead me to push Canyon to get involved at a very early stage; with our Aeroad CF SLX being the second real-world bike to be made available on the platform. I thrive on innovating and being the first to do something, so the unison between cycling and technology was very alluring. But while we led in the beginning, four years later everybody else has caught on.
This is why in late 2018, I proposed launching the world’s first professional eRacing team: Canyon ZCC. I felt it was time to move first again and a lot had changed since I started racing on Zwift back in March 2016; a community-driven and organised initiative with no in-game structure. I built a business plan for the team and rapidly pulled together everything we needed. In a few short weeks, we had a kit, a team of 10 (five men and five women) and were ready to race Zwift’s first foray into its own organised league. It couldn’t have gone better, with both the men’s and women’s squads topping the podiums at the first time of asking.
Fast forward to 2020, and the team has continued to race at the highest level; taking wins in countless races and leagues either raced from home or in live events. We now have six team partners who support us and in our ranks, we hold 4 National Champions and look ahead to the first UCI World Championships in eRacing later in the year. It will certainly be interesting to see whether the innovative world of eSports is compatible with the old world of cycling federations and governing bodies. I don’t believe it is the only way forward for eRacing so perhaps we will see a divergence at some point, but I’ll save that for another post! Regardless, it’s something we intend to win, as and when the details are officially announced.
Although, maybe we’ll have more competition than we’d bargained on? As I mentioned at the beginning, my main role at Canyon has now somewhat temporarily pivoted as everybody looks to me in regards to all things indoor cycling. Of course, this still means coordinating with our partners such as Rapha with whom we already have a strong relationship and share a team in Canyon//SRAM Racing. They themselves were the first to utilise Zwift for talent ID. But it also now means looking at how we can support our other professional cycling teams and athletes such as Movistar, Arkea-Samsic, Alpecin-Fenix, etc as indoor training and cycling become the norm — rather than the exception. Will we see any of the Pro teams turn to eSports full-time? Only time will tell, however, for the moment, there seems little choice but to at least dip one’s toe. And why not?
I will warn those considering starting an elite eRacing team that it’s not as simple as it might look at first glace! One of the reasons I wanted to be first was to learn all the intricacies that come with managing a team of athletes — spread out across the world — and get to grips with all the technical requirements; of which there are a lot! We’ve made mistakes, experimented and evolved all before most people have given it proper consideration. But that also means I can share some of my knowledge with Canyon’s Pro teams so they don’t need to go through as sharp a learning curve as we did.
So, keep an eye out as more and more Pros turn to riding indoors and hopefully a raft of new events popping up over the coming weeks and months. Like in nature, a change in environmental conditions often leads to evolution in order to survive. Perhaps the industry will come out the other side better prepared for the future and with a greater willingness to try new things? At least there is parity between the men and women in eSports — unlike in the old world. For now though, it’s certainly fun to be at the forefront and seeing new things happening at an accelerated pace.
If you want to ride with me then you can find me on Zwift as ‘RHYS HOWELL [CANYON]’. If you have questions about the world of physical eSports then just drop me a message at rhys[at]canyonzcc.com and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.
