The National Sport Organization, Cycling Canada, is one of the most progressive cycling federations when it comes to esports and are always looking at new and innovative events to inspire their membership. Part of the reason is through necessity, as Canadians will testify, winters are particularly hard, making cycling outside a unique challenge and in certain provinces and territories such Yukon, almost impossible, as temperatures can drop well below freezing.
Canada vs the World: Warm-up Series
One such innovative event is the new “Canada vs the World Warm-up Series.” These races will be hosted on Zwift and are different to the norm. This is because the normal race categories, which are aligned to your watt per/kg, is being replaced by age and gender categories. In short, Canada Cycling is taking an innovative approach to race categorisation in the Esports space, making the event different to the norm, and aligns to the approach taken in real life.
All the events take place at the same time (12pm ET) and all you need to do is select your relevant age and gender category to compete. The categories are split as follows:
| Age | Category |
| 18 and under | Junior Men / Junior Women |
| 19+ | Elite Men / Elite Women (19+) |
| 35-44 | Masters Men / Master Women |
| 45-54 | Masters Men / Master Women |
| 55-64 | Masters Men / Master Women |
| 65+ | Masters Men / Master Women |
As Cycling Canada notes, this will “provide a unique opportunity to race against your age group peers.” Sign-up will rely on being honest about your age.
How it works
This event will be open to a global audience, but Cycling Canada will be scrutinising the results. For Canadians, points will be awarded on their finishing position ranging from 200 points for 1st place, to 1 point for 75th place. This is a tried and tested method and is what the Federation use in their Mountain bike series in real life and the best Canadian riders will be identified (provided they have signed up to Zwift power and have it enabled). The overall Canadian winner will be the one with the most accumulated points over the 3 events.
For the “Vs the World” portion, Canada Cycling will use the same points model as above but the top 8 Canadians (per category) will be compared to the top 8 from the international field. This worked example:
| Canadians | The world | ||
| Overall finish position | Points | Overall finish position | Points |
| 2 | 175 | 1 | 200 |
| 3 | 155 | 4 | 140 |
| 6 | 120 | 5 | 130 |
| 8 | 110 | 7 | 115 |
| 9 | 105 | 10 | 100 |
| 14 | 80 | 11 | 95 |
| 15 | 75 | 12 | 90 |
| Total: 820 | Total: 870 | ||
In this scenario “The World” would win this category.
The winners of the different categories will be totalled together to see who comes out on top!
The courses
There will be 3 separate events to tackle, spaced over 3 weeks. Each week, the race will be held on a different course, so consistency is the key to being the “Overall Champion.”
Event 1 is hosted on the criterium circuit, Downtown Dolphin and will consist of 10 laps, totalling 19km. This is ideal for the strong riders who have a good sprint.
Date: January 21st 2024
Time: 12:00pm ET
Event 2 is hosted on the 2018 UCI Worlds Short Lap, and is 23.9km in length and will involve climbing.
Date: January 28th 2024
Time: 12:00pm ET
Event 3 is hosted on the Rolling Highlands and will consists of 3 laps, totalling 32km. This course will be used for the Canadian Championship, so an opportunity for Canadian riders to learn the route and hone their tactics.
Date: February 4th 2024
All events can be signed up here.
The reason these events are called “Canada vs the World: Warm-up Series” is because it is a warm-up event for the Canadian Esports Championships, which is hosted the week after.
Canadian Esports Championships
The 2024 edition of the Canadian Championship will be raced on Zwift, over the weekend of February 10th and 11th.
The race will follow a standard road / scratch race format with mass start for each category, and first across the line is crowned “Champion.”
The Under-17s, Junior and Masters athletes will race on February 10th, with the Elite racers vying for the title on February 11th. Elite races will be livestreamed by broadcast partner Zwift Community Live, with a pre-race highlight show to recap the previous day’s age group races.
As with all other Canadian Championship events, podium finishers will receive a medal and jersey. In addition to the physical jersey, the Canadian Champions, in all categories, will receive a virtual jersey that they can wear for a year.
All information regarding the Canadian Esports Championships can be found on the event webpage at: https://cyclingcanada.ca/event/2024-canadian-esports-championships/.
2024 Cycling Esports World Championships Selection
In August 2023, it was announced by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling’s governing body that MyWhoosh would host the 2024 Cycling Esports World Championships. Cycling Canada can disclose that they are collaborating with MyWhoosh to host a Team Canada qualifier, on their platform. Cycling Canada will release more information regarding qualification process in the upcoming months. The qualification event is anticipated to be around spring or summer and is something to train for.
