Ride on... in accordance with the rules

This week brings yet another interesting development in the esports world, as the UCI publishes its Cycling Esports Regulations (UCI Regulations) ahead of the inaugural esports Cycling World Championships in 2020 to be hosted on Zwift's increasingly popular platform. With participants' use of Zwift and other virtual cycling platforms booming, the question of event regulation is one which many of cyclists who compete in organised events on those platforms are likely to have a view on.

The general provisions of the UCI Regulations state that a cycling esports event is held on a cycling esports platform. A cycling esports platform is defined as “a software that, when coupled with certain hardware, allows individuals to participate in cycling races in a virtual environment.” Races comprise of riders that are separated into categories based on age and gender which will be aligned with categories which cyclists will be familiar with from other UCI events, such as Juniors, U23 and Elite.  

The Regulations have defined two distinct types of esports races:

1. Real life races, in which all participants and the necessary equipment are verified by a commissaire at the race location; and
2. Remote races, in which participants and the necessary equipment are not verified by a commissaire at the race location(s).

The 2020 World Championships will be held in ‘real life’ but how remote races will be monitored under the UCI Regulations will be interesting in light of integrity issues. We only have to look back to the British eRacing Championships contested in March 2019 to see a good example of this.

The underlying principles of UCI Regulations will apply to events which will be contested by riders at the highest level,  but are familiar to those using virtual cycling platforms at all levels. Those of us racing at 'B', 'C' or 'D' level on Zwift and other platforms might not enter events which the UCI Regulations apply to. Those events rely to an extent on the honesty of the individuals participants and the data they enter, but many will already be familiar with disqualification based on watts per kg or lack of HR data for example. That said, insofar as further integrity principles can be policed for remote races we might expect to see further elements of the UCI Regulations cascade down the categories in time. 

Integrity in cycling has been a hot topic for many years and is nothing new but with the ever increasing popularity of virtual cycling the governing bodies are faced with the challenge of regulating what is an entirely new sport. The same can be said of esports scene more generally where integrity is becoming increasingly debated and it will be interesting to see further regulatory changes in gaming going forwards.