‘Superhuman’ pro cyclist pulled from virtual race

It was the virtual equivalent of a crash.

Belgium’s Thomas De Gendt, who rides for Lotto Soudal, was doing what many elite athletes are doing during the suspension of sports by the novel coronavirus outbreak. He was using Zwift, the app for cyclists and runners that says it “turns indoor training into a game” to compete and train.

He was tooling along nicely last week, when suddenly, he was crawling along despite pedalling furiously. What the heck was happening? Zwift detected something was amiss and pulled him from the race.

“Either you missed your calling as a pro,” he said he was told in a message on his screen, “or there is something wrong with one of your devices.”

De Gendt, of course, hasn’t missed his calling as a pro at all and he quickly tweeted to the app: “I was pulled out of a race because of my superhuman powers. Can you adjust the settings for me, Zwift?”

For the time being, more and more athletes are using apps like Zwift and De Gendt was showing Tim Welleens, a Lotto Soudal teammate, the ropes.

“On a climb, I just did the numbers that I more or less push in a race. Suddenly I was blocked and neutralized by the game,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “You may still pedal so hard, but you are still set at a low speed. That’s a bit of a shame when you’re on a race.”

He went on to say that he hoped Zwift and other online apps would expand the parameters for users.

“It’s only a game, of course, on Zwift, but I have a logo behind my name that I am a pro, so I hope those values can be lifted a bit,” De Gendt said. “Those races on Zwift are just perfect training for me.”