Cycling is a sport that is riddled with Lycra-clad cheats. It has been since the very beginning, and remains so to this day. So much so that even while stuck inside and competing in their sport virtually, cyclists are still cheating.
As this great Defector story sums up, loads of cyclists have been competing in the game Zwift lately, and surprised Pikachu face, theyāre getting busted for breaking the rules, albeit in new and fascinating ways.
Zwift is a game in which you ride an actual exercise bike and then have your speed and actions reflected on the screen. Unlike versions you might have tried at the gym though, Zwift is an actual game, with competitors and tracks and graphics, and looks more like something youād be playing on the Switch
Earlier this week Zwiftās āPerformance Verification Boardā slapped six-month bans on two of the best riders in the game. Israeli rider Antonina Reznikov was caught editing her data to make her on-screen performance 32% faster than her actual pedalling, while German rider Selma Trommer was caught doing the same thing for a 9% boost. Both riders initially disputed the Boardās findings before later buckling and saying, yeah, ok, we cheated.
And these are just the latest two. As CyclingtipsĀ reports, Zwift has been struggling with cheating for a while now, particularly during the pandemic as professional cyclistsācomplete with sponsorships and a need to be seen to be performing wellāflock to the gameās competitions.
To its credit, Zwift has been working on catching these cheats, as evidenced by the fact thatā¦these two were caught? But hey, given over 100 years of historical precedent, the problem might lie less with the game and more with the players.
