'More complex to develop a world-class rider than with just data' - Narrowing down 100,000 entrants to two pro contract winners at Zwift Academy finals

Professional cyclists take several different routes to make it into the peloton, be that from the route of racing as a successful youth, junior, U23 and finally making it as an elite rider, or by switching across from another sport like ski mountaineering, for example. However, only 15 people in history can say their journey to cycling pro involved getting identified for their numbers on Zwift and earning a spot through competition. 

18-year-old Australian Emily Dixon and 22-year-old Canadian Noah Ramsay are the latest to be added to that list, as the winners of the 2025 Zwift Academy finals, with their places on Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto and Alpecin-Deceuninck's development teams being won across four days of competition in December. The whole journey was captured in a series on GCN, for those eager to follow the competition in more detail.

But with over 100,000 registrations to the popular worldwide talent ID competition and riders from more than 70 nations completing the six Zwift Academy workouts during the expanded August to November entry window, how is it narrowed down to just one men's and one women's rider?

"It used to be a very focused training plan for everyone, and then some people who completed it would be identified over the years. We've moved that on, so it's now more of a testing protocol to really lean into the talent ID side of things, which I feel is a better reflection of what the talent ID process should be," Associate Director of Marketing at Zwift, Henry Nixon told Cyclingnews at the women's Zwift Academy finals in December.

"It's not the kind of training program that people used to look forward to at the end of the season to help keep them fit, but it's actually now a lot kind of harder. 

"We asked people to do a 15-minute all-out interval at the start of the program," in the first workout - 'Pro Potential Prologue', "because that helps to filter down from a really early stage, the kind of people that we're looking to bring to the finals. 

"Also, a quarter of the program is racing on Zwift, and in fact, a couple of the finalists here were identified through their efforts in racing, putting in efforts that were above how they performed in the workouts."

By the time the ID process is done, riders are shortlisted down to less than 10 possible finalists, with such a strong pool of men's riders specifically leading to four finalists being chosen for 2025, instead of the three each for men and women in 2024.

Coaches and judges assemble for the finals

From there, once the riders arrived in Portugal and Spain for the respective finals at Canyon and Alpecin's team camps, it was up to the Dip Deep coaching duo of former pros Stephen Gallagher and Dan Fleeman and the judges, Adam Szabo, Gosia Jasinka, Christoph Roodhooft and Kristof De Kegel, to narrow it down to just two.

"A lot of people who've come through Zwift Academy have not necessarily had a lot of experience racing at a high level, but they're really good cyclists, and they're competent," said Gallagher to Cyclingnews in December.

"This project gives them an opportunity to show themselves. We obviously look at the physical capabilities and capacity over challenges and workouts, and from that, we have to – with the teams and with Zwift – think: okay, who potentially could have the best potential for the future? 

"So it's not necessarily always that the winner has to be the best now, or has had results in a certain time, but it's more about the potential because that's the ethos of the project."

It's a process that has been developed significantly by Zwift and by Dig Deep, since they took over the mantle of running the coaching at short notice back before the 2020 finals. In looking for that pro of the future, and the right fit for the WorldTour pathway, much of the process is about looking beyond the power numbers.

"We know 90 to 95% of their physical capabilities, so nothing is too much of a surprise. The big difference here when you're physically on location and in contact with them, is seeing their interaction with their colleagues, how they take instructions and how they deal with surprises," continued the Irishman.

"It's now quite different to how we did it before when it was a lot more about timing, a lot more about longer efforts. We're probably focused a lot more on more explosivity, also not necessarily the absolute best, but the best relative to your rider type."

"We are more looking into their other qualities, rather than to power numbers on the ergometer or on the road," Head of Sport at Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto Adam Szabo told Cyclingnews.

"It's quite challenging to test other skills, that's why, when we come here, we more put emphasis on that. The finalists come from a long list of riders who are who are hitting the right target numbers set by our coaches."

The importance of repeatability

Another crucial aspect to picking the winner during the women's finals specifically, was the repeatability of efforts, with comparisons between an eight-minute max effort after day one of testing and a fatigued eight-minute max effort on day four after the whole competition becoming the essential decider.

"There's the big element of fatigue resistance. What some of the Zwift riders, just during a one-off effort, let's say, eight-minute effort, 10-minute effort, or whatever it is, can be better than a World Tour rider sometimes," said Fleeman speaking alongside Gallagher to Cyclingnews.

"But can they do that after three hours, four hours? And can they do that after three days, four days, five days? That's one of the biggest strengths of a professional cyclist, what you can do after 2000 kilojoules, 3000 kilojoules."

"The teams are looking at what day four performance is compared to day one performance, because many amateur cyclists who are aspiring professionals could put in a massive effort on day one and achieve a huge result, but four days later, they might not be able to get anywhere near it," concurred Zwift's Nixon. 

"That's what they're looking to identify as riders, and this has kind of developed over the past few years with sports science that's evolved around fatigued efforts and the value of performance, two, three or four days in."

Looking beyond the numbers in skills testing

Looking past the pure power numbers, a big focus was placed on technical skills during the four days of competition. The four women's riders took on Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto multi-discipline star Zoe Bäckstedt on a flying lap around the Kartódromo Internacional do Algarve, before being surprised with a gravel challenge en route back to the hotel.

"We've put more of an emphasis on, actually, bike control skills, technical skills, that sort of thing," said Fleeman, "because all of them on physical ability are pretty similar, which is always the case with the finalists. 

"Last year, we had a downhill assessment. This year we had the track challenge, and then the gravel test, which told us a lot about their skills."

"It's a whole more complex thing to develop a world-class professional, rather than just the data, which does give a really good indication of power and strength," Canyon team boss Ronny Lauke told Cyclingnews. "But the success overall comes from very many aspects, tactical understanding, technical skills, and mental strength, for example."

During the men's finals, a similar role was taken on by two of the top bike handlers in world cycling, Mathieu van der Poel and Gianni Vermeersch.

"First you have the data of course but there's a lot that has to follow [technically] as well. When that's not happening, they won't make it anymore," said Roodhooft at Alpecin's camp. 

"We saw in the past that some Zwift riders struggle with staying upright in the peloton or put others in danger so it's important to know the technical side.

"All of a sudden you have to perform in a team and you have to listen. It's a completely different approach in the end, and we look a bit also to personality, because they really have to fit in the team."

More coincidentally than decisively, perhaps, both the winners of the skills test in the men's and women's finals did end up being the overall winners Ramsay and Dixon, however, they also impressed for other reasons. Ramsay because he crashed when the riders were testing out the track before bouncing back to perform the best, and Dixon for punching above her weight in a test not particularly suited to her best capabilities, as a climber, and still coming out on top. 

The search for the next Vine and Bradbury

There is a big caveat with the technical side of testing, in that the most successful Zwift Academy winners so far are Jay Vine and Neve Bradbury, who both won their spots into the WorldTour in the COVID-19-affected finals in 2020. 

"It's important to see how they're on the bike, but the best two riders to ever come from the Zwift academy that have translated their talent into the road success are Neve Bradbury and Jay Vine," said Dig Deep's Fleeman. 

"They both came from the virtual year, so we never saw them ride outside."

Both the Australian riders were put into bubbles at Airbnbs in their hometowns to complete the finals, with their numbers and attitude through a screen ending up as the only thing to go off. Nonetheless, they've both gone on to win Grand Tour stages, at the Vuelta for Vine and Giro for Bradbury, vitally proving the credibility of the process for Zwift.

"Some people have preconceptions about Zwift, about riders who come from Zwift, and others understand the real value that the Academy offers in finding the talent and identifying potential with it," said Nixon. 

"Every time anyone from the Zwift Academy goes on to enter a race at World Tour, or Pro Tour level, it just shows the credibility of the program. 

"If we put 10 riders through the Zwift Academy over a number of years who never went on to achieve anything, it would be a waste. But you can see from Neve and from Jay Vine what it's about. That's the payoff for me, seeing those riders years down the line winning their first stage, like Neve this year, with two massive results," with a stage win at the Tour de Suisse and Giro d'Italia Women. 

The blueprint of Vine was important to note for the Alpecin judges De Kegel and Roodhooft, with the Australian surprising them back in 2020 and impressing most once he turned pro through an immeasurable quality - mental resilience.

"How they perform is the main thing, but then maybe you still take the wrong guy. We all hope to find the next Jay Vine let's say, that was a real success, but he was really hidden, in the big field of cyclists," said Roodhooft. "He struggled a lot and we had to help him, we tried to help as much as possible and then he was able to win stages in a GT.

"Vine didn't overly stand out at first, the Zwift guys have comparable engines as Jay. But Jay Vine then actually transferred it to racing performance and was able to bring it to the road for wins," said De Kegel, "and he is very tough - I think a lot of guys would have given up already," finished Roodhooft.

With Ramsay and Dixon following the new path onto the Alpecin-Deceuninck development team and Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto Generation squad, they have time to hone their bike handling skills and build up their confidence as a racer in Europe, with an eye on joining the WorldTour in the coming years.

Whether they can live up to the expectations that Vine and Bradbury have set since 2020 has yet to be seen, but with the most varied set of testing yet at Zwift Academy finals, the teams were prepared to select them as a star of the future.