Victory at the Zwift academy finals sees both riders rewarded with WorldTour contracts for 2023
Zwift academy winner Alex Morrice and Luca Vergallito(Image credit: Leon Van Bon)
The conclusion of this year's Zwift Academy finals has seen Alex Morrice and Luca Vergallito triumph and receive professional contracts for the 2023 season.
Officially becoming pro athletes with Canyon-Sram and Alpecin-Deceuninck's development squad respectively, Briton Alex and Italian Luca came out on top from the final five female and male finalist groups.
The Zwift academy talent identification programme has proven over the past seven years that Zwift can identify and nurture athletes who are capable of performing at the very highest level.
2020 winner Jay Vine has already taken two stages at this year's Vuelta a España, proving the effectiveness of the programme and the level its winners can perform at
Finalists had to complete a range of punishing indoor testing (Image credit: Leon Van Bon)
This year's finals took place in Denia, Spain with riders staying at the Syncrosfera fitness and health hotel. You'll soon be able to watch a video series documenting the action on Youtube.
22-year-old British rider Alex is fairly new to cycling and this summer completed her degree in chemistry and physics from the University of Bath. Already a level-34 Zwifter, she had previously raised eyebrows earlier in the year when she finished second in the Lancaster GP road race, beating many of the strongest female riders in the UK in what was only her third-ever road event. After a hard week of challenging testing, Alex was selected as the women's winner.
"I wouldn’t have thought at the start of the week that this moment would happen. It didn’t sink in properly until I was on the flight home knowing I was going to become a professional athlete next year," Alex said.
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Alex will graduate to the women's professional peloton in 2023 and has the opportunity to ride the biggest races in the world. Competing in the Tour de France Femmes is an obvious goal and ambition.
"The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift – I had the opportunity to watch the first stage in Paris this year with the Skoda Cycling Academy and was impressed with the atmosphere at the race and the support from the crowds," she said. "I think the addition of the women's version of the race in France is very exciting and leads the way for women's cycling in the future and it is something I want to be part of!"
Alex Morrice descending on her team issue Canyon bike during the finals (Image credit: Leon Van Bon)
Twenty-five-year-old Luca Vergallito from Milan has a master's degree in sports science and has been a force to be reckoned with on the Italian Gran Fondo scene this year. Luca is a level-39 Zwifter who was impressive all week at the Zwift Academy finals and more than once was awarded the rider of the day prize.
Luca's performance during the finals impressed Alpecin-Deceuninck's performance manager Kristof de Kegel "Luca performed in a very constant way during the Zwift Academy Finals week, which shows that he has the right physical and mental skills to be a professional rider," he said.
Luca will have the chance to develop with Alpecin-Deceuninck's Continental squad and acknowledges the opportunity to get noticed that the Zwift Academy provides.
"I'm so grateful that Zwift gave me a way to get noticed, and I'm so excited to join the Alpecin-Deceuninck development team for the coming season, to get to test my fitness in the most important races, and to learn racing from many of the world's best athletes."
Mens winner Luca impressed all week at the Zwift Academy finals (Image credit: Leon Van Bon)
Tom joined the Cyclingnews team in late 2022 as a tech writer. Despite having a degree in English Literature he has spent his entire working life in the cycling industry in one form or another. He has over 10 years of experience as a qualified mechanic, with the last five years before joining Cyclingnews being spent running an independent workshop. This means he is just as happy tinkering away in the garage as he is out on the road bike, and he isn’t afraid to pull a bike apart or get hands-on with it when testing to really see what it’s made of.
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