Is there anything on the Academy?
The finalists were never announced.
The real finals are being held now.
But, due to filming and editing, no news until 2025.
This is not the best scenario.
Who were the best riders? watts? workouts?
Personally, I feel that ZA has run its course, at least in its current format. With Canyon-SRAM and Alpecin-Deceuninck now among the top cycling teams in the world, I feel that what each is looking for has changed from when ZA was both a marketing vehicle for both Zwift AND the teams. On the men’s side, I don’t even think there’s an option to actually race with the ‘main’ team anymore, only the development team. The same might be true on the women’s side, but I’m not sure.
Maybe it’s time for Zwift to pick some new teams with which to align. Some second division up-and-comers, perhaps. This would give those teams more exposure, and probably cut a large amount of expense from Zwift’s P&L. (I seriously doubt that Zwift is getting back what they’re paying out these days.) Perhaps Tudor or TDT-Unibet would be better options on the men’s side, and AG Insurance or Lifeplus-Wahoo on the women’s side
When the videos are released on GCN, they are listed as advertising, which means Zwift is paying GCN to shoot and edit their content.
I agree they have had their full run. I’m pretty sure GG (women’s) and ZN (men’s) on Zwift beat the finalists in every workout. So, I understand if they don’t bother to do all the workouts full on. Could anyone beat Kate McCarthy? Not a chance. Outclimb Illi Gardner? mission impossible (real life or Zwift)
Za is just a series of tests. (Should include a full hour climb up Ventoux). The old workouts in 2016-2018 were great.
1 Like
Finally, the finalists or is it semi-finalists are revealed.
All the women are junior pros already, lol.
Riding with and especially sprinting with Zoe B looked incredible.
Now, only waiting a month to find out who already won a few weeks ago.
It will be interesting to see what happens. To me, though, this should be aired on 4 consecutive days, or at least within the same week, so that the winners can actually start racing. Either that or the episodes should have started in January!
Zwift was trying to time this story with the Zwift Games 2025.
It just seems so late that most everyone lost interest.
They should have included LVH who was chosen last year and got covid on the plane trip to Spain. She had to drop out before the first day.