Alex Bogna, 19-year-old Australian-Italian, wins a pro contract with success on the Zwift platform
Do you want to race with Mathieu Van der Poel? It passes from here, from that virtual world that is becoming increasingly popular among young people and that the pandemic is ‘pushing’ further. We pedal more and more with rollers, between the walls of the house and with a monitor in front of our eyes: that cycling, one of the sports most linked to tradition, travels alternative routes in search of new sponsors is now well established, that this can be a new way out of an economic crisis that has hit hard is a possibility to explore.
With Mathieu
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For some time, ‘living room’ cycling has also allowed you to enter the world of racing from a back door: you have to pedal harder than other avatars and it is anything but simple given the level of the opponents. The Zwift Academy, a virtual competition launched by the online cycling platform, allows the strongest to get a professional contract. And it is no coincidence that for the second consecutive year it was an Australian who won: in the down-under the restrictions are stringent and the chances of coming to race in Europe are scarce. Alex Bogna, 19, with distant Italian origins, comes from Queensland and thanks to his performances on the reels he has earned a substantial prize: a year at Alpecin-Fenix, the team of the very champion Mathieu Van der Poel, one of the most important testimonials in the world of eSports.
Student
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There were ten finalists who fought for the victory of the Zwift Academy in Mallorca: five men and five women (among the girls the 18-year-old Dutch Maud Oudeman won, for her a contract with Canyon-Sram) after fierce competition: started with 150,000 candidates. Bogna, in the team, will also find compatriot Jay Vine who won last year and who thanks to good results (second in the Tour of Turkey, third in a stage at the Vuelta) has earned the contract extension for another two years, again with the Alpecin. He hopes to imitate Bogna, a fiosiotherapy student who only approached cycling in 2016 and who had to travel 1,000 km from Queensland to carry out the activity: his team (Continental) is the Ara Pro Racing Sunshine Coast. But now he has the great opportunity to come to Europe and race with the great champions. “I’m speechless – said Alex – it’s a dream come true, something that completely changes my life”. Let the story begin.
21 December – 09:32
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