Virtual cyclists face random drug tests to compete on MyWhoosh app

First came the boom in virtual cycling, with thousands of people from across the globe competing against each other. Then came cash prizes. Now one major online platform has taken the next logical step by launching anti-doping testing for e-racers.

MyWhoosh, which hosts the UCI Esports World Championships, has told the Guardian that the top riders in its weekly Sunday Race Club competition will now face random drug tests after they compete.

The event offers prizes ranging from $2,170 (£1,593) to $20 (£14) to serious cyclists and beginner-level racers, most of whom compete at home or in a garage.

However under MyWhoosh’s new policy, which will be introduced next week, selected riders will be told before, during or after racing that they must stay where they are for up to three hours to be tested.

That will give someone from the International Doping Tests & Management team time to reach them and take a urine, blood, or dried blood spot sample.

Matt Smithson, director of esports & game operations at MyWhoosh, told the Guardian that around 700 athletes would be in its initial testing pool, and the aim was to test at least 10% of them a year.

He said that the drug-testing was part of a wider programme of integrity measures designed to stop virtual riders from “e-doping” by miscalibrating equipment to inflate power data, lying about their weight, or even using bots to fake high wattage data.

“Our goal is to protect clean riders and ensure that our global community can trust in the integrity of every podium finish,” he said. “Nobody in any other sport has to compare someone in their garage in Australia with someone in the garage in Sweden at the same time. It’s difficult and this is the next phase in the evolution.”

“If someone’s cheating, they’re probably mechanically cheating,” he added. “But we’ve got a lot of verification to try to stop that now. Riders have to use a specific trainer to race, with two ways of showing their power. We also get our athletes to do what we call a power passport test. That includes a film test, so we know it’s that person. We can see their power, we can see their heart rate. We can see all of those things. And that gives us a physiological print of who they are.

“Our drug testing, which is the first of its kind, is another way to help everybody feel that they are racing on a level playing field.”

While Zwift remains the biggest online platform, it is understood that MyWhoosh now has hundreds of thousands of registered users and last year paid out $5m a year in prizes.

“This new policy is the next step in the evolution of what I believe will be the future of bike racing,” he added. “Over the next 20 years, virtual cycling is only going to get bigger and bigger. We’re at the infancy of this.”

However virtual cycling already attracts many high level riders. The current UCI cycling esports world champion is Jason Osborne, who won silver in the 2013 World Rowing Championships and was a former professional road cyclist.