Scots student wins place on top e-sports cycle team
- Published
Beth Maciver only became interested in road cycling three years ago
A Scottish student has won a place on an international cycling team after competing in bike races online.
Beth Maciver turned to e-sports - competitive video gaming - after the outdoor road races she had hoped to enter were cancelled due to Covid-19.
The 20-year-old races online on a road bike fitted to a machine called a turbo trainer.
Her performances have earned her a place on Spain-based Movistar Pro Cycle Team's newly-created e-sports team.
Starting from next month Beth will be racing for the e-team against cyclists from all over the world in the Zwift Racing League Premier Division.
E-sports is a new venture for Movistar Pro Cycle Team, whose road race cyclists have won some of world cycling's biggest events since the 1980s, including the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.
Beth, a former Culloden Academy pupil, only became interested in road cycling three years ago following encouragement from her boyfriend.
Beth can cycle indoor using a turbo trainer
Beth had been using the turbo trainer indoors in winter when the weather was too bad for cycling outdoors.
The trainer fits to the back of a bike and is designed replicate outdoor conditions - including making pedalling harder as if cycling up hill - while keeping the bike static.
Linked to the internet, the turbo trainer allows Beth to race against other cyclists online.
In February, she entered the Movistar Team Challenge and progressed from a qualifier event through to a finals on 1 March. In the final points race Beth was first across the line.
Beth had hoped to compete in outdoor road races
Beth, a Glasgow Caledonian University physiotherapy student, said: "E-sports gave me something to focus on and look forward to each day during lockdown.
"It gave me the ability to ride for as long as I wanted when travel restrictions were in place and also gave me the opportunity to be competitive in the sport."
Beth added: "I am so excited, and quite honestly still in disbelief, that I have been selected to be part of Movistar's new e-sports team.
"Movistar is a very respected team within the sport of cycling and for them to have recognised e-sports cycling as a separate discipline is brilliant and I cannot wait to be involved in this development."
Beth races on an online cycling platform called Zwift
Juan Pablo Molinero, of the Movistar Team, said Beth and her fellow team members' enthusiasm for e-sports had played a large part in the decision to venture into online racing.
He said: "Virtual cycling is an activity which combines sport and entertainment, effort and fun.
"The faces of happiness and the words of commitment by the new riders of the Movistar eTeam, passion for cycling running through their veins, make us feel the gamble is the right step."
Amidst the excitement of the forthcoming virtual racing season, Beth said she was looking forward to a hoped-for relaxation of lockdown restrictions.
She said: "I do love to ride outdoors when the good weather comes around.
"Nothing beats that sense of freedom I have when rolling around the country roads."
- Published15 March 2021
