Virtual cycling racing has changed enormously since indoor competition first moved from a niche winter activity into a recognised part of the sport. What was once largely a way to make turbo training more entertaining now includes organised leagues, national championships, professional riders and UCI Cycling Esports World Championships.
The basic idea remains wonderfully simple. Put your bike on an indoor trainer, connect it to an app and race other cyclists without leaving the house. What happens once the flag drops, however, can be every bit as intense as an outdoor race.
Modern virtual racing rewards much more than simply producing the biggest power number. Drafting, positioning, climbing ability, sprint timing and knowing when to follow an attack all matter. Different platforms model those elements in slightly different ways, creating a discipline that sits somewhere between indoor training, cycling esports and traditional bike racing.
So how does virtual cycling racing actually work, what equipment do you need, and which platforms can you race on in 2026?
What is virtual cycling racing?
Virtual racing puts real cyclists into a simulated race. Every rider is pedalling a physical bike or smart bike indoors, while their power output is transmitted to the cycling app. The software uses that data to control an on-screen rider.
If you produce more power, your avatar generally travels faster. It is not quite as simple as saying that the rider with the highest watts per kilogram automatically goes quickest, though.
Watts per kilogram remain particularly important on climbs, just as they do outdoors. On flatter roads, absolute power becomes more important, while platforms can also take account of rider weight, height, gradient, aerodynamics, drafting, road surface and virtual equipment.
That means a 60kg rider producing 300 watts and a 90kg rider producing 300 watts will not necessarily travel at the same speed across every part of a course. The lighter rider has a clear advantage when gravity becomes important, while the heavier rider’s greater absolute power can be more useful on flatter terrain.
Drafting adds another layer. Sitting inside a virtual bunch can substantially reduce the power required to maintain its speed, making positioning crucial. Miss a wheel at the wrong moment and a gap of only a few metres can become surprisingly difficult to close.
What equipment do you need for virtual racing?
You do not need to build an elaborate indoor training room to start racing, although a good setup makes the experience much more comfortable. For most riders, the essentials are:
- A road, gravel or mountain bike and compatible smart trainer, or a dedicated smart bike
- A laptop, PC, Mac, tablet, Apple TV or compatible smartphone
- A stable internet connection
- A powerful fan
- A towel or sweat cover to protect the bike
- A heart-rate monitor for races where one is required
- An account for the virtual cycling platform you want to use
A direct-drive smart trainer is now the simplest option for most riders. Remove the rear wheel, attach the bike to the trainer and it can measure your power while automatically changing resistance as the virtual road rises and falls.
Some platforms also support power meters and older wheel-on trainers, but competitive events can impose their own hardware requirements. Higher-level races often require an approved smart trainer or power meter and a heart-rate monitor to improve the reliability of results.
If you want a dedicated indoor setup rather than repeatedly fitting your outdoor bike to a trainer, there are now considerably more options. The Zwift Ride smart frame, for example, pairs with compatible trainers to create an adjustable indoor bike without the cost of many traditional smart bikes.
The device running the app does not need to be exceptionally powerful either. Tablets have become particularly popular because they combine a large enough display with a relatively simple setup. Our guide to the best tablets for Zwift and indoor cycling covers the current options in more detail.
Why you really do need a fan
The fan deserves more attention than it usually gets when somebody builds their first indoor setup.
Outdoors, even a gentle ride creates a constant flow of air over your body. Indoors, that cooling effect disappears. Your body continues producing large amounts of heat but has far less opportunity to get rid of it.
The result is sweat. Lots of it.
A large fan positioned in front of the bike will make hard racing considerably more comfortable and can help you maintain your performance. A towel over the handlebars and top tube is also useful because repeated exposure to salty sweat is not particularly kind to bolts, bearings or other metal components.
How a virtual cycling race works
Most races begin from a virtual starting pen. Riders join before the scheduled start, warm up while waiting and then race when the countdown reaches zero.
Unlike an outdoor neutralised start, virtual racing can be extremely fast immediately. Producing power before the countdown finishes helps ensure you are already accelerating when the race begins, and the opening minute can be one of the hardest parts of the entire event.
Once the bunch settles, the tactics become more recognisable. Riders try to stay in the draft, move towards the front before climbs and respond to attacks without wasting unnecessary energy. Short hills can produce enormous power numbers as everyone fights to remain attached to the leading group.
Courses make a major difference. A flat race may favour heavier riders with strong absolute power and a good sprint, while a mountainous event puts much greater emphasis on watts per kilogram. Rolling circuits often suit riders who can repeatedly produce short, hard efforts and recover quickly afterwards.
Then there is the finish. Saving energy for the sprint sounds straightforward until somebody attacks with three kilometres remaining and the entire front group suddenly accelerates.
Zwift racing
Zwift remains the best-known virtual cycling platform and has one of the largest racing communities. Its fictional and real-world-inspired environments include Watopia, London, France, New York and numerous other worlds, with races taking place throughout the day.
The racing system has changed considerably since virtual racing first became popular. The traditional A, B, C and D categories based primarily around FTP and watts per kilogram have largely been replaced by Zwift Racing Score.
Racing Score uses a rider’s performances and power data to place them within an ability range. Race organisers can then divide the field into suitable groups, with Category Enforcement preventing riders from entering a category below the level for which they qualify.
This has made racing less dependent on a single FTP figure. A rider’s results now influence where they race as well as their underlying power, although organisers can still set different rules for individual competitions.
The fundamentals have not changed. Drafting is extremely important, attacks can be violent and losing contact with a group can end your race remarkably quickly. Zwift also uses power-ups in many events, adding temporary benefits such as improved aerodynamics, reduced virtual weight or a stronger drafting effect.
Zwift costs £17.99 per month in the UK or £179.99 for an annual subscription at the time of writing. The platform has continued adding hardware, routes and competition formats, with our look at Zwift’s latest hardware and racing developments covering some of the recent changes.
MyWhoosh
MyWhoosh has become one of the most important alternatives to Zwift, helped considerably by the fact that the core platform remains free to use.
It offers virtual worlds, structured workouts, group rides and regular racing, but its biggest impact has come at the competitive end of cycling esports. MyWhoosh is the platform used for the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships through 2026, giving it a prominent role in officially sanctioned virtual racing.
That level of competition comes with stricter verification requirements than an ordinary community race. Elite events can require approved equipment, heart-rate data and additional performance checks to ensure the power being produced indoors can be trusted.
For recreational riders, getting started is much simpler. Pair a compatible smart trainer or smart bike, choose an event and race.
MyWhoosh’s free model also makes it an obvious platform to try if you are curious about virtual racing but do not yet want another monthly subscription. We have compared the two platforms in more detail in our Zwift versus MyWhoosh guide.
Rouvy
Rouvy takes a noticeably different approach. Rather than placing riders almost entirely inside computer-generated worlds, its main attraction is cycling on filmed real-world roads.
Augmented-reality routes combine video footage with virtual riders and objects, allowing you to ride places such as famous Alpine climbs, major race routes and roads from around the world while still seeing other cyclists around you.
That makes Rouvy particularly useful for riders who want indoor racing to retain a connection with real geography. It also supports races, challenges, structured workouts and group rides.
Another useful feature is the ability to import GPX or FIT route files. If you are preparing for a sportive, race or particularly demanding climb, you can create a private version of the course and use your smart trainer to replicate its gradients.
A single Rouvy subscription currently costs $19.99 per month, with annual and multi-rider plans also available.
TrainingPeaks Virtual
TrainingPeaks Virtual is another significant change since the early days of virtual racing. The platform began life as indieVelo before becoming part of TrainingPeaks and is now included with a TrainingPeaks Premium subscription.
Racing is one of its central features. Events can include scratch races, time trials, points races and elimination formats, while computer-controlled riders can be added to smaller fields to ensure there is still a competitive group to race against.
There is a strong emphasis on realistic racing behaviour and performance verification. The platform also integrates closely with TrainingPeaks workouts and training data, making it particularly relevant to riders already using TrainingPeaks to plan their season.
Its GPXplore feature can recreate an outdoor course from uploaded route data, allowing riders to practise the demands of an upcoming event before racing it outside.
What happened to RGT Cycling?
RGT was once one of the main alternatives to Zwift and featured heavily in early virtual cycling comparisons. It no longer exists.
Wahoo bought RGT in 2022 and subsequently closed the platform on 31 October 2023. Its software team was moved towards Wahoo’s training and analytics products, leaving Zwift, MyWhoosh, Rouvy and TrainingPeaks Virtual among the most prominent current options.
Any older guide recommending RGT as a current racing platform is therefore well out of date.
Is virtual racing fair?
This has been one of the biggest questions surrounding cycling esports from the beginning.
The software only knows what the equipment sends it. Incorrect rider weight, badly calibrated trainers or deliberately manipulated data can all distort performance, which is why competitive platforms have steadily introduced stronger verification systems.
At ordinary community level, this might simply mean Category Enforcement or requiring a heart-rate monitor. At elite level, riders can face equipment restrictions, weigh-ins, trainer verification and checks against other power data.
No online system is perfect, but virtual racing in 2026 is considerably more structured than the largely self-policed events of its early years.
Why virtual racing feels so hard
If you have watched somebody finish a virtual race and wondered why they appear to have been submerged in a swimming pool, there is a straightforward answer: indoor racing can be brutally intense.
There are very few natural interruptions. No junctions, no traffic, no long descents where everyone stops pedalling and often very little opportunity to ease off completely.
A 40-minute virtual race can therefore include repeated periods above threshold, short maximal efforts on climbs and another large acceleration at the finish. Add the reduced cooling of riding indoors and even relatively short events can leave riders exhausted.
That intensity is also part of the attraction. It is possible to finish work, set the trainer up and get a genuinely competitive race completed within an hour without travelling to a circuit, pinning on a number or worrying about darkness and bad weather.
Can beginners race online?
Absolutely. You do not need professional-level power or years of racing experience.
Ability-based categories exist precisely so that riders can compete against people of a broadly similar level. Your first race may still be something of an education, particularly when the field accelerates off the start line, but learning how virtual bunches behave is part of the process.
The biggest mistake is treating every acceleration as something you must follow at maximum effort. Draft where possible, learn where the important climbs are and gradually work out how much energy you can afford to spend before the finish.
As with outdoor racing, experience makes a substantial difference.
Is virtual cycling racing here to stay?
There is little doubt about that now.
Virtual riding is no longer a temporary substitute for outdoor racing or something cyclists only use when winter weather becomes unpleasant. It has become a permanent part of indoor training, while cycling esports has developed into its own competitive discipline.
The UCI Cycling Esports World Championships are perhaps the clearest evidence of that change, but the larger impact can be seen much lower down the sport. Club riders can race internationally on a weekday evening, cyclists can recon real courses from home and structured training can be mixed with competition without changing equipment.
That combination of convenience and competition explains much of its appeal. As we have explored in our feature on how gamification is changing cycling training, the virtual elements also give riders reasons to keep returning to sessions that might otherwise be another hour staring at the garage wall.
You will still need to supply the legs yourself. And however realistic the graphics become, nobody has yet invented a virtual fan powerful enough to stop you sweating.
