Echelon Racing Promotions and USA Cycling Announce Esports League and National Championships on Zwift
USA Cycling Press Release today confirms 2024 US National Championships and a six race series with the first half of races serving as qualifiers to the Championship. Echelon Racing Promotions will lead the charge on event management continuing their longstanding partnership with USA Cycling & additionally we are extremely happy to announce Zwift Community Live will be providing coverage of the six race series and the 2024 USA Cycling Esports National Championships bringing the entities back into partnership toward growth of US Cycling Esport.
Promoting athlete & team pathways to the top level of Cycling Esport has always been a driving principle with Zwift Community Live, dating back to 2017 in terms of first engaging National Organizing Bodies of Cycling for their highest level of honors in Esport competition. At Zwift Community Live we see this as a big step forward in bringing together key leadership across different areas of influence in this Esport's space, from national body to promoter to platform, and of course our media channels. Sometimes growth of this Esport can feel a bit like a jigsaw puzzle and this moment has a few puzzle pieces coming together with the glimmer of a bigger picture on the other side.
Echelon Racing Promotions is what brought in real life North American Pro Cycling to the virtual world thru Zwift & Zwift Community Live in 2020 when the pandemic hit while racing in real life was put on hold. Innovation from Echelon Racing Promotion brought some of the longest standing North American events along with the athletes who compete in them to the virtual world. This saw some of the best racing and most widely viewed broadcast events Zwift Community has ever had the honor to highlight.
Echelon Racing Promotions President Eric Hill said
"Zwift Community Live was integral in bringing the origins of the Echelon Racing League to life, ensuring professional level racing remained visible during the height of the pandemic and beyond. ZCL has long been an innovative force on the Esports space and we could not be more excited to partner with them again."
We look forward to get the wheel rolling in December! Details & information on the Series and Nationals can be found below.
USA Cycling is partnering with Echelon Racing Promotions and Zwift to create a six-race series and the 2024 Esports National Championships.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Cycling is proud to announce that it has partnered with Echelon Racing Promotions to host a six-race series that will serve as a qualifier for the USA Cycling Esports Elite National Championships. All races will be held on Zwift, the world's largest virtual cycling platform.
Through this collaboration, USA Cycling and Project Echelon will hold races in December 2023 and January 2024. The first three races in the series will be qualifying events for the 2024 USA Cycling Esports National Championship, held on January 6-7. The Elite National Championships will be UCI Cycling Esports World Championship qualifiers. Dates for the World Championships will be announced soon.
All Echelon Racing League events are open to competitors from all nationalities and will have categories for racers of all ability levels. However, in order to compete in the National Championships, racers must hold a current USA Cycling License
The race schedule is as follows:
Date Event Format
December 2, 2023 Bell Lap Criterium 38 Kilometers
December 16, 2023 Innsbruck KOM After Party 37.2 Kilometers
December 30, 2023 Casse-Pattes Circuit 46 Kilometers
January 6, 2024 USA Cycling Amateur National Championships 3 Race Omnium Event
January 7, 2024 USA Cycling Elite National Championships 3 Race Omnium Event
January 13, 2024 Wandering Flats Time Trial 25.1 Kilometers
January 20, 2024 Serpentine 8 Gravel 38 Kilometers
January 27, 2024 Libby Hill After Party Road Race 33 Kilometers
For more information on the race series, view the Echelon Racing League website, or contact echelonracingleague@projectechelonracing.com
ABOUT ECHELON RACING PROMOTIONS
The Echelon Racing League, started by the UCI Continental Project Echelon Racing Team during the height of the pandemic, is the first of its kind and is in a league of its own. Serving as a conduit to strengthen the overall cycling community, the league will bring virtual and in-real-life riders and racers together in collaboration with national governing bodies. Furthermore, the league has been designed to enhance the reach, influence, impact, and connectedness of riders, teams, race promoters and international governing bodies as a means to grow the sport of cycling through an innovative, sustainable, and scalable model.
In 2020, the Echelon Racing League (ERL) came to life during the pandemic. In part, the ERL was created out of necessity to provide athletes, teams, race promoters and sponsors a platform to stay connected, stay motivated, and remain relevant. On the other hand, Project Echelon saw esports as an opportunity to advance cycling, it's accessibility and the community it reaches to a new level.
The Echelon Racing League was blazing new trails, innovating, driving change, and giving people purpose and hope in a time otherwise defined by uncertainty and global struggle. At the same Project Echelon was creating a more accessible esports ecosystem by being the first ever entity to develop the handcycle and recumbent trike bikes and adaptive avatars on the Wahoo RGT virtual platform, where it has promoted a top level professional and amateur esports league and USA Cycling National Championships for the past 3 seasons (2020-2022).
Echelon Racing League Photos and past livestreams: https://www.facebook.com/EchelonRacingLeague/photos
More about Project Echelon UCI Continental: www.projectechelonracing.com
ABOUT ZWIFT
Zwift is the fitness company born from gaming. We’re dedicated fitness enthusiasts, experienced video game developers, and disruptive thinkers. Play is in our DNA and we know fun fuels results.
Zwift utilizes massively multiplayer online gaming technology to create rich, 3D worlds ripe for exploration. Join thousands of cyclists and runners in immersive playgrounds like London, New York, and Paris as well as our very own Watopia.
Our app connects wirelessly to exercise equipment: bike trainers, treadmills, and more, so your real world effort powers your avatar in the game.
From friendly races to social rides and structured training programs, Zwift unites a diverse community in pursuit of a more fun, immersive and social fitness experience.
ABOUT USA CYCLING (usacycling.org)
USA Cycling is the national governing body for the sport of cycling and oversees the disciplines of road, track, mountain bike, cyclocross, and BMX. USA Cycling’s mission is to grow participation and engagement with the sport of bicycle racing and achieve sustained international success across all cycling disciplines. USA Cycling supports cyclists of all levels and abilities, from those just beginning in the sport to international caliber athletes. The organization identifies, develops, and selects cyclists to represent the United States in international competition through the support of youth and interscholastic programs, amateur and grassroots bike racing events, athlete development programs, and operational support for cycling clubs, racing teams, and event organizers. USA Cycling has a membership of 80,000, sanctions over 2,500 events annually, and is a member of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
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