Cycling Weekly Club 10 time trial winner makes it through to Zwift Academy finals
Will Lowden is the cousin of Uno-X pro Joss Lowden
![Zwift](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2Q2D3Q9o8oXLJU3eUcXSVA-415-80.jpg)
A former winner of the Cycling Weekly Club 10 Zwift race is one of five riders fighting for a pro contract with Alpecin-Deceuninck in the Zwift Academy finals.
Will Lowden, who races for NoPinz-R3R, has ridden the weekly Wednesday evening event four times winning on two of those occasions in January this year and October 2020.
In the competition for a spot alongside Mathieu van der Poel, he will face off against riders from Australia, Belgium and Italy. The winners announced on 17 December.
On the road Lowden rides for WattShop - the shop team of the aero cycle-parts business owned by Ineos Grenadiers performance engineer Dan Bigham - and boasts a 19:57 personal best for a ten mile time trial, set in October this year.
In the women’s competition for a spot on the Canyon-SRAM team British hopes rest with Alex Morrice (LDN - Brother) who registered a top ten at the Curlew Cup earlier this month.
Two Americans have also made it through to the final Elena Wu-Lang and Liz Van Houweling and will compete for a place alongside team leader Kasia Niewiadoma.
Van Houweling is a cycling coach by trade but got to be an elite Zwift racer largely just by having fun and told Cycling Weekly in 2021 that she eschews doing intervals on the bike (see below).
The ten finalists have been whittled down from more than 96,000 riders who participated in this year’s Zwift Academy.
The finals will be broadcast by GCN, with five films being released starting on 13 Dec. and finishing with the grand final on 17 Dec.
Zwift Academy finalists
Women
Alex Morrice, Great Britain
Chiara Doni, Italy
Elena Wu-Lang, United States
Liz Van Houweling, United States
Nele Laing, Germany
Men
Cooper Sayers, Australia
Jasper Paridaens, Belgium
Luca Vergallito, Italy
Lucas Hoffman, Australia
Will Lowden, Great Britain
How Van Houweling conquered Zwift
In late 2021 Cycling Weekly spoke to Liz Van Houweling as part of a bigger feature on the best Zwift riders in the world about how she got to be ranked so high, this is what she said.
Sometimes you don’t get to top by being the best physically, sometimes you need to be smart. That’s how van Houweling, who is a cycling coach by trade, got to be the third best woman in the world on Zwift.
“I don't try to do structured intervals anymore. I've decided that I'm at a point in life that bikes are supposed to be fun and intervals aren't as fun as racing or just cruising,” she explains.
She’ll later add: “I haven't actually won that many honestly. I do the men's races… A lot of women only do women's racing. It's harder to get points in the women's field, because there just aren't as many points available. If you put me in a field of the 50 best women in the world I definitely wouldn’t be third, maybe top ten.”
Van Houweling got into racing bikes in real life while at the University of Northern Colorado and continued for several year afterwards before she decided to prioritise her young family over racing. She only got back into it through online racing just over a year ago.
“My youngest turned one year old, I just decided I needed to get in shape…” she says. “My brother bought me a one month pass, and initially I hadn’t been riding consistently for a while and so you see the numbers improving really quickly which is really motivating. The competitiveness just got me again.”
It helped that Iowa, where he lives is below zero degrees C for months at them during the winter making the turbo trainer more attractive.
She says her initial foray into C-category races allowed her to “fake” a certain level of skill and fitness that meant she could finish in the pack. However, her sprint or lack of it was holding her back. That’s where racing men came in handy as she says it forced her to up her short bursts of power. “Before I was at, around 9.2 watts per kilo for 15 seconds. Now I'm at like 12.5 watts per kilo for 15 seconds. So that's a pretty big improvement,” she explains.
Her immediate goals are to go to USA cyclo-cross Nationals at the end of the winter and do more women’s racing and see if she can get into the American eSports World team, “I don’t have super high expectations but it’d be fun to do some more high quality women’s racing. With little kids I can be a Zwift racer but I can’t be a full time outside bike racer.”
Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Having trained as a journalist at Cardiff University I spent eight years working as a business journalist covering everything from social care, to construction to the legal profession and riding my bike at the weekends and evenings. When a friend told me Cycling Weekly was looking for a news editor, I didn't give myself much chance of landing the role, but I did and joined the publication in 2016. Since then I've covered Tours de France, World Championships, hour records, spring classics and races in the Middle East. On top of that, since becoming features editor in 2017 I've also been lucky enough to get myself sent to ride my bike for magazine pieces in Portugal and across the UK. They've all been fun but I have an enduring passion for covering the national track championships. It might not be the most glamorous but it's got a real community feeling to it.
-
Rohan Dennis charged with causing death by dangerous driving following death of wife Melissa Hoskins - reports
Hoskins, the two-time Olympian, was killed in a car crash on Saturday
By Adam Becket Published
-
GripGrab Women’s Windbuster Windproof Lightweight Vest review - minimalist design executed well
A two-zipper and a mesh rear panel really help aid temperature regulation and work excellently with the front windshield
By Anna Marie Abram Published
-
Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2023: Everything you need to know
Information about the route, start list and how to watch the women's Tour de France
By Tom Davidson Last updated
-
Don't miss these three stages of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes
The eight-stage route promises high drama, no more so than on these three days
By Tom Davidson Published
-
Zwift becomes title sponsor of Paris-Roubaix Femmes
Online fitness platform builds on deal to sponsor inaugural Tour de France Femmes
By Adam Becket Published
-
50 riders have been confirmed to be taking part in the UCI E-Sport World Championships 2022
The event is set to take place in Zwift's New York after riders have qualified from their continental groups
By Tim Bonville-Ginn Published
-
Zwift racing one step closer to becoming Olympic sport with new Olympic Virtual Series
Zwift racing is one step closer to becoming an official Olympic discipline, as it now forms part of a new Olympic Virtual Series competition.
By Alex Ballinger Published
-
Will e-racing generate a new kind of cycling superstar?
Movistar recently held a talent ID programme that consisted of a series of Zwift races designed to recruit 10 riders
By James Shrubsall Published
-
Zwift issues another ban for alleged data manipulation after investigating rider’s past results
Zwift has issued another ban to a rider for alleged data manipulation, after investigating previous results following irregularities in his power data.
By Alex Ballinger Published
-
Remco Evenepoel posts first Zwift rides online as he returns to training
The 21-year-old Deceuninck - Quick-Step rider was recently given the all clear to return to riding his bike after a short break
By Tim Bonville-Ginn Published