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Zwift national champion stripped of title because he didn’t earn the ‘Tron’ bike he rode within the gameBritish Cyclling Zwift eRacing Championship 2019 (picture copyright Simon Wilkinson, SWPix (7).jpg

Zwift national champion stripped of title because he didn’t earn the ‘Tron’ bike he rode within the game

It was all about the bike
by Alex Bowden
Sat, Oct 05, 2019 11:13
33

The British Cycling eRacing national champion has been fined, banned and stripped of his title because the bike he rode in the final had only been earned through simulated efforts. Cameron Jeffers accepts that using software to get access to the bike was “unethical and unsporting” but says his physical performance in the final was still superior to those he beat.

British Cycling yesterday announced that a charge of unsporting conduct had been upheld against Jeffers following his victory in the inaugural eRacing national championships in March.

A statement said that the charge, “related to manipulation of pre-race data to gain an unfair advantage via in-game equipment.”

Jeffers – who rides on the road for the Saint Piran team in Cornwall – was stripped of his title, fined £250 and handed a six-month suspension from all racing.

The eRacing national championship was handed to James Phillips, who came second on the day.

In a video on YouTube, Jeffers explains that the unsporting conduct charge related to the bike he rode in the qualifiers and finals: a Zwift Concept Z1 bike – widely known as a “Tron” bike.

As well as offering a distinctive neon look, the Tron bike also offers in-game advantages. According to a speed test run by Zwift Insider, it beat the stock Zwift setup by 68 seconds on a full Watopia Figure 8 lap.

Towards the end of his video, Jeffers is keen to talk up the research and training he put in ahead of the national championships. As well as researching power-ups and course profiles, he says his physical performance in the races exceeded those of his rivals.

So you want to get into Zwift racing? Here’s our guide to getting started

In December last year, Jeffers had just got into Zwift racing and decided he wanted to give the recently announced national championships a go.

“I was starting to do more and more of the local community races within Zwift and someone messaged me; someone said to me: ‘Do you want the Tron bike in Zwift?’”

At the time, Jeffers hadn’t done much racing on Zwift and had “a pretty basic bike,” so he agreed.

To unlock the Tron bike, you have to climb 50,000m. Jeffers allowed the third party to log into his account and they used computer software to simulate the necessary efforts.

From then on, Jeffers used the Tron bike in training as well as in the qualifiers and National Championships.

He points out that British Cycling’s technical regulations for eRacing were written on March 8, 2019 – several months after he had gained access to the bike.

Jeffers actually only finished 12th in his national championships qualifier with only the top 10 going through to the finals.

Seemingly hinting at wider eRacing teething problems, he said that two of the top ten, “for some reason, they got taken out of that qualifying race – I don’t exactly know the reason why.”

Having qualified, Jeffers then faced a series of checks from Zwift and British Cycling. He said they requested power data and proof of his weight. He added that eRacing suffers “a host of problems,” day-to-day, including uncalibrated turbo trainers and inaccurate weight data.

He was given the green light to compete only for British Cycling to uncover the simulated efforts to acquire the Tron bike following an anonymous email complaint in April.

In a statement, Jeffers said: “I accept this practice was unethical and unsporting and I have cooperated fully with [British Cycling] on their investigation. I fully believe in esports and it’s part of cycling’s future. I will continue to support it and use what I have learnt from my mistakes to help shape it as it grows.”

Last month the UCI announced that it is to host the Cycling eSports World Championships in 2020.

UCI president David Lappartient said there was “a particularly exciting opportunity” to attract a younger audience to cycling through eSports.

Zwift
eRacing
British Cycling
eRacing National Championships
Cameron Jeffers
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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33 comments

Avatar
brooksby replied to billymansell | 5 years ago
2 likes

billymansell wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Difficult, isn't it? On the one hand he clearly cheated to get the bike (however you define 'cheating') but on the other hand the rules saying that such cheating breaks the competition rules weren't put in place until *after* he'd acquired the bike..,

Don't be fooled by this (further) deception.

He was found to be in breach of Terms of Service rules of Zwift and then found to be in breach of existing British Cycling rules of conduct.

Talk of breaking later rules is just another lie being spread by him and his accolytes.

Really? It didn't say that in the article... My misunderstanding, then.

So his "getting a friend to use software to exaggerate his mileage and get him the bike: is that like using a cheat code to level up in any other computer game, then?

Avatar
billymansell replied to brooksby | 5 years ago
2 likes

brooksby wrote:

billymansell wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Difficult, isn't it? On the one hand he clearly cheated to get the bike (however you define 'cheating') but on the other hand the rules saying that such cheating breaks the competition rules weren't put in place until *after* he'd acquired the bike..,

Don't be fooled by this (further) deception.

He was found to be in breach of Terms of Service rules of Zwift and then found to be in breach of existing British Cycling rules of conduct.

Talk of breaking later rules is just another lie being spread by him and his accolytes.

Really? It didn't say that in the article... My misunderstanding, then.

So his "getting a friend to use software to exaggerate his mileage and get him the bike: is that like using a cheat code to level up in any other computer game, then?

You didn't necessarily misunderstand as much as people are wanting to mislead. You have to look at the BC decision and BC code of conduct to see which clauses they applied in this case, which is something that's been missing from the reporting and led to people misleading as to the reason for the DQ.

As you say he used software, an Ant+ bot to mimic riding. Here's a full explanation of events from dcrainmaker;

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/10/british-cycling-strips-zwift-champio...

This bit from Zwift lays bare the cheating;

“In-game data indicated, among other things, that Cam Jeffers had ridden on multiple occasions at 2000 watts for over 200km with a weight of 45kg, and had also logged on in multiple locations over a short period of time (Cheadle, Plymouth and Denmark, etc.) Zwift detected a bot in the system to falsify power data and unlock the Tron bike.”

“The historic ride data of the rider in question had not been saved after each activity was completed and therefore did not show on initial checks.“

Avatar
doc_davo replied to billymansell | 5 years ago
0 likes

billymansell wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Difficult, isn't it? On the one hand he clearly cheated to get the bike (however you define 'cheating') but on the other hand the rules saying that such cheating breaks the competition rules weren't put in place until *after* he'd acquired the bike..,

Don't be fooled by this (further) deception.

He was found to be in breach of Terms of Service rules of Zwift and then found to be in breach of existing British Cycling rules of conduct.

Talk of breaking later rules is just another lie being spread by him and his accolytes.

Hang on though...

Isn't putting the importance on saying he broke zwifts rules, so got a ban from all road racing, like saying he broke Specialized rules by riding a Colnago, so the governing body should ban him...?!?

It's ludicrous, he games a game in free ride mode, broke some 'rules' that is designed to protect the games racing mode - so ban him from all racing - f**k, it will be banning someone from road racing next for lying about a KOM or long ride on strava!!!!

Commercial pressure probably from zwift, BC sh!t their pants, and prove they couldn't get a piss up in a brewery right!

Have BC now set a precident that if you cheat on Zwift, use coast mode to go for a leak, you might have your racing license pulled? or get found out that you are not 75Kg, you're 75.5kg so you have got an unfair advantage?

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