Leading the world of cycling esports with The Coalition

In late 2018, I had just started my second tenure working with Canyon Bicycles. I rejoined the company to create a new Partnerships division (amongst other things) within the Marketing team. Several years prior, I had successfully pushed the business to be the first brand to proactively join this little-known virtual cycling startup called Zwift. Now that several years had passed, the company was more comfortable with indoor training, and I even convinced them to finally test and approve their bikes for use on indoor trainers. At the same time, Zwift had raised more venture capital and had become a little less niche. As someone always keen to be at the forefront of innovation, it was time for another first: to launch the world’s first ‘professional’ eracing team. I had seen the world of esports growing and I wanted Canyon to be a part of it!

Whilst I had had the idea back in 2017, everything really came together ahead of the launch in early 2019. I pitched the idea to the new Head of Marketing and the CEO, and was pleasantly surprised to get the go-ahead. Having Canyon onboard in the beginning allowed me to use some of my work hours to manage the esports team, as well as provide the riders with bikes and cycling kits. My original concept for the team was to pair 90s rave aesthetics with the world of cycling. I couldn’t think of two worlds I loved more but were further apart (except maybe for the renowned drug-taking). These two things didn’t belong together, so that is precisely why I wanted to pair them. Cycling “brands” are bland and formulaic, and I wanted to be anything but that. The other thing people forget is that in 2019, this had never been done, and so I knew it would be ridiculed by traditionalists who hated Zwift. Doing something before anyone else is so satisfying and doesn’t come along that often – so you have to embrace the negativity, knowing that everyone else is behind the curve. Hey, we were also the only ‘elite’ cycling team with complete parity between men and women – something that remains true today. Most men’s pro cycling teams only added women’s teams because they were forced to by the UCI. But we didn’t need anyone telling us what was the right thing to do.

I played on the counter-culture element even more in our first team photoshoot. I had props made, such as a mock newspaper designed like those of the early 90s when the rave scene led to total hysteria amongst the UK press. I imagined other people losing their minds over the idea of people racing their bikes indoors. Moral panic was guaranteed.

That entire photoshoot was designed to look like a rave. I worked with photographer Rene Zieger and handed him a whole storyboard for how every scene should be connected. Ingo Urban from Wahoo (who also came on board as a launch sponsor) hooked us up with an abandoned brewery and a van full of trainers. We got the riders to Berlin and spent two days shooting non-stop, squeezing every angle out of every scene. I spent considerable time doing my dream job: waving the smoke machine in the background. We seriously got our money’s worth out of that machine! 

The team launched with a bang and gathered a lot of attention in the cycling press. The team had more than paid for itself just in the initial brand exposure! It wasn’t just the coolest cycling team in the world (esports or otherwise) – it was also the most successful, as the riders scooped up wins in every major racing series there was. Later, when the pandemic hit, the press frequently approached me to talk about indoor cycling across various issues. I even acted as the sports director for the Alpecin Fenix World Tour team during the first and only Virtual Tour de France on Zwift. 

Fast-forward to today and the elite team is still the most successful cycling esports team in the history of the sport. Looking back, it is hard to believe we managed to do this, as none of it came easy. We’ve had sick riders, injured riders, one swiftly-removed cheat and a bunch of tech issues that come with the territory. Despite the pandemic creating considerable interest in indoor cycling and Zwift, we lost several sponsors, including Canyon, after I left the business in 2022. Props must go to TrainingPeaks, who have stuck with the team since the beginning. I am still very optimistic about the future of the team and the sport, and I believe we can continue to be right at the forefront. 

Our new team kit for 2024 is arguably the best ever made… I may be biased, though. Props again go to MJ Jackson, who helped turn another wild brief of mine into something tangible. If you are not adding playlists to your briefs to get designers in the right mindset, you’re doing it wrong! I’ve always been keen to push our artwork and esports kits, and wanted to make something that ‘glitched’ on the screen. This led me to the idea of datamoshing our existing kit design. Datamoshing was a short-lived trend best utilised in the music video Evident Utensil.

@coalitionalphaWe’re ready to race

 

 

♬ Riders in the Sky – Teddy Killerz

Building the community

By the end of 2020, I still felt that something was missing. We had launched the elite team and won everything Zwift threw at us. We had also established an U23 development squad, sent Maud Ouderman to the World Tour, and built a 20-rider-strong second team to compete in the Zwift Racing League. However, whilst fans of the team could follow us on Instagram, there wasn’t any real community they could get involved with. 

So, in January 2021, I launched ‘The Coalition‘. The Coalition is a community for anyone wanting to take indoor racing seriously. Whilst many other Zwift clubs exist, they have yet to be built around the premise of advancing indoor racing. It’s proved popular, with the community growing from obscurity to being the 3rd biggest for number of teams racing globally. 

So how did we do it? 

Three key things have made The Coalition community a success:

1. Dedication and reputation for fair racing. We go above and beyond what is required to push the sport forward. For example, our riders must perform weigh-in protocols if they want to race for the team. 
2. We have utilised the right community platform since the beginning: Discord. Certainly, the platform has its limitations, but it beats anything out there if you want to connect people around a shared passion. Our server is probably one of the most complex out there (as far as admin goes), so it has the most uncomplicated front-end experience for our users.
3. Lastly, we have an incredible group of volunteers in various positions. About 100 people globally hold some form of management position and help the community tick (half of them are team captains!). Recently, I produced an organisational chart that would match any business of the same size. 

The one part that needs to be developed is being profitable. However, as this was not an original objective, it has never been an issue. Not worrying about money in the community’s formative years has been beneficial. Whatever we do in the future will only be based on delivering additional value back to the community. We want to give something back to those who have helped us get to where we are today. Any money made needs to support the continued growth and development. If we can start to see even a fraction of the money “traditional” esports gets, then we’ll be on the right path.

What’s next?

The elite team will continue to race at the highest level of the sport and aim to continue our winning streak. Not only this, but we will continue to show that a cycling team can have a brand and be innovative without being walking billboards for shampoo. That said, it would be great to get some more sponsors onto the team – provided they buy into our vision for the future of cycling. 

As for the community, we will keep doing what we are doing. However, we want to find more ways to deliver value to the community and help them improve their racing. Adding more coaching opportunities is a key way to do that. We also want to facilitate more members to meet up IRL. We’ve already seen so many amazing stories of riders meeting to ride in person, and honestly, connecting people together in this way is so rewarding. Lastly, and it ties into those two elements, we want to bring together our elite teams and the community so we can learn from one another. 

The Coalition is an epic side project, one we take immense pride in. It has taught us so much about managing and building a community, which is valuable information we share with our clients. 

So, if you want to build a passionate community like ours, get in touch!