A new race-focused indoor cycling platform announced its beta launch this week, joining the growing virtual cycling landscape.IndieVelo, a platform focused primarily on competitive eRacing, was born from one idea: if online cycling were an Olympic sport, .......

It uses simple graphics, prioritizes complex bunch racing dynamics that take into account crosswind and tire grip, and even integrates an anti-cheat mechanism and live streaming capabilities. The goal is to be the best indoor cycling app for e-sports enthusiasts and competitive racers, not necessarily to appeal to a large number of participants.

"We have a thousand opportunities to define the future of the sport from a clean slate," declares Dr. George Gilbert, founder of indieVelo.

"The developers have designed an existing platform not for competition, but for casual riding.

The beta version is available for download at indievelo.com and is currently free. There is also an option to support development with a $12.99/month or $129.99/year membership.

Educated in Cambridge, Gilbert wrote the code for the global telephone network infrastructure that handles emergency calls worldwide. He is a UCI-trained commissaire and a past vice president of the board of British Cycling.

Due to his role as Chief Commissaire for various UCI Cycling Esports World Championships and his past position as Chair of the Zwift Cycling Esports Committee, Gilbert has a useful perspective on athlete aspirations and the means to achieve them He believes he has. To complement this, he has interviewed a number of elite-level athletes, including Matt Gardiner, to ascertain the specific requirements and true aspirations of racers.

Gardiner, a member of Saris-NoPinz's esports team, said of indieVelo, "As an early adopter of the esports discipline and a Zwift power user, I never thought I would embrace change. IndieVelo's commitment to performance validation and genuine achievement, draft dynamics, and community-driven spirit won me over instantly. The game offers many tools for race organizers already in beta that are not available in other games and has great potential for the future of esports"

This feedback formed the foundation of indieVelo and led to two important pillars: tactics and reliability. As a racer, it should be skill, not just power, that determines results. This was a longstanding complaint of racers on other platforms and formed Gilbert's first concept.

With that decision in mind, Gilbert drew a blank on the Unity Gaming Engine, a cross-platform game development software developed by Unity Technologies. Unlike other platforms that use proprietary software engines, Unity allows for simple code that can be quickly updated with new features and functionality, and Gilbert sought a global gaming workforce trained in the ubiquitous cross-platform engine can be used for the same purpose.

IndieVelo's server-side architecture means that everyone sees the same thing on screen, and all race results reflect what each rider sees. This solves the problem that Zwift racers sometimes experience of riders crossing the finish line first, only to be demoted later; like Wahoo RGT, what you see on indieVelo is what everyone else sees.

Because of this central aspect, Gilbert next focused on innovations in cycling physics and developed his own RPTR engine (Ride, Pace, Train, Race). This engine is based on the principles of physics and ensures that riders adhere to the fundamental laws of nature. Since riders cannot exist in the same space at the same time, positioning within a group of riders is an essential factor for success. Artificial intelligence algorithms are employed for this purpose, automatically finding gaps in the peloton, looking for drafts from other riders, and forming echelons to protect against wind. As a result, there is currently no need for the distractions and hardware limitations of manual steering.

Wind plays an important role in the racing dynamics of the Indy Velo. It is a factor that racers must take into account when making tactical decisions in real time as they approach each race. Changes in wind speed, gusts, and crosswinds create echelons and tactical opportunities.

IndieVelo's physics engine also takes into account cornering speed and tire grip; if you jump into a corner too quickly, as Wahoo RGT does, automatic braking occurs until you drop power and re-accelerate, so mastering the art of cornering is essential and the car will be able to accelerate again after dropping the power.

IndieVelo does not display the power-to-weight ratio (w/kg) of other riders. Interestingly, despite acknowledging that a rider's weight is an important factor in determining speed, Gilbert sees no benefit in publicly sharing the data and believes it is detrimental to the health and well-being of individuals and the growth of the sport.

Instead, he shares data that reflects real-world racing, such as the speed of other riders and their relative physical effort compared to his own; IndieVelo displays the speed of all racers on the rider list and effort as a percentage of the rider's critical power visualized as a percentage of the rider's critical power.

IndieVelo uses an Elo-like rating system, which allows riders to experience quality racing by competing against other riders of similar ability. If you outrank a rider with a higher rating than you, your rating will increase. Conversely, if you lose to a rider with a lower rating, your rating will drop, and if you enter a race but fail to finish, your ranking will be affected.

IndieVelo places great emphasis on authentic athletic performance in line with the standards of elite-level sports and states that reliability is a fundamental aspect of its philosophy. To reliably verify the performance of every rider, indieVelo has a fully integrated anti-cheat mechanism, including built-in dual recording that allows power data to be transmitted simultaneously from two sources.

Gilbert worked with former Zwift Accuracy and Data Analysis team (ZADA) leaders, including Bjoern Ossenbrink, to create indieVelo's performance verification service. Gilbert credits his longtime partnership at ZADA, which pioneered the detection of cheating in physical esports, as the driving force behind the innovation, noting his belief that algorithms can only go so far.

"As with online security, it's not a matter of building something once and that's it.

Races are at the heart of indieVelo, with repeating events starting every five minutes. The platform currently supports time trial, scratch race, points race, and elimination race formats, with additional variations and features to be developed regularly. In addition, indieVelo has a built-in user interface for customized event creation and the ability to stream individually configured broadcasts.

There is no gamification in indieVelo. Gilbert said, "This is not Mario Kart in a turtle shell or banana skin," and there are no power-ups or other game extensions.

Racers have been drawn to indieVelo at a rate of one per minute since the beta launch, according to claims.

To succeed, indieVelo will need to overcome many more established competitors. For example, the Wahoo RGT has many of the same features, including automatic braking, pack dynamics considered by some racers to be the best for racing, steering, and the recently integrated Systm workouts.MyWhoosh is focused on esports and offers racers offers significant cash incentives to ...

IndieVelo will not be able to compete with the big boys Zwift on the level of marketing and promotion. Nor will it be able to compete with Zwift for users who prefer social interaction. A huge user base and a vibrant community are the special sauce of a top-notch platform like Zwift.

Still, Gilbert is undeterred. He says, "indieVelo is, above all, a community of people who share a vision of what online cycling and esports can be. We don't have a community; we are a community of people who share a vision of what online cycling and esports can be.

Feedback from that community has been the driving force behind indieVelo's roadmap, and the reviews we've seen so far have been nothing but positive.

"IndieVelo, the UCI, and many others all share the common goal of bringing cycling esports into the Olympics," states Gilbert. 'To achieve that will require a lot of hard work, with a lot of people working together and focusing on their own areas of expertise.' [Ossenbrink and other former ZADA teams have been transferred to indieVelo as an independent company, in consultation with the UCI and Zwift, to provide governance and oversight. In particular, indieVelo will not compete with Zwift or other platforms, but will complement them. It is a symbiotic relationship where our independent expertise in technology, cycling dynamics, and performance validation will ensure the credibility of online races wherever they take place, and together we will achieve our Olympic dream."