Global sponsorship action from Telefónica
New championship presented on Tuesday afternoon at Movistar Team's press conference with its big stars for the Tour Colombia; event to kick off in April, hold big world finals in Madrid after a series of qualifying races.
Telefónica is taking another step forward in their gamble on cycling and innovation through the creation of the international competition Movistar Virtual Cycling. The initiative was unveiled on Monday afternoon at the Movistar Team’s press conference with Nairo Quintana and Eusebio Unzué just before the start of the Tour Colombia in Medellín on Tuesday.
Movistar Virtual Cycling will start in April, combining online and on-site qualifying events held during the same weeks the most iconic races of the season will be held. Participants will contest against each other on real routes matching portions of WorldTour events. The winners of the qualifying events will access the world finals, to be held at Festibike, the international bike festival held in Las Rozas, Madrid, on September 13th-15th.
To carry out this project, Telefónica has associated with indoor cycling platform Bkool, which allows professional and amateur cyclists competing from everywhere around the world over real routes, simulated on 3D environments or shown to the user through real video. The riders will only need a smartphone, tablet or computer to test their skills online against thousands of other riders.
Virtual cycling is a discipline which more and more people are taking up from conventional cycling. The software developed by Bkool allows them to train and compete on their real bike at home, connecting their home trainer to a device and participating on online competitions or just riding their favourite routes. The Bkool simulator creates realistic representations of the road and race conditions: distance, road gradients, power developed by every rider, slipstream, landscapes, orography and weather. At the time of this press release, there’s more than 100,000 active users on Bkool, from all over the world, training and having fun on their bikes.
More information at www.movistarvirtualcycling.com.