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
Fifty riders have qualified for the UCI E-Sport World Championships following continental heats.
The races across the continents saw a total of 550 participants try and make it to the first ever E-Sport Worlds on Zwift taking place on Saturday, February 26 in the Knickerbocker Circuit in Zwift’s version of New York.
Riders from five groups have competed in qualification races with five British riders making it through in the European women's qualifiers. The two continents of North and South America were merged into one qualifying group for this event.
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Most of the riders who have made it through are regulars on the Zwift Racing League’s Premier Division.
Europe have the most female qualifiers with 10, followed by Americas six plus Oceania and Asia's four and Africa's one. In the men's it's five riders from each group.
There are 19 nations represented across both the men's and women's races with some holding large numbers like USA, Australia, Japan and South Africa to smaller nations in sporting terms such as Angola, Finland and Hong Kong.
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The British riders are Zoe Langham, Mary Wilkinson, Illi Gardner, Alice Lethbridge and Lou Bates with only one rider representing the five other qualified nations in Europe.
Other groups, like the Americas and Oceania saw the expected nations dominate with riders only from USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand making it from their groups.
Africa was much the same with every rider expect one being from South Africa. In Asia's male group it was all about Japan but in the women's Singapore had control along with one from Hong Kong.
Europe
Men:
Lionel Vujasin (CRO)
Matthias Deroose (BEL)
Matteo Cigala (ITA)
Haarvard Gjeldnes (NOR)
Teppo Laurio (FIN)
Women:
Zoe Langham (GBR)
Mary Wilkinson (GBR)
Cecilia Hansen (SWE)
Loes Adegeest (NED)
Melanie Maurer (SUI)
Illi Gardner (GBR)
Alice Lethbridge (GBR)
Lou Bates (GBR)
Louise Houbak (DEN)
Eleanor Wiseman (BEL)
Americas
Men:
Zach Nehr (USA)
Brian Duffy (USA)
Thomas Thrall (CAN)
John Bruhn (USA)
Kevin Bouchard-Hall (USA)
Women:
Shayna Powless (USA)
Jacquie Godbe (USA)
Liz van Houweling (USA)
Kristen Kulchinsky (USA)
Monilee Keller (CAN)
Katheryn Curi (USA)
Oceania
Men:
Ben Hill (AUS)
Ollie Jones (NZL)
Paul Odlin (NZL)
Sam Lindsay (NZL)
Aiden Sinclair (AUS)
Women:
Vicky Whitelaw (AUS)
Justine Barrow (AUS)
Katie Banerjee (AUS)
Sarah Morrison (NZL)
Asia
Men:
Takato Ikeda (JPN)
Toshiaki Maegawa (JPN)
Hidenori Sasauchi (JPN)
Tomoaki Takasugi (JPN)
Ryusuke Honda (JPN)
Women:
Lam Kong (HKG)
Lyn Ahmad (SNG)
Faye Foo (SNG)
Tsalina Phang (SNG)
Africa
Men:
Gary Muller (RSA)
James Barnes (RSA)
Eddy Hoole (RSA)
Pieter Avenant (RSA)
Andre Matias (ANG)
Women:
Courteney Webb (RSA)
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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