'I can't wait to start the season' – indoor racer signs first pro road contract at 32

Brazilian virtual racer Gabriela Guerra has signed her first professional road contract aged 32.

The two-time UCI Cycling Esports World Championships silver medallist will join French women’s ProTeam Cofidis for two years from 2027.

The move marks the latest twist in a life the Brazilian’s new team likened to “a TV series, a soap opera”; Guerra has gone from skateboarder, to honey business owner, to indoor racer and now pro road cyclist.

“I’m very curious and really excited about joining Cofidis,” she said in a team press release. “I want to find out whether I can transfer my strengths from e-cycling to the road.”

After moving to Germany when she was 10, Guerra started skateboarding as a teenager, and documented her progress on her YouTube channel.

Years later, she began using that same channel to show off her e-racing, having discovered Zwift through a Google search in the winter of 2021, when she was running her own Brazilian honey business.

Virtual racing soon became a solid income stream – Cycling Weekly reported this January that Guerra was making six figures from competing on the MyWhoosh platform, often starting events in the early hours of the morning.

It was only last year that the Brazilian decided to take her cycling talent onto the road. In September, two months before she won her second Esports Worlds silver medal, she joined the German Continental team Wheel Divas, and committed to racing more lower-level road events in 2026.

Her outdoor palmarès for the season counts two wins: a German national race and the Mirabelle Classic, a French one-day event where she competed against ProTeams, including her now team-mates at Cofidis.

“The few races I took part in towards the end of the season gave me confidence and caught Cofidis’s attention,” Guerra said.

Looking forward to her first year as a road pro, she added: “It’s a challenge I’m really keen to take on. I don’t have any particular apprehensions, just a huge amount of enthusiasm.

“I can’t wait to start the season, give my very best, help the team and discover the very highest level of road racing. It’s going to be a fantastic challenge.”

Guerra is not the first rider to sign a pro road contract following success on indoor racing platforms. UAE Team Emirates-XRG's Jay Vine and Canyon-SRAM's Neve Bradbury earned their first pro contracts by winning the Zwift Academy in 2020. Both have gone on to win Grand Tour stages.