Sir Chris Hoy to join Esports Worlds live studio audience IRL

Sir Chris Hoy is set to join a live studio audience for the first ever UCI World Esports 'In Real Life' Championship.

The six-time Olympic gold medallist will take part in a Q&A with the audience and offer insight throughout the event, which takes place on Saturday 18 February in Glasgow and marks an important landmark in the build-up to the city's Cycling World Championship events in August.

The racing takes place in Zwift's new Scotland world, which has been created especially for the championships and takes inspiration from the Scottish landscape as well as Glasgow itself.

The IRL element adds an extra, physical dynamic to the usually purely virtual. Up to 10 British riders will be present in the studio competing for the virtual rainbow bands, including Lucy Harris, Lizi Brooke, Charlotte Colclough, Natalie Stevenson, Andy Nichols, Jimmy Kershaw and Joseph Rees of the GB Cycling Team.

The championship will feature an elimination type format held over three separate courses – The Punch, The Climb and The Podium. Both women's and men's races will start with up to 100 riders each and first take on the rolling Punch course. From here the first 30 in each gender go through and contest the short, hilly Climb course, from which 10 riders in each race go through to contest the final, hilly Podium race. This will see riders slowly eliminated throughout until three are left to fight it out to the finish.

The racing will be streamed from Zwift's YouTube channel, but you want to be part of the live studio audience, tickets are currently on sale at EventBrite, costing from £25 to £30.