The fast-growing indoor cycling app, MyWhoosh, has today announced it is to become an Official Partner for the UCI's outdoor Road World Championships in a deal that will span the next three editions.
The MyWhoosh brand, founded in 2019 by Emirati businessman, Akhtar Saeed Hashmi, has forced its way into the indoor cycling space with free subscriptions, huge real-money prizes for its online races - one recent race had a total prize pool of $1Million - and its ongoing partnership with the UAE Team Emirates WorldTour team.
On the company's board of executives sits Mauro Gianetti, the CEO and Team Principal of the UAE Team Emirates squad.
Among other various intangibles, the deal will see the app score the exclusive rights to offer the courses from the Road World Championship events, similar to how Yorkshire is available as a course to ride in Zwift and how Leuven was available in RGT prior to its closure.
According to Hashmi, this means MyWhoosh users will be able to ride "their very own UCI Road World Championships" on the app. He also expects that "many professional racers will undoubtedly be testing themselves on the virtual courses ahead of the Zurich, Kigali and Montreal editions."
The deal will span 2024 to 2026, and thus the three events covered will include the 2024 Championships in Zurich, Switzerland; the 2025 Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, which also happens to be the first time it has been held in Africa; and the 2026 event in Montreal, Canada.
Surprisingly, the deal will come to an end two years prior to the Road World Championships' visit to Abu Dhabi, where MyWhoosh was founded and is headquartered. Of course there's nothing to suggest the deal won't be extended beyond 2026 at a later date.
The announcement comes as something of a sequel for MyWhoosh, which just months ago secured the indoor world championships for the same timeframe of 2024 to 2026. This means that the officially-titled UCI eSports World Championships will be hosted on the MyWhoosh platform, rather than Zwift, which has hosted the race since 2020.
It's not confirmed whether MyWhoosh is coming on board as an additional Official Partner, or replacing one of the existing brands, but given the partners for the UCI World Championships in Glasgow were BigMat, Mapei, Santini and Zwift, it seems most likely that this is another area where MyWhoosh is taking over from Zwift.
"With this increased investment, Abu Dhabi confirms the interest its leaders place in our sport, after hosting a very successful edition of the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships in 2022," said the UCI President, David Lappartient at the launch event in Abu Dhabi. "The city will host this event again in 2024, as well as the UCI Road World Championships and the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships in 2028, followed by the UCI Track World Championships in 2029. By organising these various events, Abu Dhabi is positioning itself more than ever as a leading host of cycling events and a world-renowned cycling hub.”
