"We have seen riders come out of nowhere" - E-Sports World Champion calls for boost in anti-doping measures on 'new' discipline

Competitive indoor cycling is a discipline that has been created and developed significantly over the past few years, growing in popularity as well as in support and prize money. This has attracted many towards the discipline, but also more potential for wrongdoings and possible doping. Recently crowned World Champion Jason Osborne has called for an increase in the measure against this.

Osborne became World Champion once again this past weekend in Abu Dhabi, however he aknowledges that the discipline still has issues to tackle. “There is huge potential in Esports, but if the sport wants to be taken seriously the top athletes need to be in the test pool all year round. Right now the testing window is short and that makes it difficult to keep everything fair," he explained in an interview with Domestique.

The former Alpecin-Deceuninck rider has been consistent since his first World title in 2020, winning now on two more occasions and making it onto the podium in both 2022 and 2023. He seems improvement in the testing procedures, but not to the same degree as in the road. “It is good to see athlete health protected. The equipment checks are solid and the approach is transparent. But fairness is also about anti-doping. Esports cannot rely on a shorter testing window than the disciplines it wants to stand beside.”

“That short window is not enough. Esports has open qualifiers which is fantastic for accessibility but it also means most riders are not subject to any anti-doping controls until they reach the in-person finals. That creates an imbalance.”

There is also the aspect of weighting, in which riders have been said to use saunas shortly before races to lose weight in water for the weight-in, hence improving their W/Kg ratio. However that is now also being tackled: “In E-sports you weigh in on the same day, sometimes fifty minutes before. If you cut more than one or two kilos you harm your performance. The comparisons with UFC weight cuts make no sense. In 2024 there was a ten-hour weigh-in window so of course people looked for marginal gains. That is the same logic as picking your lightest bike for a mountain-top finish.”

“The sport has made big improvements each year. Performance verification is better. Rider health is better protected. It opens cycling to more people. I just hope the UCI now puts the same focus on anti-doping as it has on equipment checks. Protecting fairness is essential if the sport wants to grow.”

But the German rider, without naming names, warns that there are figures in the discipline who lift up serious suspicions: “We have seen riders come out of nowhere with no road background who can suddenly match the best in the world, win prize money and then disappear. That is very rare in other sports. It underlines why more robust testing is essential. Honest athletes should not lose out because the structures are not strong enough".