Rohan Dennis takes commanding victory in the inaugural Team INEOS eRace
Over 15.5k cycling fans break Zwift record in mass participation virtual race
All 30 Team INEOS riders went head to head in the Team’s inaugural eRace, split across six teams, with the action culminating on the Alpe du Zwift climb. Dennis made his move on the early slopes, pressing home his advantage to win by a 56 seconds over Eddie Dunbar, with Michal Kwiatkowski finishing three seconds further back in third.
The racing action following a highly successful mass participation eRide, with 15,530 people from across the world joining the team on rides earlier in the day, beating the Zwift single event record in the process.
Riders wore a special one-off digital kit to showcase the work the team has done in supporting INEOS with their hand sanitiser project, as up to a million bottles start to be delivered to NHS hospitals across the UK, just 10 days after the plan was announced.
Sir Dave Brailsford said: “INEOS are using their raw materials to make hand sanitiser and give it free to hospitals around Europe. We’re running the distribution into the hospitals and our logistics team are doing a brilliant job of getting it to where it’s needed most.
“In these moments everybody has got to muck in and we’ve all got to play our part. We’re used to being performers, people normally come to watch us, but the performers at the moment are the health workers. We’re getting behind them and doing everything that we can in sport to support them.”
Commenting on watching the eRide, Dave Brailsford added: “It’s fantastic. I was absolutely gripped and it was really enjoyable to watch. Fair play to Rohan – you can see why he’s the world time trial champion. You can see Eddie is in pretty good shape, but I think the rider that caught my eye was Chris Froome. That’s a hell of a ride from a guy who is coming back and that’s a great indicator that he’s on track and going to be in the mix when we get back out there on the road.”
The inaugural Team INEOS eRace champion Dennis said: “There was supposed to be a plan, but in the end I felt it was better to just go for it, why not? It worked out!
“It was a good little hit out, I spotted Cam (Wurf) with me and I couldn’t let him sit on my wheel for too long, so I pushed a bit harder and dropped him, then I could sit on my TT pace from there.
“It’s a time when nobody is allowed to ride with anybody so we’re lucky to have technology like this so we can do something for the fans to keep them across what we’re doing and how we’re training.”
