Zwift racer banned and fired after cheating like an absolute maniac
Using hacked data, Eddy Hoole rode a completely unbelievable race
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@eddyhoole
South African Eddy Hoole has been banned and fired from his team after an incredible ride in February’s qualifier for the 2023 UCI eSports world championships. DC Rainmaker reported the news on Wednesday about Hoole’s unreal ride. Apparently Hoole, who rides for the Toyota Cryo Rdt team, broke away from the group on the final climb and absolutely flew past the break ahead, taking the win.
Onlookers were shocked. Broadcaster Nathan Guerra couldn’t believe his eyes.
“That was something we’ve almost never seen before, he said. “Something I thought was absolutely impossible,” he said.
Turns out, it wasn’t possible.
On Thursday the decision was published by Zwift in its Performance Verification Board Decision. The company investigated Hoole’s suspicious performance, and confirmed that the rider had cheated and was banned for six months. On the final climb. Zwift posted that he had averaged 526 watts for over four minutes.
“Given the rider’s weight, this equates to a sustained average power output of approx. 8.5 W/kg, a performance that requires a VO2max of over 90 mL/min/kg,” the report stated “For comparison, these values are significantly greater than those that have been measured for Olympic pursuit champions and world record holders (average power output over 4 minutes, approx. 7.5 W/kg) or Tour de France winners (VO2max, approx. 85 ml/min/kg).”
Zwift’s report states that it appears he had manipulated data to achieve such a result.
“It is notable that the disconnected channel normally carries analytics information about the riders system, in particular information such as the equipment that the rider is using. Zwift considers the absence of this analytics information to be equivalent to the presence of a masking-agent in anti-doping, for example, it would allow the rider to change their paired device from their trainer to a computer-controlled device that gave falsified power information, without such a change being recorded by Zwift’s servers.”
DC Rainmaker postulated that the rider may have used software to the data stream and thereby up his numbers.
