Who is Jason Osborne, two-time UCI Cycling Esports World Champion

From rowing to smart trainers: Jason Osborne’s path, a two-time Esports world champion for Germany, as he heads to Abu Dhabi to defend his title.


Jason Osborne is Germany’s two-time UCI Cycling Esports world champion who is looking to retain his position at the top of the sport when he competes in the live final, which is hosted on MyWhoosh and scheduled for November 15th in Abu Dhabi. 

In fact, in the four editions of the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships, he has never finished off the podium.
It’s a formidable record that sees him as one of the clear favourites.  

I caught up with Jason to understand his journey to the top, where I expect him to stay for the foreseeable future, given he is only 31 years old.

Jason’s sporting career started not with cycling, but instead with rowing.  

“I started off in rowing when I was 10 years old and quickly got hooked. I tried many different sports, like football, but rowing was the one.  I progressed within the sport, quickly becoming the national champion.”

He won the under-23 World Championship at his first attempt and defended his title the following year. This was the springboard to the elite programme, where the goal was to win an Olympic medal.

Jason participated in the Rio Olympics, aged only 22 years old, racing in the Lightweight double sculls where competition was intense, and he finished outside the medals. Undeterred, Jason returned with a new partner, winning a gold medal in the same discipline in the European Championships in Lucerne in 2019, before following up with a silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.  

As Jason noted, “That was a goal achieved in my first sporting career. In rowing, I was already looking to the future after the Olympics because lightweight rowing would be removed from the Olympic program.”

What came next was cycling. “I was already a passionate cyclist, and then I got a cycling coach. I wanted to build the engine for the sport of cycling”, he said.

Whilst Jason was embarking on the next phase of his sporting career, he was simultaneously continuing his rowing training.  The first ever UCI Cycling Esports World Championship, hosted by Zwift in 2020, coincided with the German rowing team’s training camp that Jason was heavily involved in.

This meant that Jason had to transport his designated bike smart trainer to his rowing training base, which was in Portugal.  He setup  a specific area to compete and used the hotel Wi-Fi to connect.

The effort was worth it, with Jason becoming the first ever UCI Cycling Esports world champion, beating some of the finest World Tour riders such as Australian, Jack Haig, Belgian, Victor Campenaerts and even beating British track superstar and multiple Olympic Gold medallist Ed Clancy.  

Jason recalls: “I saw my victory as an entry into the World Tour.  Eyes were all on that event because it was new, it was the first UCI Cycling Esports World Championship, and I was able to demonstrate that I'm physically a strong athlete, and I can produce some strong numbers.”

Victory did indeed catch the attention of the World Tour teams, with the famous Quickstep offering him the opportunity to train with them for the remainder of the season as a “Stagiaire”, which is an amateur rider who is taken in by a professional team during the season. The purpose was to allow him to get some experience of riding a few pro races, and the team got a chance to assess his abilities. Sadly, due to Quickstep’s full roster, there was not a place for Jason.

Nevertheless, victory in the UCI Cycling Esports World Championship, meant that Jason had achieved an unprecedented result, being the Esports champion in two different sporting disciplines having won the gold medal in the Lightweight Men's Single sculls at the 2019 World Rowing Indoor Championships in Long Beach, USA.   

He didn’t have to wait too long before another opportunity arose; a contract with the Alpecin–Fenix Development Team in 2022, and then with the full Alpecin–Deceuninck the following year.

Jason remembers: “That was pretty nice because I almost gave up cycling, and I was not really thinking that something was going to come again. I got the call from an agent that there was a potential contract with Alpecin; I went to Belgium and had talks with brothers Christoph and Philip Roodhooft [principal figures who manage and co-own the Alpecin-Deceuninck team].  They offered me a contract.”

Jason’s time in the pro peloton had, as he described it, “Lots of ups and downs.  I learned a lot, I had some pretty good races. In the beginning, I had one of my best races actually, but then oftentimes, I would find myself very unlucky. There were very close situations where I almost got a really, really good result and then, like always, something bad happened, like a crash. I remember the first stage race I did, the Arctic Race of Norway. It was the last stage and there was one climb to the finish and there were four kilometres to go and just at the bottom of the climb, my chain snapped! I was the virtual GC [General Classification] leader because I had won all the bonus sprints and was four seconds up in GC, so that was really unfortunate. There are many variables, unfortunately in cycling, it's just the nature of the sport.”

He got second overall in the Tour of Austria in 2023, but admitted that “I just didn't really find the balance within the sport, I was just going from race to race and I couldn't really build my form, also you were often pretty tired from the races and there was not sufficient time for recovery, which is normal, but I couldn't reach my full potential it seems.”

Another factor that impacted Jason was the change in coaching.  He explained: “I would have liked to take my former cycling coach into the team, but it wasn't allowed.  The team wanted to have everything internal within the coaching team at Alpecin.”
Reflecting on his time on the World Tour, Jason was honest in his assessment, stating, “I felt like I could never really reach my full potential and right now, I actually like having stepped away from the World Tour.”

Now totally focussed on Esport, with the occasional gravel race thrown in to provide a bit of variety, Jason explained that he has reached a new level of fitness, stating “I am seeing numbers at the moment that I never got — it's also a bit sad because I think with those numbers, I could achieve some good results in the World Tour, but it's not my game anymore.”

If the World Tour cycling is not his game, Esports cycling certainly is, with Jason winning the 2024 UCI Cycling World Championship for the second time in his career.  

He explained that “it's possible to make a good living out of MyWoosh and the prize money that is on offer every week, the thing for me now is my driving motivational factor.  
I am more passionate about it, trying to find in every race some small margins where I can do better, if it's tactical issues or training specific, if I need to change something in training, I am trying to be the best E-cyclist in the world once again.” 

In addition to the prize money won at major international events, Jason races weekly on MyWhoosh at the Sunday Race Club (SRC), where prize money for 1st place in Category 1 is $2170.

Jason’s victory in the 2024 UCI Cycling Esports World Championship was something to behold.  The event consisted of three races, all different, where points were awarded for your place at the end of each stage, as well as points being available at certain segments throughout the race.  

After the first race, which was a sprint stage, Jason was down the field in the overall standings. He recalls: “I was 16th and with only four points from the sprint stage. I had to stay calm and just accept it and then just try to absolutely like to destroy everyone on stage two and three and break away to get all the points.”

Stage two was where Jason showed his class.  He explained:  “I remember the first attack. I didn't quite break away immediately, but then I did one or two more surges, and then I was alone, and then I realised I had to pull this off now, I had to get to the line to collect all the points, which I did.  It was still pretty close after stage two.”

During the stage, he generated 8.1 w/kg in places for a sustained period and rode consistently at around 6.5 w/kg to the finish.  Sitting in second place, six points behind his rival, Lionel Vujasin.  
Stage three was even more impressive, which consisted of three laps with a climb.  “I needed to do exactly the same in stage three, it was an ‘all-in approach’. Either I pull it off and stand to get a good result, but it's probably not going to be the gold medal because I just missed out on so many points in stage one, so that was my mindset — I just went all in for it.”

His decisive move came on the second lap of the three-lap stage, powering away with 11.6 km remaining and effectively time trialling his way to the finish. In the end, Osborne won the stage ahead of Kasper Borremans and Danish rider Bjoern Andreassen, which meant he had won the World Championships by three points.

This daring move was decisive, with Jason explaining that “I knew I was able to cope with the fatigue maybe a little better than the others, so when stage three hit, I knew the fatigue was in the legs of most e-cyclists and I could use that as my advantage and break away more easily.”

Speaking with Jason, it was evident that there was not one thing that made him successful at Esports cycling, but a multitude of things.

Firstly, training plays a significant part, noting "I try to maintain a decent volume, one to two intensity sessions and then do an activation before each race. You get a lot of intensity during the races.”

Secondly, it’s evident that tactics play a huge role in winning races. After each race, Jason spends time analysing the races, and in the game he is more aware of the mistakes others are making and then, as he describes, “takes advantage out of that.”

Thirdly, Jason is fully aware of his physical attributes. “I have such an engine, so I need to use it and I don't want to involve myself in tactical games with others, just because I don't necessarily need to.  If I can ride away, I will ride away. It's that simple.” And has been demonstrated in multiple finals, he has simply ridden away to victory.

Fourthly, he developed a winning mentality at an early age. Jason remembers fondly his early years at his small rowing club, which has developed many athletes that went on to compete at a high level. He learned that “you can be successful if you believe and if you keep at it.”

Jason certainly has kept focussed on being successful and will compete in the UCI Cycling Esports World Championship in November.

From competing in a hotel bedroom in Portugal in 2020 to racing in front of a live audience in Abu Dhabi in 2024, the sport has certainly evolved.

“Last year's World Championships were amazing, racing in front of a that live audience, in the arena, it was a big, big arena with a stage, with screens in front of your bike where you see your avatar, the power, all the data, the heart rate, how people are suffering, the visuals, I think they nailed it” Jason said.

Jason was also keen to express how controlled the event was.  “The trainers were all verified by Elite and there was no room for cheating; everything was as fair as it could be.”

Jason Osborne's remarkable journey from rowing champion to two-time UCI Cycling Esports world champion exemplifies his relentless pursuit of excellence and adaptability in the face of challenges.
As he prepares to defend his title in Abu Dhabi, his story serves as an inspiring testament to the power of determination and the evolution of competitive sports in the evolving world of Esports. 


Thank you to Tim Perkin, Consultant and Contributor.  Tim hosts hosting daily races and structured training sessions on Zwift and MyWhoosh under the brand Mountain Massif, whose mission is to propel individuals beyond their perceived limits, guiding and empowering them to achieve new heights in their cycling endeavors.  For more articles like this or want join in one of Mountain Massif’s events, visit www.mountainmassif.com.  Your commitment and contribution means the world to us.