You can find more of Chris’s work at his blog, The Zommunique, and at the Virtual Velo Podcast.
When the first-ever UCI Cycling Esports World Championship live final was held in Abu Dhabi in October 2024, the gold medalists – Jason Osborne and Kate McCarthy – walked away with US$15,000 each. Despite racing hundreds of kilometers more, Tadej Pogačar and Lotte Kopecky received around US$8,500 for their world title wins on the road – more than US$6,000 less.
Virtual platform MyWhoosh, the UCI's choice to host the Cycling Esports World Championship from 2024 through 2026, is known for its high-stakes events, such as the weekly Sunday Race Club (SRC) series, offering a monthly prize purse exceeding US$284,000 distributed across four categories and equally across genders, with a total of over US$3.75 million paid out in 2024.
All up, cycling esports racers collectively earned an impressive US$3.94 million in cash prizes last year, with the top earner – a female athlete, notably – taking home well into six figures. Adding to these staggering stats, one of the top-10 earners left his WorldTour team to join the growing ranks of elite esports-focused athletes who have made virtual racing their primary career and main source of income.
"Indoor Specialist" cycling esports racers? That's a new one. Here are the top-10 cycling esports money-winners from 2024 and how they earned their winnings racing from their basements (and at Worlds in Abu Dhabi). All amounts are listed in USD.
#1: Kathrin Fuhrer (Switzerland) – $167,126
Fuhrer spent eight years competing on the professional alpine skiing circuit before transitioning to a career in education. She dedicated herself to cycling esports as a full-time profession in June of 2023 and hasn’t looked back.
The Swiss superstar's winnings included over $130,000 from MyWhoosh’s Sunday Race Club, more than $30,000 and a Gold Wahoo Kickr Bike for her Zwift Games victory and other performances on the platform, and $5,000 for earning bronze at the 2024 UCI Cycling Esports World Championship.
Fuhrer’s 2024 campaign saw her claim the top spot as the highest-earning athlete – male or female – across MyWhoosh and Zwift, in arguably the most successful season in cycling esports’ short history.
#2: Merle Brunnée (Germany) – $108,440
The three-time long distance duathlon world champion received over $108,000 in cash prizes, racing on MyWhoosh and Zwift on top of her multisport winnings.
"I value the flexibility and time efficiency of racing from home, which allows me to balance a demanding career in medicine with high-performance training and racing," she said.
Brunnée is a neuroradiologist at Heidelberg University Hospital and a professional triathlete who incorporates cycling esports as a valuable element of her training routine. She also finished seventh in the 2024 UCI Cycling Esports World Championships.
"Racing virtually allows me to consistently compete against the world’s best athletes without the logistical challenges of traveling, and it keeps my competitive edge sharp," she said. It keeps a few extra bucks in her pocket, too, no doubt.
#3: Michał Kamiński (Poland) – $98,154
Poland's Michał Kamiński is the first male on the list, earning over $90,000 racing on MyWhoosh and Zwift.
A full-time esports racer and a regular in MyWhoosh's Sunday Race Club, he has competed in 87 events, finishing among the top five (in the money) an impressive 45 times – a 51% success rate – with 10 victories to his name.
Kamiński delivered a strong seventh-place performance in the 2024 UCI Cycling Esports World Championship final. Adding to his achievements, Kamiński won a stage of the Zwift Games 2024, earning a $7,000 payday.
#4: Jason Osborne (Germany) – $93,065
Osborne claimed a silver medal in the lightweight men’s double skulls at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics rowing regatta before capturing the inaugural Cycling Esports World Championship title later that year.
A fixture in every edition of the event, he added podium finishes in 2022 and 2023, and his second rainbow jersey in 2024 came with a $15,000 prize.
His 2020 esports world title also earned him a contract with UCI WorldTeam Alpecin–Deceuninck in 2021. However, despite some promising results, Osborne struggled to find his place within the team’s rigid hierarchy.
In September, Osborne publicly announced his departure from the team on Instagram, revealing that his passion for road racing had waned and sharing his plans to pursue a career in cycling esports.
With 26 wins in 87 lifetime Sunday Race Club appearances – a remarkable 30% win rate – Osborne has also finished in the top-five prize positions an impressive three-quarters of the time.
#5: Lionel Vujasin (Belgium) – $92,808
Widely regarded as the GOAT of cycling esports, Lionel Vujasin burst onto the scene with a dramatic win at the 2018 CVR World Cup in Vancouver. An early esports specialist, he competed as an original Zwift Community All-Star and clinched the Zwift National Championship of Belgium during the sport's early days.
Vujasin boldly decided to leave his role as operations manager at Nike to focus solely on cycling esports – a gamble that has paid off. He has competed in every UCI Cycling Esports World Championship, securing his best finish in 2024 with a silver medal and a $10,000 check.
A fixture in MyWhoosh’s Sunday Race Club, Vujasin has racked up 114 lifetime appearances, earning over $80,000 on the platform in 2024 alone, with an additional $1,200 in winnings from Zwift competitions.
#6: Ollie Jones (New Zealand) – $84,255
Like Vujasin, Ollie Jones has become synonymous with top-flight cycling esports across multiple platforms. The Kiwi rose to prominence as the winner of the 2018 Zwift Academy, landing him a professional contract with Dimension Data for Qhubeka. He transitioned to full-time cycling esports when sponsorship for his Bolton Equities Black Spoke team dried up.
In 2024, Jones earned over $5,000 on Zwift and nearly $75,000 on MyWhoosh. With 65 top-five finishes in 116 lifetime SRC races and a top-10 finish in the 2024 World Championship final, his consistency cements his status as one of the sport's most reliable and talented competitors.
#7: Kate McCarthy (New Zealand) – $70,450
Kate McCarthy, a police officer from New Zealand, has an impressive cycling pedigree, with four bronze ITT medals and a second-place finish at New Zealand’s 2021 Road Race Nationals. When illness sidelined her from the 2024 Elite Road Nationals, McCarthy pivoted back to esports, where she had been a Zwift Academy finalist in 2020.
Her decision paid off, as she claimed the 2024 rainbow jersey and a $15,000 prize, adding to over $55,000 in SRC winnings. With 20 top-five finishes, including 15 victories, in just 28 starts, McCarthy has become one of MyWhoosh’s most successful racers.
"Things have kind of flipped on its head – I now ride and race on the road for the pure joy of it, and esports is where my focus is," McCarthy explains, though she hesitates to commit fully to esports due to the instability of financial uncertainties.
(She might be racing on the road for fun, but McCarthy is clearly no slouch: she recently finished third in her return to the Kiwi Nationals road race, behind a couple of pro roadies: Kim Cadzow (EF Education-Oatly) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek).)
#8: Michael Knudsen (Switzerland) – $65,577
Michael Knudsen's athletic journey began in ultra-endurance events. He finished second in the grueling 9,100 km Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme in 2018, set the Danish 12-hour ITT record, and is a five-time Ironman finisher.
Transitioning from the open road to virtual racing, Knudsen turned his passion into a full-time profession, earning an 11th-place finish in the 2024 World Championship final.
A cornerstone of MyWhoosh's Sunday Race Club, Knudsen has competed in 145 events, securing 112 top-five finishes – more than any other racer on the platform.
#9: Kristen Kulchinsky (USA) – $52,806
American Kristen Kulchinsky is one of the most decorated cycling esports athletes in the sport's short history. She has countless victories at Zwift's top level since transitioning from New York City's pre-pandemic spin class scene to Zwift without ever riding a bike outdoors.
When Kulchinsky ventured onto the open roads for the first time in 2023, she took the New England Hill Climb circuit by storm, rewriting the record books and claiming Strava QOMs in every race. In 2024, she set a new course record by over three minutes in the prestigious Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb.
The self-employed jewelry designer is the reigning 2024 USA Cycling Esports National Champion and three-time UCI Cycling Esports World Championship top-10 finisher.
During Kulchinsky's successful 2024 season, she earned almost $49,000 in 31 SRC appearances and over $4,000 racing on Zwift.
#10: Gabi Guerra (Brazil) – $52,052
Gabi Guerra's strong Zwift Games campaign earned her over $12,000, and despite only competing in 18 SRC races, she earned 14 top-five placements and a total nearing $30,000 in 2024.
Following a second-place finish at the 2024 World Championship that earned her $10,000, Gabi Guerra dedicated herself to pursuing a career in the sport, saying, "Cycling esports is my primary source of income. I am full-time invested and committed."
What is the outlook for 2025?
Unfortunately, despite the bulging bank accounts of the sport's top racers, the projections aren't so bullish. Technically, racers don't have stable salaries and don't get paid to participate; they are winning lots of prize money from participation and would cease to be “pro” if that money went away.
The fact that racers can earn enough prize money to dedicate themselves to cycling esports represents a significant leap toward legitimizing the emerging discipline. However, changes for the 2025 season will see the SRC prize pool distributed across 10 places instead of five, likely reshaping the roster of full-time esports athletes to only a select few, if any.
Is this an alarming trend or a necessary "right-sizing"? Some view this shift as the reset cycling esports needs to invest in a solid foundation for future growth and lay the groundwork for a sustainable “smart money” financial structure. The caliber of athletes and quality of racing is inarguably the highest it's ever been for the fledgling discipline. That's largely in part to the financial incentives, but is it sustainable?
Stay tuned for more on how prize money influences the sport’s trajectory, where the cash comes from, the steps necessary for true professionalization, and its alignment with the UCI’s 2025 vision for cycling esports.
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