WEBVTT - The Strange World of Virtual Bike Races 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.720 So, Garrett, you were recently a witness to an exciting 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:08.840 bicycle race. Yes, so picture this Eight cyclists in sleek, 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.640 colorful spandex Some are warming up, dialed in with headphones, 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:15.560 shutting out the noise around them. Some are conferring in 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.200 low whispers with their coaches. As the start approaches, they 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.239 settle into their seats and clip into their pedals, and 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.320 then the gun goes off and the cyclists start peddling furiously. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:33.720 Spectators are cheering, but the riders aren't going anywhere because 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:39.120 they're on stationary bikes. This race is being held on Swift, 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.639 which is somewhere between a video game and a home 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.760 workout system. So I'm here in Soho in New York 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:52.240 City at the Swift Super League event. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.000 eight riders live on stage. You can kind of hear 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.000 them in the background there. And this is you at 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.560 a recent Swift competition. Was it like while we were 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.080 in a whitewash room in a basement in the Lower 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.759 East Side of Manhattan with about a hundred other people 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.559 packed in a few journalists, tech investors, and a bunch 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.679 of cycling enthusiasts up on a big screen is the 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.280 virtual course. It's kind of funny because the course they're 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.720 racing on is actually set in New York, or a 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:24.440 very futuristic version of New York, a bunch of skyscrapers 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.440 that don't exist right now, and elevated glass highways, but 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.920 still doing a couple of loops through Central Park. So 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.440 in a world of peloton success and the ubiquity of 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:37.640 soul cycle studios, I guess nothing should surprise us. But 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.280 it is a little odd to think of spectators gathering 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:43.920 to watch racers cycle on their stationary bikes. Of course, 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:45.480 a lot of people used to think the idea of 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.720 watching anyone play video games what's crazy. I think the 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:51.760 comparison to video games and e sports is a really 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.360 apt one. You know, E sports tournaments now fill huge stadiums, 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:01.000 They get broadcast on ESPN, players signed multimillion dollars sership contracts. 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:04.720 Now Swift is still very niche, but one day it 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.840 thinks it's stationary cycling competitions will become so popular that 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:22.000 people will pay to watch them. This week, Garrett explores 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.160 the curious world of Swift. Not only does he spend 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.960 an afternoon in a sweaty room watching racers furiously pedaled 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:32.400 in nowhere, but he spends a month trialing the technology himself. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:36.040 By fusing video games with exercise, Swift is pushing the 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.760 limits of what the sport of cycling could actually be. 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.239 I'm Brad Stone and I'm Garrett VNC and you're listening 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:49.280 to Decryptive. Oh it's February twenty two and I'm going 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.560 to set up Swift on my bike so I can 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:57.000 train inside my apartment and never have to go outside. 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:00.919 I'm based in New York, which is pretty cold the winters, 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.120 so I decided to use with to get rid of 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:06.400 bad weather as an excuse not to train. That's how 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.640 most people use WITH. They sign up for a fifteen 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:12.280 dollar a month subscription and train at home. First things first, 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:15.799 we're gonna put the bike onto the trainer. I had 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.040 to go to the bike store and get a very 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.239 fancy axle to fit my bike and fit the trainer 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.160 without damaging the bike. So again, and Garrett, I think 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:27.960 you need to walk us through this strange pastime some 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.240 more so you're doing this in the middle of your 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.800 living room exactly. Well, I mean, so first, I have 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.080 to have a bike, which I already had a normal 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.640 bike you can use outside. I hooked it up to 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.120 something called a trainer. Essentially, it's this heavy metal roller 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.600 that attaches to the back wheel. It puts friction on 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:48.680 that wheel, kind of simulating the resistance that you'd usually 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.280 get from the road. Okay, I think I've set it 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:58.880 up here where it's nice and tight, But you know, 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:01.200 the last thing I want to do is bend my 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.640 carbon fiber frame here, which again, once I had attached 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.440 a trainer, I added a speed sensor. It's this little 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.320 sensor about the size of a coin. It measures how 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.680 fast your wheel is spinning, so it can transfer that 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.200 into the game. But there's nothing that's new about these 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.840 devices that turn your bike into a stationary bike. Right, 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:25.560 You're right. Cycles have been training indoors for years. The 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.719 racing crowds with the difference the races they've come to watch. 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.720 All assot that gets you nowhere. The excitement mounts of 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:33.880 the first item is announced. This clip is from the 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.480 nineteen forties, covering something called roller racing, where the bike 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.400 is mounted on top of a series of rollers. Today, 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:42.839 the more common design is to fix your rear wheel 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.320 to a single roller, but it's pretty much the same idea. 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.200 Cycling has been a big sport in Europe for some time, 0:04:48.600 --> 0:04:51.480 and now it's growing in popularity in the US as well, 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:55.240 and it's more people get into competitive cycling. Training indoors 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.760 has become a bigger part of the sport. Okay, so 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.160 we're Swift come from essentially a couple of startup guys, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.279 John Mayfield and Eric men They got board of staring 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.520 at the wall while training at home on their own bikes, 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.679 so they got together and started building up video games 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.719 so they could watch their avatars racing on a computer 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.240 or TV screen while they biked. That's what became Swift. 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:22.840 The faster you bike in real life, the faster avatar goes. 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.839 It's got this social component too. You can see other 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:33.960 people doing laps around you, all right, Actually, you can 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.560 see how hard the other riders are pushing, where they're 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:41.320 from their stats getting passes, and feel too good. I mean, 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:43.600 the people around me, they're not like not being past 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.280 like crazy again, I feel like I'm in a pretty 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:51.080 average space here. Someone just saying p wreck zoom passed 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.640 me kind of plan differently that, but I'm riding with 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.920 a few other people just passed the Brazilian So once 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.400 you started training, what was it like? It can get 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.479 pretty intense. You don't have any of the distractions of 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:07.000 being outside. It's just you and the bike, so you 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.760 can push yourself pretty hard. The roots are all pretty impressive. 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.280 They're trying to give you something to look at, so 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.960 you're cycling up these beautiful mountains, through coastal towns, even 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:20.640 in underwater tunnels. So normal cycling, I think, has a 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:24.080 bit of a reputation of being expensive, but this virtual 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.800 version doesn't seem cheap either. Just to get started, you 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.560 needed a bike plus all the accessories that you talked about. 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.560 It's definitely not a cheap hobby, is it right. I 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.520 already had the bike, so I didn't have to pay 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.800 for that, but I had to get a trainer, which 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.359 I got second hand for about fifty bucks, and a 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:43.040 speed sensor which set me back another sixty although if 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:44.800 I wanted to, I could have pushed all of that 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:46.640 to more than a thousand dollars if I wanted to 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.560 get one of the fancier setups. And that's not counting 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:51.680 for all the stuff that you know you want to buy. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.719 Once you start biking and in the future, they could 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.039 do a lot of in game content, such as, you know, 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.400 buying special jerseys or special bikes to show off in 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.880 the game. So, in other words, just like kids are 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.479 spending hundreds of dollars to look cool in video games 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.360 like Fortnite, grown adults could be doing the same thing 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.120 to show off in front of their virtual training partners. Yep, 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.960 that in game content is a huge potential revenue stream. 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:17.720 So what are some of the other ways that Swift 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:20.560 makes money from this? So there's the monthly subscription we 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.680 talked about, that's fifteen bucks a month. Then there's the 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.520 money they could make if they put up billboards within 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.480 the game itself. They're not really doing that yet, but 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:31.640 I did talk to the CEO and he says it's 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:35.040 in the works. Cyclists are generally a pretty wealthy group 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.200 of people, so advertisers want to reach them. It doesn't 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.240 sound like a bad business. Investors have already poured quite 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:44.000 a bit of money into the company. Swift recently raised 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.400 million dollars, valuing the company at around six hundred million, 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.040 and the company says more than a million people have 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.920 tried it out. At peak times, ten thousand riders are 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:57.640 on the Swift universe at the same time. And we 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:00.800 should say fitness startups are hot right now, like Peloton, 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.239 which sells a two dollar stationary bike and then churches 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.400 you another forty dollars a month to stream exercise classes. 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:10.240 And Peloton is aiming to go public this year at 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:14.040 a potential valuation of eight billion dollars. But when Swift 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.280 went to raise money, they didn't just pitch themselves as 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.600 an exercise company or a fitness startup. They wanted to 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.600 be part of the one billion dollar and growing esports 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:26.080 industry as well. And that's where these big competitions come 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:28.080 in the kind that we heard about at the start 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.520 of the show. Yeah, the league started popping up as 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:32.959 soon as people started raising each other on the platform, 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:36.040 But now Swift is trying to professionalize it, bringing those 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.240 leagues into its system and turn that into another source 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:45.959 of revenue. More on that after the break. To learn 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.240 more about the Swift competitions, I decided to actually attend 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.920 one myself in New York City, the one we heard 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.560 at the start. I wanted to match my quirky homeworkout 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.960 experience with this big picture potential for Swift to be 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.000 a cultural phenomena on Garrett, I'm really hoping you were 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.720 one of the eight cyclists up on stage. I definitely 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:07.920 was not. I am not that fast. These guys are 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.640 all people who are either current professionals or you know, 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.000 almost made it into the pros and sort of working 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:17.199 the way back up into it through Swift. We had 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.040 the real life racers, but they were also about fifty 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.559 cyclists beaming in virtually from around the world. There was 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.360 this big screen showing the virtual racers. The crowd didn't 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.400 really seem to know where they should be watching, whether 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.560 the big screen or the guys actually sweating it out 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:33.959 in front of them. I'm kind of imagining these big 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:37.440 colosseums that usually find in Asia where people gathered to 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.560 watch a League of Legends or StarCraft. So was it 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:42.400 a little bit like that. Yeah, it kind of felt 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:44.640 like that. It felt maybe sort of as the version 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:47.080 one point oh of what that could be or what 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.360 it could look like. I talked to one of the racers. 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.120 His name is Adam Zimmerman. He's been making waves and 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.880 Swift lately. So last year he won this race among 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.000 all the top American amateur Swift users, which got him 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.480 a spot in this rand new pro league tell us 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.720 more about that. Well, it began this year and it 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:06.520 has real pro teams from Europe competing in it, so 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.280 you know they're serious. Adams a really good cyclist. He 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.080 tried to actually go professional as a road cyclist but 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:14.559 never quite made it, so Swift is a bit of 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:16.960 a second chance for him. He was at the race 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.480 I went to and he said he thinks Swift is 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:23.840 building mass appeal for spectators as well as regular users 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.199 like me. The best analogy I can make is online dating. 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.440 When when it first started becoming popular in the early 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:33.040 two thousands, uh, it wasn't socially acceptable for for people 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:35.800 to meet online, and now over time people have gotten 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:37.520 used to that and now it's not a big deal. 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.760 He also explained why as an athlete you might actually 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.079 want to compete in it. If they did give me 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:45.400 a pro contract to raise the sports, I would do 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.199 that because of the easy convenience. I can travel to 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:50.319 an event like this, but for the most part, I 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:52.320 can raise out of my living room, spend time with 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.400 my wife and my pops, and have my family around 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.000 and not have to live out of a suitcase like 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.240 um in real life. Professionals. So Swift, let's Adam be 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.760 a professional athlete as well as a guy who works 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:05.120 from home exactly. Swift is betting that if high profile 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:08.760 cyclists start competing like people who are professional athletes who 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.840 already compete in the big traditional road races, it will 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.160 pull regular people like me to pay fifteen dollars a 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.600 month to subscribe and use it at home. Kind of, 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.280 if it's good enough for them, it's got to be 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.280 good for me. I would imagine though that the cycling 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.880 traditionalists may look at this a little bit skeptically. Has 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.600 Swift actually been able to attract high profile cyclists, I 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:31.920 mean they have pulled in some of those professional teams 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.360 from Europe. These aren't necessarily names that you know a 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.520 regular person who only knows three or four cyclists in 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.559 the world would know, but they are real professional cyclists 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.040 and kind of surprisingly, some cyclists might even be able 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.960 to make more money racing on Swift then in some 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:50.440 of the most prestigious real life cycling races, especially women. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.120 For example, Swift held a tournament last year at the 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.560 same time as a Tour of Flanders, which is one 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.320 of the big road cycling races in Europe. The woman 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.080 who won this WIF trace made seven thousand, eight hundred dollars, 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.120 while the real world professional just took home four d 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:11.040 I have so many questions about this, Garrett. So it was, 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.240 first of all, where where does the prize money come from? 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.080 Some of the league's you know, offer sponsorships. Swift right 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.440 now puts up the money for itself. But you could 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:20.960 obviously see any kind of thing that works in real 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.240 world sports working here and Swift as you've described that, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.120 they're simulating these these incredible race courses with hills and 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.199 mountains and tunnels. So how are how are they simulating 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:36.120 the climbs? So the actual trainer, that that piece of 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.600 machinery that you hook your bike into, it can communicate 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:41.720 with the software and what it will do is when 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:43.560 it senses you're about to go up a big hill, 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:46.080 it will add resistance. So it just becomes a lot 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:48.600 harder to actually get the same power out of your bike. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:52.720 How are the cyclists comparing the simulated experience to the 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.199 real thing. Of course, it's it's different, And you know, 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.320 I had some interesting conversations with some of them because 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.640 in a in a real world race, there is a 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.360 certain element of technical skill. You know, how fast can 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.640 you go down a hill without flying off the road? 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.240 Can you dodge around some of your competitors without falling 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.520 over or knocking one of them over? So, of course 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.160 this is very different. But when you look at the 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.080 way the technology is developing, some of the trainers are 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:20.559 actually starting to you know, move around, you know, simulate 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.199 inclines by actually pushing the front of the bike up. 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.160 And some of the conversations I was having just casually 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.160 when I was at this event, people were sort of 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.880 speculating about what the future could look like and maybe 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.040 at some point, you know, you'll have VR a R 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.000 some kind of special suit that makes it actually feel 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.959 like you're on a real bike might become indistinguishable from 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.959 actually being outside. So what are the old school cyclists 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.040 think about this? Are they are they excited about what 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.960 it means for the sport. I mean, opinions are pretty 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.200 split when it comes to this, but there are some 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.200 people in the sport who think that it needs a 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.720 bit of a reset. I chatted with christ And Armstrong, 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.240 who's won cycling gold medals for the US at three 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.920 different Olympics. She's one of the most decorated US cyclists 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.840 in history. When you think about the sport like the 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:06.400 Super Bowl, or you think about the gaming that's going 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.120 on virtually and all the different fans and all of 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.959 the views and all the eyes on that cycling doesn't 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.080 have it. If they don't have it, they have it 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.960 at the tour in France, those numbers are gone down, 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.680 and they definitely don't have it in the women's cycling, 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:22.080 and so a lot of times the women cyclings inside 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:23.440 show them in And I think one of the most 0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:26.200 important things is that it doesn't have a lot of money. 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.040 It doesn't have the viewership, doesn't have the TV time 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.960 that a lot of the larger I call them balsmorees 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.640 have in America, and so it's really hard to compete 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:39.440 against that. And so I think that um the e 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:43.800 spore platform can really reset that. Like Christen said, cycling 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.800 isn't particularly lucrative from most athletes, whereas E sports is 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.520 already a billion dollar business exactly. I also talked to 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.480 Swift CEO Eric men at the race that I was at. 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.160 Now he really believes that swift has the potential to 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:02.160 become a real spectator sport, just like the sports it's 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.920 it's no secret that it's very difficult to commercialize professional cycling, 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.160 but you know, putting in on a new platform like this, 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:17.479 UM that is more tuned to the changing audience. UM, 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.400 I think there's a real opportunity for us to commercialize it. Uh. Certainly, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.600 the cost that we're putting on a drift event is 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.520 far cheaper for far more cost effective and closing down 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.240 roads of major cities or so. I think there are 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:37.960 lots of opportunities around selling tickets. Arena Garrett, you have 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.520 a pretty finely tuned filter for startup spin. When you 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:44.800 hear Eric men talk like this, UM, do you believe him? 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.240 He seemed pretty excited about it. He told me in 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:51.800 vision stationary cycling becoming an Olympic sport sometime in the future. So, 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.160 of course I'm skeptical that might be a bit of 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.240 a stretch, but at the very least, he says cycling 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.600 is ready for a serious shake up. I think of 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.320 cycling sometimes it's like cricket. It is very difficult to 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.720 explain to someone what is actually going on. UM. So 0:16:07.040 --> 0:16:09.520 we need to experiment with formats where someone can just 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:13.240 drop in and no exactly who's winning and who's not winning. 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:17.640 So Eric is experimenting with new formats for races. Like 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:20.480 a lot of traditional road cycling races in Europe are 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.360 pretty long, they take place over many days and for 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.800 the uninitiated it can be hard to follow. So was 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.840 he changing any minds in the traditional cycling world. Well, 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:32.360 he definitely is when it comes to training. At least 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:36.360 a few really high profile professional cyclists are singing the 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.920 praises of Swift, like Matt Hayman. He is a serious 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.720 legend who just retired from pro cycling. In he won 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.400 the Perry Robe, which is one of the most important 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:51.040 races in cycling. It's this brutal two one day race 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:54.560 with some stretches on cobblestone roads. Now Matt won the 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.360 race just six weeks after breaking his arm in a crash. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.960 He trained on Swift because he wasn't supposed to be outside. Well, 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:03.920 I used to be a traditionalist and I used to 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.200 say our training wars, but you know, the last two 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.480 two or three years, it's really changed my way. I 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:11.520 mean there was a point there when my arm was 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.280 actually healed and I told my coach, I'm actually getting 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:17.800 more quality work done on being more effective time effective 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:21.560 and efficient um and now being retired as the flip side. 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:23.840 You know, I've got a family, I've got I can't 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:25.640 go out for four or five hours on my bike, 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:30.040 so you know it's it. Um. You know, it really 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.159 did change change that whole indoor training thing. And it 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.200 used to just be a you know, a stop gap 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.400 when when you couldn't find it, you couldn't get out 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.320 because it was raining. And now it is actually not 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:44.320 only are people racing on it, but it is a 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:50.080 really a great way to train. But for now it 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.000 will be going too far to say that the pro 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:56.240 cycling world is intimidated. For most people, Swift is still 0:17:56.280 --> 0:18:00.879 a training platform, not a race. So Garrett, how is 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.840 your personal swift training going? It's been going okay, It's 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.000 been pretty fun. I ordered a bunch of white towels 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.560 so I can mop up the sweat from my floor 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:10.879 and from my bike, which I didn't have to do before. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:13.560 I did run into one problem though, What was that 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:16.919 My downstairs neighbor kept texting me asking what the noise was. 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.960 She thought there was an earthquake going on. That's that's funny. 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.040 And how about is a spectator? I mean, I don't 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:24.920 know about you, but I'll tune into the tour to 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.520 friends every every now and then um. And one of 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:29.920 the things that I like about it is the unpredictability, 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.960 the crashes, the near misses, the incredible feats of endurance 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.280 to play out over the course of weeks, and these 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.880 are things that Swift doesn't or can't replicate. I think 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:42.960 it's very similar to the sports in this that when 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.640 you watch an e sport going on and you don't 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.600 actually know how to play the game or play the 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.000 game yourself. For me at least, it's extremely boring. But 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.600 once you've actually played that game, you know how challenging 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.440 some of the things are that the players are pulling off. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.440 You start to kind of get hooked. And so cycling 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.119 is all about wattage, how much energy you can produce 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.080 with your legs, how much power you can put out 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.640 into the bike, And when you're watching a Swift race 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.680 on your computer, you can see what all the athletes 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.280 are producing and kind of compare it to what you 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.880 you know, measly human are capable of doing, and it's 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.439 pretty impressive to see what they can do. So if 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.200 the Swift was to prove the viability of the sport 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:23.280 and the and the quiet, the skeptics. Do you think 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.720 they'll have this course to themselves. I mean, what is 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.960 the stop, say a Peloton from getting into this. That's 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:30.840 a great question. I mean I think you probably see 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:33.320 some people who get really fit on their Peloton bikes, 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:37.359 maybe jumping in and competing on swift. But what the 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.359 market that they have really dialed into is that that 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.119 kind of person who is into cycling, that that person 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.760 who has their own bike, likes the right outside in 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.000 the summer, maybe gets kind of nerdy about the Tour 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.199 de France, and a lot of people who go on 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.880 Peloton are just you know, they don't know much about cycling. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:54.720 They probably don't even have a bike that they want 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.439 to ride outside. They just want to get fit. Do 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:01.280 you find yourself cycling outside less? I mean, the whole 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.280 reason I wanted to try this out was so that 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.000 I wouldn't have to cycle outside in the dead of winter. 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:08.119 You know, sometimes it's just me being a baby and 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:10.240 I don't want to be cold, and sometimes there's actually 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.200 inches of snow in the park where I usually ride. 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.440 But now that spring is coming, I'm finding myself being 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:22.160 called to be outside again. So first big biking out 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:27.960 of the season. I'm outside. I'm in Prose Park. Blossoms 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:35.480 are everywhere, people are biking, people are running. It's just 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.440 great to be outside. I'm still getting past though. There's 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:44.919 some fast guys out of here. And that's it for 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.399 this week's episode of Decrypted. Thanks for listening. Have you 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.560 tried swift or watched the sports? You can write to 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:56.040 us at Decrypted at Bloomberg dot net or I'm on 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.919 Twitter at G E R R I T D and 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.880 I'm at Bradstone and please help us spread the word 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.480 about our show by leaving us a rating or a review. 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.320 Where ever you'd like to listen to podcasts. This episode 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.000 was produced by piore Coakari and Lindsay Cratterwell. Our story 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:14.120