Former runner Leah Thorvilson was thrown in at the deep end of bike racing after winning the Zwift Academy series. Swapping sneakers for wheels wouldn’t be straightforward…
Leah Thorvilson was a gritty, ambitious long-distance runner. The American had won her hometown marathon in Little Rock, Arkansas, four years in a row, achieving a personal best of 2:37:26 in 2012. However, a string of injuries followed, leading to a bone graft operation and 12 weeks on crutches. No longer able to run, she began using a turbo trainer and for 2016 joined the Zwift Academy series of virtual races — the winner of which is offered a pro contract with Canyon-SRAM.
“Being confined to indoor training for two months, I saw the Zwift programme as a way to make the training tolerable, fun, and motivating,” Thorvilson recalls. “My aerobic fitness transferred to cycling very easily, but I had never thought what it might be like to be a professional cyclist.”
Almost by accident, she won the series and, just like that, secured a spot on Canyon-SRAM.
“It was like a dream come true. Suddenly I had the chance to be a professional athlete.” As a former runner, the learning curve was inevitably steep. “Until you’re in it, you can’t imagine everything that’s involved. I had the engine, but that alone wouldn’t make me a good cyclist.”
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