Triple world champion Jason Osborne calls for year-round anti-doping measures in cycling Esports

The 31-year-old, also a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in rowing, is now the most successful male Esports cyclist in history with world titles in 2020, 2024 and 2025, plus podium finishes in 2022 and 2023. His success opened the door to the professional peloton. After winning his first rainbow jersey he joined Deceuninck–Quick-Step as a stagiaire in 2021.

In June 2022, he moved to the Alpecin–Deceuninck Development Team before earning a promotion to Alpecin–Deceuninck for the 2023 season, where he would ride the Vuelta a España. He continued with the WorldTour squad into 2024, racing with the team until his departure in September.

With that background, Osborne believes he has seen enough of both traditional cycling and virtual racing to judge where Esports still needs to grow.

“There is huge potential in Esports, but if the sport wants to be taken seriously the top athletes need to be in the test pool all year round,” Osborne said to Domestique. “Right now the testing window is short and that makes it difficult to keep everything fair.”

Osborne is encouraged by several recent developments. Hydration checks introduced by the UCI, as well as the verification procedures for Elite trainers, show that rider welfare and equipment standards are being taken seriously. Still, he stresses that these steps address only part of what defines a fair sport.

“It is good to see athlete health protected. The equipment checks are solid and the approach is transparent,” he said. “But fairness is also about anti-doping. Esports cannot rely on a shorter testing window than the disciplines it wants to stand beside.”

The current structure places athletes into the testing pool shortly before the world championships and keeps them there for a limited period afterwards. Osborne notes that this differs from road cycling and other Olympic sports, where top athletes remain in the pool year-round.

“That short window is not enough,” he explained. “Esports has open qualifiers which is fantastic for accessibility but it also means most riders are not subject to any anti-doping controls until they reach the in-person finals. That creates an imbalance.”

Weight cutting, a topic that stirred debate earlier this season, is one area Osborne believes has been misunderstood.

“In Esports you weigh in on the same day, sometimes fifty minutes before,” he said. “If you cut more than one or two kilos you harm your performance. The comparisons with UFC weight cuts make no sense. In 2024 there was a ten-hour weigh-in window so of course people looked for marginal gains. That is the same logic as picking your lightest bike for a mountain-top finish.”

Osborne does not dismiss concerns entirely. He points to the unusual profile of some breakout performers.

“We have seen riders come out of nowhere with no road background who can suddenly match the best in the world, win prize money and then disappear,” he said.

“That is very rare in other sports. It underlines why more robust testing is essential. Honest athletes should not lose out because the structures are not strong enough.”

Despite his criticism, Osborne remains optimistic about the future of Esports.“The sport has made big improvements each year. Performance verification is better. Rider health is better protected. It opens cycling to more people. I just hope the UCI now puts the same focus on anti-doping as it has on equipment checks. Protecting fairness is essential if the sport wants to grow.”