COVID-19 has caused many changes for everyone across the world but athletes have had to adjust in some unique ways.

They needed to find alternate ways to stay in shape and to be competitive. Soren Weselake is a local cyclist and recently placed third in the country in a virtual race. He outlines what that looked like.

“Imagine it as a car racing game, where you’re the car and you're racing all these other people online in a car. You've got all these graphs of how fast you're going, except instead of being in a car, you’re on a bike,” Weselake explains. “In real life, your bike is attached to some sort of bike trainer or stationary bike that can measure how much power you are putting out. It puts that into the system and then based on that it shows how fast your characters moving.” 

Weselake says if you told him prior to the event he would’ve placed third in the country and first in the province, he wouldn’t have believed you. He has a lot of experience on a bicycle but says these virtual races are something he’s quite new to.

“I have been racing outdoor bikes for as long as I can remember, but this virtual stuff, maybe only this past year,” says Weselake. “Normally races like this would be held outside but because of COVID, there's no way that can happen. So I've just started doing these virtual races since then.” 

He thanks the Portage Junk Yard Dogs for maintaining such great trails in the area so he has a spot to practice.