“Freelance Esports Bike Racer” may be the hottest job within the sport of cycling nowadays, with top riders earning over $100,000 USD per year working from the “comfort” of their own personal pain cave.

With esports organizers handing out close to $4 million in cash prizes in 2024, some riders are switching from highly competitive, stressful and crash filled IRL (in-real-life) races to virtual races.

For the most part they are heading straight to MyWhoosh. The virtual racing platform offered the biggest prize payout, over $3.5 million in 2024, as part of their monthly Sunday Race Club series. Zwift also handed out big bucks, awarding over $100,000 at their annual Zwift Games.

Although there is no guarantee this virtual gold rush will continue since it is reliant on MyWhoosh’s generous and unproven business model, here are the Top 10 Earning Freelance Esports Bike Racers from 2024 to watch this season, according to the Escape Collective’s Chris Schwenker.

  1. Kathrin Fuhrer, F36 (SUI) $167,126 USD
  2. Merle Brunnee, F30 (DEU) $108,440
  3. Michal Kaminski, M26 (POL) $98,154
  4. Jason Osborne, M30 (DEU) $93,065
  5. Lionel Vujasin, M35 (BEL) $92,808
  6. Ollie Jones, M28 (NZL) $84,255
  7. Kate McCarthy, F29 (NZL) $70,450
  8. Michael Knudsen, M36 (SUI) $65,577
  9. Kristen Kulchinsky, F44 (USA) $52,806
  10. Gabi Guerra, F31 (BRA) $52,052

Photo Credit: MyWhoosh

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