Twitter has permanently suspended President Trumps personal account following what the social media firm called a close review of recent posts. It concluded that allowing him further access could lead to further incitements of violence. Trump later tweeted from the potus government account, we will not be silenced this has since been deleted. Democratic Party Members of the us house of representatives have circulated the draft of a new impeachment resolution against President Trump. It accuses the outgoing president of high crimes and misdemeanours, including incitement of an insurrection. A white house spokesperson said impeaching the president would only further divide the country. President Electjoe Biden earlier said that donald trump had actively encouraged what he called a mob to enter the us congress. Donald trump has said he will not attend the inauguration of his successor on january 20th. The president elect welcomed the news, calling mr trumps absence a good thing. Now on bbc news, its click. Hey, welcome to click. Happy new year . I hope you got some respite and a bit of a break recently. Lara lewington, hello, how are you . Im good, thanks, all things considered. Any new years resolutions your end . I dont do resolutions, that means i cant break. I decided to stay at home more and watch more tv. Whats your plans for the next few weeks . I think ill have a quiet start to the year and then, well, i guess we can only hope. But, in the meantime, if youre having that january wa nting to get fit feeling, it is going to be a bit harder than usual this year but you could take advantage of some of the tech platforms that did really well last year. They certainly benefited from the at home exercise boom. One of those companies is zwift, a virtual cycling plaform whose subscribers are now in the millions. And this is no poke in the park, either. In app races have taken the competition to extreme levels and Jonathan Coates threw himself into this to find out more. For many, cycling during lockdown offers escapism, and more people than ever are hitting the roads. But, for a growing number, the roads they ride on arent tarmacked. Cycling is a sport that has always embraced technology and now it has taken the ultimate leap into the virtual world. Zwift is an Online Platform that allows professional and amateur cyclists to train and compete
against one another. Its popularity has soared during the pandemic and now it has more than 3 million subscribers. By putting a normal everyday bike on a smart trainer, basically a treadmill for a bike with a bluetooth connection, a riders real life physical output is converted into a moving avatar. In zwift, the resistance levels automatically change depending on gradients and conditions, and there is a whole host of other tech that can help add to the realism. The more advanced trainers simulate going over cobbles or through dirt tracks and there are even ferns that can match the wind speed to how fast youre cycling. But, once youre plugged in, all you need to is start pedalling. You canjoin a group ride, do a workout or simply cruise around some of the best routes in the world with maps, stats and data. So to see what all the fuss was about, i thought id get stuck in. The plan, to get fit
enough so that five weeks, i could take part in a race on zwift and, in order to do that, i recruited matt rowe, a professional cycling coach who trains people through zwift. It is the future, for sure, for training, and that is for amateur cyclists, who have four or five hours a week, right through to professional ranks. For indoor training, the benefits it brings to performance gains, speaks volumes. Now, theres one key metric which seems to be the lifeblood of zwift, and thats watts. Put it like this your tv needs about 250 watts to work, and olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins broke the hour cycling record by generating an hour average of 440 watts just with his legs. Zwift bills itself as a training platform and, unlike many sports, this set up can actually replicate many aspects of cycling with genuine road speed conditions, meaning that all the data you gather is comparable to what you get in real life. So matt has sent me a test tonight to see how fit i am. Basically, its to see how hard i can push myself and how many watts i can generate. So ive got my screen down here where i can see the training plan. What ive got to do, what hes going to put me on. Its 45 minutes, and it looks pretty brutal. At the moment, im doing 167 watts, or thereabouts. My legs are really, really starting to hurt now. That was one of the hardest things i have done for a long time. I mean, look at me. Its just horrendous. Certainly i had some work to do and the training carried on five days a week for five weeks. But while you can train hard and make real gains, it feels like competition is the pinnacle of zwifting. Its where zwift goes to the next level, both for the users and for the company itself. Suddenly the platform switches from being training focused to something more akin
to an esports platform. You can select a race, turn up at the right time and you are suddenly on the starting line with a huge group of other riders. And, if youre good, theres serious money to be made from winning. Ive heard from several zwifters who say, i made more money on this one zwift race than i ever made in an outdoor race that ive ever done. Theres been some big cash prizes. At decembers uci cycling esports World Championships, the prize money was almost 10,000 for the winners. Incredibly, female cyclists can make more money racing from zwift than in real life. So after five weeks of training, five days a week, the time had come. It was race day. At 12 30pm, on a tuesday afternoon, the race began. And i had matt there on zoom to coach me through. Thats the most painful thing i have ever done. That was. I mean, it was genuinely really fun. There was a real kind of thrill of racing. It must be unique to zwift. If parents are worried about kids doing too much gaming at home, then get them on this, because theyll get fit, and honestly, you cant do it for more than 45 minutes or you will fall over. But it was time to hear the results. Five weeks ago, i had a functional Threshold Power of 230 watts. So had the training worked . Today you were 38 minutes, you did 288 watts. An extra 30, 30 odd watts, 3a watts, theyre saying in nearly twice the amount of time. Gosh, thats a massive increase. Thats a massive increase. Out of 32 riders, you ran 14th. Hey good result, youve got to be happy with that. Theyre what we call a couple of sandbaggers is in the group. There were two riders
who were minutes ahead of third place and the cs. There were two guys in the race in my category, category c, who were considerably faster than everyone else. In fact, they came first and second with a minute between third place, and these guys who are essentially are category a riders, they re really fast, really large, really powerful, competing in lower categories. You know, i came 14th,but it sounds like i could have come i2th. And ifeel a little bit like, i dont know, ifeel a little bit cheated. Perhaps where theres competition, theres always going to be cheating, and professional cycling has had its fair share of scandals, and now zwift is having to deal with Digital Performance enhancement and other methods of manipulation. But as i began to find out more about cheating on zwift, one name kept coming up. I can say this guys name, cam jeffers, because he. It was all over the news anyway. I dont like to be compared to Lance Armstrong and i dont think its unfair to compare me to Lance Armstrong. In 2019, cyclist and youtuber cam jeffers took part in and won the inaugural british eracing championships in london on zwift, but shortly after the race, he was given a 6 month suspension from all racing after british cycling ruled he had breached its disciplinary code during championships. I got a call one day from british cycling saying that theyve had an anonymous complaint that my bike wasnt legit. I was like, you know what . Come and check my bike if you want. I dont know what youre on about. Zwift said the charge related tojeffers using a bot to ride for him to unlock a special biking game, thus giving him an unfair advantage over his competitors. Jeffers claims he obtained the bike for a series of youtube videos he was making earlier in the year, rather for the race. Qualifiers, i remember saying to a couple of people, do you think, should i not be using a bike that ive
legitimately worked, and they said, there is no legitimately unlocked , and they said, there is no rulebook, there are no rules been written for this event, so theres no way you can get disqualified for using a bike that you havent legitimately obtained. Butjust like in any sport, theres a battle between regulating and those trying to gain an advantage. Cheers. Let me say this, it was fair they took it away from him, but i think he could have won without the tron bike, so thats the sad thing. Zwift are cracking down on any attempts to cheat in their races, with the support of global cycling governing bodies. If the platform wants to be taken seriously, it has to maintain its sporting integrity. I think cheating is probably something we will have to combat. It will never go away. Someone will figure out how to game the system, but having said that, there are things we know we can do, including hardware. So, for example, the World Championships this year,
everyone will be on the same bit of equipment. In addition to real world anti doping controls that bar the use of performance enhancing drugs, there will also be a group of analysts monitoring riders race data for any red flags when compared to their previous performance stats. After just five weeks of using the platform, i got so much fitter but really i was hooked, it was the social element though and the gamification that kept me coming back. People were showing up not for training but because they crave that social connection. If i think about what zwift could be, it is certainly much larger than bike racing, as a community. If its a gamified training tool or an esports platform, zwift has hit upon something that has resonated with cyclists. And key to this is the fervent community that is building with youtubers, live streamers, online trainers,
and social groups. That is it for the short version of click. As ever, you can keep up with the team of social media. Find us on youtube, instagram, facebook and twitter at bbc click. Thanks for watching, and well see you soon. Bye bye. The bbcs north america correspondent Aleem Maqbool reports on the Extraordinary Events of the last few days and asks how safe is american democracy . I know that everyone here will
soon be marching over to the capitol building. Life will be pure hell. You will never take back our country with weakness. The sixth of january 2021. The day that shook the foundations of american democracy. Where hundreds stormed the seat of government. This nation was founded on revolutionary activity. Trying to overturn an election result. They are pushing people off the ground. We will be back when they are hanging up from gallows up there. This assault didnt come out of the blue. I call on President Trump to go on National Television now and demand an end to this siege. National television now and demand an end to this siegem was by people who felt they we re was by people who felt they were carrying out the wishes of the sitting us president. Wishes they felt he signalled to them loud and clear. This is the story of one of the most tumultuous weeks in living memory in washington. A city that had already started to feel like one dreading the next move of a cornered donald trump. As he returned from his christmas break, it was becoming clear that any avenues he thought he had to cling to power were closing. And things got worse for the president. He was caught measuring an official to somehow recalculate the votes in a state he lost in the votes in a state he lost in the november election. Republican candidates lost to senate races in georgia so his party lost control of the senate. But wednesday, six january was always going to be the day it came to a head. Madame speaker and members of congress. Congress was due to do what is normallyjust procedural, formalise the results of the election against the futile demands of donald trump who stationed his forces outside. Fight for trump fight for trump. At the request of the president , thousands of supporters had gathered from over the country. Well we hope we will see that things arent right with the election system the way it is today. Violence happens, like it happens, but were not going to started, we are here defend ourselves. The spark was lit by the president himself in his midday address
to the crowd