Professional cycling has been infamously dogged by cheating in previous years but the sport broke new ground on Friday when the inaugural winner of the British eRacing Championships was banned for “manipulation of pre-race data to gain an unfair advantage via in-game equipment”.

Cameron Jeffers was fined £250 and given a six month suspension from all racing after British Cycling ruled he had breached its disciplinary code during the championships in March. Held on the online training platform Zwift, it was alleged that the Cornwall-based rider used a bot to give him an unfair advantage over his competitors.

“The charge relates to manipulation of data before the finals,” said Chris Snook, senior PR manager at Zwift. “Jeffers used a bot to ride on multiple occasions at 2000 watts for distances of over 200km with a weight of 45kg. The ‘botting’ helped Jeffers unlock the Zwift Concept Z1 bike (commonly referred to as the Tron bike). It was deemed by British Cycling as an attempt to gain unfair advantage and was in breach of clause 5 of their disciplinary code.”

Jeffers has accepted his punishment, with second place finisher James Phillips awarded the title instead.

“Defending fair play in our competitions is at the core of our responsibilities as a governing body,” said British Cycling integrity and compliance director Rod Findlay.

“The fact that we have been able to investigate the offence and uphold the charge reflects the strength of our new disciplinary regulations and our determination to pursue misconduct.”