Fifteen of the eighteen WorldTour teams, including the Dutch cycling team Jumbo-Visma, will participate in a five-day virtual edition of the Tour of Switzerland at the end of April.
The ‘real’ Tour of Switzerland was planned from 6 to 14 June, but the WorldTour race cannot take place for the first time since World War II due to the corona crisis.
Alternatively, the organization of the prestigious stage race together with Velon – a collaboration of eleven major cycling teams – and the digital platform ROUVY Indoor Cycling Reality will hold a digital version of the Tour of Switzerland from 22 to 26 April.
A total of eighteen teams will each send three riders, who will race at home on the dynamometer on digital Swiss roads. Teams are allowed to use different riders every day, for example climbers for a mountain stage and riders for a flat ride.
“We are blown away by the number of teams that have pledged to participate in ‘The Digital Swiss 5’,” said Joko Vogel, the Tour of Switzerland organizer boss, on Monday. “That shows that there is a great need for these kinds of events.”
Participating teams virtual Tour of Switzerland
- AGR2, BORA-hansgrohe, CCC, Deceuninck-Quick-Step, Education First, Groupama-FDJ, Israel Start-Up Nation, Lotto Soudal, Mitchelton-SCOTT, Movistar, NTT Pro Cycling, Team INEOS, Jumbo-Visma, Team Sunweb, Trek-Segafredo, Total Direct Energie, Rally Cycling, Switzerland national team
–
–
–
Virtual Tour of Flanders was a success
On Sunday, the Flemish organization Flanders Classics organized a virtual version of the Tour of Flanders. Thirteen pros drove the last 32 kilometers of the cycling monument from home. Belgian Greg Van Avermaet won.
The event was certainly a great success in Belgium; the TV broadcast on One attracted more than 600,000 viewers.
Follow the latest developments around the virus in the sports world in us live blog.
The coronavirus in short
- The coronavirus mainly spreads from person to person via sneezing and cough drops. The chance of becoming infected through surfaces such as door handles is small. This chance decreases if you wash your hands often.
- You can considerably reduce the chance of spreading by keeping at least 1.5 meters away from others.
- The corona measures have resulted in an infected person infecting less than one other person on average. Previously, this so-called reproduction number was between two and three.
- The vast majority of patients have mild (flu-like) complaints.
- Almost all deaths involve the elderly or other vulnerable persons, such as heart, lung or diabetes patients. If everyone complies with the measures, this reduces their risks.
- Read here what precautions you should take.
–
–
–
– .
