Fifteen WorldTour teams on board for virtual Tour de Suisse

After the success of the virtual Tour of Flanders on Sunday, plans are underway for a five-day virtual Tour de Suisse called the Digital Five race series from April 22 to 26. A partnership of Velon, the Tour de Suisse and the ROUVY Indoor Cycling Reality platform, the Digital Five will features riders from 15 WorldTour squads, ProTour outfits Rally Cycling and Total Direct Energie, and a Swiss national team.

New race #DigitalSwiss5 coming up!?#StayStrongTogether #SamenOverwinnen pic.twitter.com/jqKHvQOprT

— Team Jumbo-Visma cycling (@JumboVismaRoad) April 6, 2020

It was only last Friday that the 84th Tour de Suisse was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. So far 19 WorldTour races have been cancelled.

Using video footage from previous editions, the races will see three riders from each team, represented by avatars in full kit as they labour away on smart trainers, take on both flat and mountain stages. The teams’ line-ups can change from race to race. All the riders’ data will be available for online viewers.

Egan Bernal is the current Tour de Suisse champion, having beaten future teammate Rohan Dennis by 19-seconds last June.

Teams for Digital Swiss Five, April 22-26
AG2R
Bora-Hansgrohe
CCC
Deceuninck-Quick Step
EF Pro Cycling
Groupama-FDJ
INEOS
Israel Start-Up Nation
Jumbo-Visma
Lotto-Soudal
Mitchelton-Scott
Movistar
NTT
Rally Cycling
Sunweb
Total Direct Energie
Trek-Segafredo
Swiss national team