The first virtual edition of the Tour of Flanders will take place this Sunday 5 April and amongst the riders set to take part is Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb).
With the cancellation of the real race due to the Covid-19 crisis and in line with the guidelines issued by the Belgian government to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, Flanders Classics and Belgian national sports broadcaster Sporza came up with an innovative alternative – De Ronde 2020, the lockdown edition. The concept was developed in collaboration with technology partners Bkool and Kiswe.
After a 1 hour race, the 2020 winner will be crowned. In a closed race reserved exclusively for professional cyclists, 13 professionals will be competing over the last 32 kilometres of the Tour of Flanders – on their home trainers. Thanks to Kiswe we will be able to watch the riders tackle a virtual Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg in real time on the Bkool platform. The Tour has already been uploaded onto Bkool’s digital platform.
Lining up alongside Roche will be Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale), Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck- Quick-Step), Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Mike Teunissen (Jumbo-Visma), Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team), Zdenek Stybar (Deceuninck- Quick-Step), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck- Quick-Step), Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal), Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and last year’s winner of the real Tour of Flanders Alberto Bettiol (EF Pro Cycling).
You can find out where to watch the unique event on the Tour of Flanders social media channels.
