The star cast also includes Julian Alaphillipe, who lit up the 2019 Tour de France, rising star Remco Evenepoel and Vincenzo Nibali, one of only two riders still competing who has won all three Grand Tours.
Over the five races starting on Wednesday, April 22, they’ll be joined on the ROUVY Indoor Cycling platform by other top riders whose specialisms cover one-day, stage and time trial racing. The 19 teams will field three riders in each race and can change their line-ups from day to day. The full list of riders is below and a start list will be published before each race.
Mads Pedersen, Trek-Segafredo, said: “Normally, I don’t like to spend time on my home trainer but right now, I actually enjoy it. Especially with the races coming up, it’s really nice that we can compete against each other and find a different solution in this difficult situation everyone is in. I think it’s great that we can race against each other while keeping our distance so I’m really looking forward to doing some hard racing and getting the heart rate up again.”
Greg Van Avermaet, CCC Team, said: “After my first taste of virtual racing a couple of weeks ago, I am interested to see how I go in The Digital Swiss 5. Virtual racing is definitely not easy. The races may be much shorter than normal races but the effort is much more intense and you have a much smaller window of opportunity to make the difference when it comes to tactics. I’m happy we are giving fans something to watch while we are not racing on the road. I think it’s important for everyone. As well as giving fans entertainment, it gives the riders some motivation and it is a chance for the teams to show their sponsors. We’re in for some tough races next week so I'll give it everything I have to get another virtual win under my belt.”
Julian Alaphillipe, Deceuninck - Quick-Step Team, said: “I am really looking forward to racing The Digital Swiss 5. It is a new type of race for me, very different to anything I have done before, but I know the set-up will be really good and it is great that we are able to race during this difficult time and have something where we can focus and test our condition. I hope that the fans will enjoy watching what will be some tough days of racing.”
Edvald Boasson Hagen, NTT Pro Cycling, said: “Our entire team is excited about this new event. It’s nice to have a goal to aim for during this period in time where we can’t race on the road. I have spent a lot of time riding on the trainer at home in training, but to race on it will be a first. I think it will be exciting viewing for all the fans, it’s great for our sponsors and for us riders, I think it will be very very hard racing, so it should be fun.”
The riders are spread out across the world and most are only able to ride on their home trainers because of restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 virus.
The race routes are a mixture of flat, hilly and mountain profiles and are taken from the parcours of the Tour de Suisse. The ROUVY platform uses real video footage and riders are represented by an avatar, dressed in their team kit.
The Digital Swiss 5 races will be broadcast and streamed online around the world. Information about how to watch will be published shortly.
THE DIGITAL SWISS 5 RIDER LINE-UP
AG2R La Mondiale
Romain Bardet
Mikaël Cherel
Silvan Dillier
Julien Duval
Mathias Frank
Ben Gastaur
Dorian Godon
Alexis Gougeard
Pierre Latour
Oliver Naesen
Aurélien Paret-Peintre
Nans Peters
Alexis Vuillermoz
Larry Warbasse
Bahrain McLaren
Pello Bilbao
Grega Bole
Eros Capecchi
Sonny Colbrelli
Ivan Garcia Cortina
Matej Mohorič
Jan Tratnik
Hermann Pernsteiner
Wout Poels
Santiago Buitrago Sanchez
BORA-hansgrohe
Emanuel Buchmann
Matteo Fabbro
Patrick Gamper
Lennard Kämna
Patrick Konrad
Martin Laas
Lukas Pöstleberger
Max Schachmann
Ide Schelling
CCC Team
William Barta
Victor De La Parte
Simon Geschke
Joey Rosskopf
Michael Schâr
Attila Valter
Greg Van Avermaet
Nathan Van Hooydonck
Ilnur Zakarin
Kamil Gradek (reserve)
Pavel Kochetkov (reserve)
Fausto Masnada (reserve)
Gjis Van Hoecke (reserve)
Deceuninck - Quick-Step
Julian Alaphilippe
Kasper Asgreen
Andrea Bagioli
Sam Bennett
Mattia Cattaneo
Rémi Cavagna
Tim De Clercq
Dries Devenyns
Remco Evenepoel
Bob Jungels
Michael Mørkøv
Pieter Serry
Zdenek Štybar
EF Pro Cycling
Sean Bennett
Simon Clarke
Magnus Cort
Lawson Craddock
Mitch Docker
Moreno Hofland
Lachlan Morton
Jonas Rutsch
Tom Scully
James Whelan
Groupama-FDJ
Bruno Armirail
Kilian Frankiny
David Gaudu
Simon Guglielmi
Stefan Küng
Matthieu Ladagnous
Fabian Lienhard
Tobias Ludvigsson
Valentin Madouas
Rudy Molard
Sébastian Reichenbach
Benjamin Thomas
Israel Start-Up Nation
Matteo Badilatti
Alexander Cataford
Davide Cimolai
Daniel Navarro Garcia
André Greipel
Reto Hollenstein
Daniel Martin
Guy Niv
James Piccoli
Rick Zabel
Lotto Soudal
Sander Armée
Steff Cras
Jasper De Buyst
Stan Dewulf
Carl Frederik Hagen
Frederik Frison
Kobe Goosens
Rasmus Iversen
Nikolas Maes
Gerben Thijssen
Tosh Van Der Sande
Brian Van Goethem
Harm Vanhoucke
Florian Vermeersch
Viktor Verschaeve
Tim Wellens
Mitchelton-SCOTT
Eduardo Affini
Michael Albasini
Esteban Chaves
Luke Durbridge
Jack Haig
Michael Hepburn
Daryl Impey
Chris Jull Jensen
Mikel Nieve
Nick Schultz
Adam Yates
Andrei Zeits
Movistar Team
Hector Carretero
Dario Cataldo
Gabriel Cullaigh
Johan Jacobs
Nelson Oliveira
Jurgen Roelandts
José Joaquin Rojas
Einer Rubio
Sergio Samitier
Albert Torres
Carlos Verona
NTT Pro Cycling
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Victor Campanaerts
Stefan de Bod
Michael Gogl
Roman Kreuziger
Ben King
Gino Mäder
Louis Meintjes
Ben O’Connor
Rasmus Tiller
Max Walscheid
Rally Cycling
Ryan Anderson
Stephen Bassett
Matteo Dal-Cin
Gavin Mannion
Nicholas Zukowski
Team INEOS
TBC…
Team Jumbo-Visma
George Bennett
Pascal Eenkhoorn
Tobias Foss
Robert Gesink
Amund Grøndahl Jansen
Chris Harper
Sepp Kuss
Paul Martens
Mike Teunissen
Primož Roglič
Jonas Vingegaard
Team Sunweb
Albert Dainese
Nico Denz
Chris Hamilton
Jai Hindley
Wilco Kelderman
Michael Matthews
Nicholas Roche
Total Direct Energie
Lilian Calmejane
Romain Cardis
Jérome Cousin
Fabien Grellier
Pim Ligthart
Paul Ourselin
Florian Maitre
Lorenzo Manzin
Simon Sellier
Romain Sicard
Julien Simon
Geoffrey Soupe
Rein Taaramae
Anthony Turgis
Trek-Segafredo
Gianluca Brambilla
Guilio Ciccone
Nicola Conci
Niklas Eg
Koen de Kort
Emils Liepins
Bauke Mollema
Antonio Nibali
Vincenzo Nibali
Mads Pedersen
Toms Skujins
Edward Theuns
Swiss National Team
Michael Albasini
Matteo Badilatti
Stefan Bissegger
Filippo Colombo
Silvan Dillier
Matthias Frank
Robin Froidevaux
Claudio Imhof
Stefan Küng
Fabian Lienhard
Sébastian Reichenbach
Michael Schär
Nino Schurter