Elite male and female cyclists and triathletes are gearing up to compete against each other in The Digital Swiss 5. The virtual elite bike racing series will see athletes compete in five digital races of around one hour each.
The first four events are circuit races in virtual representations of Swiss cities on the ROUVY virtual platform. Each team is named by the respective host cities of Lucerne, Lugano, Lausanne, Basel and Zurich.
With a maximum of six members, the teams consist of both male and female professional cyclists from various cycling disciplines, as well as triathletes. Three riders from each of the teams will ride on-site at the Saalsporthalle Stadium in Zurich.
The other team members will race from home, spread across the globe. One male and one female winner will be crowned per race.
The overall ranking is awarded per team, whereby the fastest times of the first two males and the fastest female per team are combined in each race. Points are also up for grabs in KOMs and intermediate sprints, with the aim for a ‘well-rounded and exciting race format.’
Elite athletes
A number of professional cyclists and triathletes will be lining up at the start. Marlen Reusser, Jason Osborne, Mauro Schmid and Hermann Pernsteiner, who were announced a week ago, will be joined by other well-known athletes. These include:
Male pro riders
- Jason Osborne, DE – UCI eSports World Champion 2021
- Gino Mäder, CH – Stage Winner Giro d‘Italia, 5th GC Vuelta a España 2021
- Mauro Schmid, CH – Stage Winner Giro d‘Italia 2021
- Hermann Pernsteiner, AT – 10th GC Giro d’Italia 2020
Female pro riders
- Marlen Reusser, CH – ITT European Champion 2021, Olympic Silver Medallist ITT Tokyo, 2nd ITT World Championship 2021, 6th UCI World Ranking
- Marta Bastianelli, IT – Winner 2nd Stage Tour de Suisse Women 2021, 5th Paris-Roubaix
- Mavi Garcia, SP – 1st Strade Bianche 2020, 1st Giro Emilia 2021
Triathletes
- Hayden Wilde, NZE – Olympic Bronze Medallist Triathlon Tokyo
- Marten van Riel, BE – 4th Olympic Triathlon Tokyo
- Nina Derron, CH – 27th IRONMAN Hawaii 2019, 2nd Chur-Arosa 2020
Open races
Parallel to the elite athletes races, a series of open format amateur races will also take place digitally.
Live broadcast
The races will be broadcast on TV – SRF.CH/Sport (Switzerland only) and the following YouTube Channels online to watch for free:
- Tour de Suisse
- Velon (+ Facebook)
- TDS5 website
Race schedule
- Race 1: LUCERNE | Fri – 19 Nov | 20h-21h CET
- Race 2: LUGANO | Sat – 20 Nov | 13h-14h CET
- Race 3: LAUSANNE | Sat – 20 Nov | 19h-20h CET
- Race 4: BASEL | Sun – 21 Nov | 11:30-12:30 CET
- Race 5: ZURICH | Sun – 21 Nov | 16h-17h CET
