For the first time since the end of World War II, the Tour de France won鈥檛 happen in July. There will still be some world-class bike racing happening; it just won鈥檛 be on the roads.
Like other sports, real-world racing shut down in March when the coronavirus hit in earnest and hasn鈥檛 come back yet.听(The planned pro cycling re-start is late July, with a re-scheduled Tour in September.) In its wake, virtual racing, via mass multiplayer online platforms, has tried听to fill the competition void for riders and fans. Next week, the fledgling discipline gets its largest showcase ever in a virtual Tour de France of sorts on Zwift, the biggest听player in the growing online racing world.
As you might imagine, interest is high from competition-starved teams. Twenty-three top men鈥檚 teams and 17 women鈥檚 teams will participate, and confirmed names for the men鈥檚 event include the last three Tour winners: Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, and Egan Bernal, all of powerhouse Team Ineos. On the women鈥檚 side, three-time World Road Champion Marianne Vos, Olympic champion Anna van der Breggen, and reigning World Time Trial Champion Chloe Dygert听are slated to compete for CCC Liv, Boels-Dolmans, and Team Twenty20, respectively.
鈥淚鈥檓 motivated to win everything and anything,鈥 says Dygert. 鈥淚t鈥檚 awesome to have this opportunity available to us, pandemic or not.鈥

There are key differences from the traditional Tour: six stages instead of 21, all held on weekends; teams enter four riders per stage and can swap riders for different stages; and while the familiar leaders鈥 jerseys remain, the race is essentially contested by teams on a points system, rather than awarding an individual winner by time (which means that, after the real-life race in September, we won鈥檛 have two overall Tour winners for 2020). Arguably the biggest shift, however, is that while elite women get a meager one-day race in real life (la Course), on Zwift they will race all six stages, on the same courses, over the same distances, as the men.
鈥淲henever we get equal opportunities as the men, that gets the women鈥檚 peloton and women鈥檚 racing fans really excited,鈥 says current U.S.听National Champion Ruth Winder, who will race at least two stages for her Trek-Segafredo team. 鈥淎nd I think that this could have even more viewers because it is the Tour and it is July and people will be missing that.鈥
The idea for a virtual Tour isn鈥檛 totally new. In December 2018, after a massive fundraising round aimed in part at听building an elite racing circuit, Zwift co-founder Eric Min set a bold goal of virtual racing becoming an Olympic demonstration sport by 2024, and voiced interest in holding virtual Tour stages.
What really made the virtual Tour possible, says Min, was May鈥檚 听competition, a five-day series of Zwift races for top men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 teams that was broadcast on the Eurosport cable channel. 鈥淭our promoter ASO said that convinced them we could be the platform to help them create a virtual Tour,鈥 he says.
Zwift has held other elite online races, including an officially sanctioned World Championship last fall. But it鈥檚 approaching the virtual Tour a bit differently. The first two stages will be held in Zwift鈥檚 existing game world, Watopia. But Zwift and ASO also wanted stages to take place in virtual versions of real-world courses from the race, including the iconic finish on the Champs-Elys茅es. With a little less than two months to build the race out, Zwift wasn鈥檛 able to make听everything they wanted; the Mont Ventoux stage, for example, stops short of its unique treeless summit. But, Min says, the re-creations are as faithful as they can be. 鈥淲hat you鈥檒l take away is that it feels like the French countryside,鈥 he says.
The broadcast strategy is also far more ambitious than the Tour for All, with footage to be shown in over 130 countries, including on NBC Sports in the U.S.听

So what will it be like? In my past experience watching elite Zwift races, the action can be a little dizzying to follow, as avatars bounce on and off the screen and the busy leaderboard constantly reshuffles while camera angles swap seemingly at random. Min says that this time听Zwift worked to offer a cleaner, simpler feed for its broadcast partners, but it remains to be seen what the final broadcast product looks like.
As for the racing, it鈥檚 honestly a total unknown. The stages, at roughly an hour long, are far shorter than real-life courses, which can take upwards of six hours. That means physical intensity will be higher, with fewer opportunities for a breakaway.
Previous virtual races have generally seen slightly smaller fields, and fewer听of the sport鈥檚 big names.听The presence of top riders, coming off such a long layoff, will definitely create some spirited racing. But they鈥檒l be competing in an environment that鈥檚 almost totally foreign. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a completely different animal,鈥 says Trek-Segafredo men鈥檚 racer Kiel Reijnen, who will race several stages and admits he got his 鈥渢eeth kicked in鈥 the first few Zwift races he tried. 鈥淭here are nuances in there that really require experience, and most of us don鈥檛 have a lot of that,鈥 he says, because most pros train almost exclusively outdoors.听
Strategy in virtual racing is similar to road racing, according to Holden Comeau, Zwift鈥檚 top-ranked racer and a member of the Saris-The Pro鈥檚 Closet virtual team. 鈥淎ll of the strategy is transferable,鈥 he says. 鈥淗owever, it鈥檚 very difficult to master the game well enough to execute.鈥澨齌actical elements听like controlling your position in the digital pack are different from in-person racing; it鈥檚 an advanced, digital-specific skill that takes time to learn. Riders have to anticipate and react to terrain changes in completely new ways, or risk getting dropped. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e dropped out of the main group in Zwift, it鈥檚 hard to get back on,鈥 says Dygert. 鈥淚n the real world, a two-bike-length gap opens and you think, 鈥極h, it鈥檒l come back.鈥 On Zwift, you need to jump on that and get back in the group.鈥
With real-world racing postponed and riders struggling to adapt training programs to an uncertain calendar, fitness levels will vary widely, an issue compounded by geography. Some riders will be racing at a comfortable mid-day hour; others will be forced into early morning or later evening start times. Some will be at sea level; others, like Bernal, who lives in Colombia, will be at a comparative disadvantage racing at high altitude.
All that could produce some surprise results. Dygert, the reigning World Time Trial Champion, recently competed in听the three-stage Joe Martin Virtual Stage Race on Zwift and was soundly beaten in the first stage, a five-kilometer time trial, despite her long virtual-racing experience. 鈥淚 was putting up the power I normally would, and I think these women were just stronger than me that day,鈥 she says. Then, an untimely power outage on Stage 2 the next day dropped her internet access, ending her race prematurely.
Whether it鈥檚 due to rider power or electrical power, don鈥檛 be surprised to see big stars dropped fast if they鈥檙e unprepared, and for lesser-known riders to shine. About the only thing we can expect? The first-ever virtual Tour de France is going to be an unprecedented affair where anything is possible.听
The Details:
- Saturday, July 4鈥擲tage 1鈥斺淲atopia鈥 36.4km hilly stage
- Sunday, July 5鈥擲tage 2鈥斺淲atopia鈥 29.5km mountain stage
- Saturday, July 11鈥擲tage 3鈥斺淣E France鈥 48km flat stage
- Sunday, July 12鈥擲tage 4鈥斺淪W France鈥 45.8km hilly stage
- Saturday, July 18鈥擲tage 5鈥斺淢ont Ventoux鈥 22.9km mountain stage, summit finish
- Sunday, July 19鈥擲tage 6鈥斺淧aris Champs-Elys茅es鈥 42.8km flat stage
U.S. coverage: NBC Sports cable network and Zwift.com; broadcast times:听9-11 A.M. EST