Cycling news - Simon and Adam Yates to take centre stage at Zwift Tour for All

Michael Gogl’s win yesterday helped propel NTT Pro Cycling to the top of the Zwift Tour for All men’s standings while Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank head the women’s standings after two stages.

The Tour for All professional racing series will open a month-long charity fundraising initiative that will see Zwift donate a total of $125,000 to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its COVID-19 crisis fund. An additional $125,000 can be unlocked once 250,000 people complete a stage of the Tour for All. The professional racing series is designed to showcase the mass-participation stages and encourage Zwifters to take part by riding some of the same courses that the pros have raced. For more information on Zwift’s Tour for All head to Ride - zwift.com/tfaride

How would you sum up the race? It was a really tough start. From the beginning it was pure gas. It was my first Zwift race, I did a stage in the Tour de Suisse the other day, but it was my first Zwift race. I was impressed how hard it was for the first 10 minutes, then we were really good with Michael Valgren also in the first group. It was great tactics from us. Michael was pushing it out at the front and I could save myself for the final sprint. I left everything out on the road there.

Yes, well we are an online company at NTT so we really know how to use computers and software! No, I don’t know – we just trained well. We have good support from the team throughout the whole race so we can play out our tactics really well and it worked.

No, I had to work for it. I was pretty active during the entire race, taking a lot of points but it was an amazing team performance. Marianne [Vos] did an incredible job of supporting me, and also Riejanne Markus too for a lot of the ride. It was super exciting. I loved it.

I have to admit, I’m lucky to have a bit of experience having discussed the Zwift tactics already. I have spent seven weeks on Zwift during the lockdown in Spain so I was pretty going in to today. I knew it was going to be a punchy day, and punchy climbing is a major strength of mine so I wanted to make the race as hard as possible to get off with my team-mates so that we could do some damage with the final climb. I must say I was lucky enough to have a ‘feather’ to help me out.

I must say I look at the foot of rocacorba all the time. Rocacorba is something that is close to my heart. I like to call it my climb as I am the pro who has done it the most. That was my motivation through the lockdown. All the training on Zwift, I knew I had worked hard. I thought let’s put it to the test see if this Zwift training really works and I smashed 3.5 minutes off my previous best time so it was a good effort.

Stage 3 - Medio Fondo, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 981m (3220ft). Total distance: 72.9km (45.1 miles)

The first mountain stage. We begin by taking Ocean Boulevard around to the reverse Hilly KOM, which is the first half of the Figure 8 route. Then it’s over to the Volcano and up to the top before descending down and heading to the Italian Villas then the Mayan Jungle for a reverse loop of the circuit. After climbing out of the jungle, we descend back to sea level, hit The Esses and spin a quick around the Volcano Circuit. Then it’s through downtown Watopia and out Ocean Boulevard once more to the forward Epic KOM. Our route finishes at the Epic KOM banner.

PRO TEAMS LINE UP FOR ZWIFT TOUR FOR ALL

The 19 men’s and women’s teams competing in the inaugural Zwift Tour For All pro series have announced their startlists for stage two which begins at 14:00 BST today (Tuesday 5 March)

Men’s
1 NTT Pro Cycling Team – 137
2 Alpecin-Fenix – 132
3 EF Education First Pro Cycling – 129
4 Israel Start-Up Nation – 106
5 Mitchelton-Scott - 89

Women’s
1 Team TIBCO Silicon Valley Bank – 161
2 CCC-LIVE - 133
3 Canyon SRAM – 118
4 Team TWENTY20 - 86
5 Boels-Dolmans Pro Cycling - 83

We kicked off the Tour with a flat-ish stage for the sprinters, but both courses featured one short steep hill.

Course: Innsbruckring, Innsbruck. Elevation Gain: 72m (237ft). Total distance: 52.9km (33miles)

Winners: Freddy Ovett (Israel Start-Up Nation) & Marianne Vos (CCC Liv)

Our first hilly stage.

Course: Cobbled Climbs, Richmond. Elevation Gain: 126m (413ft). Total distance: 46.2km (28.5miles)

Our first mountain stage. We begin by taking Ocean Boulevard around to the reverse Hilly KOM, which is the first half of the Figure 8 route. Then it’s over to the Volcano and up to the top before descending down and heading to the Italian Villas then the Mayan Jungle for a reverse loop of the circuit. After climbing out of the jungle, we descend back to sea level, hit The Esses and spin a quick around the Volcano Circuit. Then it’s through downtown Watopia and out Ocean Boulevard once more to the forward Epic KOM. Our route finishes at the Epic KOM banner.

Course: Medio Fondo, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 981m (3220ft). Total distance: 72.9km (45.1miles)

We give everyone’s climbing legs a break with a mostly flat and fast stage. Enjoy it while it lasts because tomorrow is the Queen Stage!

Course: Sand and Sequoias, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 147m (482ft). Total distance: 42.6km (26.5miles)

The Queen Stage with a finish up Alpe du Zwift.

Course: Quatch Quest, Watopia. Elevation Gain: 1710m (5610ft). Total distance: 46.5km (28.9miles)