Live cycling on TV again at last: from Monday 4 to Friday 8 May, Eurosport will be broadcasting the "Tour for All" daily, which will take place on the virtual training platform Zwift. The "Tour for All" is a five-stage professional cycling race in which both men's and women's teams from the World Tour take part.
The teams and the regulations
The men's and women's races will be held daily between 15:00 and 17:00 with some of the best cycling teams in the world, including Mitchelton-Scott, EF-Education, NTT, Alpecin-Fenix, Bahrain-McLaren, Canyon//SRAM Racing, CCC-Liv and Boels Dolmans. The top 25 riders at the finish will collect points for the overall classification, as will the first riders in intermediate sprints and other classifications during the race. In addition, a stage winner will be crowned after each stage. Double points will be awarded for the top 10 on the final stage on Friday 8 May.
Gamification is also very important for the pros: During the five stages, various bonuses can be unlocked via "PowerUps", which make a rider lighter (and therefore faster on the climbs), increase the slipstream effect or make the rider invisible for a brief moment. The conventional race tactics of the WorldTour teams will therefore not lead to success. This was already evident at the KISS Super League, which took place at the beginning of 2019.
The TV broadcast
Eurosport 1, with the commentary duo Gerhard Leinauer and Jörg Ludewig, will broadcast the five stages live on free-to-air TV every day from 15:00. The races will also be shown live on the Eurosport Player and on YouTube with the second media partner GCN.
"Tour for All" - all stages
The stages cover distances of approx. 45 to 75 km and altitudes of approx. 400 to 1700 metres, with race times of between 1 hour 15 minutes and 2 hours depending on the distance and altitude.
- Monday (4 May): Flat stage: Innsbruckring, Innsbruck | vertical metres: 72m | total distance: 52.9 km
- Tuesday (5 May): Hilly stage: Cobbled Climbs, Richmond | Elevation gain: 126m | Total distance: 46.2 km
- Wednesday (6 May): Mountain stage: Medio Fondo, Watopia | Elevation gain: 981m | Total distance: 72.9 km
- Thursday (7 May): Flat stage: Sand and Sequoias, Watopia | Elevation gain: 147m | Total distance: 42.6 km
- Friday (8 May): Mountain stage: Quatch Quest, Watopia | Elevation gain: 1710m | Total distance: 46.5 km
Fundraising campaign during the "Tour for All"
The "Tour for All" is linked to a month-long fundraising campaign in which Zwift wants to donate a total of 125,000 US dollars to "Médecins Sans Frontières" (MSF) and its COVID-19 crisis fund. In addition, a further 125,000 US dollars can be unlocked as soon as 250,000 people have completed a stage of the "Tour for All", which runs until 30 May. Further information on the "Tour for All" for hobby riders you will find here.
