Cycling news - Remco Evenepoel and Greg Van Avermaet to compete in virtual Tour of Flanders

Updated 05/04/2020 at 13:37 GMT

Remco Evenepoel, Greg Van Avermaet and Jasper Stuyven will be among 13 riders competing in a ‘virtual’ edition of the Tour of Flanders, which will be shown live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player.

Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck - Quick-Step)

Image credit: Getty Images

The 2020 edition of the Spring Classic was due to take place on Sunday but, having been postponed because of the coronavirus, riders will now compete on rollers at home using smart trainers to replicate the demands of climbs and cobbles.

Watch the Virtual Tour of Flanders on Sunday - live at 2:30pm (UK time) on Eurosport 1 & Eurosport Player

The 'virtual' edition will be just the final 32km, including the final two climbs over Oude-Kwaremont and Paterberg, compared to 266km in the real race.

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“In a closed tour reserved exclusively for professional cyclists, 13 pros will be competing during the last 32 km of the Tour of Flanders – on their home trainers,” read a statement from race organisers.

“Thanks to [streaming platform] Kiswe we will be able to watch the riders tackle a virtual Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg in real-time on the Bkool platform.”

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Defending champion Alberto Bettiol will be hoping to retain his title in the ‘DeRonde 2020 lockdown edition' of the race.

Evenepoel, Van Avermaet, Stuyven, Oliver Naesen, Mike Teunissen, Wout van Aert, Zdenek Stybar, Yves Lampaert, Tim Wellens, Thomas De Gendt, Michael Matthews and Nicolas Roche will also be competing.

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