Team Ineos announced on Thursday that Chris Froome will compete in the sixth and final stage of the Virtual Tour de France on Sunday. The last stage will be held on Zwift's new cobbled circuit of the Champs-Élysées on July 19.
The Team Ineos squad will be led by Froome, and will also include Filippo Ganna, Chris Lawless and Cameron Wurf.
The Tour de France was postponed this July due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and has been rescheduled to take place from August 29 to September 20. The void in the calendar led to organisers ASO launching the Virtual Tour de France on the Zwift platform.
The event has been held over the course of three weekends during the Tour's original dates, starting on Saturday, July 4, and finishing on Sunday, July 19.
The opening stage, over 36.4km, was held on the Watopia Hilly route, and the men's and women's events were won by Ryan Gibbons (NTT Pro Cycling) and April Tacey (Drops) on July 4. Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo) and Lauren Stephens (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) won the second stage – a 29.5km race on Watopia Mountain.
The racing continued last weekend, with stage 3 won by Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally Cycling) and Tanja Erath (Canyon-SRAM) on the new France map's R.G.V route. Stage 4 offered the field a 45.8km race on the Casse-Pattes course, won by Freddy Ovett (Israel Start-Up Nation), while Tacey secured her second stage win.
The Virtual Tour de France continues and concludes next weekend with stage 5 on Mont Ventoux on Saturday, followed by the finale stage 6 on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday.
