The Digital Swiss 5 is a series of five virtual races taking place over sections of the 2020 Tour de Suisse parcours. It featured a large number of the world’s top teams and ridden on the Rouvy platform.
An exciting event, saw our squad deliver overall some very strong performances. Below is a rolling report of how the event unfolded for our team.
Race 5: Sunday 25 April
Ben O’Connor once again showed his ability to suffer in delivering another strong performance in the final race of the Digital Swiss 5 finishing 7th.
Teammates Domenico Pozzovivo and Gino Mader both showed their mettle too capping off a very strong week for the team overall.
Watch O’Connor’s video report below for both race and the event overall:
Race 4: Saturday 25 April
Another strong ride from NTT Pro Cycling saw Michael Gogl finish 5th in race 4 of the Digital Swiss 5.
Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) took the honours overall, with Victor Campenaersts putting in a strong performance for our team too. Edvald Boasson Hagen completed his second race in the series for us too to round off our team’s contribution.
Watch Gogl’s video report below for race 4:
🇨🇭 #DigitalSwiss5 @VCampenaerts raced to 16th place at today’s DS5 Race 4, while teammate @MichaelGogl impressed with a 5th place finish! 🖐
— NTT Pro Cycling (@NTTProCycling) April 25, 2020
The hour record holder compares this effort to his UCI ITT bronze medal performance, & talks aero efficiency of digital avatars ⤵️! 🤔😅 pic.twitter.com/mFBWps1edh
Race 3: Friday 24 April
After suffering from a “mechanical” failure in race 1, Louis Meintjes showed he’s in excellent form as he secured yet another top-10 finish for NTT Pro Cycling at the Digital Swiss 5.
He finished 8th in a race won by Nicholas Roche (Sunweb). Unfortunately Roman Kreuziger suffered a similar fate to Meintjes had in the opening edition, stuck on the startline but, along with Ben King who also had issues during the race, the finished strongly to put in strong efforts.
Watch Meintjes’ video report below for race 3:
🇨🇭 #DigitalSix
— NTT Pro Cycling (@NTTProCycling) April 24, 2020
"Fighting like a lion" to the finish line, @Roman86_K talks us through his race today. 💧😅 pic.twitter.com/FQ9pL7Gb1q
Race 2: Thursday 23 April
Race 2 of the the Digital Swiss 5 saw Rasmus Tiller take an excellent 7th spot on the day in a race won in impressive fashion by Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ).
Max Walscheid and Edvald Boasson Hagen both joined Tiller in delivering strong performances on the day, finishing in 11th and 18th positions respectively.
Watch Tiller’s video report below for race 2:
Race 1: Wednesday 22 April
The opening race of the Digital Swiss 5 saw Ben O’Connor ride to a hugely impressive 5th place in a race that was won by Rohan Dennis (Team Ineos).
Unfortunately Louis Meintjes had a “mechanical” on the start line which saw him start 500m behind everyone else but still surged to a 23rd place overall, with teammate Gino Mader close behind in 27th place.
Watch O’Connor’s video report below for race 1: