Yesterday ProTouch – Africa’s number one Continental Team – took on its first e-race – the #Digital Swiss 5 – a race that the sports world has never seen before and possibly, the future of indoor racing for a podium. ProTouch had two riders take to the start line with Gustav Basson (finishing off in 4th position) and James Fourie (12th).

The Fan-Race took place immediately after the Pro-Race, that saw 15 World Tour Teams participate in competing on routes of the actual Tour de Suisse. Rohan Dennis (Team Ineos) carried his strong virtual racing form from the Ineos Alpe du Zwift race to triumph at race 1 of the Digital Swiss 5. The Australian dominated the mountainous 26.6km course, beating second-place man Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb) by 1:10. James Whelan (EF Pro Cycling) rounded out the podium at 1:28. With no drafting simulation on Rouvy it was every man for himself out on course. You can watch the highlights from this first race here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGIQpSJR-kE

Here is what Gustav Basson – who finished off in 4th place (8 minutes) behind the overall winner of the PRO-Race) had to say after the event, “the live footage is really cool – you can see actually how it looks in real-life – as if you are there at the moment. It would be great in the future to do race recons for real races seeing the surroundings, knowing the corners and the climbs without having ridden the route beforehand”.

Here is what James Fourie had to say, “I thought it was great that the route was so realistic.
It definitely does make an impact mentally, when riding and you can trick your brain into actually thinking you are riding on that section of road. Compared to zwift which in its own right is a great platform but isn’t as realistic. Rouvy is really great for future use, where I can actually ride or simulate a section of a road or climb.”