• Smart rollers.When climbing the Tourmalet is possible from the living room

Under normal conditions, this would be a chronicle of the use of the Tour of Flanders, set this year for this domain. Around him, on the cover of the EL MUNDO website, other information would appear about the League match (Real Sociedad-Real Madrid and Seville-Barcelona as main courses), about the Miami Masters 1000, about the F1 Vietnam GP or the MotoGP GP of the Americas. But, you know, neither cycling, nor soccer, nor tennis, nor motor, nor anything. Or if?

Yes, cycling yes. Virtual and everyone from home, but this Sunday a Tour of Flanders took place. It has been won by Greg van Avermaet , one of the great classics of the world squad, ahead of Oliver Naesen and Nicolas Roche . Curious triumph, since all the great cobblestone classics appear in the Belgian track record, except for the second Monument of the season that runs through Flemish lands.

Many sports are turning to virtual options to make confinement more bearable. The difference from cycling with the rest (or with most) is that runners do not kill time with a video game, but with a simulation. Through an intelligent roller and an application, in this case Bkool, the user pedales along roads that simulate the real ones, imitating their unevenness. It is even possible to haggle efforts by standing behind another runner, as in reality.

Other hypotheses for the future

Although it seems like a mere entertainment for these times of pandemic (beyond an effective form of training), it is a reality closer than it seems. The Giro d'Italia has already considered the possibility of carrying out a valid virtual prologue for the general classification in the future as if it were a test on the ground. At the moment it is a hypothesis, no one has ever opened that door, but it is on the table for the future.

The cyclist, of course, sees himself as a screen and the rest of the competitors or companions of the virtual 'grotto'. For this reason, the Tour of Flanders has taken advantage of this forced break in the competition to entertain cycling fans with this hour-long event, narrated by its regular commentators and with statements by the winner at the finish line, with his young daughter in background and waiting for dad to stop talking.

A CCC on the ropes

13 cyclists, none Spanish, are those who have participated in this particular Tour of Flanders, including last year's winner Alberto Bettiol . All of them could be seen with a camera in full real effort while their avatars appeared in the simulation. Five of them (Van Avermaet, Naesen, Roche , Evenepoel and De Gendt ) have arrived grouped at the foot of the Paterberg, the mythical hill on which the race is usually resolved. In his very hard ramps of up to 20% of unevenness, Van Avermaet has released a stalemate that has left behind all his rivals, whose efforts to hunt him down on the plain have already been futile.

A victory, albeit a virtual one, for the CCC Team, a squad whose survival is at serious risk due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. Dedicated to the sale of footwear and accessories, the Polish company that supports the team has already hinted that the cycling blind could be lowered imminently. The entire calendar is paralyzed until at least June 1, although the subsequent Tour of Switzerland has already announced its cancellation. The Tour de France, which is scheduled to start on June 27, is the next big test that, most likely, will be postponed.

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