An incredible sprint finale to close the Virtual Tour de France yielded two top 10s and secured second place overall for Rally Cycling men’s squad on Sunday. The team also finished second in the combined points classification, capping a hugely successful month of e-racing for the entire team on Zwift.
An e-mechanical took out stage 1 runner-up Pier-André Coté early on in the men’s race, but stage 3 winner, Matteo Dal-Cin, and Nickolas Zukowsky flew the orange flag admirably, scoring enough points with their fifth and eighth place finishes to lock down second spot in the yellow jersey and team classifications. NTT Pro Cycling was the only WorldTour team to finish ahead of the orange armada.
Former Canadian road champ, Matteo “Wattage Beluga” Dal-Cin, produced another sterling performance.
“I’m super happy, I feel like we put our best foot forward and did a really good showing for Rally Cycling against a lot of the world’s top riders. We’re going to start our outdoor season pretty soon, so I’m really excited to get racing outdoors with the team.”
Men’s team director, Patrick McCarty, summed up the truly unique final stage.
“Finishing on the virtual Champs-Élysées is one of the more unique experiences we’ve had as a team, and we were thrilled to be there. We lost Pier-André Coté, perhaps the pre-race favorite, to a computer malfunction right at the start, but luckily our two other Zwift stars, Matteo and Nick, did an excellent job.”
Reflecting on the month’s racing, McCarty added.
“The Virtual Tour de France was a great experience for our team. Of course, we hope to compete in the real Tour de France at some point in the near future, but we would happily line up again for a virtual one. I definitely want to thank all of our team’s efforts to get everyone up and running on the platform, and for the exceptional assistance we had from Holden Comeau, Matt Gardiner, and their team to speed up the Zwift learning process.”
In the women’s race, Krista Doebel-Hickok and Megan Jastrab finished in 19th and 21st positions. After hanging in there with the elite selection through all six frenetic laps of the Champs-Élysées circuit, the final acceleration proved to be just a half-kilometer too far.
The front #TDFvirtual group is down to only 25 riders now. @KristabelDH and @JastrabMegan are there. 12 km to go!
???? https://t.co/Vkdi20n9OY pic.twitter.com/NhXeqgezop
— Rally Cycling (@Rally_Cycling) July 19, 2020
Lauren Stephens (TIBCO-SVB) won the stage, capping a dominant display for her team in this inaugural Virtual Tour.
The Rally Cycling Women’s team will be looking to build on their fitness from the Virtual Tour as they prepare the real thing, La Course by Le Tour de France, on August 29.
Men’s stage 6 results
1 Will Clarke (AUS) Trek-Segafredo
2 Filippo Ganna (ITA) Team INEOS
3 Ryan Gibbons (RSA) NTT Pro Cycling
4 Rasmus Fossum Tiller (NOR) NTT Pro Cycling
5 Matteo Dal-Cin (CAN) Rally Cycling
6 Max Walscheid (GER) NTT Pro Cycling
7 Simon Clarke (AUS) EF Pro Cycling
8 Nickolas Zukowsky (CAN) Rally Cycling
9 Edvald Boasson-Hagen (NOR) NTT Pro Cycling
10 Gijs Van Hoecke (BEL) CCC Team
Women’s stage 6 results
1 Lauren Stephens (USA) TIBCO-SVB
2 April Tacey (GBR) Drops Cycling
3 Georgia Simmerling (CAN) Sho-Air Twenty20
19 Krista Doebel-Hickok (USA) Rally Cycling
21 Megan Jastrab (USA) Rally Cycling
Men’s Yellow Jersey Classification
1 NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM 500
2 RALLY CYCLING 267
3 TREK – SEGAFREDO 232
4 EF PRO CYCLING 211
5 TEAM INEOS 175
6 ISRAEL START – UP NATION 161
7 MITCHELTON – SCOTT 139
8 ALPECIN – FENIX 138
9 GROUPAMA – FDJ 112
10 AG2R LA MONDIALE 105
Women’s Yellow Jersey Classification
1 TEAM TIBCO – SILICON VALLEY BANK 499
2 TEAM TWENTY20 306
3 DROPS 292
4 CANYON / /SRAM RACING 272
5 CCC – LIV 216
6 TEAM SUNWEB 187
7 CERATIZIT – WNT PRO CYCLING TEAM 129
8 FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE 129
9 RALLY CYCLING 109
10 BOELS DOLMANS CYCLING TEAM 97
Men’s Overall Team Points Classification
1 NTT PRO CYCLING TEAM 923
2 RALLY CYCLING 398
3 TREK – SEGAFREDO 362
4 EF PRO CYCLING 349
5 ALPECIN – FENIX 326
6 MITCHELTON – SCOTT 310
7 TEAM INEOS 278
8 ISRAEL START – UP NATION 252
9 GROUPAMA – FDJ 215
10 CCC TEAM 214