Pierre Latour dematerialises while leading Virtual Tour de Suisse

Nicolas Roche (Sunweb) yesterday won the third stage of the Digital Swiss 5 e-race – but the race was probably more notable for the moment Frenchman Pierre Latour blinked out of existence while in the lead.

The Digital Swiss 5 comprises five individual races on parts of the same route planned for the 2020 Tour de Suisse.  It is being run by Velon – the venture comprising a number of the world’s leading men’s cycling teams – in conjunction with the Tour de Suisse and online turbo training platform, Rouvy.

You can watch it on the BBC iPlayer. Stages are streamed from 4.10pm each day but you can also watch the full race later.

Yesterday’s 33.5km stage to the top of Nufenen Pass saw AG2R La Mondiale’s Latour distance his rivals early, before building a significant lead on the flat portion of the route before the final climb.

Then, at the foot of the final climb, Latour somewhat unexpectedly ceased to be.

“And we have had a change at the top of the standings, I can tell you,” observed Rob Hatch on commentary. “Latour has dropped away from our screens.”

📽️ Highlights of Race 3 from the #DigitalSwiss5 as the riders tackled the Nufenen Pass in its virtual format!

Full-race replay: https://t.co/5XYtxln3BE
Results and report: https://t.co/Z50QFUSrT0 pic.twitter.com/BQGE7OU3LF

— Velon CC (@VelonCC) April 24, 2020

Hatch then revealed that the calibration of Latour’s turbo trainer had been checked, “and found to be incorrect.”

In other words Latour was guilty of that most modern of sporting offences – e-doping.

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The vague comments about turbo trainers being checked encourages notions of conscientious race officials scrutinising equipment, but we rather get the impression that it was Latour himself who took the decision.

“I told myself that I was going to leave like a moron,” he told La Chaine L'Equipe, which broadcasts the event. “I don’t think it would have held up on the climb." (We presume he means the believability of his power numbers, although we’re not quite sure.)

Rouvy uses augmented reality, so the footage is real, but the rider avatars are not. This led to a very exciting virtual near miss earlier in the week when Greg van Avermaet's avatar briefly seemed in danger of being taken out by a passing motorist.