Digital Swiss 5: Remco Evenepoel and Rohan Dennis headline race 1 start list

Deceuninck-QuickStep phenomenon Remco Evenepoel and world time trial champion Rohan Dennis headline the first day of the Digital Swiss 5, the virtual race series that kicks off later on Wednesday.

The virtual version of the Tour de Suisse will see 16 WorldTour teams take part, as well as a Swiss national selection and two ProTeams. Three riders from each squad will take part day by day.

Race 1, which kicks off at 5pm CEST, is a 26.6km ride up two climbs between Agarn and Leukerbad. As a result, there are plenty of climbers on the start list.

Evenepoel is Deceuninck-QuickStep's main man, with the Belgian winning the Vuelta a San Juan and Volta ao Algarve earlier this season. Dennis, meanwhile, will head up Ineos' three-man selection. The Australian was fourth at the Tour Down Under and won an intra-team Alpe du Zwift eRace recently. Il Lombardia winner Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) will also be riding.

Pello Bilbao and Wout Poels form two-thirds of a strong Bahrain-McLaren squad, while young talent Lennard Kämna heads up Bora-Hansgrohe. NTT Pro Cycilng have Ben O'Connor and Louis Meintjes to rely upon, while George Bennett, Sep Kuss and Robert Gesink form a strong Jumbo-Visma trio.

Other notable names down for race 1 include Lawson Craddock (EF Pro Cycling), Simon Geschke (CCC Team), Mathias Frank (AG2R La Mondiale), Nicolas Roche (Team Sunweb).

Find out how to watch the race with ExpressVPN no matter your location. Check below for the full start list for race 1.

Digital Swiss 5: race 1 start list

AG2R La Mondiale: Mathias Frank, Nans Peters, Aurélien Paret-Peintre

Bahrain McLaren: Pello Bilbao, Wout Poels, Santiago Buitrago 

Bora-Hansgrohe: Matteo Fabbro, Lennard Kämna, Ide Schelling

CCC Team: Simon Geschke, Michael Schär, Attila Valter

Deceuninck-QuickStep: Remco Evenepoel, Pieter Serry, Dries Devenyns

EF Pro Cycling: Simon Clarke, Lawson Craddock, James Whelan

Groupama-FDJ: Kilian Frankiny, Rudy Molard, Sébastian Reichenbach

Israel Start-Up Nation: Matteo Badilatti, Reto Hollenstein, Alexis Renard

Jumbo-Visma: George Bennett, Robert Gesink, Sepp Kuss

Lotto Soudal: Sander Armée, Harm Vanhoucke, Viktor Verschaeve

Mitchelton-Scott: Edoardo Affini, Luke Durbridge, Damien Howson

Movistar Team: Imanol Erviti, Sergio Samitier, Carlos Verona

NTT Pro Cycling: Ben O'Connor, Gino Mäder, Louis Meintjes

Rally Cycling: Nathan Brown, Gavin Mannion, Nickolas Zukowsky

Swiss national team: Filippo Colombo, Robin Froidevaux, Fabian Lienhard

Team Ineos: Rohan Dennis, Carlos Rodriguez, Cameron Wurf

Team Sunweb: Chris Hamilton, Nicolas Roche, Wilco Kelderman

Total Direct Énergie: Lilian Calmejane, Paul Ourselin, Simon Sellier

Trek-Segafredo: Gianluca Brambilla, Bauke Mollema, Antonio Nibali