Stars such as Chris Froome, Egan Bernal, and Marianne Vos will compete in the first virtual Tour de France.

Cyclingnews revealed earlier this month that Tour organizer ASO has partnered with Zwift for event management and that new worlds, including Mont Ventoux and the Champs-Elysées, will be built on the online cycling platform.

These worlds will be named 'France' and 'Paris' and have confirmed start lists of 23 men's teams and 17 women's teams for the six-stage race.

Froome and Bernal join Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas in the Team Ineos lineup, while Greg Van Avermaet has been selected for the CCC. On the men's side, most, but not all, of the teams competing in this summer's Tour de France main draw will be represented.

Only two teams, UAE Team Emirates and Movistar, will not participate in the World Tour, but Mathieu Van der Pol's Alpecin Phoenix, Circus Wanty Gobert, which was denied a wild card this year, and American professional team Larry Cycling will participate.

Seven of the eight Women's World Tour teams are entered in the women's peloton, with the exception of Mitchelton Scott, which is home to world champion Annemieke van Fruten. Former world champion Anna van der Breggen is with Boels Dolmans and current time trial world champion Chloe Dygert is with TWENTY20 Pro Cycling.

The event, which will be broadcast in 130 countries, will be part of a fundraising drive for five charities called "Tour de France United": Emmaüs, Secours Populaire, Jeugdfonds Sport and Cultuur, BiJeWa, and Qhubeka.

"It's hard to imagine July without cycling," Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said in the announcement. Thanks to the widely televised virtual Tour de France, champions and their fans will be able to fill in the blanks for the Tour de France, which will be held in Nice on August 29." The Tour Virtuel brings technology to everyone for the cause of passion and cycling"

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As previously reported, the virtual Tour de France will begin on Saturday, July 4, with six stages over the next three weekends, finishing on Sunday, July 19. The men and women will race the same stages on the same day and each will be broadcast equally.

There will be no individual classes, but a points-based team competition, with yellow, green, white, and polka-dot jerseys available, each worn by a "captain" designated by the team leading the GC, points, young rider, and mountain classes.

Zwift has now released an update that includes a new, specially constructed world. One such event is the Virtual Etap du Tour, an online version of the mass participation event featuring three stages during the real Tour de France in August.

The "French" world includes seven routes that are said to evoke French landscapes, including vineyards, Roman aqueducts, and sunflower fields. Only stages 3, 4, and 5 of the virtual Tour will use this world, with a mountaintop finish on the final stage at Chalet Reynard, halfway up the famous Mont Ventoux. While the professionals will not be aiming for the summit in Provence, public participants will be able to complete the climb on the new "Ven-Top" route.

The race will finish stage 6 in the world of Paris, a recreation of the iconic Avenue des Champs-Elysées, the finale of the Tour de France. The new route, which can also be ridden in reverse, is 6.6 km long and will take the riders up to the Arc de Triomphe and around it.

The virtual tool will start with Zwift's Watopia World. Watopia World will be inspired by Nice, the host city of this year's Tour Grand Depart, and will "add some Nice-inspired visuals. The first stage will consist of four laps of a 9.1 km hilly course, while the second stage will be 29.5 km long with a 682 m elevation gain on a mountainous course.

Stage 3 on July 11 will use the new French R.G.V. route, with two laps of a 24 km flat course.