The Women’s Tour is a virtual stage race set up to replace the on-road Women's Tour that was cancelled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It will run for three days so you will still see a winner of each stage, and an overall leader.

Just as in the real world Women’s Tour, a rider's cumulative time across the three stages will be their overall time. There are also no time bonuses, so creating time gaps over your rivals will be crucial.

There is one crucial difference: each team do have the ability to make one replacement during the three stages, in case of injury or illness, or if a rider suffers technical issues that stops them taking part. Any replacement rider on days two or three will be automatically placed at the back of the General Classification standings, with a 20 second time penalty.

Image source, Women's Tour

There will be three different stages and routes on the Women's Tour:

Stage one - the opening stage will consist of 38.7 kilometres using the closing stages of the final stage from the 2014 Women’s Tour into Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

Stage two - the second stage replicates the finishing circuit of 2019’s hilltop finish at Burton Dassett in Warwickshire, with three ascents of the 1.7 kilometre climb that averages 4.9% during the 35.4 kilometre stage.

Stage three - the tour finishes with a fast paced criterium around the world famous business district of Canary Wharf in London. Riders will face 35 laps of the one kilometre circuit, as used to conclude the inaugural race.

Image source, RGT Cycling

There will be two Great Britain teams starting out in the V-Women’s Tour this week – under the watchful eye of Senior Academy Endurance Women’s coach Emma Trott, the elder sister of four-time Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny.

Trott revealed that the team had been given some tips by reigning Tour of Britain champion Lizzie Deignan on a recent video call. “I know the riders took a lot from this session, and it’ll give them some extra motivation,” said Trott.

The GB team will have Megan Barker, Jenny Holl and Anna Docherty will line-up for Great Britain on the start line. Barker is the sister of Elinor Barker, who won gold in the team pursuit at the Rio Olympics and Docherty has already represented GB in international competition.

GB’s other squad is Team Breeze, with 18-year-old Manx road racer Amelia Sharpe, the versatile Ella Barnwell and national points race champion Anna Shackley. Some of the riders featured in a test race earlier in the month, with Sharpe taking the win.

Image source, Women's Tour

British cyclist Illi Gardner says the three-day V-Women's Tour, the replacement for the six-day Tour of Britain, is a good move for riders.

Cams-Tifosi's Gardner will ride from her shed in the virtual race, which will be streamed live by BBC Sport.

Gardner is relishing this new challenge. "Lots of races have been cancelled," she said. "We're all just excited for any sort of racing."

British Cycling will have two teams competing in the three-day event.

Read more from Gardner here.

There will be 18 different teams competing in the Women's Tour including Great Britain, Team Breeze and Storey Racing.

Nine-time Paralympic gold medallist Dame Sarah Storey will compete alongside former double Junior World Champion Lucy van der Haar.

US National road race champion Ruth Winder will line up for Trek-Segafredo while the GB and Team Breeze line-ups will be youthful but features Megan Barker, sister of Elinor Barker and Jenny Holl, a European Championship silver medallist in 2019. Holl and Team Breeze's Amelia Sharpe both performed well in test event last week.

You can see the full list of competitors here, external.

Image source, Women's Tour

Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome hunted down several sports stars and celebrities as he won the “Wheels for Heroes” Zwift race last weekend.

Froome was seeded to start last in a pursuit-format race and pipped former England batsman Kevin Pietersen and former Spice Girl Mel C to take victory in the final 200 metres of a 23km virtual route up the side of a volcano.

Golfer Lee Westwood, footballers Ryan Giggs and Steph Houghton, cricketer Andrew Flintoff and singer Olly Murs were among others who failed to keep the four-time Tour de France winner at bay in a charity event in support of the NHS.

The Vuelta a Espana, rescheduled to be held between 20 October and 8 November 8 after being postponed due to the coronavirus, will begin in Irun and end in the Spanish capital Madrid, according to the final route announced last weekend.

Missing from the 18 race days will be the cross-border excursions to Portugal and the Netherlands. Porto and Viseu will now not feature in the race and Zamora and Salamanca will see racing instead.

The 75th edition of the event will now include 18 stages after the first three days in the Netherlands, including the grand depart in Utrecht, were cancelled because of concerns over the Covid-19 virus.

BBC Sport will have live coverage from all three stages of the Women's Tour.

Coverage will be available live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app and available to catch up for 30 days.

Full coverage details:

Stage one - Wednesday 17 June, 19:00-20:00 BST

Stage two - Thursday 18 June, 19:00-20:00 BST

Stage three - Friday 19 June, 19:00-20:00 BST