Cycling events and teams have turned to virtual platforms during the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the road cycling season grinding to a halt.

Zwift has confirmed that the Mitchelton-Scott, EF-Education, NTT, Alpecin-Fenix, Bahrain-McLaren, Canyon//SRAM Racing, CCC-Liv and Boels Dolmans teams will be among the participants in its "Tour for All" exhibition series.

The series will take place from May 4 to 8.

Each stage will be screened live on all Eurosport platforms and streamed globally on the GCN app.

Highlights will also be shown on a GCN show and social media channels.

"During the current pause in live sport, Discovery is bringing to the fore its creativity and partnership building credentials to bring fans the type of live content they’ve been missing," Andrew Georgiou, President of Eurosport and Global Sports Rights and Sports Marketing Solutions, said.

"We are going beyond the archive to offer something completely new that will bring together cycling fans on mass with new stories and unpredictable moments at every turn.

"Through this series, we aim to leverage Discovery’s unrivalled global scale, brands and channel portfolio as part of a deeper collaboration between Eurosport and GCN to bring new and larger audiences to cycling so they can experience the thrills of the sport first-hand."

The series will see teams and the top 25 riders gain points across the week, alongside a daily individual race winner.

Intermediate points will also be awarded on each stage and double points for the top 10 on the queen stage on the final day of racing.

Stages will range in distance from approximately 45 kilometres to 75km and feature approximately 400m to 1700m in elevation.

Organisers estimate the stages will run for between 1 hour 15min to two hours.

Results will be points-based and determined by the team’s performance and results for each stage.

Zwift said the racing series will begin a month-long charity fundraising initiative, which will see the company donate a total of $125,000 (£100,000/€113,000) to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and its COVID-19 crisis fund. 

An additional $125,000 (£100,000/€113,000) can be unlocked once 250,000 people complete a stage of the Tour for All. 

Zwift claims the racing series is designed to showcase mass-participation stages and encourage people to take part by riding some of the same courses that professional riders have raced.

"I’m thrilled to finally be able to announce this new exhibition series in conjunction with GCN and Eurosport, bringing high-level racing and top-class entertainment to the world’s cycling fans," Eric Min, Zwift chief executive and co-founder, said.

"Over the past few months, we’ve delivered a huge number of unique experiences and opportunities to ride with the stars of the World Tour peloton.

"I know many have been keen to see when Zwift will bring World Tour teams together to race, and I can’t think of a better way to deliver this series of Men’s and Women’s exhibition racing than to kick off our charity month".