Nicolas Roche (Sunweb), in his 16th season in the peloton, will make his Tour de Flanders debut Sunday on the balcony of his apartment in Monaco, using a computer simulation on his home trainer. Cycling in the age of the coronavirus.

The Irish rider is one of 13 riders competing in the "Tour of Flanders": in this event, he will join Remco Evenpole, Wout van Aert, and Sunweb teammate Michael Matthews in an online The event will be a re-creation of the last 32km of the race online.

Prior to participating in the virtual ronde, Roche took part in a social ride with Cycling Ireland and Zwift on Sunday morning. During the week, Roche would have run more than 20 hours on his trainer at home. His race calendar may be empty, but his days are full.

Roche, like his colleagues in the propeloton, is working diligently at home while the coronavirus outbreak prevents him from road racing. However, with all competition suspended until at least June 1, some WorldTour teams have begun imposing pay cuts on their riders and making their support staff redundant.

Lotto Soudal, Astana, and Bahrain McLaren have imposed pay cuts of 10%, 30%, and 70%, respectively, and the CCC team has drastically reduced contracts with all athletes and laid off most of its staff, at least until racing resumes. Roche believes that these actions were premature, given that only three weeks had passed since Paris-Nice, the last event before the calendar was stopped by the coronavirus pandemic, had ended.

"Of course, we don't know all the financial reasons teams stop payroll, but as riders, we are still working and working even harder," Roche told Cycling News. 'Imagine a cyclist who is confined to his house or apartment and not allowed to train outside. He has to train 20 hours a week on a home trainer and pay close attention to his diet. It's not good for his morale.

"There is no such talk at Sunweb. Things could change depending on how the economy develops over the next couple of months, but so far it's only been a month. Had this been a six-month crisis, we might have understood."

In many sports, such as soccer, where revenues from ticket sales and television rights are lost due to the suspension of competition, pay cuts are already in place. In the case of cycling, however, the team's revenue comes not from ticket sales or television rights, but from sponsors who ostensibly sign on before the year begins.

Under UCI rules, each WorldTour team's budget, or salary, must be finalized two months before the start of each season. Each applicant must submit a budget and bank guarantee by October 1, which must "take into account all riders [the team] intends to employ" for the following season.

"More than anything, I was surprised that the team made the decision so quickly. I didn't think a month or two without a race would affect the team's budget," Roche said.

"I can somewhat understand the salary cuts in soccer, but cycling is not a sport that fills stadiums or gets millions of euros from merchandising or TV rights."

The players' union, the CPA, has been represented on conference calls of cycling officials in recent weeks, and in an e-mail to its members last week promised to study each team's case individually.

"My manager at Trinity Sports wrote a letter to all cycling stakeholders basically saying what I am saying. Six months from now, or four months from now, I'll understand. I stopped racing, but I did not stop training."

In late February, before the coronavirus epidemic began in Europe, Thomas de Gendt (Lot Soudal) jokingly explained his profession on Twitter: "If you ask me, I will say I work in advertising. I create ads and content for companies worth millions of euros."

The Belgian's words have seemed increasingly prescient in the weeks since. With the lack of competition in road racing, athletes are looking for novel ways to secure their own income and to maintain exposure to sponsors. For example, de Gendt and Roche are two of the 13 riders participating in Sunday's turbo-trainer version of the Rondo, which will be broadcast live on Sporza instead of the main event.

"It's a great initiative. When the team asked for volunteers, I raised my hand too. In this time of crisis - a crisis for everyone - I think it's important to try and support initiatives like this," Roche said.

"I probably post 10 times more than I used to. I live on my team and my social media. I tag my sponsors and make myself as visible as possible. But it's also for the fans at home who are as hungry for cycling as we are."

Roche's 2019 Vuelta a España run was cut short by a fractured kneecap suffered on stage 6, but he recovered quickly and wintered well, starting his 2020 campaign with a 7th place finish at the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var

Since then, he has been a member of the team for more than a decade.

Since then, Roche has been forced to spend more time on his home trainer than at any other point in his career. In fact, he has a "good" turbo trainer in Ireland." "I can be a little more adventurous with the weather," he joked, but once the lockdown went into effect, the team scrambled to get him a Zwift-compatible trainer in Monaco. Roche has since settled into a routine of training virtually every morning with his brother Alexis, a promising espoir.

"I train online for about two and a half hours with my brother and my friend Laurent, who lives near Monaco," Roche said. 'We use Facetime while we're training. It's not as good as an actual spin, but it's just as good as being able to do it on the balcony."

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Roche added a few more hours in the afternoon and an hour in the evening on the second day. He is in regular contact with Sunweb coach Brian Stevens and has a video conference with the team and players every Monday. Said Roche, "The discussions help me make sure I'm still involved."

Indeed, with the physical distance now separating them, maintaining contact is just as important as keeping the riders in shape. Roche has been shuttled to training camp many times in his career, but the solitude of self-isolation is rather absolute. He spent part of February training in South Africa with fellow Monaco resident Michael Matthews. For the past three weeks, he has only waved to Australians from his balcony.

"At training camps in the highlands, you have roommates, you meet people at breakfast and greet them at the reception. In Monaco, I live alone, so I just meet the building concierge every morning when I go to my post."

"The hardest thing is not meeting people, but you can keep in touch through social media and WhatsApp. So even though I'm alone, I'm never alone."

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