With the UAE tour and a bunch of smaller races currently on going, the pro racing season is well underway. So I thought we can discuss the races and results here (also in an effort to keep other threads spoiler free 
).
I think reallylongfrenchname is one of my new favourite early season races. It just looks so nice over there and the course is rather exciting!
What do you guys think?
Mike Woods w/ his first win & first leaders jersey in Tour du Var, but only 2nd GC.
I think Arabic might be my new favorite foreign language to watch races.
Great idea for a thread, hope it gains traction. Loved watching the Tour du Var-Maritimes-etc-etc stage today - looks just an idyllic place to ride. First time Iâve seen the mythical Madone raced on TV too. The descent looked a lot of fun.
Haha this is amazing. Definitely adds some fire to the finish.
Right?! No wonder so many pros live down there.
Fantastic - I was hoping a thread like this would pop up!
Been a good weekend of racing all round I think. I thoroughly enjoyed the Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var (longest name ever?!). It was great to see FDJ doing a shed load of work yesterday on the slopes but a shame not to see Thibaut Pinot at the fore, but perhaps not surprising as he was 50/50 as to whether he would race this month.
On Thibaut, any thoughts on his recent LâEquipe article and comments? He just doesnât seem to be such a happy chappy these days.
I also enjoyed the first stage of the UAE Tour. Itâs not traditionally a race I tend to pay too much attention to but the first stage turned out to be a cracker - how long do we really thing MvdP will be at Alpecin Fenix for now?
Who is your winner and outsider(s) for the TT today?
Yeah this is a strange one. I bet he gets million-dollar offers from world tour teams almost daily. But last year he said something on the lines of âthey gonna have to waitâ. Donât exactly know why. Maybe some ducth/belgiums can enlighten us, based on interviews in Dutch speaking media?
As for Pinot:
Definitely can see why heâs frustrated. He is not the first one whos critical about TUEs. I agree with him, that if you need these kind of drugs to start/finish a race, you shouldnât be racing. Hopefully the UCI reforms this process in the future.
One of the Alpecin Fenix team has a positive test for Covid. MVDP is taken out of the race, such a shame after yesterday.
Argh, that is rubbish. I was wondering if he might of been able to hold onto the jersey today. Expect Ganna will take the jersey after the TT today.
Wonder if it will of affected any other teams alsoâŠ
Ganna certainly wonât be wearing the Jersey today as he was caught out by the crosswinds and 8mins back in a different echelon on yesterdayâs stage.
Ooof good catch - was not paying attention enough clearly as I watched the last hour this morning on the trainer 
Who do we think for the jersey then?
It has to be Pogacar or Yates for me. They both survived the crosswinds yesterday. I think Pogacar will gain an advantage on the TT over Yates and then we will see what happens on the climbing stages. Yates with an Ineos train, as opposed to Mitchleton Scott, will be strong. Also, the âsprintâ stage left may just be full of more crosswinds and throw another spanner in the works, its good viewing for sure. I wouldnt like to call the overall winner.
Does this mean MvdPs classic season is in danger too? What is the protocol for these situations? Strade Bianche is less than two weeks away. 
I canât say for sure, but I believe he would need to go into a 5 or 10 day isolation, maybe. It would suck to see him miss Strade Bianchi.
I assume (and hope as a fellow dutchie) that isolation + a negative test in 5 and / or 10 days will be OK for the team to continue.
Man, Tiberi suffered a nasty crash across the line todayâŠstill canât tell what happened. I would have said it was a puncture, but when you watch the bike post-crash, it seems like both tires still have air based on the way it bounces.
Never seen anything like this beforeâŠit was definitely windy, that should not have caused a sudden crash like this unless it was a ridiculously strong gust.
What is this??? It looks like a ghost is pulling the wheels away underneath him.
Reminds me of the Miguel Angel Lopez crash⊠Hard to tell with how quickly everything happens, but he appears to change his cadence/coast across the line. Very likely unweighted the front in that moment and either caught a bump or a wind gust and that was that.
Time to ban time trial finish lines.
yeah but Lopez hot somethingâŠeither some of those reflective pieces or a small pothole. There was absolutely nothing that Tiberi hitâŠ
