The Tours of Mallorca and Qatar, running at the same time in completely opposite environs, provide cycling fans a glimpse of some of the top professionals in the world of cycling, as riders look to gain early season victories and form ahead of bigger objectives later in the season. Already there has been a good share of drama, and some situations have already unfolded that will shape the spring classics and other early season races in a few weeks time.
In Qatar, Team Sky has shown impressively in the team time trial discipline, snatching the stage one win at Qatar behind power riding from both Bradley Wiggins and Edvald Boasson Hagen. The newly formed British outfit will be a force in the race against the clock throughout the year, and their victory at Qatar serves to underscore this point.
Sky also had to deal with some bad news, as one of their top classic riders, Kurt Asle-Arvesen, crashed at the beginning of stage two and broke his collar bone. The Norwegian will be out for a minimum of two weeks, putting a damper on his preparations for bigger races like the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. Still, at such and early point in the season, Arvesen should be able to recover in time to have a successful season for his new Sky team.
Others finding their way at Qatar include the Cervelo TestTeam, who suffered a one minute penalty after judges ruled that Heinrich Haussler pushed a fellow teammate during the race. It seems that a penalty was in order per the rules, but a full one minute in a race like Qatar? The penalty leaves Haussler and the rest of his teammates far down the overall classification, and they'll have to focus on stage wins instead of the overall classification for the rest of the race.
As the race is still in the early stages there is still a lot of racing to be done. Expect to see names like Tyler Farrar, Tom Boonen and Gerald Ciolek to be at the front in the coming days, as each searches for their first season win. Boonen, last year's overall winner looks out of the picture after a frenetic and unpredictable stage 2, but the Belgian will still hope to bring back some time in the overall scene between now and the end of the race.
On the island of Mallorca meanwhile other top riders are making the push for their first season victory, and both Robbie McEwen and Oscar Freire have already made good at Mallorca. Both McEwen and Freire are coming off poor 2009 seasons, so an early season win is just what each needed to kickstart their 2010 campaign.
Although the Tours of Qatar and Mallorca are not huge season goals for the best riders in the world, they are still important building blocks for the rest of the season. Not only is individual morale improved with an early season victory, but the team too benefits when they experience early season success. Look for those teams that have not scored a win yet to move to the front with urgency over the coming stages of both races.
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