What are the pros doing without racing?

A look at what some pros are doing in this time of no racing, country-wide lockdowns and the coronavirus
Tim Bonville-Ginn

We are in a very uncertain and quite worrying time in the world right now, in part because of the COVID-19 virus.

The UCI has opted to suspend all racing on its calendar in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

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Athletes haven’t been able to avoid the disruption, so what are the pros doing in this second off-season?

The most publicised has to be the whole Mitchelton-Scott men’s and women’s teams doing their month’s worth riding on Zwift, where riders, such as Simon Yates and Amanda Spratt, lead virtual rides, events and races.

Other riders and teams decided to go abroad, the men’s and women’s CCC Team along with riders like Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) and Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation) all have had to rush back to their homes though as countries began the process of closing borders.

Dowsett has been tweeting regularly, updating his followers on how he plans to get home.

Many riders in the pro peloton have taken to Zwift, Geraint Thomas (Team Ineos) uploaded a picture to Twitter of him riding the Tour of Watopia on the interactive cycling platform.

Some riders have just been chilling out, Nathan Haas (Cofidis), fresh home from his quarantine in UAE, is regularly out fishing with friend.

Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) uploaded a 6km run (or maybe a walk based on the pace) to Strava after doing a 96km ride the same day. Maybe he’ll throw in a swim and have a stab at triathlon as well when racing returns?

Lots of the American and Colombian riders headed back to their home countries before travel bans fell into place, this meant that some riders had to leave Paris-Nice early, such as Tejay Van Garderen (EF Pro Cycling), who make a quick getaway from France back to the US just hours before they closed off all flights between the two nations.

>>> How can cyclists stay safe during coronavirus crisis? Latest updates from British Cycling and the government 

World Champion, Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) also had to make a swift getaway after stage six of the French race as it was announced that Denmark was closing its boarders completely from noon the next day.

Gorka Izagirre (Astana) has asked Spanish authorities if professional riders can train outside after the Spanish government banned riding outside for two weeks. Being caught riding outside could result in a €3000 fine.

Back here in the UK,  organised events are still being allowed to go ahead and we are allowed to ride outside, but as the country may be heading for lockdown, typical the weather stars to improve.