France hosts a .Pro weekend
The neighboring French departments of the Ardèche and the Drôme host the Faun-Ardèche Classic and the Royal Bernard Drôme Classic, two young one-day races that take place on the weekend of February 27 and 28. Both races present profiles mined with short but hard climbs, in the style of the Ardennes classics, the Faun-Ardèche being harder than the Drôme. Both races are part of the ProSeries (.Pro), and French riders often triumph in them.
Last year Remi Cavagna (400) prevailed in the Ardèche, being the only survivor of the day's breakaway and epically getting to the line by himself, and Simon Clarke (400) won in the Drôme being the fastest of a 3-men sprint with Warren Barguil (400) and Vincenzo Nibali (800).
Regarding the participants, both races usually present similar startlists, when not identical. Among the favorites to take a win in any of both races we can find Michael Woods (800), Bauke Mollema (600), David Gaudu (800), Tihibaut Pinot (800), Warren Barguil (400), Guillaume Martin (800), Ion Izagirre (800), Jakob Fuglsang (1200) or Marc Hirschi (600), although there are still riders to join the list.