Table of contents for Review of The Year 2016 in Procycling

When I look back on 2016, there are a few images which really stick in my mind. I’ll never forget Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux – I think when we look back on 2016 in 10 or 20 years, the year will have been reduced to that one crazy image. But there are many more: Greg Van Avermaet breaking his recent Classics duck at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad; Geraint Thomas saving the Paris-Nice race lead on the descent from the Col d’Èze; Sagan at the Classics, above all at the Tour of Flanders, which I was lucky enough to witness firsthand; Mat Hayman winning Roubaix; Lizzie Deignan’s dominant spring; Vincenzo Nibali’s last-ditch smash-and-grab assault on the pink jersey at the Giro; Sagan, again, and Chris Froome at the Tour –…

CORENTIN ERMENAULT The 20-year-old French trackie is only the second non-British rider to join the Wiggins squad. The son of Philippe Ermenault, a team pursuit gold medallist at the 1996 Olympics, Corentin is the European individual pursuit champion. AMUND GRØNDAHL JANSEN The current Norwegian U23 champ is signed to LottoNL!Jumbo for the next two years. The 22-year-old won the U23 ZLM Tour, the Tour de Gironde and a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir. And where others wilted in the hot Doha sun, he rode to "ifth. MAX WALSCHEID Big things were expected of the Giant-Alpecin sprinter at the start of his neo-pro year but then he was one of the six riders hit head-on by a car in January. He’s recovered now and won "ive stages of the Tour…

DAN MARTIN ETIXX QUICK STEP When asked to review the year, whether it be my own performances or that of cycling in general, I always seem to struggle. I'm not sure if it is a strength or weakness but I don't reflect or dwell on what has happened, preferring to make a general assessment of what went well, what went wrong, and then focus on the future. It could also be a sign that I'm getting old in that the seasons seem to meld into one now and I have to really think hard as to who won which race, even myself. This year was indeed special on a personal level as the first with Etixx-Quick Step, a new beginning so to speak, and I'm proud of how I maintained…

Missing out on a world title can make a man lose all sense of himself. When Floyd Patterson surrendered his world heavyweight boxing belt to Sonny Liston in 1962, having suffered a first-round knockout, he left Comiskey Park wearing a false beard and dark glasses, and set off by car from Chicago to New York city that same night. He then boarded a flight to Madrid under an assumed name and, still disguised, hid there for a week Mark Cavendish can allow himself no such anonymity and no such mourning period after being outsprinted by Peter Sagan at the Worlds in Doha. The morning after the race, the Manxman is booked in for a round of media interviews in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel before travelling onwards to the…

Megan Guarnier’s biggest challenge is to stop thinking so much. This is easier said than done – the first Women’s WorldTour winner has a degree in neuroscience from Middlebury College, Vermont, and she spent the first few years of her cycling career working parttime for a risk assessment company in California which calculated the odds on accidents happening at a nuclear power plant. Over many years she trained her brain to analyse, assess, think logically and weigh up evidence and options. She was good at it; lives literally depended on her ability to do this well. But her talent for analysis has been a hindrance as well as a help in her chosen sport. “The bane of my existence in cycling has been overthinking everything,” she says. “Taking decisions on…

This is the time of year to reflect on what was good and what was bad about the past season. Let’s start with the highlights, which for me were the year-long great performances of the reigning world champion, Peter Sagan, and Tour de France champion, Chris Froome. They had success all year and, especially at the Tour, topped it off with smart, bold and brave tactics and great instinct. On stage 11 Peter and Chris attacked together in the crosswinds, the world champion in the green jersey and the Tour's No.1 dossard in yellow. I can’t remember ever seeing that before; it may have happened back in the days of Bernard Hinault or Eddy Merckx. I was so excited to see them racing I could not even sit on my…

MARK CAVENDISH Barry Ryan was in Doha to cover the World Championships and he caught up with Mark Cavendish the morning after he won the Road Race silver medal. Or did he lose gold? Procycling _inds out, on page 76. PETER SAGAN Procycling was in Belgium for the entire Classics season. We watched Peter Sagan transform himself from perennial also-ran into big race winner and _inally, Monument champion. See page 48 for our eyewitness reports CHRIS FROOME The Tour de France winner explains his three biggest exploits at this year's race in his own words: his attack on the descent to Luchon, his escape with Peter Sagan in Montpellier, and his run on Mont Ventoux. See page 86.…

An unedifying discussion of an unsavoury business perhaps reached its low point shortly after lunchtime on 10 November, when Bardiani’s long-time manager Bruno Reverberi barked at the president of an Italian Olympic Committee tribunal, “Nippo-Fantini have Japanese blokes much worse than ours!” Like his Androni Giocattoli and Willier-Southeast counterparts, Gianni Savio and Angelo Citracca, Reverberi was in the dock for allegedly making certain riders pay to race in his team. Common sense and the UCI rules of course state that it should be the other way around: the riders ought to be the ones getting paid. An investigation by the Corriere della Sera newspaper had, though, appeared to confirm age-old rumours that teams recruit riders not on the basis of ability but whether they can bring in sponsors. At the…

André Greipel's bike stands ready for battle ahead of stage 4 of the 2016 Tour de France. The German was fourth on the opening stage and had been beaten by Mark Cavendish the day before, so he had the form and seemed to only need to pull it all together. Alas, the stage 4 finale didn't go his way either and he had to roll in a frustrated 18th. But Greipel persevered and was rewarded on the final stage in Paris with victory on the Champs-Élysées. Greipel's bike is the aero Noah SL. Beyond its focus on speed, it suits the burly rider nicknamed The Gorilla because it achieves its aerodynamics with virtual airfoils and trips rather than skinny airfoil tube shapes. Ridley say this ensures high stiffness under pedalling…

It was the year of Froome’s third Tour. Also of Sagan’s second Worlds and first Flanders. But it was also the year of Cavendish’s comeback, of the first ever Women’s WorldTour, of Brad’s TUEs, Lizzie’s whereabouts and the unforgettable sight of Chris Froome running up Mont Ventoux. This is Procycling’s review of 2016…

2006 Wins four races for Team Sparkasse, the biggest of which is a stage of the 2.1-ranked Course de Solidarnosc. Is frustrated at !ive top 10s in six stages, but no victory, at the Tour of Britain. 2007 Turns pro for T"Mobile and wins 11 races. His !irst comes at Scheldeprijs, and the biggest are two stages of Catalonia. His debut Tour goes less well, with a single ninth place and a DNS on stage 8. 2008 Hits his stride with Columbia, taking two stage wins at the Giro d’Italia, then four at the Tour de France. His !inal win tally is 17, though his Olympic Madison tilt with Wiggins ends in disappointment. 2009 One of his best years ever. Cavendish wins Milan-San Remo in a spectacular sprint, and a…

During 2016 only three riders managed to finish on the podium twice in the Grand Tours: Chris Froome won the Tour de France and finished second at the Vuelta a España; Nairo Quintana won the Vuelta and finished third at the Tour; and Esteban Chaves was second at the Giro d’Italia and third at the Vuelta. Chaves’s lack of a Grand Tour win arguably left him one step below Froome and Quintana but his victory at Il Lombardia, the first by a South American rider, showed his class and confirmed his huge potential for 2017 and beyond. As Alberto Contador falters with age, and Vincenzo Nibali approaches the beginning of the end of his career, Chaves seems destined to join the elite group of riders who can consistently win the…

Tour de France Stage 19 22 July 2016 Astana's Jakob Fuglsang leads the favourites' group on the Montée de Bisane in the Alps. The Kazakh team were trying to move Fabio Aru up from seventh place on GC. They did get him to sixth but he would crack badly the next day and drop out of the top 10. Giro d'Italia Stage 20 28 May 2016 On Sant'Anna di Vinadio, the Giro's last climb, Esteban Chaves is running out of time in pink. He started the day 44 seconds clear of Vincenzo Nibali but the Italian is now 90 seconds ahead. Chaves does all he can, under the watchful eye of Nibali's Astana team-mate Michele Scarponi, but he has to give best. Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne Belgium 28 February 2016 Jasper Stuyven is…

The memory of that rainy, windy and unusually cold day in the heart of the Basque Country remains vivid. It was 9 June, 2013, and the last stage of that year’s Emakumeen Bira, the most important women’s road race in Spain. A day of epic racing. I was there with a friend to enjoy the race as a fan. After the final podium ceremony, we went to meet the charismatic and likeable Evelyn Stevens, third placed in GC. We had been chatting with her before the stage and she quickly recognised us. A few seconds later I found myself accepting a big, silver, sparkly cup in my hands. “This is for you guys. Thanks for your support.” I could barely hear myself saying “I don’t have words for this, Evie.”…

The spring of 2011 produced a series of Classics in which the natural order was in disarray, when the kings were momentarily deposed. Matt Goss was the best sprinter to make the starry eight-man group to contest Milan-San Remo. Nick Nuyens bluffed his way to victory in a pulsating edition of Flanders against, on paper, a much stronger group of rivals. And Johan Vansummeren became the last in a decently long list of usurpers to have their moment in the surprisingly strong northern French sunshine at Roubaix. In that final race Mat Hayman could smell opportunity. He was riding his 10th Roubaix and he knew that sometimes the coup happened: Knaven, Backstedt and O’Grady had all been unheralded winners during his career. And by that point he had made the…

IN PICTURES This was my first Critérium du Dauphiné; I’d never been before, either as a spectator or a photographer. It’s an interesting race, because this is the dress rehearsal for the Tour de France. The best climbers and the best sprinters all report for duty, and they’re not far from their best form. A lot of spectators, of all ages, came as well. Most seemed to gravitate to the starts and finishes, because the cols themselves seemed less crowded. I was struck by the emptiness of the Col de la Madeleine, compared to how it would have been a month later if it had been used by the Tour de France. All this reinforced the notion that the Dauphiné is still a rehearsal, a final tune-up for the teams,…

GOING DOWNHILL, FAST Atop the Col de Peyresourde on stage 8, the favourites were all together and were expected to remain so down to the finish in Luchon. But Froome attacked over the top and carved out a small advantage on the descent, using a bigger gear and adopting a streamlined and very precarious-looking position. He won the stage and took the yellow jersey ”I knew I wouldn’t get a minute or even half a minute. I knew it would only be a few seconds but that was enough to change the dynamic of the race, put me in yellow and let me ride more defensively. We’d looked at the route and talked about the descent with Nicolas Portal. He showed me what it looked like on the map. It…

WORLDTOUR STAGE RACE WINNERS Tour Down Under SIMON GERRANS Richie Porte Sergio Henao Paris-Nice GERAINT THOMAS Alberto Contador Richie Porte Tirreno-Adriatico GREG VAN AVERMAET Peter Sagan Bob Jungels Tour of Catalonia NAIRO QUINTANA Alberto Contador Dan Martin Tour of the Basque Country ALBERTO CONTADOR Sergio Henao Nairo Quintana Tour of Romandy NAIRO QUINTANA Thibaut Pinot Jon Izaguirre Critérium du Dauphiné CHRIS FROOME Romain Bardet Dan Martin Tour de Suisse MIGUEL ÁNGEL LÓPEZ Jon Izaguirre Warren Barguil Tour Of Poland T IM WELLENS Fabio Felline Alberto Bettiol Eneco Tour NIKI TERPSTRA Oliver Naesen Peter Sagan GRAND TOUR WINNERS Giro d’Italia VINCENZO NIBALI Esteban Chaves Alejandro Valverde Tour de France CHRIS FROOME Romain Bardet Nairo Quintana Vuelta a España NAIRO QUINTANA Chris Froome Esteban Chaves MOST GRAND TOUR STAGE WINS THE MONUMENT…

TEAM ISSUE BIKES ! TESTED BY PROCYCLING SPECIFICATION Weight: 7.22kg (sizeM, no pedals) Frame: Factor One, RGi carbon fibre Fork: Factor OTIS, RGi carbon fibre Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 Crankset: Shimano Dura-Ace, 53/39 Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace, 11-28 Brakes: Shimano Dura-Ace Wheels: Black Inc Fifty carbon clinchers, 45mm, CeramicSpeed bearings Tyres: Schwalbe One 23c Handlebar/stem: Factor OTIS one-piece carbon Seatpost: Factor One Saddle: Fizik Arione, braided carbon rails Price: £8,500 | $11,500 www.factorbikes.com Pro team bike sponsorships are usually all business. While every team is looking for advantages, few can afford to opt for the superior bike that comes with a smaller cheque. However, the new partnership between Ag2r and Factor Bikes that begins next season came about in a very different way. Having learned mid-season that Ag2r was splitting from…