Innehållsförteckning för February 2017 från Procycling

ISSUE 226 / FEBRUARY 2017 EDITOR As I write, we’re midrace at the Tour Down Under and it’s exciting to see racing action and the colours of the peloton under a bright blue sky again. The sun is shining, Caleb Ewan is winning sprints, and all is well with the world. It’s almost enough to make you forget that races are disappearing left, right and centre. ASO killed the Critérium International during the off-season, which was a shame. Its format was unique and attractive. I’ll miss it, even though it has essentially been left to wither on the vine the last few years. Next, the Tour of Qatar – a WorldTour race –was pulled, owing to a lack of sponsorship according to ASO. Then two more venerable but ailing institutions,…

Lampre’s withdrawal (and Beppe Saronni’s salvage job in securing sponsorship from United Arab Emirates) marked a genuine fork in the road. In 2017 the Persian Gulf is bankrolling two WorldTour teams while Italy, the land of the campionissimi, has none And RCS might have sounded the death knell for Androni by not selecting them for the Giro. It’s been a slow death, an assisted euthanasia which some argue began with Pantani’s expulsion from the 1999 Giro. It’s been horrific but at least there’s a degree of finality about it. Italy has a unique cycling culture and deep-rooted respect for cyclists. It has Vincenzo Nibali but no team. Cycling doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There was a creeping inevitability about the petrochemical billionaires’ advance and in sport, as in life, cash…

QUICK-STEPFLOORS Anew year. A new jersey. A new team name. New teammates. I will have a similar race programme but even though 2017 marks my 10th season in the professional peloton, I can definitely confirm my motivation is not waning and I head into the new season focused and ambitious, hungry to further improve and test the limits of my talent and physical ability. With each passing year I become more experienced, more knowledgeable about everything from nutrition and training to my own body and tactics. The desire to cross every finish line without excuses or asking that dreaded question ‘What if?’ remains very much intact So what lies ahead in 2017? I could simply say, ‘more of the same, or even better, I hope’. Indeed, as the line is…

WM3 PRO CYCLING Ever since this wisp of a climber from southern Poland bent but did not break in the crosswinds of the 2013 Holland Ladies Tour – netting 10th and the young rider's jersey – Katarzyna Niewiadoma’s been touted as a bona fide talent. Each year since she has progressed at a rapid rate with the Rabo-Liv team that has morphed into WM3 Pro Cycling this year. In 2014, she finished 11th at the Giro Rosa and top 10 at the Holland Ladies Tour again. The year after, she won the Emakumeen Bira, a tough Basque stage race, and was second at the Baku European Games. She was also fifth at the Giro Rosa. Last year, she won the Elsy Jacobs Tour, the Giro del Trentino, the Polish TT…

Geraint Thomas will turn 31 in late May, on the day of the Giro’s queen stage. A good opportunity to reflect on what has gone before, and what has yet to be achieved. But he already knows that he needs the chance to try and win a Grand Tour. We’re not talking as plan B, GC back-up – that was 2016. We’re talking fully resourced, sole-leader stuff. That’s what Thomas wants in 2017. The Cardiff-born Sky rider feels the finiteness of his career. Possibilities, which may once have been many and various to a man of his all-round talents, have been reduced to the ones that really matter. Over the past four years he has transformed from trackteam pursuiter to Classics man to his current, more spindly form as a…

Whether or not 2017 turns out to be a last hurrah for Tom Boonen, the power shift at the cobbled Classics has already taken place. When Fabian Cancellara came within 10 seconds of earlier escapees Peter Sagan and Sep Vanmarcke on the Oude Kwaremont, and then again within 15 seconds of a solo Sagan on the run to Oudenaarde in the Tour of Flanders last year, it wasn’t just the destiny of the winner’s trophy that was being decided. When Sagan successfully held on to win, itsymbolised the final, inevitable victory of a new generation over the old guard. Even Mat Hayman and Tom Boonen’s first and second place at Paris-Roubaix a week later couldn’t hide the fact that the generation of riders born in the early 1980s (late 1970s…

Features editor Procycling John Degenkolb will get back to winning ways A lot of race craft and savoir-faire built up in Trek-Segafredo under Fabian Cancellara. Degenkolb’s inherited the lot, apart from Stijn Devolder. The German hit the ground running when he joined both HTC and Giant and was showing signs of his resurgence towards the end of last year. He’ll be back to do big things in 2017. The Giro’s going to be a belter The Corsa Rosa’s cast of hopefuls deepened by the day over winter but hadn’t suffered the habitual fate of the Tour and grown too big to lose. Capping it all off is the clash between the natives, Vicenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru. They’re former uneasy teammates now free to go at each other’s throats. Romain…

Over the course of several hours in a conference room of the German National Cultural Museum in Nuremberg in November 2015, some of Germany’s and indeed the world’s leading experts on anti-doping painted a very glum picture of professional sport. The importance of matters at hand was beautifully illustrated by the mere presence of some attendees. For a few minutes before the conference began, the museum’s atrium resembled a living, breathing Madame Tussauds of anti-doping in Germany. Chasing cheesecake around a plate on one side of the room was Birgitte Berendonk, the former East German discus-thrower turned Deep Throat of the GDR doping system. A few metres away, Berendonk’s husband, the microbiologist and dopers’ bête noire for four decades, Werner Franke, had his huge paws clasped around Hajo Seppelt. Seppelt…

“After a track season, I really look forward to getting back on the road; when I get to fly over to Europe and hang out with my team” Annette Edmondson knows full well how to take advantage of her younger brother’s good nature. Alex – a second-year pro with the Orica-Scott team – has got his own apartment in Girona, Spain, this season. His older sister, on the other hand, is homeless – at least while she’s racing on the road in Europe with her Wiggle-High5 team. “I’ve asked him if I can stay for a couple of weeks. And he’s said yes,” Edmondson says. “But I think I’ll be able to stretch it out to five months or so…” It’s all in good fun, of course. And you get…

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JANUARY FEBRUARY 25 FEBRUARY OMLOOP HET NI EUWSBLAD The longstanding and prestigious Belgian season-opener gets elevation to the World Tour for 2017. The Omloop crosses many of the same bergs as the Tour of Flanders, though the distance is shorter and there’s a "latter run-in after the final cobbles. It still suits the same riders, however. 2016 PODIUM 1st Greg Van Avermaet 2nd Peter Sagan 3rd Tiesj Benoot 4 MARCH STRADE BIANCHE A rare thing – a new race that stands comparison with long established events. The gravel ‘white roads’ which give the race its name have steep climbs and are a significant challenge. It will be interesting to see if World Tour status and a deeper field changes the open racing it's known for. 2016 PODIUM 1st Fabian Cancellara…

EST 1903 What do you do, as the organiser of the Tour de France, when the winner of the yellow jersey in three of the last four years has been the strongest climber and the strongest time triallist in the race? You come up with a route somewhat resembling that of 2017. There’s a reduction in the big ticket summit finishes for this year’s edition, though the stage to the Col d’Izoard will make up for that. And two measly time trials, one of 13km and one of 23km (which may still give Froome time to do some damage – he gained most of his advantage in 2016 in the time trials). The big summit finishes saw a bit of a stalemate in 2016, while in 2015 Froome killed the…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH ROMAIN BARDET The man from the Auvergne is known for his diligence, work ethic and attacking flair. His consistency means he’s now the best-placed Frenchman to have a tilt at the Tour. ALEXANDRE GENIEZ The 28-year-old ex-mountain biker crossed the old firm divide from FDJ in the off-season and will add climbing punch and a GC option in short stage races. He'll have a crack at the Giro this year. A few ago back, Ag2r couldn’t buy results but the Chambery-based team sharpened up its coaching and has become a lot keener and more purposeful. The win rate dropped sharply last year, but Vincent Lavenu and his men will be happy with their lot after Bardet took second and a stage at the Tour.…

BMC is looking well-rounded, with competitive options across the calendar. Greg Van Avermaet got the big win he needed at the Olympics last year, but success will be pegged on Flanders: he desperately craves victory there and if he wins, Belgium will party for a week. The team’s GC hierarchy got settled at the Tour last year, when Richie Porte proved more reliable than Tejay Van Garderen. Porte will get the lion’s share of support at the Tour and the pick of the stage races leading up to it and if he can repeat his 2015 spring, victories should come early. The early steps of Rohan Dennis as he progresses from tester to stage racer will be worth watching but he’ll still be a key member of the world TTT…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH STEPHEN CUMMINGS The 35-year-old from the Wirral has enjoyed three consistently improving seasons at DiData. He puts the success down to being afforded more freedom, and has taken huge wins. MARK CAVENDISH Stormed back last year with 10 wins, four at the Tour, which he left early for the Olympics. No such distractions this year, so it'll be all in for the Tour de France and more stage wins there. The squad won 32 races last year including five Tour stages. But despite this, the UCI had to break its own rules to keep the African team in the WorldTour. Team Principal Doug Ryder will hope Mark Cavendish can keep winning: eyes are set on Eddy Merckx’s record of 34 Tour stages. Last year…

Manager Marc Sergeant has made minimal roster changes. Tiesj Benoot had a stellar debut in the cobbled Classics in 2015 and he gets a strong right-hand man for the cobbles in Nikolas Maes who joins from Etixx. Versatile Tony Gallopin also shifts emphasis from the Ardennes to the cobbles where he’ll be both support and decoy for the young Belgian. The core of the sprint squad remains focused on the dependable André Greipel who took three Giro stages and one at the Tour. The team has also replaced Greg Henderson with Moreno Hofland, who joins from LottoNL and is a decent secondary sprint option. Add Tim Wellens and Rafael Valls and they may hit 2015’s high of 40 wins again. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH TIM WELLENS A consistent…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH SIMON GERRANS The 36-year-old has had more than his fair share of injuries over the past two years. His contract ends in 2017, which means if his fortunes don’t improve he may call it quits. ESTEBAN CHAVES One of the most popular riders last year, with the results to back it up – a Monument victory and two GT podiums. Tour fans will have to wait a little longer: he’s set on the Giro-Vuelta programme. The question that surely vexed team manager Shayne Bannan over winter was how to follow up 2016. Orica placed a rider in the top four at all three GTs, won at least a stage in each and took two Monuments. All told, 28 victories. To get anywhere close will…

Iwan Spekenbrink robbed Peter to pay Paul by signing Michael Matthews to replace John Degenkolb: almost the straightest of swaps, except that Matthews is still striving for the big Classics win, while Degenkolb has three. Matthews seems happier hoovering up stage wins and he’s already thinking about ways to tackle the Peter Sagan problem at the Tour. Tom Dumoulin, who came within two climbs of winning the 2015 Vuelta, will be interesting to watch as he embarks on the process of turning from rouleur to GC man. He’s off to the Giro, leaving the Tour open for Warren Barguil and Matthews to go stage hunting – in the case of the former that’s after a tilt at the Ardennes Classics. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH MAX WALSCHEID The young…

After his Chinese backers disappeared, Guiseppe Saronni found late investment from an Abu Dhabi consortium. This is the rump of the old Lampre outfit, with an assortment of fast finishers from Sky, IAM and Astana. Saronni did some clever signing in the offseason to make the team competitive for stage wins. The 2013 world champion Rui Costa has hit 30 and is still the biggest name on the list. It has GT top 10 finishers in Louis Meintjes and Darwin Atapuma. Diego Ulissi, who has won stages in the last three years at the Giro, is a rider with high power, short range punch. The goals will be a strong showing in the Grand Tours, especially the Tour, to get things off to a good start. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH THOMAS VOECKLER The 37-year-old bagged four wins last year, including a stage and the overall at the Tour de Yorkshire. The dream scenario this year would be a stage win at the Tour but that’s a diminishing possibility BRYAN COQUARD The demonstrative sprinter had the best season in his five-year professional career in 2016. He’s ring-fenced the Tour as his main goal and identified five or six stages which he reckons suit him. The squad scored 25 wins last year – a big haul. There’s been little change to the roster, though Jonathan Hivert joins from Fortuneo-Vital Concept. Over half last year’s wins came from versatile and likeable sprinter Bryan Coquard. He’d probably have swapped a dozen or so for an extra 1cm at…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH GUILLAUME VAN KEIRSBULCK After six years with Quick-Step, the Belgian signed a two-year deal with Wanty. He won the Three Days of De Panne in 2014 and now he wants to be a clear team leader in the Classics. GUILLAUME MARTIN The slight-built French climber made a real success of his neo-pro year with a second place on GC at the Tour of Austria and fourth at the Tour de l’Ain. There's more to learn but he’s progressing well. The team’s 2016 was indelibly marked by the death of Antoine Demoitié at Gent-Wevelgem but despite the tragedy the squad showed admirable resilience and fighting spirit. It was the only ProContinental team to win a one-day race at WorldTour level – the Amstel Gold Race.…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH STIJN STEELS The nephew of Quick-Step Floors DS and ex-pro Tom Steels almost won a stage of the Eneco Tour last year but his group was caught in sight of the line. Well connected, he now needs to prove his talent. ELIOT LIETAER The Belgian has a rare facility for climbing, on a team of strapping flatlanders. Lietaer had a good 2016 with high finishes on .HC and .1 ranked stage races and he’ll hope to pull off a big one this year. Christophe Sercu’s squad has a solid history of blooding young Belgians in the cobbled Classics before they go on to the WorldTour. Jelle Wallays, Edward Theuns, Yves Lampaert and Tom Van Asbroeck have all trodden the path in the past three…

Because the team didn’t get a wildcard for the Giro last year, team manager Gianni Savio made the squad knuckle down in 2016. The reward for that was twice as many wins as the previous year thanks mostly to sprinter Marco Benfatto in the Tour of China, so not, maybe, the highest quality victories, nor did it yield a wildcard for 2017. Perhaps the most exciting rider on the roster is Egan Bernal, a highly talented Colombian who joined straight from the juniors last year. WINS AGE SPREAD…

We’re expecting a classy start list. Some riders, such as Esteban Chaves and Fabio Aru, have explicitly said they will be there. This year’s Giro, by dint of being the 100th, has a lot of depth and it’s logical to expect many to skip the Tour and focus on the Giro and Vuelta. Step forward Tejay Van Garderen and Ilnur Zakarin, for example,who will both be in Italy. Then there’s the July cohort who have found that the Tour-Vuelta combo is doable in a way the Giro-Tour is not. Chris Froome will be almost certain to ride and Alberto Contador won't want to miss possibly his last Vuelta. About the only really dubious attendee at the moment is Nairo Quintana, who will ride the Giro then the Tour. Unless he…

BRENDAN CANTY The Victorian was seventh at the Tour of Oman and eighth at the Tour of Austria riding for Drapac last year. The 24-year-old was one of just three Drapac riders to survive the team’s merger with Cannondale. MILES SCOTSON Elder brother of Callum, Miles won a stage of the Olympia’s Tour in Holland last year, but by far the 23-year-old’s biggest road victory was a solo win in the Australian National Championships – quite a gift to take to his new team, BMC ROB POWER A bone marrow disease forced the 21-year-old to sit out most of 2016, his first year with Orica-Scott, but the highly rated Power returned well to take third at the Japan Cup. He won the Giro della Valle d’Aosta in 2015.…

WIN MORE I would love to win more races than last year. I had too many podium positions in 2016 without scoring really big TOUR GC A trouble-free run at the Tour de France to really find out my true capacity in the biggest race would be great DISC DECISION I hope we get a firm set of rules in place on disc brakes. All equipment progressions draw anxiety and criticism but this one more than ever CLEAN SPORT Let's hope we have a year without a positive or the media spotlight on doping. The sport is cleaner than ever but we must keep pushing COLLABORATION Teams, organisers, riders and the media must work together to find a solution for the sustainability of cycling. We all need each other…

AG2R LA MONDIALE In many ways, Pierre Latour is in the perfect situation. He’s a gifted, up-and-coming stageracing star who climbs very well, and he rides for a French team which is based in the Alps. Ag2r La Mondiale might not be as slick as some of the bigger and more international teams but they’ve earned an excellent reputation not just as a strong team which punches above its weight but also as developers of young riders, and Latour is just the latest in a long line of talent. He’s also shielded from any pressure from home cycling fans by the presence of 2016 Tour de France runner-up Romain Bardet in the team. While all the attention is focused on Bardet, Latour has a great opportunity to quietly develop. Though…

2006 Still an U23, Thomas is impressive at the Flèche du Sud in Luxembourg, where he takes a stage and the GC. Bronze in the National Elite RR Champs is followed by a fifth in a Tour of Britain stage. 2007 Signs for Barloworld and finishes his first Tour de France. At 21, he is the youngest rider in the field. On the track, he takes his first world title, in the team pursuit in Mallorca. 2008 Though he completes the Giro d’Italia, Thomas’s focus is on the track, and he takes gold with the GB team pursuit squad in both the Worlds and in the Beijing Olympic Games. 2009 Suffers a nasty crash in Tirreno, ruining spring and summer. Fifth place in the Coppa Bernocchi race and sixth overall…

Editor Procycling The class of 1990 will come of age Here are some of the riders born in 1990: Fabio Aru, Nairo Quintana, Peter Sagan, Micha¯ Kwiatkowski, Romain Bardet, Nacer Bouhanni, Thibaut Pinot, Esteban Chaves, Tom Dumoulin and Michael Matthews. They’ll win Grand Tours, Monuments, and plenty else in between. They already have, actually, but with the retirement of Cancellara and Boonen, there’ll be no doubting which generation now holds the balance of power. Froome is going to win the Tour Apologies for stating the obvious but I get the same feeling from Froome going into this year as I did when Miguel Indurain, then on three yellow jerseys, went into the 1994 Tour, or when Armstrong, also on three, went into 2002. He’s the best, he knows it and…

If you had to sum up the balance of power in the Grand Tours as we go into 2017, you might surmise that we’re in the era of Chris Froome. Both Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali technically have a better palmarès than the British rider, but both, Contador especially, are heading towards the tail end of their careers. Contador has won seven Grand Tours (and been stripped of two more for his 2010 Tour doping infraction), but only three of these have come in the last five years, and since his last win, the 2015 Giro, his GT results have been fifth, DNF and fourth. He hasn’t won the Tour since 2009, and eight years is a long time in pro cycling. Nibali’s the reigning Giro d’Italia champion but the…

2012 TOTAL WINS 32 MAJOR WINS Tour Down Under, Milan-San Remo, Volta a Catalunya BEST GT PLACING 72nd, Tour de France 2013 TOTAL WINS 34 MAJOR WINS Two stages - Tour de France, Two stages - Vuelta a España Tour de Pologne BEST GT PLACING 37th, Giro d’Italia 2014 TOTAL WINS 35 MAJOR WINS Tour Down Under, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, GP de Québec, GP de Montréal BEST GT PLACING 41st, Vuelta a España 2015 TOTAL WINS 28 MAJOR WINS Two stages - Giro d’Italia, Clásica San Sebastián, Three stages - Vuelta a España BEST GT PLACING 5th, Vuelta a España 2016 TOTAL WINS 28 MAJOR WINS Tour Down Under, Paris-Roubaix, One stage - Giro d’Italia, One stage - Tour de France, EuroEyes Cyclassics, Four stages - Vuelta a España, Il Lombardia BEST…

The big problem, Laurent Fignon said heading into the 1988 season, was that he’d become accustomed to losing. “Some days the old sensations are there but it always seems to be one step forward and two steps back,” he said. “A bike rider is alive only when he is winning. Only in victory can he make sense of the struggle, so I will try for another year but I won’t go on like this indefinitely. If I cannot find my old level I prefer to stop. I see things differently now, and there are other priorities in my life.” Fignon, the two-time Tour de France winner, had found himself at something of a crossroads. He’d endured three long, hard, by-and-large miserable years, but now he was resolved to give cycling…

TEAM ISSUE BIKES - TESTED BY PROCYCLING SPECIFICATION Weight: 7.53kg (size XL, no pedals) Frame: Cento10Air, carbon monocoque Fork: Cento10Air, carbon monocoque Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace 9100 Crankset: Shimano Dura-Ace 9100, 50/34 Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace 9100, 11-28 Brakes: Shimano Dura-Ace 9100 Wheels: Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon Exalith Tyres: Mavic Yksion 25c Handlebar/stem: Wilier Alabarda one-piece Seatpost: Wilier Cento10Air Saddle: Astute Star Price: £6,299 | $6,950 www.wilier.com Long live a free and redeemed Italy. Such was the close association between Wilier and the powerful wave of nationalist pride that swept through Italy after World War Two, the phrase was coined turning the brand’s name into a celebratory acronym: W [viva] Italia Libera e Redenta. The sentiment is preserved on the headtube of every Wilier, and this one especially. The most Italian of…

EST 1907 Milan-San Remo, the first Monument of the year, is renowned for being an easy race to ride and a supremely hard one to win. The hills are tame, the roads are largely wide and sweeping, and only the distance – 298km - makes it stand out from the others. But there isn’t a more tense final hour in any other race in the whole calendar. As the bunch speeds along the Mediterranean coast, a trio of small rises – the capi – are followed by the longer, steady climb of the Cipressa, along with its sinuous descent, then the harder Poggio. The Poggio is, in the right circumstances, just about hard enough to break the peloton, turning the race into a finely balanced competition between the sprinters and…

EST 1935 The Vuelta a España has found an excellent niche for itself towards the end of the cycling season, having filled the gap between the Tour de France and the World Championships far better than any of the other races at this time of year. It’s where young GC hopes can blood themselves as GC contenders without too much pressure and in a field which is strong, but racing at a less intense level than in the Giro or Tour. It’s where riders who’ve had a bad Tour can turn their seasons around – even a bad Tour can be a good foundation for endof-year form. It’s where riders who competed in the Giro can go for a second peak – witness Esteban Chaves finishing on the podium of…

The Kazakh squad lost Vincenzo Nibali this winter meaning future success rests more with Fabio Aru. The 2015 Vuelta winner has made the Giro and the Vuelta his targets in 2017 after he cracked on stage 20 of the Tour and dropped out of the top 10 – a result that still smarts. The Giro starts on his home isle, Sardinia, and he will be a favourite having been on the podium twice. Tour leadership is likely to be thrashed out between the Dane, Jakob Fuglsang (seventh in 2013) and the Tour debutant Miguel Ángel López, the 2015 Suisse winner. Matti Breschel’s arrival adds a cobbled Classics contender. It may bristle with stoic, worthy talent, but Nibali’s departure diminishes the stature of the squad. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH LEOPOLD KÖNIG His best result at Sky was sixth at the 2015 Giro. Now he returns to the team that got him to seventh at the 2014 Tour. He’s a solid TTist but thrives on the climbs. This will be a big year for him. PETER SAGAN The only thing that isn't surprising about the Slovakian is his race programme and 2017 will be a rinse and repeat of last year. Flanders, Roubaix and the green jersey beckon. Manager Ralph Denk orchestrated the transfer coup of 2016 by signing the most bankable name in cycling. Win or lose, Peter Sagan is the biggest headline generator in the sport. Given the arrival of the Slovakian star and nine riders from eastern Europe, the team has…

It’s a youthful bunch under Marc Madiot this year, with almost half the squad 26 or under in 2017. What experience there is, however, is of the longstanding kind, like Jérémy Roy and Benoit Vaugrenard. Madiot has mapped out a different schedule for his leader, Thibaut Pinot, who will make his debut at the Giro, aiming for the GC. He will also ride the Tour, but team leadership goes to the 2016 Milan-San Remo winner, Arnaud Démare. Démare will also lead the cobbled Classics squad and will be aiming to be in top form for Roubaix as it’s 20 years since Frédéric Guesdon, now a DS, won that race for the team. Exciting young Swiss rider, Sebastian Reichenbach will lead the line at the Vuelta a España. WINS AGE SPREAD…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH GEORGE BENNETT The Kiwi rode his first Tour last year and then kicked on at the Vuelta where he finished 10th – New Zealand’s first top 10 in a GT. He was ill over the winter but will be aiming for the Tour. PRIMOŽ ROGLIC The former ski-jumper is a great time triallist and took a stage win at the Giro in his first season as a pro last year. He’ll be expected to start filling the gap left by the departure of Wilco Kelderman. The Dutch squad lost a couple of its best riders in the off-season. Sep Vanmarcke left as he approached his best years. GC talent Wilco Kelderman also departed. In come Lars Boom and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. Dependable Robert…

For the past five years, the Belgian squad has topped the win list – last year the next best team, Sky, had 15 fewer bouquets. The loss of TT specialist and budding Classics man Tony Martin, whose time with the team coincided with that victory run, will be felt acutely. Still, it’s one big name for another: Philippe Gilbert joins from BMC. At 34, he’s said it’s time to win a big Classic. Quite where the old fish Ardennes specialist fits among a bevy of younger riders such as Julian Alaphilippe and Dan Martin will be a knotty problem. The primary goal this season though will be to do one more good, perhaps historic, thing with Tom Boonen, still Belgium’s brightest star. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH TOM BOONEN…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH BAUKE MOLLEMA The Dutchman rode his best Tour in 2016 but it was sullied by a crash on the road to Morzine. He came back to win at San Sebastián. Will lead at the Giro, and could thrive in the Italian race JASPER STUYVEN The 24-year-old won KBK last year and hopes to win big in 2017. Degenkolb’s arrival slightly complicates things; first understudy is probably the most apt description. Luca Guercilena has lured some strong talent to Trek. Alberto Contador, who has been in gradual decline since his 2015 Giro victory, has deferred retirement by a year – will it be a triumphant cymbal crash at the end of the fade? As proved in the Vuelta, he’s still a master tactician but the…

The latest iteration of the French squad is as a delivery vehicle for combustible sprinter Nacer Bouhanni. He contributed 11 wins last year. It could have been more had he not been relegated twice or injured his hand in a fight that kept him out of the Tour. His first goal will be Milan-San Remo. After that, manager Yvon Sanquer will hope Bouhanni and the core lead-out around him finally gets the uninterrupted run at the Tour they were signed for. Newcomers include Dimitri Claeys, ninth at Flanders last year, to add some more punch to the Classics squad. The team also welcomes Guillaume Bonnafond, who brings solid Grand Tour experience, but like the past two years the team will be all about one-day success. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO…

Emanuel Hubert’s squad was beset by a series of injuries and illnesses last year that ruled out his best riders for important portions of their seasons. He’ll hope the aborted signing of Gianni Meersman because of a heart problem on the eve of 2017 is the last setback. Key arrivals include Maxime Bouet, a big engine at Quick Step who is keen to return to the Tour, and veteran Arnold Jeannesson who turned out some good results for Cofidis last year. British sprinter Daniel McLay is expected to deliver victories; his two wins last year, and a third place on a Tour stage, give him solid foundations on which to build. Fortuneo will certainly get a wildcard spot at the Tour and they’re also angling for a Vuelta invite. WINS…

Ireland’s first ProContinental squad is keeping it real in its first year. Its roster is just 16 riders and it’s sticking to a single programme while it gets in the swing of things. Seven riders come from the WorldTour, bringing real quality; the remainder are mostly from UK teams. The team looks particularly strong for one-day racing towards the beginning and the end of the season. Lasse Norman Hansen, Andy Fenn and Adam Blythe all have a strong pedigree in long, tough races and this year represents their best chance yet to demonstrate their abilities. At 27, Blythe will be one of the key team leaders and responsible for many of its results after a few seasons as a domestique for Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS…

It wasn’t a good off-season for manager Bruno Reverberi who’s been 30 years in the business. He appeared with managers of the Androni and Wilier squads in the so-called ‘pay to race’ scandal, then lost his most regular winner, Sonny Colbrelli, to Bahrain-Merida. Another of his stars, Giulio Ciccone, had to undergo checks on a heart problem. Ciccone won a stage at the Giro last year; if that can be repeated – by Ciccone or anybody else – Reverberi will probably manage a smile. WINS AGE SPREAD…

LOTTO-SOUDAL Of all the niches in the professional ecosystem one of the hardest to succeed at is as the breakaway specialist. Neither sprinter nor climber nor rouleur, their crust is made scavenging from all three. Such jacks of all trades would once have enjoyed a healthy win rate but in a hyper-specialised peloton, no longer. Some teams have even given up considering such omnivores. “Riders need a specialism or be bloody good domestiques,” Allan Peiper once told Procycling. Some teams do still offer a roof for free spirits and Lotto-Soudal has one of the best of these escapees – Thomas de Gendt. “It’s the only thing I’m any good at,” he tells us drily over the phone on the eve of his sixth Tour Down Under start. “It’s my kind…

There was widespread scepticism at the start of 2016 about the potential of Mark Cavendish to regain the form that used to win him multiple Grand Tour stages over the course of the season. With Marcel Kittel and André Greipel each having got the best of him at the Tour de France in the years since 2014, it looked like the Manx rider had reached his peak and would find it difficult to dominate the sprints again. One season later, and Cavendish is the man to beat, having won four Tour stages and also, in a couple of side projects, picked up silver medals in the Olympic Games omnium and the World Road Race Championships (the latter of which really should have been a gold). With a hilly World Champs…

Author,TVPresenter The wrong medicines Team Sky’s winter of discontent will pass, its repercussions may even fade, but the issues of TUEfudging and “legal” doping will continue to stir debate, conjecture and disagreement in the next 12 months. If it’s not Bradley’s prescribed tonic, triamcinolone, the lightning rod over the next year could be thyroid treatments. The controversial athletics coach, Alberto Salazar, came under intense fire in 2015 over allegedly encouraging his runners to medicate minor thyroid deficiencies. Anecdotal reports of the same trend in cycling have intensified in recent months - and may well leave riders facing similar questions to Froome and Wiggins, should they crystallise into specific accusations. A tense Grand Départ The mayor of Düsseldorf, Thomas Geisel, thinks 2m people might see the Tour set out from his…

Carthy previously spent two years on UK Continental squad Rapha Condor-JLT. Manager John Herety recalls that Carthy most impressed him on a stage when Herety was deeply unimpressed with the entire team. “It was the queen stage of the Tour of Azerbaijan in 2014. The break went with about 12 riders, none of them ours, so I was really annoyed with everybody. “But on the last climb, when the break had some 10 minutes, Carthy shot out of the pack and started blasting past one rider after another all the way to the summit. He didn’t get to the stage winners, and to be honest afterwards I was still cross with the team so I didn’t pay much attention to what he’d done, but then all the rival managers started…

Here we are at the start of yet another season, like a clean sheet of paper, and we are all curious to see what kind of story the pros will write for us. Here are some ideas of what we can expect from this year. The change of generations will be complete. We already witnessed it last year when the old king of Classics Fabian Cancellara had to give up his throne to Peter Sagan. And there is no doubt that Peter will rule the Classics for the next 10 years just like Fabian did. Another old king of the Classics, Tom Boonen, will run his final campaign this year, willing to fight off the younger generation one last time. The same goes for the Tour de France this year.…

EST 1909 The 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia has already attracted a very strong line-up of riders. The prestige of taking part in such an important edition of the race is a big draw, and there’s also the suspicion that Chris Froome’s hegemony at the Tour de France has encouraged riders to look elsewhere for glory. The route takes in Italy’s two major islands, Sardinia and Sicily, before a long journey from south to north on the mainland. It’s a happy accident of history that their two most prominent Grand Tour riders, Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru, come from Sicily and Sardinia respectively, and the 2017 Giro will be their first real clash as rivals. They cohabited uneasily at Astana, as Aru’s star steadily waxed, with an apparent clash…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH JON I ZAGI RRE The Spaniard broke his Movistar contract to join Bahrain. He had a great 2016, taking a Tour stage win among five victories. Should Nibali falter, he’s a competent if not sparkling understudy. VICENZO NIBALI Courted by Trek, the Italian got a better deal and more focused support at Bahrain. Destined for the Giro, which pits him against old team-mate, Aru. It’s the battle Italy has been waiting for. Bankrolled by Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad’s petro dollars, the Bahrain squad was the first Middle-Eastern based team in the WorldTour. Their marquee signing is the four-time Grand Tour winner Vincenzo Nibali who has had a team built around him. The question is, can he win another GT and join some of Italian…

After a couple of tricky seasons, thanks to an awkward-looking merger with Cannondale and the retirement of its old guard, Cannondale-Drapac is getting back to its quirky roots. Joe Dombrowski, with the engine of a Ferrari in the chassis of a double decker bus if you listen to the general manager, is still on the hunt for a first GT stage win. Taylor Phinney joins from BMC and he’s nearing full recovery after a career-threatening injury in 2014. Everybody wants to see what Phinney can do in the Classics, but for now he’ll play second fiddle to Sep Vanmarcke who rejoins from LottoNL-Jumbo. It’s a team of broken biscuits but if Jonathan Vaughters gets his recipe right, it could be a delicious rocky road. WINS RIDERS TO WATCH HUGH CARTHY…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH TONY MARTI N An effective battering ram during the Classics in 2016, his first meaningful season on the cobbles. Acevedo would be foolish not to try and use him more subtly this year. MADS WURTZ SCHMIDT The Dane is a promising time triallist and rouleur – he won the junior Paris-Roubaix in 2012 – and will be expected to add more grunt to Katusha’s powerful looking classics roster. There have been significant changes at Katusha this year, to appear more international. The most obvious manifestation is Alpecin, a new sponsor on the jersey. Manager Viatcheslav Ekimov has departed to run the Russian Cycling Federation and José Acevedo steps up. The licence has been moved to Switzerland. The roster has changed: eight Russians left and…

All things being equal, Nairo Quintana will be back at the Tour to win it. Three times a podium finisher there, the Colombian is still to take yellow. What shape he’ll be in is unknown, as he rides the Giro, also to win. After riding all three Grand Tours last year, Alejandro Valverde reverts to his old race programme, meaning a full assault at the Ardennes followed by the Tour and the Vuelta. After near misses on a number of occasions the veteran is particularly focused on the Amstel Gold Race and Il Lombardia. At the other end of the age spectrum, Marc Soler, 23, the 2015 Tour de l’Avenir winner is touted as one of the replacements for the ageing generation of Spanish stage racers. WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS…

WINS AGE SPREAD RIDERS TO WATCH MICHAË KWIATKOWSKI The softly spoken Pole, dubbed a work of art on a bike by a former DS, had a mixed first season in Sky, beset by injury and illness. He won E3, but his main target in 2017 will be the Ardennes. CHRIS FROOME The Briton is the man to beat at the Tour, although the likelihood is that it'll actually be difficult to beat him. The big aim remains the Tour-Vuelta double, which he almost pulled off last year. Fresh meat arrives in the shape of Jon Dibben, Tao Geoghegan Hart, and Owain Doull. This could be the core of Sky mk3 after the reigns of Wiggins and Froome. Diego Rosa and Kenny Elissonde bring yet more climbing domestiques into the squad.…