6 Reasons We’re So Freaking Excited for the 2021 Pro Cycling Season
The Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, held in Belgium, opens the European World Tour season for both men and women on Saturday, February 27. So with the season about to take off, here are six things we can’t wait to see unfold.
✔️ Get all the pro cycling news you need to know with Bicycling All-Access!
Will a Frenchman win Flanders?
A French rider hasn’t won the Tour of Flanders or Paris-Roubaix since 1992 and 1997, respectively, but this might be the year that one of those streaks comes to an end.
Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Julian Alaphilippe, the reigning world champion, has generally preferred the hilly Ardennes Classics, but last year he decided to give the Tour of Flanders a shot, just to test the waters. Well, Alaphilippe looked at home on the Flemish-cobbled “bergs,” making the winning breakaway before crashing into a motorbike with about 35K to go.
Despite the mishap, Alaphilippe did enough to announce himself as a true contender in the Classics. His 2021 campaign begins on February 27 at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and with the support of what is probably the best cobbled team in pro cycling, he’s a favorite.
While we’re on the subject of French flahutes, let’s not overlook Alaphilippe’s teammate, Florian Sénéchal. The last Frenchman to win the junior Paris-Roubaix, Sénéchal’s been building himself quite a cobbled resume in recent years, and he’s just the type of rider to capitalize if other teams focus all their attention on his more accomplished teammates. Don’t be shocked if the 27-year-old takes a major cobbled win this spring.
Will anyone stop the Dutch at the first-ever women’s Paris-Roubaix?
We are thrilled to see a women’s Paris-Roubaix finally added to the calendar; frankly, it should not have taken so long to make it happen, especially given that Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the company that organizes the event, was the first race organization to run a women’s Classic alongside the men’s (Flèche Wallonne).
Dutch riders will be the favorites, with Movistar’s Annemiek van Vleuten, SD Worx’s Anna van der Breggan, and Team Jumbo-Visma’s Marianne Vos all looking to become the first woman to win Paris-Roubaix. As far as teams are concerned, Trek-Segafredo might be the best, with Elisa Longo Borghini, Elizabeth Deignan, and their own Dutchwoman, Ellen van Dijk, all capable of winning the Hell of the North, as well.
Can INEOS win all three Grand Tours?
Only the INEOS Grenadiers team could lose Chris Froome, a seven-time grand tour champion, and somehow get stronger.
With Froome to Israel Start-up Nation, INEOS added Richie Porte (from Trek-Segafredo), Adam Yates (from Mitchelton-Scott), and Daniel Martinez (from EF Pro Cycling). These three riders would be grand tour contenders on any other team, but with INEOS they are high-priced super domestiques. These moves have us wondering if INEOS can do something even they’ve never done before: win all three grand tours in a single season.
With Porte, Yates, and Martinez added to the mix alongside Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal, winners of the 2018 and 2019 Tours de France, respectively, and Richard Carapaz and Tao Geohegan Hart, winners of the last two Giro d’Italia, the team will be a favorite in all three grand tours. In fact, with so much talent, the team’s only challenge might be how to juggle each rider’s individual aspirations.
Can the MVP vs. WVA rivalry get any more exciting?
Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel (Apecin-Fenix) and Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) have been racing ever since they were junior cyclocross racers. Recently, their rivalry has hit the road—with even more intensity.
Last year, they each won their first Monument, with van Aert winning Milan-Sanremo in August and van der Poel winning the Tour of Flanders in October, beating van Aert in a two-up sprint. The rivalry went back to the mud in wintertime, with van der Poel again getting the better of van Aert—this time at the world cyclocross championships. Their paths won’t cross again until the spring Classics, where they will square-off in Paris-Roubaix.
Will we see another Slovenian showdown in the Tour de France?
The 2020 Tour de France was one of the most exciting in decades thanks to two Slovenians: Tadej Pogačar of UAE-Team Emirates and Primož Roglič of Jumbo-Visma. Roglič wore the yellow jersey for much of the Tour, but Pogačar ripped it away from him in an individual time trial on the second-to-last day.
There’s little reason to doubt Pogačar’s chances of defeating Roglič a second time, but consider this: Pogačar went into last year’s Tour as a dark horse, not a bona fide contender. This year, as the defending champion, he’ll have a yellow bullseye on his back and won’t be underestimated by anyone.
Meanwhile Roglič, who entered last year’s Tour as the favorite, will be able to sit back and let Pogačar, and his considerably weaker team, shoulder the responsibility of controlling the race from the outset. Perhaps that will give Jumbo-Visma a chance to enter the Tour’s second and third weeks a bit fresher than they did last year.
No matter what happens, watching these two go head-to-head against each other, and INEOS, should be one of the highlights of the season.
How many gold medals can Chloé Dygert win?
While we’re not fans of her political opinions, we can’t help but acknowledge that American Chloé Dygert is one of the most talented riders in the sport. Well on her way to defending her world title in the individual time trial last September, Dygert crashed and hit a guardrail, severely cutting her left leg and ending her season at what should have been its peak.
Still healing, she heads into 2021 with a new team—Canyon-SRAM—and focusing on two major races: the Olympics, where she’ll compete on the road and on the track, and the world championships. Along the way, she’ll race on the road as much as possible with her new World Tour team, depending on her recovery, gaining experience that will hopefully help her become a Classics contender in 2022.
You Might Also Like
