Even with the shortened racing season, several strong performers have emerged this year and this piece will recognise the eight best cyclists of 2020. As usual the team will be made like a grand tour team, so to have a balance of the type of riders and I will also pick a rider of the year.
Primož Roglič – Jumbo-Visma – Rider of the Year
Roglič did not race until June but got his season off to a perfect start beating Pogačar to the Slovenian national title. His first stage race was the Tour de L’Ain, where he won two of the three stages and came second in the other. He continued that form into the Dauphiné by winning stage two and leading the race, before he had to quit the race from the lead, due to a crash on stage four. There were some doubts over his form before the Tour de France, but he crushed them by winning the first summit finish of the race. He took the Yellow Jersey on stage nine, looking comfortable in it until the final time-trial. He had a bad day at the wrong time and lost out in the greatest finish to a Tour in thirty years, finishing second overall to his fellow Slovenian. The rest of his season was about redeeming himself, he started by winning his first monument Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Coming into La Vuelta as the defending champion, he won the first stage as the race went straight into the mountains. He lost the Red Jersey on stage six, but that did not affect him as he won stages eight and ten. His redemption continued by winning the stage 13 time-trial, with an uphill finish, by one second. The last mountain stage was tight, with Carapaz attacking him, though he still held on, winning La Vuelta for the second year in a row.
He is also my rider of the year for the second year running, because although he did not achieve his main objective of winning the Tour de France, he has shown he can win in all sorts of disciplines, winning in the mountains, punchy sprints and time-trials. His Palmarès for this year is still very impressive, winning a grand tour, a monument, five grand tour stages and several other races.
Wout van Aert – Jumbo-Visma
Van-Aert started the return of the world-tour with a bang, winning Strade Bianche. He then got his first monument victory a week later, at Milano-Sanremo, by attacking on the final climb, catching the previous year’s winner Alaphilippe, and beating him in the sprint. After, winning the first stage of the Dauphiné he went into domestique duties for his team and was remarkable at them as well. In the mountains of the Tour de France he was tearing up the race, even dropping the 2019 winner Egan Bernal, as the Colombian’s campaign faltered. On the final mountain road stage, he came third and even with his work duties for the team, he still had time to win the sprints on stage five and seven of the race. This year’s Belgian time-trial champion came second in the world championship TT and followed that up coming runner-up in the road race as well. He finished his season by coming second to his great rival Van Der Poel at the Tour of Flanders. Van Aert has shown an all-round ability, that has not been seen from a rider since the eras of Merckx and Hinault, and it is a genuine fact to say he is a threat in every type of race.
Tadej Pogačar – UAE Emirates
After one of the most dramatic finishes in Tour de France history, Tadej Pogačar became the second youngest ever winner of the race. He started his 2020 season where he left off, winning the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana and two stages on that race. He then won the Queen stage of the shortened UAE Tour, coming second overall. In the first races post lockdown he came second to Roglič in the Slovenian Road Race championship, but he beat him to win the Time Trial. After a fourth-place finish at the Dauphiné, he came to the Tour de France as an outsider, starting it well with a second-place finish on the first mountain stage. After, losing a lot of time in the crosswinds on stage seven he regained a good portion of that on all the favourites the next day. The day after that he won his first Tour de France stage, beating a small group including Roglič in a sprint. By the time he won his second stage on the Grand Colombier, he sat in second place forty second behind his compatriot. He lost some time to the Yellow Jersey on stage 17 and went into the time-trial 57 second behind Roglič. He put in one of the greatest rides in cycling history, winning the stage and gaining twice as much time as he needed, overturning what most thought would be an almost impossible gap to close. He finished the season with a third place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Sam Bennett – Quick-Step
After a tough time releasing himself from Bora-hansgrohe and joining Deceuninck Quick-Step, his season got off to a perfect start, where he won the first world-tour stage of the year in the Tour Down Under. After winning Race Torquay, he would have to wait until post lockdown to come first again. He did it in some style by doing a kilometre-long sprint, in the uphill finish on stage four of the Vuelta a Burgos. After getting another victory at the Tour de Wallonie, he would be in Green Jersey contention after the first week of the Tour de France. After years of hard work, he won his first ever Tour de France stage on stage 10. He had a long battle with Peter Sagan for the green jersey, becoming only the second rider who was not the Slovakian to win it and the first pure sprinter to win the competition, since Mark Cavendish won it in 2011. He finished the Tour of with a dominant victory on the Champs-Élysées. He then went to the Vuelta, where he won stage four and was first cross the line on stage nine, before getting relegated for shoulder barging in the build-up to the sprint.
Arnaud Démare – Groupama-FDJ
In only three months, Démare picked up an impressive 14 wins, the most of any rider this year. His first came in Milano-Torino, a race this year for the sprinters. He then went to the Tour de Wallonie where he picked up two stage wins and the overall victory. After winning another French championship he won his second stage race of the year, the Tour Poitou Charentes with three stage wins in that race. After winning a stage on the Tour de Luxembourg, he then went to the Giro d’Italia. His race was a complete success getting four stage wins and the points jersey. What was particularly impressive is he won every bunch sprint during the race and his victories on stage four and six were not ones he was necessarily expecting to win.
Mathieu van der Poel – Alpecin-Fenix
With his extraordinary achievements in 2019, Van der Poel had a relatively slow start to the season, with his only win until the end of August coming in the Dutch national championships. He got his second victory of the season in Tirreno-Adriatico on stage seven, where he went in the break and held off the GC contenders on the final short climb. His next race was the BinckBank Tour where he was in a good position on GC after a fifth place in the time-trial. On the final stage he attacked with 70 kilometres to go and went solo with 50 to go. He had many chasing him down, but he just held on to win the stage and race overall. In the Belgium classics he picked a respectable sixth place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and second at Brabantse Pijl. After a stalemate with Wout van Aert at Gent-Wevelgem the two rivals would fight out the finish at the Tour of Flanders, after a crash for Julian Alaphilippe. Van der Poel sprinted from the front and held on to win his first monument.
Filippo Ganna – Ineos
2020 would be a breakout year for Filippo Ganna, who is now Italian cycling’s new, major star. His season started at the Vuelta a San Juan where he came second in the time-trial and overall, to Remco Evenepoel (who he has never beaten in a time-trial). His first win of the season came in August at the Italian national time trial championship. He went to Tirreno-Adriatico and won the time-trial in that race, in preparation for the world championships, which would be in his home country. He went on to win the rainbow bands in the time-trial, suggesting he would become the next dominant rider in the discipline. He competed at his first grand tour the Giro d’Italia, taking the Maglia Rosa on the first day of the race, after winning the opening TT. Still in question was his climbing ability and he proved it was decent by being the only survivor from the breakaway on stage five, winning a medium mountain stage. He cemented his dominance in the time-trials by winning the remaining two in the race, taking his tally of stage wins to four in the race, and ending off an outstanding year for Ganna.
Julian Alaphilippe – Quick-Step
For much of 2020, Julian Alaphilippe was not at his best, but he gets the final spot in this team for the quality of races he has won in this tough year. Alaphilippe had come close to winning on several occasions including second place at Milan-Sanremo and third at the French national championships. Since last year’s Tour de France he had not been the domineering rider who we had seen previously. His year was made tougher when on the original start date of the Tour de France his father passed away. When he won stage two in Nice, his first victory since July last year, his emotions flooded out. He also took the Yellow Jersey for the second year running. The Frenchman lost it after a few days, because of picking up a time penalty for taking a drinks bottle past the point he was allowed. That, along with some questionable attacks in the three weeks, may have confused people at the time, but it all came pretty clear when he rode away from the favourites on the final climb at the world championships. A rider who was destined to win the rainbow bands at some point, finally took them at 28. His first race in the jersey would not be forgotten for the wrong reasons, as he celebrated victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège before he crossed the line. Roglič lunged passed him to win the race and he would get relegated anyway for swerving in front of Marc Hirschi in the sprint. He nearly made the same mistake a few days later, but he held on to win Brabantse Pijl, his first in the rainbow bands.
Honourable mentions:
Two riders who were close to making the team, were as follows:
Remco Evenepoel: Won all four stage races he entered in dominant fashion, winning stages on all of them but could not focus on his main objective of the year, the Giro d’Italia after a horrible crash at Il Lombardia.
Marc Hirschi: Broke out at the Tour de France, winning a stage, along with several other impressive performances. He also won La Flèche Wallonne and got podium places in the World Championships and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
And a final mention should also go to Tao Geoghegan Hart who won the Giro d’Italia, along with two stages, becoming one of the most surprising winners of a grand tour.
WRS Sports 