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Rainbow Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard v Tadej Pogacar - 15 things to look out for in 2023 cycling season
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Published 05/01/2023 at 12:46 GMT
With the new cycling season just a fortnight away, our cycling guru Felix Lowe curates a list of things to anticipate and relish in 2023 – including the return of the Tour Down Under, a ding-dong GC battle in the Giro d'Italia, Mark Cavendish’s push for a 35th Tour de France stage win, a women’s summit showdown on the Tourmalet, rainbow Remco Evenepoel, and the revamped Worlds.
‘Wow’ – Vingegaard allows Pogacar to catch up after crash in ‘incredible’ gesture
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For the first time in what feels like an eternity, the WorldTour season will get going with races on the other side of the world after the barriers put up by the pandemic have finally been torn down, whereby restoring Australia to the 2023 calendar. With the first race of the season coming on January 17 – less than two weeks away – the time is right to preview the coming year and pick out some of the joys that lay in store.
Return of the Tour Down Under
For the first time since the now-retired Richie Porte won a second Tour Down Under title in the colours of his former team Trek-Segafredo, the WorldTour’s habitual leg-stretching warm-up jolly is back on the calendar. After Covid ruled out the previous two editions, the Tour Down Under makes a welcome return for those of us who have grown sick of the Van Aert-Van der Poel cyclocross duopoly.
Ben O’Connor and Jai Hindley – the latter making his first appearance on home soil as a Grand Tour winner – will be among the favourites for the ochre jersey along with British duo Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates. Which means the overall win will probably go to Pello Bilbao.
Race organiser Stuart O'Grady had mixed things up with the introduction of a flat 5.5km prologue around Adelaide to kick things off – ideal for the 2015 champion Rohan Dennis of Jumbo-Visma. Instead of the usual Old Willunga Hill showdown, the race will be decided on Stage 5 with five ascents of Mount Lofty (7.3% with a maximum gradient of 13.3%) to freshen things up a little.
This year will also see the first Santos Tour Down Under women’s race held at UCI Women’s WorldTour level.
Paris-Nice debut for Vingegaard
Jonas Vingegaard’s rise from fish packer to Tour de France winner has been so meteoric that the 26-year-old hasn’t even ridden the Race to the Sun yet – primarily because team leadership has previously been reserved for team-mate Primoz Roglic, the defending champion whom the Dane has now seemingly usurped chez Jumbo-Visma.
This March, Vingegaard will make his Paris-Nice debut as Jumbo’s team leader for a race whose route includes a team time trial, two summit finishes, and a final day jaunt up the Col d'Eze. Roglic, meanwhile, will focus on the Volta a Catalunya as he ramps up his preparations for the Giro.
A baker’s dozen of first-time winners in Milan–San Remo?
Since Oscar Freire scooped his third win on the via Roma in 2010 fans have been treated to a run of 12 first-time winners in the opening Monument of the season. The likes of Tadej Pogacar, Mads Pedersen, Jasper Philipsen and Mathieu van der Poel could keep that run going into a 13th year this spring.
While no one will surely allow the previous two winners Matej Mohoric and Jasper Stuyven out of their sights again, other former champions Wout van Aert (2020), Julian Alaphilippe (2019) and Arnaud Demare (2016) could well add a second San Remo crown to their palmares.
There is also the outside chance that the Cipressa – and not the Poggio – provides the launchpad for the win. In recent years we’ve seen pretty much every possible permutation going up – and down – the Poggio, so it’s about time that things kick off a little earlier than usual. Which probably means it’ll end in a bunch sprint with Movistar new-boy Fernando Gaviria triumphing in a race he could well have won back in his 2016 debut were it not for an untimely crash on the home straight.
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'What a win!' - Mohoric clinches stunning Milan-San Remo triumph after late drama
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Ineos and Jumbo dominating in the spring classics?
In a year Quick-Step picked up their first Grand Tour win following one of their poorest spring seasons to date, it was Ineos Grenadiers – the former Tour and Giro heavyweights – who looked the most accomplished all-round one-day force. They were closely followed by Jumbo-Visma, who have managed to poach their rival’s Paris-Roubaix winner Dylan van Baarle to add to a sumptuous roster that also includes Van Aert, Tiesj Benoot and Christophe Laporte.
But in Magnus Sheffield, Ben Turner and Filippo Ganna, Ineos have three potential future Roubaix winners on their books, as well as the versatile Tom Pidcock, Ethan Hayter and Jhonatan Narvaez, and veterans Michal Kwiatkowski and Luke Rowe. It’s a classics squad to be reckoned with and promises some excellent showdowns with Jumbo-Visma – two teams we usually don’t see coming to the fore until the summer.
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'It's all yours!' - Van Baarle delivers victory for Ineos at Paris-Roubaix
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Ding-dong GC battle in the Giro
Jonas Vingegaard’s victory in the Tour last year ended Tadej Pogacar’s reign in yellow and set up the prospect of a thrilling re-match in July. But before that there’s the mouth-watering prospect of a Giro d’Italia potentially far more open and exciting than the Grande Boucle.
Reacting favourably to the news of three time trials, the presence of the world champion Remco Evenepoel is a coup for the Giro, with the Belgian set to fight tooth and nail with old hands Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic for the maglia rosa. Throw in defending champion Jai Hindley, France’s Thibaut Pinot, Portugal’s Joao Almeida and Russia’s Aleksandr Vlasov, and fans should be treated to a hugely competitive race.
Three time trials may play into the hands of Vuelta champion Evenepoel. But a foray up the Gran Sasso, the return of the fearsome Monte Bondone, a summit showdown at Crans Montana after 5,100m of climbing, and a queen stage in the Dolomites culminating on the iconic Tre Cime di Lavaredo, will hardly fill the Soudal-QuickStep leader with glee, nor will the 22% slopes of the mountain TT up Monte Lussari.
All in all, the Giro could be the race to watch in 2023.
Another limited-edition jersey for EF
By opting for another pink kit (as sported by new signing Andrey Amador below), EF Education-EasyPost will once again be forced into bringing out an alternative jersey for the first Grand Tour of the season – to avoid clashing with the maglia rosa. After the Palace ducks of 2020 we had cubism in 2021 and then a mishmash in 2022. It’s anyone’s guess what comes next…
A two-horse race at the Tour?
With the scores level at 1-1, Vingegaard and Pogacar will resume their rivalry in July with the Slovenian looking to notch a third overall win and his Danish rival, the defending champion, looking to emulate him by doubling up. In the absence of last year’s third-place finisher Thomas, it’s hard to look beyond last year’s top two – especially with 22-year-old Evenepoel putting off his Tour debut until 2024.
It remains to be seen if Pogacar alters the way he rides this July after his attacking instinct backfired last year. In any case, it should be fascinating to see it all unfold.
Cavendish’s push for win No. 35
One of the many thrilling subplots of the 110th edition of the Tour could well be whether Mark Cavendish – in the likely colours of Astana-Qazaqstan – can become the outright leading stage winner in the race’s history. The Manxman needs one more to move ahead of Eddy Merckx, with whom he currently shares the record after his mesmerising comeback in 2021.
Fabio Jakobsen’s return last year meant there was no place for Cav at Quick-Step on the Tour. And when his expected move to B&B Hotels collapsed in the wake of the French team’s implosion in December, it looked like it was curtains for Cav. But Miguel Angel Lopez’s sacking from Astana has opened up a place on Alexandre Vinokourov’s team.
Although it’s yet to be confirmed, Cavendish could be joined by Dutchman Cees Bol, who could act as lead-out in a potential train that would also include Luis Leon Sanchez, Samuele Battistella and Harold Tejada. Of course, it could all end in tears and a right old mess – but it only needs to click once for history to be made in the form of that happy ending which would provide the perfect bookend for the 37-year-old’s long and illustrious career.
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WATCH - Every single one of Mark Cavendish's 34 Tour de France stage wins
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The Puy de Dome makes its comeback
One of the stand-out stages of the Tour marks the return of the Puy de Dome – the now-extinct volcano – after 35 years. Over the years, the climb (13.3km at 7.7%) has played host to some notable battles – not least in 1964 when Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor went head-to-head, or in 1975 when Eddy Merckx was infamously punched in the kidneys by a spectator. The last 4.5km boast double-digit gradients that should make Stage 9 a potentially pivotal moment in the race.
On top of the Col de la Loze returning as the highest point of the Tour, the route also features the mouth-watering prospect of the brutish Grand Colombier climb on the French national holiday of Quatorze Juillet. It was here where Egan Bernal cracked in 2020 and the return of the 17.4km climb at 7.1% on Bastille Day should see the likes of Thibaut Pinot, David Gaudu, Alaphilippe, Guillaume Martin, Romain Bardet and Warren Barguil – you know, the usual suspects – queuing up to notch a home win.
The return of Egan Bernal v2.0
Talking of Bernal, the 2023 Tour could mark the Colombian’s return to three-week stage racing after almost two years. A training crash last winter ruled Bernal out of most of the 2022 season. But the soon-to-be 26-year-old is slowly returning to peak fitness and – thanks to his recent septoplasty nose surgery to unblock his airwaves – may soon return to the kind of levels that saw him win both the Tour (2019) and Giro (2021).
Bernal has not ridden the Tour since 2020 when the extent of a long-term back injury came to the fore on the Grand Colombier. Once deemed a potential five-time Tour winner, Bernal’s Tour comeback following his Giro win was dealt a massive blow after he collided with a parked bus last January in an incident that could well have cost him his entire career.
The Grand Tour landscape has changed dramatically since Bernal was in his pomp, most notably with the rise of Pogacar, Vingegaard and now Evenepoel. But if the Ineos Grenadiers leader can find the form of old, perhaps next year’s Tour won’t be a two-horse race after all.
A women’s summit showdown on the Tourmalet
After the success of the inaugural Tour de France femmes in 2022, the women’s race returns this July with a route that starts in Clermont Ferrand and finishes with a time trial in Pau eight days later. If last year’s race finished in the Vosges, the conclusion of this year’s couldn’t be farther away – both physically and metaphorically – thanks to a queen stage that plays out in the Pyrenees ahead of the final day’s TT.
Stage 7 could play right into the hands of defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten, with the Col d’Aspin (12km at 6.5%) followed by the high-altitude summit finish at 2,110m on the mythical Col du Tourmalet (17km at 7.3%). It will be another slice of history for the women’s sport and a stepping-stone to making the TDFF a two- or three-week event.
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Highlights: Van Vleuten tames Super Planche to seal Tour de France Femmes win
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Unpredictable summertime World Championships in Glasgow
Billed as the single biggest cycling event in history, the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships will be hosted in Glasgow and across Scotland in early August, bringing together for the first time 13 existing UCI World Championships into one mega event.
Taking place five weeks earlier than the usual late September slot, the 2023 Worlds will run from 3-13 August and – given the terrain and possible inclement weather – could prove to be as unpredictable as the Yorkshire Worlds in 2019. As well as the road race and time trial events, the multi-event programme will also feature BMX Freestyle Flatland, BMX Freestyle Park, BMX Racing, Gran Fondo, Indoor Track Cycling, Mountain Bike Cross-country, Mountain Bike Downhill and Mountain Bike Cross-country Marathon, as well as Para-cycling Road and Para-cycling Track.
Remco racing in rainbow stripes
While we’re on the topic of the Worlds, it’s going to be intriguing to see how current men’s road champion reacts to riding in the rainbow bands this year. Already a marked man in races in 2022, the 22-year-old will stand out like a sore thumb in his bid to build on a season that saw him win a maiden Monument and Grand Tour.
A nasty crash in Il Lombardia in 2020 may have stalled the Belgian’s progress, but the Quick-Step tyro has proved his doubters wrong in the two seasons since plummeting into an Italian ravine. If he’s yet to test himself against the very best Grand Tour riders, that will change in the Giro this year. Such is his all-round ability, it would seem outlandish to suggest that the infamous curse of the rainbow jersey could affect a rider of Evenepoel’s calibre.
Whether Evenepoel can outdo the 15 high-quality wins he delivered in 2022 is debatable. But he has the armoury, ability and belief to keep developing – and should rise to the challenge of riding in the rainbow bands rather than crack under the pressure.
Carapaz getting back to winning ways at the Vuelta?
While the route for the 2023 Vuelta won’t be announced until January 10, we already know that it will begin in Barcelona and could include an unprecedented summit finish on the aforementioned Tourmalet. There is also talk that it will feature a finish on top of a fiendish climb called El Miserat – a narrow double-digit ramp in the Alicante province leading to a weather station and not much else.
It will be interesting to see how Richard Carapaz fares in what may be his first Grand Tour outing for EF Education-EasyPost. Since winning the Giro in 2019 at Movistar, Carapaz finished on the podium in all three Grand Tours for Ineos Grenadiers without once standing on the top step.
The Ecuadorian Olympic champion will be joined at the American team by his Costa Rican former team-mate Andrey Amador as the duo hope to roll back the years and recreate some of the glory they achieved together while at Movistar.
Predicting who will win the Vuelta when we have no idea who will be on the startlist is a fool’s game. But if he’s there, Carapaz should be among the favourites alongside defending champion Evenepoel and that man Bernal, who needs the red jersey to complete his grand slam. Pogacar has also spoken of his desire to return to the race where he finished third in 2019.
UAE’s strengthened squad to weather the Jumbo storm
Talking of Pogacar, the Slovenian’s push for a third consecutive Tour win last July was certainly hampered by being isolated and badly supported by his team – with the notable exception of the selfless American Brandon McNulty. UAE Team Emirates have accordingly strengthened ahead of 2023 with the notable additions of Adam Yates (from Ineos), Jay Vine (from Alpecin-Deceuninck), Felix Grossschartner (from Bora-Hansgrophe) and Tim Wellens (from Lotto Soudal).
It remains to be seen if any of this quartet plays a role in the Tour in July – you’d think that Yates would be a useful addition, at least – but there can be no denying that UAE now have options both in support of Pogacar and alongside the Slovenian.
Unfortunately, their big rivals Jumbo-Visma have also strengthened – despite losing the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin to retirement. Dutch duo Wilco Kelderman (from Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan van Baarle (from Ineos Grenadiers) could seamlessly fit into their Tour squad, with the latter also providing foil for Wout van Aert in the classics. Added versatility will come from the experienced Jan Tratnik (from Bahrain-Victorious) and the promising Attila Valter (from Groupama-FDJ).
It's a very different tale at Ineos, who are bolstered only by young and promising Dutchman Thymen Arensman from Team DSM despite losing Amador, Carapaz, Van Baarle, Yates, Richie Porte and Eddie Dunbar.
If Ineos Grenadiers currently look a bit weak as a Grand Tour force and Soudal-QuickStep are yet to be in a position to ably support Evenepoel in a push for yellow, there can be no denying the strength of the teams of the Tour’s two top favourites – Pogacar’s UAE Emirates and Vingegaard’s Jumbo-Visma. But a Premier League recently dominated by Manchester City and Liverpool has this season been reinvigorated by the form of Arsenal and Newcastle; things can change in sport – and fast.
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Stream the 2023 cycling action live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk
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