With the 2019 Cycling Season 'officially' beginning next Tuesday at the Santos Tour Down Under 2019, I thought I'd get back to producing some top quality Road Cycling posts for Steemit. I'll go through the (confirmed) Start list and the individual Stages (6 in total) giving some predictions for each of the stages.
Feel free to share your own predictions for the TDU!
Startlist (& Team Ratings)
1. Mitchelton-Scott
Daryl IMPEY (RSA), Luke DURBRIDGE (AUS)
Alex EDMONSON (AUS), Lucas HAMILTON (AUS)
Matthew HAYMAN (AUS), Michael HEPBURN (AUS), Cameron MEYER (AUS)
Lots of workhorses and last year's winner (Daryl Impey) - 9/10
2. BORA - Hansgrohe
Peter SAGAN (SVK), Maciej BODNAR (POL)
Oscar GATTO (ITA), Jay MCCARTHY (AUS)
Gregor MÜHLBERGER (AUT), Daniel OSS( ITA), Lukas PÖSTLBERGER (AUT)
Mostly built around Sagan but a few climbers in there - 7/10
3. Trek - Segafredo
Richie PORTE (AUS), Will CLARKE (AUS)
Koen DE KORT (NED), Kiel REIJNEN (USA)
Ryan MULLEN (IRL), Peter STETINA (USA), Jarlinson PANTANO (COL)
A very strong team all backing favourite Richie Porte - 9/10
4. Lotto Soudal
Caleb EWAN (AUS), Adam BLYTHE (GBR)
Tomasz TMARCZYŃSKI (POL), Carl Fredrik HAGEN (NOR)
Adam Hansen (AUS), Roger KLUGE (GER), Thomas DE GENDT (BEL)
Some solid breakaway riders and 3 strong sprinters - 8/10
5. UAE - Team Emirates
Sven Erik BYSTRØM (NOR), Rory SUTHERLAND (AUS)
Ivo OLIVEIRA (POR), Jasper PHILIPSEN (BEL)
Tadej POGAČAR (SLO), Jan POLANC (SLO), Diego ULISSI (ITA)
Not that strong, but with Diego Ulissi in there anything is possible - 6/10
6. Team Dimension Data
Michael VALGREN (DEN), Lars BAK (DEN)
Nic DLAMINI (RSA), Ryan GIBBONS (RSA)
Ben O'CONNOR (AUS), Scott DAVIES (GBR), Tom-Jelte SLAGTER (NED)
Expect big things from Valgren, otherwise not very strong - 5/10
7. Bahrain - Merida
Domenico POZZIVIVO (ITA), Phil BAUHAUS (GER)
Rohan DENNIS (AUS), Heinrich HAUSSLER (AUS)
Hermann PERNSTEINER (AUT), Yukiya ARASHIRO (JAP), Marcel SIEBERG (GER)
Pozzivivo could surprise a few - 7/10
8. EF Education - First
Michael WOODS (CAN), Mitchell DOCKER (AUS)
Daniel MCLAY (GBR), Lachlan MORTON (AUS)
Tom SCULLY (NZ), James WHELAN (AUS), Alberto BETTIOL (ITA)
Lowest budget in the pro peleton, but still a solid squad with Woods being in outstanding form - 6/10
9. Team Sunweb
Cees BOL (NED), Johannes FRÖHLINGER (GER)
Chris HAMILTON (AUS), Jai HINDLEY (AUS)
Max KANTER (GER), Michael STORER (AUS), Max WALSCHEID (GER)
Quite a few of these guys are rather new to me, little bit unknown - 4? /10
10. AG2R La Mondiale
Pierre LATOUR (FRA), Gediminas BAGDONAS (ARM)
Clément CHEVRIER (FRA), Benoît COSNEFROY (FRA)
Nico DENZ (GER), Hubert DUPONT (FRA), Nans PETERS (FRA)
Pretty strong, they want GC victory with either Latour or Dupont - 8/10
11. Astana Pro Team
Davide BALLERINI (ITA), Manuele BOARO (ITA)
Laurens DE VRESSE (BEL), Daniil FOMINYKH (KAZ)
Yevgeniy GIDICH (KAZ), Artyom ZAKHAROV (KAZ), Luis León SÁNCHEZ (ESP)
Some workhorses to back Sanchez - 7/10
12. Team Katusha - Alpecin
Alex DOWSETT (GBR), Jens DEBUSSCHERE (BEL)
Ruben GUERREIRO (POR), Nathan HAAS (AUS)
Marco HALLER (AUT), Vyacheslav KUZNETSOV (RUS), Dmitry STRAKHOV (RUS)
Probably won't cause too much drama - 3/10
13. Groupama - FDJ
Miles SCOTSON (AUS), Daniel HOELGAARD (NOR)
Matthieu LADAGNOUS (FRA), Tobias LUDVIGSSON (SWE)
Steve MORABITO (SWI), Kilian FRANKINY (SWI), Leo VINCENT (FRA)
Will be intersting to see how Scotson does outside of BMC - 5/10
14. Movistar Team
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ (ESP), Lluís MAS (ESP)
Jaime CASTRILLO (ESP), Rafael VALLS (ESP)
Jasha SÜTTERLIN (GER), Eduard PRADES (ESP), Héctor CARRETERO (ESP)
Movistar clearly aren't targetting the TDU, Fernandez might make top 10 in the GC - 3/10
15. Deceuninck - Quick Step
Elia VIVIANI (ITA), Fabio SABATINI (ITA)
Michael MØRKØV (DEN), Mikkel Frølich HONORÉ (DEN)
Dries DEVENYNS (BEL), James KNOX (GBR), Rémi CAVAGNA (FRA)
Very strong, Viviani should get a couple of stages and Cavagna should be present in some breaks - 9/10
16. Team Jumbo - Visma
George BENNETT (NZ), Robert GESINK (NED)
Danny VAN POPPEL (NED), Lennard HOFSTEDE (NED)
Tom LEEZER (NED), Bert-Jan LINDEMAN (NED), Maarten WYNANTS (BEL)
Very strong, Bennett is certinaly my favourite - 10/10
17. Team Sky
Owain DOULL (GBR), Kenny ELISSONDE (FRA)
Kristoffer HALVORSEN (NOR), Christian KNEES (GER)
Wout POELS (NED), Luke ROWE( GBR), Dylan VAN BAARLE (NED)
Individually very strong, but not sure who'd be challenging for GC; would've be nice to see Bernal featured as a warm up for his Giro GC fight - 8/10
18. CCC Team
Patrick BEVIN (NZ), Victor DE LA PARTE (ESP)
Jakub MARECZKO (ITA), Łukasz OWSIAN (POL)
Joey ROSSKOPF (USA), José VENTOSO (ESP), Szymon SAJNOK (POL)
Will be interesting to see how the recently Pro Continental team get on after their BMC buffering - 5/10
19. Uni South Australia
Chris HARPER (AUS), Jason LEA (AUS)
Dylan SUNDERLAND (AUS), Ayden TOOVEY (AUS)
Neil VAN DER PLOEG (AUS), Nicholas WHITE (AUS)
Not much pedigree accross the UniSA side, Van Der Ploeg has had some success in the Japan & Korean Cup GC wise but otherwise the riders don't have too many victories. Probably will just be aiming to get themselves in the limelight and pray for a contract at a better team next year - 3/10
Stages
Stage 1 | North Adelaide - Port Adelaide | 132.4km
Expect a breakaway with some strong climbers hoping to get an early start on the KOM competition (De Gendt, etc.) - unlikely they'll go all the way, and a bunch sprint should ensue nearer the finish. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Elia Viviani (Deceuninck - Quick Step) should finish 1st and 2nd in some order.
Stage 2 | Norwood - Angaston | 149km
Another fast stage that should favour the Sprinters and with the KOM climb so early in the stage it'll be likely that the breakaway get reeled in quite early. The finish in Angaston has a 2km false flat to finish so this stage will probably be prefered by Peter Sagan (BORA - Hansgrohe).
Stage 3 | Lobethal - Uraidla | 146.2km
The most demading of the stages so far, 3337m of elevation to tackle in total and 7 laps of a 13.9km-long undulating circuit in Uraidla. Any rider who can keep at it on the climbs but still be able to give a kick near the finish to take victory should do well - definitely suits previous TDU winner Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) the most!
Stage 4 | Unley - Campbelltown | 129.2km
Stage four features an energy-sapping undulating route, with an exciting finish; a 3.7km-long climb with an average gradient of 6.4% that rises to 15% in places, followed by a 5.7km-long technical descent to the finish line in Campbelltown. I'd predict that Michael Valgren (Team Dimension Data) could do very well in this sort of terrain.
Stage 5 | Glenelg - Strathalbyn | 149.5km
Another one for the sprinters after the KOM points have been distributed out. Should come down to pure speed so likely to be another Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) vs. Elia Viviani (Deceuninck - Quick Step) affairs.
Stage 6 | McLaren Vale - Willunga Hill | 151.5km
The "Queen Stage" of the TDU, and the toughest of all of the Stages. The Willunga Hill climb is 3km-long and averages at 7% and should ultimately decide who the overall GC winner will be. I'd pick George Bennett (Team Jumbo - Visma) out of the GC favourites for this one!
My GC Predictions:
- George Bennett (NZ) | Team Jumbo - Visma
- Richie Porte (AUS) | Trek - Segafredo
- Pierre Latour (FRA) | AG2R La Mondiale