Julian Alaphilippe: World Championship record?
So far, only one professional cyclist has managed to win the world championship title on the road three times in a row: Peter Sagan from 2015 to 2017. Can Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe repeat the feat? After his victories in Imola (2020) and Leuven (2021), he also has a chance on the challenging course that awaits the pros on 25 September in Wollongong, Australia. This is only the second time that world championships have been held in the southern hemisphere - the premiere was also in Australia, in Geelong, in 2010.
Tadej Pogačar: Cannibal II
The Slovenian was the outstanding professional cyclist of the past season. At just
23 years old, the world number one has already won the Tour de France twice.
He can climb, is strong against the clock and also knows how to ride attentively and solve tactical problems. His UAE Team Emirates has strengthened its ranks once again and should be a valuable escort for him. Pogačar can also do classics: last autumn he won the Tour of Lombardy, and in 2022 he wants to try his hand at the Tour of Flanders.
Tour of Flanders in 2022.
Alejandro Valverde: That's it!
Alejandro Valverde will be 42 years old on 25 April 2022. The Movistar pro believes that is the right age to stop racing on his racing bike. The oldest rider in the World Tour peloton wants to start his farewell lap at his home Vuelta. The last time a top pro was older was in 2014: Jens Voigt contested his last race less than a month before his 43rd birthday.
Tom Dumoulin: Comeback
The good news: Tom Dumoulin is back in the mood for cycling. In spring 2021, he took some time off - due to a mixture of motivation problems, an exhausted body and inner emptiness. He was back in June at the Tour de Suisse and won silver in the individual time trial at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. In the new year, he is one of the favourites for the Giro d'Italia, which he won in 2017.
Sam Bennett: Green for Bora?
Team Bora-Hansgrohe has swapped the candidates for winning the green jersey: Peter Sagan moved from the German team to TotalEnergies in France after five years. In return, Sam Bennett returned. "I feel at home here," says the sprint specialist. The 32-year-old Irishman picked up the coveted jersey in 2021 in the service of Deceuninck-Quick-Step. Team boss Patrick Lefevere had accused the sprinter of all sorts of things. Bennett is adamantly silent on the matter.
Jonas Rutsch: Hell Rider
The 1.97 metre tall giant from the Odenwald is one of the winners of the muddy casting show at the 2021 Paris-Roubaix race: he finished eleventh in his Roubaix debut. Alongside Nils Politt (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Maximilian Walscheid (new to Cofidis), the 24-year-old from Team EF Education-EasyPost is a candidate for good entertainment when it comes to cobblestones. "It was hell," he said after the Roubaix classic. He still wants to go back.
Pascal Ackermann: New hardness
The longed-for debut at the Tour de France will probably not happen in 2022 either. After five years at Bora-Hansgrohe, the Palatinate rider has moved to UAE Team Emirates. They are unlikely to take a sprinter with them on the road to Tadej Pogačar's third Tour victory. Ackermann says he wants to get out of the comfort zone in which he had recently settled with his German employer. Part of the new toughness against himself: He wants to make his debut at Paris-Roubaix.
Mathieu van der Poel: Too versatile?
What will become of the super talent in the new season? The 26-year-old Dutchman was deeply disappointed in the Roubaix velodrome last October after narrowly losing to the Italian Sonny Colbrelli. He had to abandon the cyclocross season early. The reason: his back! He had fallen spectacularly onto it from a great height during the Olympic mountain bike race. His versatility became a problem. He also had knee problems. When he is fit, he is an absolute world leader on the mountain bike, the cyclocross bike, a candidate for victory in the classics and guaranteed to be an entertainer at the Tour de France.
Wout van Aert: Potential for conflict?
The Belgian all-rounder wants to chase the green jersey in the upcoming Tour de France. Are these plans bound to cause conflict within his team Jumbo-Visma? After all, captain Primož Roglič, who has just extended his contract until 2025, is set to wear yellow in Paris after several unsuccessful attempts. The last time a team won yellow and green at the Tour was in 1997: Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel for Team Telekom.
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In this article is not only about the Tour de France Femmes, it also names and introduces 5 professional female athletes.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
