EDWARD PICKERING

The season is really up and running, now, I feel. In the last three weekends before we went to press we were treated to three stunning races.

First up, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Full disclosure: I’m hopelessly obsessed by the Belgian one-day races, so I might be biased, but the more I think about the 2018 event, the more I think it was a really good edition. When the race came back together before the Muur, I felt a bit flat. But we were treated to an object lesson in tactics, when Astana put three men in the final selection of 12, which went clear over the Muur. There were faster sprinters and stronger riders. But this is cycling - three good riders can beat one great rider, and Michael Valgren’s winning escape was perfectly set up by him and his team.

Then came Strade Bianche. I’d seen Romain Bardet riding perkily in the one-day races in the south east of France in the run-up and wondered what he could do in his debut here. It turned out he almost won it. He was beaten by a more resilient rider, Tiesj Benoot, but the win was important for both. Benoot removed an albatross from around his neck by taking his first ever pro win, in memorable, epic conditions. While Bardet further defied the perception that last year’s Tour might have affected him mentally. The Frenchman is a racer, and I’m enjoying watching him and his team riding with increasing assertiveness.

Lastly, Paris-Nice. There’s something about the structure of this race that tees up a perfect, tactical finale. A time trial and a summit finish give the GC a hierarchy, but the final weekend of grippy hills above Nice are no respecter of that hierarchy. Who would have thought after the TT and mountain stage that Marc Soler would win? His long-range attack fully deserved the yellow jersey.

Next up: the Classics. If they deliver as much good racing as we’ve already seen in 2018, we’re on for a great year.