SOPHIE HURCOM

Deputy Editor, Procycling

Ineos: grand tour hat- trick

Yes Jumbo-Visma are coming for Ineos at the Tour, and yes the Giro is looking wide open with the riders who’ve thrown their names in the hat, but Ineos have all they need to win the grand tour hat-trick. They can spread their grand tour winners around the calendar as leaders and they’ve got a roster packed with even more young and improving climbing talent than they had last year. If they’re ever going to do it, why not now?

Young riders take hold

2019 was the year of young riders in the men’s peloton; 2020 will be the year we see them take over in the women’s. Lorena Wiebes ( 20), Demi Vollering ( 23), Chloé Dygert- Owent ( 23), Sarah Gigante ( 19) and Franzisca Koch ( 19) are just some of the names we’re going to be hearing more of this year and beyond.

NTT and Israel will struggle

One team has been rooted to the bottom of the WorldTour ranking, the other has just made the leap up to it, and looking through the rosters of both Team NTT and Israel Start-Up Nation, it’s hard to see where their wins are going to come in 2020. Both rosters are lacking in a big-name GC rider or prolific sprinter who can give everyone direction, provide consistency and stability and crucially, keep wins ticking over.

The Van era takes hold

And I don’t mean Van Avermaet ( Sorry..!) Considering Wout Van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel were apparently taking their tentative first steps into the spring classics last year, they had a funny way of looking like newbies learning the ropes. They’ve got that x- factor and instinct riders spend years trying to find and hone in the classics. A major cobbled win is coming,