SAM SANSIE Sprints will be fascinating

Sprinting used to run on feudal lines - the reserve of two or three teams who had one of the fastest riders and hogged all the best support. Now the sprints are anybody’s and A1 sprinters are spread across at least seven squads in 2019. This year it’ll be a case of more chaotic inales and it’ll a tough task to pick the best sprinter at season’s end.

Sky will back Froome

Geraint Thomas is the defending Tour champ and both he and Chris Froome will ostensibly start on an equal footing. But Froome’s superior track record and the history-making opportunity to have a ive-time winner in the year Sky signs out as sponsor will be hard for management to resist.

Quick- Step will win the most races - again

They may have lost Fernando Gaviria, Niki Terpstra and Jhonatan Narvaez, but the Doctor Who of the peloton (they’re always regenerating) will keep bringing on the new class of overachievers: Fabio Jakobsen and Rémi Cavagna among them.

Van der Poel vs Van Aert

Wout Van Aert joins JumboVisma from 1 March and Mathieu van der Poel’s Corendon Circus has a rich spring programme. That’s raised speculation they’ll be contenders in big Classics. But boring reasons like deeper competition and time needed to ind their feet suggest to me this will be a hotter story still a couple of years hence.

Trek will ind their feet

The new Trek-Segafredo team has the irepower to be an irresistable force, particularly in one- day races. I expect they’ll win lots and challenge Boels and Mitchelton-Scott.