EDWARD PICKERING

Editor, Procycling

GANGING UP ON POG

To beat Pogačar in a grand tour, you have to hit him hard and you have to hit him early. In our feature on page 106, Pog’s trainer says that his main superpower is recovery, which would explain how 2020 unfolded. So Jumbo and Ineos need to get on to this early in the 2021 Tour. He’s beatable, but riding around quite fast to control the race will only play into his hands.

A SPRINTERS’ TOUR

After years of trolling the sprinters with fewer and fewer real opportunities, ASO have given them a little more territory to play with at the 2021 Tour. The hierarchy right now is unclear, and there’s a good argument for any of Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett and Arnaud Démare to be the best sprinter. My current thinking is that Démare is just a smidge behind the other two, while Ewan can’t quite match Bennett’s team support, so I’m predicting Bennett to emerge as the most successful sprinter in 2021.

TREK’S TIME AT LAST

Nobody ever won money betting against one of Anna van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten to dominate women’s cycling, but I’m going to make the reckless prediction that Trek are going to match them this year. Maybe not at the Giro Rosa, where the strongest always emerges to win, but team strength and smart tactics will be enough in the one- day races.

A HOME WORLDS WIN

The focal point for Wout van Aert this year must surely be the home Worlds. I’m not mad enough to say that he’ll have a quiet spring, but I imagine his year will be structured around the highest possible peak in September, and a rainbow jersey waiting at the end.