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PREDICTION 2019

After a beautiful version of Ill Lombardia, the World Tour season is almost over. Unofficially over for some of us. With the coming of winter in November and December, it's time to look into the crystal ball and think about the last remaining question: What will 2019 bring us?

The rules are the same as last year: 1 point for winner in one day races, 2 points for exact place on podium in GT, 1 point for podium placing in GT. I've added green, polka dots and white jerseys for the biggest stage race, the Tour. 1 point for each.

Giro: 1 2 3

Tour: 1 2 3
Green jersey:
Polka dots:
White jersey:

Vuelta: 1 2 3

Strade:
Sanremo:
Ronde:
Roubaix:
Amstel:
Fleche:
Liege:
Lombardia:
Worlds:
Worlds ITT:
 
Giro: 1. Simon Yates, 2. Thomas, 3. Pinot

Tour: 1. Froome, 2. Dumolin 3. Lopéz
Green jersey: Sagan
Polka dots: Porte (lulz)
White jersey: Lopéz?

Vuelta: 1. Mas 2. Bernal 3. Quintana

Strade: Valverde
Sanremo: Sagan
Ronde: Valgren
Roubaix: Stuyven
Amstel: Wellens
Fleche: Valverde
Liege: Alaphillipe
Lombardia: Nibali
Worlds: Colbrelli
Worlds ITT: Dennis
 
Some of their targets should be quite obvious. Froome wants a 5th Grand Tour to make it into the history books. So Thomas will target pink next year since the Giro suits him better than the Vuelta and it's a bigger race. I'm sure Thomas will show up in the Tour to honour the jersey and act as a superdom (or joker if Froome fails to deliver).

The rest of the riders get to co-lead the Vuelta with Bernal already emerging as the strongest of the rest.
 
Another big question: Will Valverde finally debut in De Ronde? It's almost a meme in here.

I'd love to see him do a real classics campaign: Omloop, Strade, Sanremo, E3, Dwars, De Ronde and the Ardennes. But I've heard that he is planning doing a lot of one-week races (including Abu Dubai :mad: ) and the Giro. It's too much racing, even for Valverde.
 
Giro: 1. Nibali 2. Pinot 3. S. Yates
Tour: 1. Dumolin 2. Mas 3. Froome
Green jersey: sagan
Polka dots: Barguil
White jersey: Mas

Vuelta: 1. A. Yates 2. Nibali 3. Bernal

Strade: Valverde
Sanremo: Gilbert
Ronde: GVA
Roubaix: Sagan
Amstel: Kreuziger
Fleche: Valverde
Liege: Valverde
Lombardia: Pinot
Worlds: Sagan
Worlds ITT: Dennis
 
Giro:
1Bardet 2Lopez 3Sosa

Tour: 1Dumoulin 2Bernal 3Pinot
Green jersey:Sagan
Polka dots:a french -> Martin ?
White jersey:Bernal

Vuelta: 1Quintana 2Mas 3S. Yates

Strade: Wout van Aert
Sanremo: Sagan
Ronde: Pedersen Mads
Roubaix: Vanmarcke
Amstel: Sagan
Fleche: Alaphilippe
Liege: Martin
Lombardia: Pinot
Worlds: Hodeg
Worlds ITT: Dennis
 
Re:

Velolover2 said:
Another big question: Will Valverde finally debut in De Ronde? It's almost a meme in here.

I'd love to see him do a real classics campaign: Omloop, Strade, Sanremo, E3, Dwars, De Ronde and the Ardennes. But I've heard that he is planning doing a lot of one-week races (including Abu Dubai :mad: ) and the Giro. It's too much racing, even for Valverde.


Yes, the problem of Valverde. He wants to race everything and his fans want him to race everything, but doing so it overkill. However the only 1 week stage races he specifically has mentioned are Abu Dabi (for some unknown reason instead of Andalucia, which makes more sense) and Catalonia. Then Murcia being a 2 day race next year. I think most of us would prefer to see him do a real full on classics campaign and throw in Andalucia and Catalonia as stage races. He has said he a few times now that he wants the Giro/Vuelta double and does not want to go to the Tour.
 
Re: Re:

Koronin said:
Velolover2 said:
Another big question: Will Valverde finally debut in De Ronde? It's almost a meme in here.

I'd love to see him do a real classics campaign: Omloop, Strade, Sanremo, E3, Dwars, De Ronde and the Ardennes. But I've heard that he is planning doing a lot of one-week races (including Abu Dubai :mad: ) and the Giro. It's too much racing, even for Valverde.


Yes, the problem of Valverde. He wants to race everything and his fans want him to race everything, but doing so it overkill. However the only 1 week stage races he specifically has mentioned are Abu Dabi (for some unknown reason instead of Andalucia, which makes more sense) and Catalonia. Then Murcia being a 2 day race next year. I think most of us would prefer to see him do a real full on classics campaign and throw in Andalucia and Catalonia as stage races. He has said he a few times now that he wants the Giro/Vuelta double and does not want to go to the Tour.

The problem last year was that he peaked too early in March. In Abu Dubai and Catalunya, he was in invincible. Also the main reason he was equal to the specialists in Dwars door Vlaanderen. You could put him in Paris-Roubaix and he'll still be good with his amazing March shape.

But he kinda faded in the Ardennes. Need to time it better next year if he want to race the Giro as well.
 
Re: Re:

Velolover2 said:
Koronin said:
Velolover2 said:
Another big question: Will Valverde finally debut in De Ronde? It's almost a meme in here.

I'd love to see him do a real classics campaign: Omloop, Strade, Sanremo, E3, Dwars, De Ronde and the Ardennes. But I've heard that he is planning doing a lot of one-week races (including Abu Dubai :mad: ) and the Giro. It's too much racing, even for Valverde.


Yes, the problem of Valverde. He wants to race everything and his fans want him to race everything, but doing so it overkill. However the only 1 week stage races he specifically has mentioned are Abu Dabi (for some unknown reason instead of Andalucia, which makes more sense) and Catalonia. Then Murcia being a 2 day race next year. I think most of us would prefer to see him do a real full on classics campaign and throw in Andalucia and Catalonia as stage races. He has said he a few times now that he wants the Giro/Vuelta double and does not want to go to the Tour.

The problem last year was that he peaked too early in March. In Abu Dubai and Catalunya, he was in invincible. Also the main reason he was equal to the specialists in Dwars door Vlaanderen. You could put him in Paris-Roubaix and he'll still be good with his amazing March shape.

But he kinda faded in the Ardennes. Need to time it better next year if he want to race the Giro as well.


He did actually did that because he was scared about how he would be when he came back to racing. He was scared his knee wasn't going to react well to racing and wanted to be close to top shape so he could test his knee. Without the injury he wouldn't have been peaking in February.
 
Giro: 1 Nibali 2 Kruijswijk 3 Chaves

Tour: 1 Dumoulin 2 Froome 3 S.Yates
Green jersey: Sagan
Polka dots: Woods
White jersey: Bernal

Vuelta: 1 Mas 2 S.Yates 3 Kruijswijk

Strade: M. Van der Poel
Sanremo: Sagan
Ronde: Naesen
Roubaix: M. Van der Poel
Amstel: Matthews
Fleche: Alaphilippe
Liege: Dumoulin
Lombardia: Bernal
Worlds: Sagan
Worlds ITT: Bjerg
 
With the new information and this year coming to an end, I think this tread is now relevant and I have a few changes I will make.

Giro: 1. Dumoulin, 2. Bernal 3. Roglic

Tour: 1. Froome 2. Porte 3. Thomas
Green jersey: Sagan
Polka dots: Quintana
White jersey: Mas

Vuelta: 1. Simon Yates 2. Froome 3. Lopez

Strade: Moscon
Sanremo: Sagan
Ronde: Valgren
Roubaix: Sagan
Amstel: Van der Poel
Fleche: Matthews?
Liege: Pinot
Lombardia: Nibali
Worlds: Sagan
Worlds ITT: Dennis
 
Giro: 1 2 3 Dumoulin, Yates, Nibali

Tour: 1 2 3 Bardet, Froome, Pinot
Green jersey: Sagan (is there really any other option?)
Polka dots: Alaphilippe
White jersey: Mas

Vuelta: 1 2 3 Valverde, Woods, Bernal

Strade: Valverde
Sanremo: Lampaert
Ronde: GVA
Roubaix: Gilbert
Amstel: Valverde
Fleche: Valverde
Liege: Valverde
Lombardia: Valverde
Worlds: Valverde
Worlds ITT: Dumoulin
 
Wow! Tibopino wins LBL, podiums Le Tour according to the recent posts....where do I sign? :)

It's still to early to cast predictions IMO. We don't know enough about schedules. That's how I won in '17 and Maxime Monfored in '18. I'll give it a month before making a prediction.
 

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