So after the highs of Le Tour and the excitement of the world championships, what have been the highlights and where do teams stand before we head into a bonkers 2 months of almost non-stop racing. There are still two men’s world tour teams without a win in either pro or world tour level races, and other teams are on an absolute rampage. So let’s dive into it and I’ll try not to drivel on for too long.

Tour de France

I think we’ve finally got our collective breath back after a Tour that delivered on nearly every front. We were treated to an incredibly tight contest for the yellow jersey that was decided on the penultimate day; a green jersey battle that bubbled along for the whole race; and numerous keenly contested stages with several surprise and first time winners. The only competition that never really got going was the king of the mountains competition, and that only became interesting in the final week when other objectives hadn’t been met or it became an added bonus for some.

Highlights of the race included Team Sunweb’s three stage wins, Lopez’ victory on the Col de la Loze, Kwiatkowski’s wholesome win, and of course the time trial on La Planche des Belles Filles. Team Sunweb were arguably the team of the Tour, with a well executed game plan of attack and then more attack. Marc Hirschi had a sublime debut race that was richly rewarded with a win on stage 12, especially after being pipped to the post in the Pyrenees. Søren Kragh Andersen was the other ace in the whole with two stage wins that were almost carbon copies of each other. Ride away from the pack when everyone else is looking at each other and time trial to the line. Apart from the Sunweb pair, there were 8 other first time winners making up a very diverse race, and the most eye catching for me (apart from stage 20), was Miguel Ángel López winning atop the Col de la Loze. It was a phenomenal spectacle and I’m sure we’ll be seeing this climb feature in Tours to come.

Tirreno-Adriatico

The Race of the Two Seas saw many Giro d’Italia hopefuls warming up and pitting their form against their potential rivals. Geraint Thomas appears to have improved his climbing form from pre-Tour levels and his time trial form is on point. It was Simon Yates who proved to be the strongest however, as he won the queen stage up Sassotetto and took the overall win by 17 seconds over Thomas. Rafal Majka also put in a good shift with an impressive 3rd on GC and rolling in with Thomas in 3rd on the queen stage. There were other notable performances from Wilco Kelderman, Michael Woods, and Quick Step pair James Knox and Fausto Masnada. Alexandr Vlasov also continued his excellent 2020 season with 5th place and three top 5s. Jakob Fuglsang was one rider who didn’t get too involved in the overall race. His best stage result was 9th and he finished nearly 4 minutes down on Simon Yates. Either he was quietly building form for the Giro or he’s lacking a little something compared to his rivals. I guess time will tell.

In the sprint battle, Pascal Ackermann proved too hot to handle for main rival Fernando Gaviria, but the latter is going to the Giro. This was the main head-to-head early in the race, but they were both out manoeuvred later on by a superb sprint from former Belgian champion Tim Merlier. Mathieu van der Poel also picked up a stage win a day later to cap a great world tour performance from Alpecin-Fenix.

Giro Rosa

It was an intense and well fought race in Italy for the women as well, complete with 6 different winners over 8 stages following an incredibly close team time trial. Unfortunately the race was partially decided by a crash involving Annemiek van Vleuten and Amanda Spratt along with a few others. Van Vleuten was leading at the time, but broke her wrist in the crash and was unable to start stage 8. The leaders jersey passed to Katarzyna Niewiadoma who couldn’t hold onto the jersey, which instead was claimed by Anna van der Breggen. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see a showdown between van Vleuten and van der Breggen, but it was a hugely entertaining race nonetheless. In addition to van der Breggen’s GC win, Marianne Vos picked up the points classification thanks to three stage wins, and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig won the queen of the mountains competition.

World Champs

There were some stunning performances at the world championships in Imola and one tragedy. First, I’d just like to say well done to all the organisers who put the championships together at such short notice. They designed one hell of a course for the road races and the organisation was really smooth. The two new world champions are Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands, who wins her second world title, and Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, who wins his first. They are two hugely deserving champions and both won their respective titles with decisive solo attacks. Also, make sure you catch up with highlights if you missed the race live for some of the greatest panning shots of a live sporting event I’ve ever seen.

In the time trials, Filippo Ganna decimated the field to win the men’s title and the women’s crown went to Anna van der Breggen. The women’s race was marred somewhat by an injury to pre-race favourite Chloe Dygert, which sadly meant she wasn’t able to defend the world title she won in 2019. It meant that van der Breggen caps an extraordinary month with 2 world titles after her Giro Rosa win, a national road race title, and the European time trial title.

Team Performance

A final update on where teams stand going into the final block of racing for 2020. Deceuninck – Quick Step lead the way in wins with UAE Team Emirates not far behind, 35 to 30. This is through all disciplines and the fight is much closer at world tour level. If I’ve kept up with it correctly, Deceuninck – Quick Step and Team Jumbo-Visma are tied on nine wins each with Bora – hansgrohe one behind and UAE Team Emirates two behind. Five world tour teams are yet to pick up a single victory at world tour level, but with both the Giro and Vuelta to come, plus a whole host of classics races, there are plenty of opportunities yet. A full update of team performance will come at the end of the season, and I’ll try to think of some clever ways to show the data. In the meantime, let’s keep fingers crossed for as little bad news as possible and hope that all races go ahead unimpeded. Already there have been stage cancellations at the Binck Bank Tour and rumours of other races under threat if the current situation continues.