2018 Predictions

RichN95.

OK let's have them

Lopez wins the Giro Comfortably beating his only opposition Dumoulin.

Froome rides and wins the Tour despite physical abuse on AdH. Porte is second, Roglic shows he will in 2019.

Nibali wins the Worlds

Sagan fails to win a monument again. Quick Step win two of the first three.

Valverde is no longer a force

gsk82

Froome will win the giro, then skip the tour for safety reasons and win the vuelta. Landa will win the tour.

Without any responsibility to ride on the front in the tour, sky will finish with 5 riders in the top 10. Geraint Thomas will be in a podium position after stage 18. But at the top of the aubisque will decide to climb on the giant yellow bike to show off to a spectating Luke Rowe. It'll all end badly when he falls off and breaks his collarbone.

GVA will win nothing of note. Sagan will win the green jersey but nothing else.

me-109

Froome receives 9 month ban ahead of the Giro, wiping out the season. Sky crumble and manage nothing in the GTs.

Porte takes the Giro; Landa takes the Tour. Surprise entry Roglic wins Vuelta.

Sagan takes the Tour green jersey by a country mile. Sagan also wins the TdY.

Greipel wins FW and PR, then puts himself out of action the following week.

joelsim

RichN95 wrote:

Valverde is no longer a force

Have you been on the LSD again Rich? Valverde’s got another 30 years in him yet.

trivial_poursuivant

At the TdF, Richie Porte will carry the yellow jersey for every stage right up until Paris where he falls off his bike and spontaneously combusts 200 yards from the line handing the win Nairo Quintana who right until that moment no one even realised was even in the race due to his lack of attacking or anything of note for the previous 3 weeks.

tailwindhome

Froome wins the Giro. Gets a retrospective 1 year ban. Loses his Vuelta, Giro and Worlds TT medal. Never wins another bike race

Sagan gets the gap on the Poggio. Wins MSR. Then takes both Flanders and PR

Dan Martin is positioned correctly on the final climbs and cleans up in the hilly classics.

A French chap wins the Tour De France

specialgueststar

Froome finds keeping his weight down a 'bore' - dumps cycling and teams up with Wiggins to take the South Kenyan coxless pairs championship

Jungels pulls something special out in the Tour

Ag2R are here there and everywhere

Nibali demonstrates just what can be done on only 5 puffs of an inhaler

Everyone misses Contador

The classics will be a classic year

Lanterne_Rogue

January - The Tour Down Under opens the season in the traditional way eg everyone whinging that it's ages until the classics start and nobody cares about Australia anyway.

February - The Abu Dhabi Tour is mired in controversy. Having realised no-one was watching, organisers save a few bob by simply convening a panel to determine the result. Nobody would have noticed had Mark Cavendish not been awarded a score draw against Stoke.

March - Microsoft's entry into sponsorship ends with riots due to the - now - Comic Sans Remo. Hipsters abandon their fixies in droves as cycling is no longer cool and take up riding to work on polo ponies instead.

April - Paris-Roubaix is abandoned due to hail of frogs. Accusations are made in the Clinic that Sky are experimenting with witchcraft. Brailsford's denial from his hollowed-out volcano lair does nothing to allay fears as his white cat familiar looks "well dodgy".

May - Giro d'Italia overshadowed by disturbing images of Chris Froome lounging on a beach wearing something even Cipo would have baulked at. UCI immediately cancel Froome's ban in order to protect impressionable minors.

June - Rumours of Sky witchcraft continue as Nibali spontaneously turns into a newt on the penultimate climb of the Criterium du Dauphine. He gets better.

July - Mysterious appearances of cyclists wearing 'Cofidis' kit at the Tour dismissed as fantasy by seasoned UFO believers.

August - Cycling discussion still dominated by tedious discussions of how terrible this year's Tour route was. This is still more interesting than the Binck Bank Tour.

September - The outrage over Sky's 'marginal hexing' strategy reaches a peak when Geraint Thomas is disqualified from the Vuelta. Organisers claim that it's not their fault they didn't initially notice his broomstick was motorised.

October/November/December - Cancelled due to WWIII

rick_chasey

I think Sagan can do the cobble doubled.

joelsim

Spring Classics.

Sagan will dominate with good performances from GVA and Gaviria.
Alaphilippe, Felline, Teuns to do well in the Ardennes.

Stage races.

López to come of age, Gaudu to get a couple of decent results as will Adrien Costa. Some of the usual suspects to win a few - Quintana, Landa, Froome.

Giro - Froome and Dumo FTW but López to be the hero of the mountains, only beaten on the ITT.

Tour - Froome won’t win. It’ll be a new winner. Gaviria and Kittel to share the sprints.

Vuelta - López to win.

Worlds - Valverde or Alaphilippe.

TheBigBean

Rick Chasey wrote:

I think Sagan can do the cobble doubled.

What about his lack of flat back?

rick_chasey

TheBigBean wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

I think Sagan can do the cobble doubled.

What about his lack of flat back?

It’s a handicap.

But his legs are rather good.

He got quite unlucky in both RVV and PR.

m.r.m.

Sagan will win two monuments.

Valverde will win FW, but get pipped by Kwiatkowski for LBL.

Froome will win the Tour.

Cavendish will win 2 stages in the Tour.

Gaviria will become the best sprinter in the world.

timoid.

Sagan wins San Remo, Flanders and Roubaix, enters LBL and finishes tenth.

Froome puffgate tedium rolls on

rick_chasey

Dumolin wins the Giro a 2nd time...

jimmythecuckoo

My only prediction at this time is that there will be stuff on the internet about cyclists and drugs.

kingstongraham

Sagan probably won't take a fourth world champs.

blazing_saddles

Sagan or GVA to have a less than stellar season.
Quick Step will still dominate the cobbles as breakthrough rider/s emerge from the shadow of Tom Boonen.
Alejandro Valverde's hair turns white, but he still manages to be at the pointy end of the Ardennes races.
Movistar implode into two factions at Le Tour, with each side attacking each other. Valverde just attacks both.
Froome will have an all or nothing season. Puffergate result will annoy both sides.
Geraint Thomas will find a new and exciting way to crash.
Porte will once again look an odds on winner..........right up until he finds another way to lose.
Gaviria will shine, Kittel will moan, Ewan and Marecko tie the limbo dancing on bikes competition.
The new Tom Dumoulin portakabin at the foot of the Umbrailpass is unveiled by himself, during the Giro.
Unsurprisingly, Tom takes it for a test ride.
Alaphillipe wins the worlds.

RichN95.

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Alejandro Valverde's hair turns white

Do plugs change colour?

rick_chasey

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Sagan or GVA to have a less than stellar season.
Quick Step will still dominate the cobbles as breakthrough rider/s emerge from the shadow of Tom Boonen.

Incredibly bold predictions here.

Vino'sGhost

i will get a licence and scrape a point or two on flat motorracing crits whilst bemoning the lack of bunch riding skills. it wasnt like this in my time etc etc

philbar72

Froome to win nothing in 2018.
Quickstep to win 2 of the spring monuments.
Kittell to lose the green Jersey again.
Cav to be back to his best but then not win as many stages of the tour as he wanted to...
Roglic to win a week long stage race.

rick_chasey

All these people who say QS will win two monuments.

With whom?

inseine

Rick Chasey wrote:

All these people who say QS will win two monuments.

With whom?

Dunno
M-S Alaphilippe / Gaviria / Viviani
Flanders Gilbert / Terpstra
P-R Stybar
Lombardia Alaphilippe
Are these all still on the team?

inseine

and i forgot, for Liege they have James Knox who came 2nd in the under 23 last year!

timoid.

Rick Chasey wrote:

All these people who say QS will win two monuments.

With whom?

Gaviria got to be one to watch for MSR.

GIlbert for the cobbbles.

I have more faith in a Gaviria victory.

rick_chasey

Timoid. wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

All these people who say QS will win two monuments.

With whom?

Gaviria got to be one to watch for MSR.

GIlbert for the cobbbles.

I have more faith in a Gaviria victory.

In the cobbled races, QS have always been so strong because they had both the top guy AND decent second row riders.

Boonen could either win his way, or if he got shut out, QS could send someone else down the road while they all worried about Boonen.

I don't really feel they have that anymore. Instead, there will be a lot of QS riders there at 80km to go. A lot of QS riders in group 2 and the odd representative in group 1 at 30-40km to go, and they'll come third or fourth in the final sprint.

poptart242

Sagan to finish top 5 in every monument + worlds, plus win a mountain stage of the tour.

Froome never to be seen again. Egan Bernal will take some world tour MTF stages.

Landa to take the tour, despite Valverde dropping grenades all over the place.

Ala to sweep the Ardennes.

Pidcock to take out a stage at TOB.

MVDP to win the big wheel bike competition, and the muddy one, with rainbow bands in both.

poptart242

Timoid. wrote:

I don't really feel they have that anymore. Instead, there will be a lot of QS riders there at 80km to go. A lot of QS riders in group 2 and the odd representative in group 1 at 30-40km to go, and they'll come third or fourth in the final sprint.

Plus ça change

gsk82

Kwiatkowski to win a load of races and show again that he's the best rider in the world. The cycling media will continue to claim Sagan is the best though.

joelsim

Timoid. wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

All these people who say QS will win two monuments.

With whom?

Gaviria got to be one to watch for MSR.

GIlbert for the cobbbles.

I have more faith in a Gaviria victory.

Can’t help feeling Sagan and Kwiato will do the same again next year to drop Gaviria.