- Simone Ponzi (LottoNL - Jumbo)
- Joost van Leijen (Team Giant - Alpecin)
- Tony Gallopin (IAM Cycling)
- Philippe Gilbert (Vacansoleil - DMC)
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Jelle Vanendert and Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Soudal), Michael Matthews and Tom Slagter (Cannondale - Drapac), Greg van Avermaet (Euskaltel - Euskadi) and Emanuele Sella (Movistar Team).
Juanjo Cobo was one of the sensations of the last Vuelta a España, where he got on the podium of a Grand Tour for the first time in his career. Being a Spanish rider that sure was a big boost for him and he must have been delighted by his performance. It has to be understood that the HTC rider's career had seemingly taken a turn and seemed to be downhill in the last few seasons. However, he clearly recovered his form in the mountains in 2017 and that allowed him to have the best season in his career. It was not easy for him, especially after a disappointing Volta a Catalunya, but in the end he put together the best performance of his career.
Cobo joined the World Tour back in 2010 with the Saxo Bank team. It was the best team of the World at the time and the Spaniard could not do much more than being a domestique for Hubert Dupont. He spent 2 seasons in the Danish structure before moving on to Sky. It was at the British team where he slowly started to move up the ladder and make progress to be an outsider in the mountains. In his last year in the team he managed to get a podium in the Volta a Catalunya and top 10s in the Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour of Beijing.
The results in 2014 facilitated his move to HTC. Sky and HTC were relatively similar teams in those dates but the Americans have made a lot of progress since then, taking them to the current 4th place in the World Tour rankings. However, even if the team was consistently improving, Juanjo Cobo was not having such a rosy time. His only decent result in 2015 and 2016 was the top 10 in the GC of the Giro d'Italia, while he had never been able to take a win so far in his career. It was all meant to change in 2017. He was really close to winning the GC of the Volta a Catalunya after winning at the top of Port Aine but a crash prevented it. He then went on to take a mountain stage in the Criterium du Dauphine but again was unable to deliver the result in the GC.
When he got to the Vuelta a España, the perception was that he may be able to get a couple of good results in the mountains but would not be a contender in the GC. That was far from true. It looked like the race was a repetition of his previous performances as he had won the stage finishing in Capileira but lost time here and there. However, a 40 kilometers attack in the stage finishing at the Ermita de Alba pushed him up to the 3rd place in the GC. It might have been a turning point for the 31 year old, but he will have additional pressure to perform next year. That is especially true given that his contract is ending in December and he will most likely be given a leading role in a team.
One knows that the season is drawing to an end when the World Championships arrive. It will be the turn for Norway to host them in 2017, in the coast town of Bergen. The area surrounding the town is full of fjords and small lakes and is ideal for cycling due to the landscapes and hills. However, the weather is not that nice and the rain could be very present in the races. The team time trial will start in Ramnanger, towards the north-west of Bergen. The profile is relatively flat with only the climb to Birkelundsbakken worthy of being noticed.
This race has been prone to producing surprises and the 2015 event was won by Astana, which is not one of the biggest team in the World Tour. Nevertheless, the depth in the squad has been typically a key factor in taking the wins in these championships. All of the World Tour teams will be at the starting line but none of the Pro Continental squads were willing to take part in the race. The cost of bringing the material to Norway and the little hopes that they held of forming a competitive team the most likely factors. Nevertheless, the best time trialists in the World will be here for the TTT and later in the week for the ITT.
Favorites:
- Trek Factory Racing: The squad of riders that are capable against the clock in the Trek team is amazing. This year it includes Cameron Meyer, Tejay van Garderen, Michael Rogers and Levi Leipheimer. However, they have only managed to grab a 2nd place in 2015 so far in these championships. However, only Meyer and Leipheimer have managed to win ITTs in the year so far. In terms of the team performance throughout the year, they have done a decent job and accumulate 7 wins, which are well spread within the team. A win in this TTT would guarantee that the year has been quite good for them.
- HTC - Highroad: HTC has done a great year so far and they find themselves 4th in the World Tour rankings. All of the team leaders have had quite good years and a rider that was expected to have freedom but not be a leader, like Juanjo Cobo, put the icing in the cake by taking a podium in the Vuelta a España. However, it is their best rider against the clock, David Millar, who has not had such a great year. He won the Eneco Tour GC and added a stage but was also quite regularly beaten in time trials by Tony Martin. Nevertheless, they have a team with a lot of depth.
- Lotto - Soudal: Lotto has been the best team of the year for the third season in a row and they do not look tired of putting good performances. They already won the title last season but they lost Bradley Wiggins, who was a very good help for the rest of the team. All things considered, the team looks a bit weaker than in 2016. This means that the pressure will fall onto the shoulders of Tony Martin and Cadel Evans because the rest of the team is nowhere near their quality. Being realistic, they should be happy with a podium and that should be the target of the team.
- Tinkoff: It is surprising to put a team like Tinkoff among the favorites for the TTT World Championship. The Russian team has had an awful year and they are practically guaranteed to lose the World Tour status next season. Tyler Farrar won twice early in the season and Peter Kennaugh added another win in the Criterium du Dauphine but there were many disappointments. Nevertheless, their team for the TTT is quite strong, even if they don't have a star. They have 5 riders that are in the top 35 of the riders against the clock and Astana already proved a couple of seasons ago that it might be more important than superstars.
Other teams with a shot at the podium are Cannondale - Drapac, IAM Cycling, Astana Pro Team, Etixx - Quickstep, Lampre - Merida and Discovery Channel.
The team time trial of the World Championships will take the riders from Ramnanger to Bergen. The route is mostly flat and the only difficulty is the climb to Birkelundsbakken, with 1.9 kilometers averaging 5.2%. It should not be hard enough to put the teams into difficulties but taking into account that it is within the last third of the stage it might be a struggle for those that were already suffering. The weather is expected to be windy but not rainy, which will help prevent crashes in the descent towards Bergen. Rain is expected later in the week.
Trek - Segafredo was only the 2nd team to start the race in the World Championship. They were the undisputed favorites to take the win but hitting the road so early was not good for them at all. They only had the reference of Movistar ahead of the. The Spaniards were not really a match for the American team and they were clearly behind, 56 seconds, as Trek crossed the finish line. Having strong riders like Cameron Meyer, Tejay van Garderen, Michael Rogers and Levi Leipheimer was a guarantee of a good result for them and it was a very good reference for the teams behind.
It has been an awful year so far for the Tinkoff team and it would be difficult to turn it around this late in the season. However, they were among the favorites to grab the win in the team time trial as they have a very good team. They were also very early in the road but they were quite solid as they were even quicker than Trek in the 2nd intermediate check. However, Tinkoff could not hold on to their lead and they were 2nd at the finish line with a time 10 seconds behind. Even if they did not grab the first place it was still a very good performance from them.
Etixx was the next team among the ones with a chance to be in the podium at the end of the day. However, even if they are a good team overall they lack the depth in time trials. They had Jerome Coppel, the winner of the Tour de France, but they also have a few riders that are not that great against the clock. Nevertheless, they took the 3rd place as they crossed the finish line, 32 seconds behind Trek - Segafredo, which was not a bad performance. It may even be enough to cut the gap to Euskaltel, who are right ahead of them in the 2nd place in the World Tour rankings.
It looked like the wind had picked up a bit as other teams were getting close to the finish line. Lotto was next, last year's winners. However, they were very far from repeating that feat today and they soon started clocking times far from the top. They reached the finish line on the 5th provisional place, 1' 02'' behind Trek. It was a big difference with the winners and also a proof that you need more than Tony Martin to grab the win on a team time trial. Cadel Evans was the only other time trialist in the team and they had to bear the load of the effort.
HTC were meant to be the main challenger for the title with Trek. They have had a very good season so far, capped by the podium in the Vuelta by Juanjo Cobo, who was in the team today. They also had accomplished riders like Andrew Talansky, David Millar and Stefan Schumacher. However, they were the biggest disappointment of the day so far. Their finishing time was 1' 12'' slower than Trek's and that cannot be justified by the increase in the wind strength, given that Lotto had only started a few minutes before. This will not cloud the good year that they had but David Millar's confidence could be damaged ahead of the ITT.
The next team on the road was IAM Cycling, a team that had been sustained by Mathias Frank for the whole year, although it was based in being consistent. However, they have added several wins in the last few weeks coming from Tony Gallopin and Vasil Kiryienka. They are nevertheless way worse than in 2016 in the rankings. Their target today would be realistically to get a top 5 result at the end of the day. However, considering that they were 5th as they crossed the finish line it looked quite difficult. They had lost 1' 02'' against Trek, which was a bit too much for them.
Astana had won the team time trial 2 years ago and they should be full of confidence following the win of Michele Scarponi in the Vuelta a España. The Italian was at the starting line today, surrounded by riders like Marcel Kittel, Manuele Boaro and Alexandre Vinokourov. Their performance did not allow them to come up with a surprising result but they still clocked the 4th best time, right behind Etixx and 56 seconds behind Trek, who were increasingly looking like they would win the time trial. Astana should not be disappointed by their performance on the road.
Cannondale had a real chance of climbing onto the podium of the team time trial but they fell a bit short as they crossed the finish line on 4th position, 53 seconds behind Trek. Fabian Cancellara did a great job for the team but in the end they fell 21 seconds short of the podium. It might be that the worse weather conditions may have taken that opportunity from them as Etixx was a team they should have beaten and the performances of all the teams around them were worse. Cannondale's year has not been great but they are putting their hope in Tom Slagter for the future.
It looked like Trek's position at the top of the table was getting more and more solid with only 2 teams remaining. Lampre were thought to have an outside shot at the podium but their day was awful, clocking the 16th time, 1' 29'' behind Trek. That was only ahead of LottoNL - Jumbo in the time sheets. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the Italian team was a Pro Continental team last year and they did very well to re-adapt to the top flight. Chris Froome's win in the Criterium du Dauphine GC was most likely their best moment of the season.
The last team on the road was Discovery Channel. The American team should not really be a contender for the win, although in a good day they could fight for the top 5. However, they could not make the most of being the last team on the road and having all the references and finished in a quite disappointing 16th position, 1' 19'' behind Trek. The team never felt comfortable and they lost Guillaume van Keirsbulk early on, which hurt them in the last part of the time trial. Nevertheless, Discovery is not really a team built for the speciality as they have good riders but there is a big difference with other members of the team.
In the end, the win went to the top favorites: Trek - Segafredo. The teams that came out earlier clearly had an edge in terms of the wind conditions and they topped the podium places, with Tinkoff 2nd and Etixx - Quickstep in third. Having those teams in the podium was not a big surprise but it was a bit strange to see HTC, which should have been contenders for the win down in the 12th place. The Americans never seemed well glued in Norway and David Millar will be looking forward to the ITT. On the other hand, this will be a boost for Cameron Meyer, who has slipped from being the top rider in ITTs during the season but already has a world title this season.
The transfers market has started to be active in the last few days and it has brought a few announcements of signings for the 2018 season already. The most notable transfer so far is the one that will take Peter Stetina to Cannondale - Drapac. It is a significant move as it does not look like the American team has the budget to retain both him and Laurens Ten Dam, which suggests that the Dutch will be leaving the team with which he won the Tour de France.
Another significant move comes from one of the rising starts of the sport: Maxim Iglinskiy. The current Sky rider decided to part ways with the British team and sign for his local Astana Pro Team. The Kazakh team has made much progress this year and they will be delighted to have secured the signing of the most important rider in the country. Given Sky's lack of budget it was difficult to retain Iglinskiy but it was intially thought that he would choose one of the top teams in the World Tour instead of going back home.
Etixx - Quickstep are changing their name to Quickstep Floors next year and they have already secured a couple of names for next season. Most importantly for them, they have signed a contract extension with Lloyd Mondory, who will again be the main leader of the team. They have also brought Romain Bardet from IAM Cycling in a bid to improve the quality of the support that Jerome Coppel gets in the Grand Tours. Bardet is only 23-years-old and one of the French hopes for the future.
A few other riders have also renewed with their teams. Most notably: Jelle Vanendert renewed with Lotto - Soudal for the next 3 seasons, Juanjo Cobo extended his contract with HTC - Highroad and is set to be one of the leaders of the team for next season and Tejay van Garderen will be a Trek - Segafredo rider for the next 2 years, even though BMC Racing had made a bid for him to return to the team.
The second event in the week of the World Championship is the individual time trial. Unlike the TTT, this race will start and finish in Bergen, with the riders doing two laps to a circuit towards the south of the town. The only difficulty will be the Birkelundsbakken, although the profile is slightly different to the one in the TTT and the climb is only 1.3 kilometers averaging 6.1%. It should not be a problem for the specialists as the total distance of the time trial is almost 42 kilometers. As the last ITTs in the World Championships, it is designed to be tough but quite flat.
In terms of the startlist, the teams that have both riders among the favorites are Australia, USA and France. This is a race where the surprises cannot be as big as in the road race and it would be quite a surprise if a rider not among the 10 favorites presented here makes it in the podium. Looking back at the short history of the event, Cameron Meyer is the only rider that has managed to win and he has worn the rainbow jersey for the last couple of seasons. Among those in the podiums of the last events, Andrew Talansky is the only one that will not be at the start line today.
Favorites:
- Tony Martin (Germany): Tony Martin has been the best rider against the clock this season. He has won 5 times in time trials and those allowed him win the GC in the Tour de Romandie. However, he looked to be much better in the middle part of the season and he has not shown that form since then, even if he wore the leader's jersey of the Vuelta after the opening TTT. Martin was already on the podium last season, albeit in the third place, but he looks like the rider that can finally strip Cameron Meyer from the World Champion jersey that he has worn for 2 seasons.
- David Millar (Great Britain): David Millar was meant to be the rider that succeeded Cameron Meyer as the best time trialist in the World. However, by the looks of it Tony Martin has leapfrogged him. Today's World Championship could be the opportunity for Millar to get his season sorted and challenge Martin again. Millar was already 2nd in last year's championship and is the hope for Great Britain to wear a rainbow jersey for the first time. The couple of small hills in the route are short enough that it should not be a problem for him.
- Cameron Meyer (Australia): It has been a long time since Cameron Meyer finished a season without being considered the best time trialist in the World. The Australian has won the 2 editions of the ITT World Championship but it looks unlikely that he can repeat. It has not been a great season for him, given that he could only win the national championship and his results in general have been very modest. On the other hand, he gets to the ITT right after taking the win in the TTT with Trek, which will be a boost in confidence for him.
- Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland): Cannondale was probably expecting a bit more from Fabian Cancellara in the 2017 season, given that he was one of the leaders of the team. However, his best results are 4th places in the GC of the Eneco Tour and in the Paris - Roubaix. Being realistic, a podium in the time trial would be a very good result for him, given that he could not even do it in the national championship. Nevertheless, the Worlds have sometimes provided quite surprising results and there are not many riders better than him.
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Michael Rogers (Australia), Tejay van Garderen and Levi Leipheimer (USA), Marco Pinotti (Italy), Jerome Coppel and Jean-Christophe Peraud (France).
The individual time trial is only raced a couple of days after the team effort. Most of the riders at the start were riding for their teams but they have probably had enough of a rest. The route is made of a couple of laps to a circuit around Bergen, with the start and finish line at the town that organizes the championships. It only has the difficulty of the climb to the Birkelundsbakken but it should not be a problem for the pure time trialists. On the other hand, the wind will be quite strong and it already played a role in the TTT. In principle this should make the differences bigger at the finish line.
The first of the favorites to get a place in the podium in this time trial was Jean-Christophe Peraud (France). He is a rider that won the European Championships in 2015 but has not been in the podium in any other championship. Nevertheless, the Discovery Channel rider has been very solid this season, most notably with a 2nd place in the Tour de France. It was a race with 2 very long time trials and, even though he was not on par with Jerome Coppel, he was one of the best in that area. However, today was not his best day and he could not improve on the time set by Mathias Frank (Switzerland), who was 2 seconds quicker than him.
The next rider that could do well in the time trial was Levi Leipheimer (USA). The American had a good final part of the season and won the time trial of the Vuelta a España, which helped him get a final top 10 place. He was also part of the Trek team that won the TTT a couple of days ago. However, today was not his best performance and he could only clock the 3rd best time as he crossed the finish line, 18 seconds behind Mathias Frank. That was not the result that the American was looking for and it will most likely put him towards the bottom part of the final top 10 or even further below.
Michael Rogers (Australia) was another of the riders that won the TTT for Trek. The American team has lots of riders that are among those with a chance to get in the podium and both members of the USA and Australian squads ride for them. Rogers had quite a good season considering he was a free rider in general. He managed to get final top 10s in the Tour Down Under, the Tour de Romandie and the Eneco Tour. In today's time trial he was very solid and set the best time of the first batch of riders. It was 9 seconds faster than the best so far, which is not a big gap but he was clearly better than the rest of the riders we had seen so far.
Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) started quite a bit later, as the main favorites were starting to hit the road. The Cannondale rider constructs his seasons around the cobbles and the races with time trials, so it was a very important day for him after not getting many good results this season. However, even though he was the fastest in the 2nd intermediate check, he could not beat the time set by Michael Rogers at the finish line and was overall 1 second slower than the Australian. It would be a disappointment for Cancellara, who was hoping to climb on the final podium of the ITT.
The second of the French riders was Jerome Coppel. The Etixx rider won the Tour de France this season in a very surprising way and, given that he based his win in the time trials, he had to be considered among the favorites for today's event. Coppel's win in the Tour was obviously his best performance of the season but he was also quite consistent. His result today was another proof of that as he was easily the best rider at the finish line, improving Michael Rogers' time by 20 seconds. That was a very serious time by Coppel and one that would be difficult to beat by the rest of the favorites given the differences we are seeing.
The next rider to finish was Marco Pinotti (Italy). The Sky rider was meant to do well in this time trial as he had been 3rd in the European Championship earlier in the season. However, his performance did not live to the expectation and he could only clock the 7th best time so far, which left him 31 seconds behind Jerome Coppel. This kind of lacking performances have been a constant for Pinotti in the latter part of the season. In the end, the only race where he was relatively close to what was expected from him was in the Tirreno - Adriatico, where he was 5th in the GC.
For one reason or another, Tejay van Garderen (USA) has never been able to grab a medal from the ITT World Championship. He was unlucky in that they only started in 2015, when 2014 seemed to be the peak of his performances in his career. Nevertheless, he is still among the riders that start as favorites every season. The intermediate times were not encouraging for him and in the end the final time confirmed that he would go another season without a medal. He crossed the finish line in a disappointing 9th position, 49 seconds behind Coppel. He will still race the World Championship and Lombardia but realistically this puts an end to a season that he will not remember fondly in the future.
Cameron Meyer (Australia) has been the World Champion for the last couple of seasons but it is the first time that he gets to the event not being the top favorite. He has not had the edge this season that he enjoyed in previous years and the fact that he only won the Rest of the World Championship ITT in the season is proof of that. His performance was even a bit worse than expected as he could only set the 3rd best time as he crossed the finish line, 21 seconds behind Jerome Coppel. It will also hurt a bit that his teammate Michael Rogers was also quicker than him, albeit by a tiny 1 second margin.
The penultimate rider on the road was David Millar (Great Britain). The British was looking for the next step in the podium following the silver medal that he got in Qatar in 2016. He looked to be very much in form in the Eneco Tour, where he won the GC and the time trial. That was more than 1 month ago but he clearly carried his top shape to beat the best provisional time. Millar was 15 seconds quicker than Jerome Coppel and would be making it difficult for Tony Martin to snatch the gold medal from him. It was expected that Millar would grab the top place once his time trial was over and he now has a guaranteed minimum silver medal.
The last rider and top favorite to grab the win in Bergen was Tony Martin (Germany). The Lotto rider has taken a huge step ahead during this season and is now considered the best rider against the clock. However, he needed to consolidate that position by taking the win in the World Championship. He did it by beating David Millar's time to grab the gold medal by a margin of 38 seconds. It was not even a close affair between them as the German was clearly ahead in all of the intermediate checks. This win will take his tally to 8 for the season, which is only one win short of the best so far in that classification: David Lopez.
There were no big surprises in the result of the World Championship this season. Tony Martin had given many proofs that he was in top shape this season and did not disappoint. On the other hand, David Millar has had to settle for a silver medal twice in a row and he will have to wait for the Worlds in Austria next season to try and get the rainbow jersey. The bronze went to Jerome Coppel, the Tour de France winner, who has had an excellent season and considering that he is only 28-years-old could be heading for a few seasons dominating the Grand Tours if he can take the opportunity.
It is not mathematically settled yet but being realistic, the team that will get promoted to a World Tour place next season will be Giant - Alpecin. However, they are changing name and will be called Team Sunweb from 2018. They have made a big investment in the team with the target of settling themselves in the World Tour and to do that they have hired Laurens Ten Dam. That is a very interesting move as the Dutch was the winner of the 2015 Tour de France and the 2016 Giro d'Italia and he may have his sights set on repeating his win in Italy in 2018.
Lotto - Soudal will be losing their main sprinter, Andre Greipel, as the German has announced that he will be racing for the next 2 seasons with the HTC - Highroad team. Greipel has had 4 wins this season and will be a welcome addition to the squad of the American team. HTC did not have any top sprinter in their squad with only John Degenkolb trying his luck without much success. It is quite likely that he will be working as a lead-out man in many races during the next season.
There are not many changes to be made in the Euskaltel - Euskadi squad as they are keeping all of their leaders in the team for next season. However, among the helpers there will be a revamp and the first rider to bring on-board is Mauro Finetto. The Italian is one of the most important young riders and he will be in the team for the next 3 seasons. He is only 23-years-old but managed to be 5th in the Amstel Gold Race and won a stage of the Tour de Romandie.
There have also been a few contracts renewed in the last few days. The most important were that Frank Schleck is staying in Quickstep Floors, Ruben Plaza will extend his contract in BMC Racing and Kenny van Hummel will also stay at LottoNL - Jumbo. The bet that BMC is doing with Plaza is very important but the Spaniard has been improving consistently during the last couple of seasons and could develop into a top rider.
The key event in the World Championship is the Road event. The town of Bergen hosts the championships but the start of the race will be a bit further north, in Kollsnes. The riders will have a relatively short and flat section towards Bergen and the circuit that will be tackled 11 times. The first section runs through the islands to the west of Bergen. The only difficulty in the final circuit will be the climb to the skirts of the Mount Ulriken. However, the climb is relatively gentle and many riders should be able to get over it. The 261 kilometers might be the deciding factor and the climb could well play a role like the Poggio in the Milano - Sanremo.
The all-time record of World Championship wins is held by Bjorn Leukemans, who has taken the rainbow jersey three times. However, it looks unlikely that he wins again and Belgium does not seem to have a rider among the top candidates for the win. On the other hand, Lloyd Mondory has been 2nd twice in a row and he is probably the top candidate for the gold medal. He will not want to be like Simon Gerrans, who also has a couple of silver medals but never won. Additionally, nations like Germany, Australia and Great Britain have never won a gold medal and will be looking to grab one as they all have riders capable of doing it.
Favorites:
- Lloyd Mondory (France): Mondory is undoubtedly one of the riders of the season. He started the year by taking the win in the GC of the Tour Down Under and his target is to finish it in the same manner. His best win of the season is probably the Gent - Wevelgem and he also got 2nd places in both cobbled monuments. However, even if he would have liked cobbles in this World Championship, the route is still favourable for him. There will be many sprinters that will suffer due to the length and the repetition of the climb in the circuit.
- Simone Ponzi (Italy): Simone Ponzi is normally a rider that would not enjoy a typical sprint finish. However, the circuit is difficult enough that in Italy they have to keep their options open. In principle, it looks like the circuit is more favourable to Ponzi but if the race is not too hard it may well be that Elia Viviani is among the riders to make it to a mass sprint. Ponzi has probably had a lower profile season than in previous years. Having to help Kenny van Hummel plenty of times certainly did not help. However, he still got decent results although his victory count got stuck at only 1.
- Alexander Kristoff (Norway): It is always a boost for the home riders in the World Championship. However, if that rider is the current winner of the Milano - Sanremo and seeing the profile of the race, the chances that he does something special increase exponentially. The only doubts about his performance in this race come from the fact that he has not won since the first week of the Tour de France. He was very close to doing it in the Vuelta a España but Kenny van Hummel was very strong for him in most occasions. Nevertheless, the profile with relatively easy hills fits him perfectly.
- Marcel Kittel (Germany): Marcel Kittel has a fame for being erratic in delivering results even when he enjoys a very good sprint train. However, his results this season are not encouraging at all and has only won once in the whole year. Nevertheless, that does not mean we can discard him for the gold medal. The German would probably be the favorite if the pace is not too high, although Kenny van Hummel did a very good showing in the Vuelta. Nevertheless, Germany can also keep their options open as they also have Andre Greipel in the team.
Other riders with a shot at the podium are Kenny van Hummel (Netherlands), Ben Swift (Great Britain), Elia Viviani (Italy), Andre Greipel (Germany), Mark Renshaw (Australia) and Bernhard Eisel (Austria).
