Rider of the Month: 
Peter Sagan, Team Santander. The Slovakian completely dominated Eneco Tour.
Nordic Rider of the Month: Tobias Ludvigsson, Novo Nordisk - SAS The young Swede not only got his best WT-result by finishing 4th and taking the youth jersey in Eneco he also went on to lead the youth classification in the Vuelta at the end of the month with several strong stage showings along the way.
Year of the Champion
In three seasons the rainbow jersey was cursed in the shoulders of Gilbert, who only managed one win wearing the jersey. Then it went to Milano – Sanremo winner Matti Breschel. The first Danish RR World Champion. This article will bring an overview of his season to examine if the rainbow jersey really is cursed as they say.
Breschel’s first big task as world champion was the final monument of the season:
Il Lombardia. It was like the entire team was lifted by having the rainbow jersey next to them and especially Brian Steen Matzen and Chris Anker Sørensen rode to their best to pull things apart allowing Matti to break the curse of the rainbow.
From there on he tried giving something back to the team in the small races of October, but still managed to take a stage win in
Beijing while finishing 4th overall in the final stage race of the season.
Those results brought him to 7th in the
WT-rankings, a Velo d’Or nomination and being awarded “Nordic Rider of the Year”.
For the early part of 2016 the team had planned a number of smaller races to give a lot of fans the chance to see the jersey. And he was off to a flying start taking 2nd place after doing leadout for Kristoff in
Grand Prix la Marsaillaise.
From there he went on to the Danish season-opener
DanCake Classic. A race with cobbles and small hills and as such a race most suiting for Breschel, and the world champion made sure to give the home fans the best possible view of “their” world champion.
A big weakness for the team had up to this season been bunch sprints so Matti went with the team to Qatar to practize that discipline with the best train possible. They improved a lot throughout the race managing to beat Cavendish and his strong Ferrari-train in stage 4 while winning the race with Breschel on 2nd place due to a strong team time trial.
He went on to build form as a leadoutman for Boasson Hagen in Oman resulting in 3 stage wins for the Norwegian.
He polished his
Tirreno-form in Andalucía, but in Italy the pure sprinters was staring to get in shape and a 2nd place after Sagan was the closest he came to a win. A GC 7th is proof that his form was where it should be ahead of his first big goal of the season:
Milano – Sanremo. The race that kicstarted Breschel’s amazing 2015 and the race where he hoped the most to bring honour to the jersey.
His entire team did an amazing bit of work for him, but sadly it turned out that Gilberts lack of results the last three years perhaps was due to the curse of the rainbow as the Belgian is just as strong as the peloton only allowing Breschel to take a 2nd place. Not that 2nd is bad, but as world champion and defending winner he had hoped for more.
The cobbled races were the center of Breschel’s season for many years with the really big results never really coming. He hasn’t stopped loving them though and rode a full cobbled campaign in a free role.
With a win in
Dwaars door Vlaanderen (where he also won in 2010) he was off to a good start, but in the big races he ended up mostly as a luxury domestique helping the team to win both E3 and Paris – Roubaix with Breschel finishing 11th on the velodrome.
From there went on to a long break only short resurfacing in the National championships, but focused on getting ready for stage hunting in the Vuelta as preparation for defending the world championships on a very hard route.
He didn’t return to the peloton until Eneco Tour in early August. Naturally he wasn’t in the great shape but he rode himself out helping the team and Ludvigsson probablt couldn’t have gotten his best stage race result ever without the help of Breschel. And as you know class always shows and Matti even managed to sneak into the GC top 10 without even going for it!
So it would seem he was ready for his second big season goal:
Clásica San Sebastián but just as in Sanremo he was watched closely by the others and forced to be the one closing gaps. And once again one rider was having the ride of his life to deny Matti the win.
That left Breschel even more hungry for the Vuelta and after winning the TTT he was in a unique position with a real shot of getting to wear the leaders jersey in the race where he got his first World Tour win back in 2008. On stage 2 he finished 9th in the bunch sprint.
Stage 3 had a profile much more suiting for Breschel with a not too hard hill and a long descent before the finish and he made the most of it taking the stage win from a late attack. An effort that also brought him in red for the next stage, where he had to hand it over to team mate Willy Ipsen.
He almost managed to win a bunch sprint on stage 7, which also suddenly brought him in contention for the points jersey as well. A position he reinforced by winning out of a breakaway on stage 12.
He looks ready to defend his title with several Vuelta-stages of his liking still to come!
| 1 | Jakob Fuglsang | Novo Nordisk – SAS | 634 |
| 2 | Vincenzo Nibali | Nissan | 619 |
| 3 | Andy Schleck | Team Saxo - Tinkoff | 520 |
| 6 | Edvald Boasson Hagen | Novo Nordisk – SAS | 416 |
| 42 | Thomas Löfkvist | Novo Nordisk – SAS | 110 |
| 46 | Jussi Veikkanen | Novo Nordisk – SAS | 104 |
| - | | - | - |
| 1 | Novo Nordisk – SAS | 1617 |
| 2 | Team Santander | 1050 |
| 3 | Nissan | 1041 |
| 4 | Team Saxo – Tinkoff | 880 |
| 17 | Statoil – Stoerensoe | 236 |
| 1 | Kristof Goddaert | Het Nieuwsblad – Willems Veranda’s | 812 |
| 2 | Zico Waeytens | Dirk Grepdon Wanzele – Mercator | 745 |
| 3 | Zdenek Stybar | Team Whirlpool – PKN Orlen | 558 |
| 17 | Kasper Jebjerg | Statoil - Stoerensoe | 331 |
| 55 | Gunnar Grönlund | IKEA Cykling | 171 |
| 80 | Frans-Leonard Markarskard | Belavia | 145 |
| - | | - | - |
| 1 | Het Nieuwsblad – Willems Veranda’s | 2405 |
| 2 | Statoil – Stoerensoe | 1756 |
| 3 | Dirk Grepdon Wanzele - Mercator | 1691 |
| 10 | Joker Merida | 948 |
| 20 | TDC – LRØ Rådgivning | 663 |
| 32 | Blue Water Cycling | 385 |
| 33 | Ikea Cykling | 366 |
| 49 | Team Øster Hus | 207 |
| 56 | DONG Energy – Himmerland | 164 |
| 73 | Jardar Sykling | 68 |
| 79 | Christina Watches Development Team | 13 |
IKEA will be pulling their sponsorship from the Swedish CT-team. Fortunately
Fiskars have agreed to take over the sponsorship and keep the team going.
Tom Boonen will be looking to find his previous strength at
Thibaut Pinot is one of the biggest talents in the peloton and next year he will finally be riding as captain after signing with
Other noteworthy transfers:
| From | To |
| Igor Antón | Cofidis | Movistar |
| Mark Cavendish | ISD – Ferrari | Sharp |
| Diego Ulissi | Nissan | Vacansoleil – DCM |
| Ryder Hesjedal | Colombia – Coldeportes | Team Santander |
| Egor Silin | Nissan | Rabobank |
| Alexander Kristoff | Novo Nordisk – SAS | Sorit srl Pisa |
| Enrico Gasparotto | Liquigas – Cannondale | Team Santander |
| Nicolas Roche | SES Astra – MagicSportfood.de | Astana Pro Team |
| Heinrich Haussler | Omega Pharma – Quickstep | Joker Merida |
| Robert Kiserlovski | Club La Santa | Belisol |
| Daniel Martin | Sharp | Team Santander |
(have now been updated with riders actually doing something in August)
Hope the jersey stays in the team! (what country will you be controlling?)
Willy Ipsen
Sergio Henao
Peter Kennaugh
Romain Sicard
Roman Kreuziger
Thomas Löfkvist
Tom Slagter
Robert Kiserlovski
Novo Nordisk - SAS
