Last year’s winner of the Giro, Liége - Bastogne - Liége and Milano - Torino, Contador’s main goal was to improve on his 3rd placing in the Tour de France. After a solid showing in Pais Vasco, Alberto won the Deutschland Rundfahrt, before he also scored a top ten and top five finish in the Trofeo Campania and Liège - Bastogne - Liège respectively. Contador started well in the Tour by taking his first win of the year on stage 2. Things appeared to be going all in his favour after the Spaniard took the race lead from Nairo Quintana following the individual time-trial, but he would need to fight back hard after Quintana took back the lead. Despite a spirited comeback which saw the lead cut to just 3�, Alberto would eventually lose to the Colombian once more by a mere 41 seconds in Paris.

With the pressure seemingly back off his shoulders, Alberto proved to any doubters that he was still a force to be reckoned with by finishing 4th in the World Time-Trial Championship and winning the Spanish National Time-Trial Championship, but his biggest victory of the year came when he won the World Championship Road Race. This means that he will now wear the coveted rainbow jersey for the first time in his illustrious career in 2016.

The National Champion of Germany got off to a very consistent (if not brilliant) start to the year, notching top 10 finishes in each of the Palm Classic, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Roma Maxima and Milano - San Remo before finally tasting success for the first time in 2015 by winning the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen – Harelbeke. Following that was another victory at Gent – Wevelgem before he again finished agonisingly close in the Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris – Roubaix. Following more solid performances at Liège - Bastogne - Liège and the University of Lincoln GP, John’s luck seemed to turn as he won two stages and the points classification at the Deutschland Rundfahrt.

But it was not to be at the Tour de France. Although Degenkolb would narrowly win the points classification at the Tour, he was unable to win a single stage. Two more top 5 finishes at the Vattenfall Cyclassics and the Quebec Sprint Challenge would conclude an excellent but incredibly frustrating season for the big sprinter from Celesio.

Coming off a victory in the Vuelta and finishing as runner-up in the 2014 Tour de France, nobody could ever doubt Chris Froome’s talent. His season started at the Giro d’Italia, where the Briton would defy an early deficit to both Richie Porte and Rafal Majka to win by over four minutes, picking up three stage wins, four more stage podiums and the King of the Mountains jersey in an incredible showing of strength. He returned once more to the Tour of Mount Fuji, finishing second behind Nairo Quintana after holding an early lead in another sign of what was yet to come.

The Tour de France saw Chris again in top form, taking three stage wins and four stage podium finishes just as he did in the Giro, but this time he never got to hold the race lead. While Quintana and Contador traded blows in the mountains, Froome proved almost impossible to dislodge as he comfortably took out the final spot on the podium. All that remained were the World and National Championships, which saw the Giro champion finish in the top ten in each of his four races and becoming the British Road Race Champion for the first time in his career; one of the few feats he had not yet achieved in cycling.

The “Gorilla� got off to a solid start much like that of his countryman Degenkolb, with top 10 finishes in the Palm Classic and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad before claiming victory at Tirreno - Adriatico. From there, Greipel’s focus turned to the flat mid-season stage races as he won a stage in each of the Tour des Fjords, Tour of Northern Europe and the Baltic Chain Tour. This part of his year was also filled with many near-misses as his battles with riders such as Alexander Kristoff and Arnaud Demare thrilled the crowds and provided some of the year’s best action. Two 5th place finishes also came in La Descente Pavée and Vattenfall Cyclassics as the German finished up his preparation for his only Grand Tour appearance at the Vuelta.

Despite the strong competition (Kittel, Nizzolo, Cavendish, Goss and Demare), the über-consistent Greipel would achieve two victories and was three times runner-up in the first week. While the remainder of the race was not as kind to him, that was enough to claim second place in the competition for the green jersey, with only Marcel Kittel being stronger. With little left to prove, Greipel nevertheless finished off his season with a bang by retaining his title as the champion of the Quebec Sprint Challenge, gaining payback on Kittel for the Vuelta and showing that he remains a powerhouse of the sport.

The third German sprinter nominated, Marcel had a lot to live up to after a stellar start in season 2014. He did not disappoint, again taking victory in the season opener Palm Classic before skipping many races which he dominated in the previous year to prepare for the Giro d’Italia. After finishing in second position on stages 1 and 3, the German took the Maglia Rosso as leader of the points classification and held onto his lead for the rest of the race, amassing a superb five stage wins across the three weeks. With only Elia Viviani providing any kind of competition along the way, people were starting to question if he was already becoming one of the all-time greats at just 27 years of age.

Unable to match his earlier successes at the Deutschland Rundfahrt and Vattenfall Cyclassics, Kittel came into the Vuelta a España with just two top 10 finishes since to his name in the past three months. That didn’t faze the CarbonSports rider, who won the opening two stages to hold the leader’s red jersey for three days. His battles with André Greipel were a highlight of the race, with Marcel holding the points jersey for all but two days and taking a third victory on stage 9 to emerge victorious in Madrid. While Greipel gained a small measure of revenge by defeating him in the Quebec Sprint Challenge, there could be no doubting that Kittel had once more had a fantastic season.

The youngster known as “Kwiatek� was coming off a disappointing 2014 season, with his only two victories coming in the year-end National Championships. The Pole made it clear from day one that would not be the case this year, taking the overall, points and youth classifications at the Tour of Toowoomba. After having little impact in the Vuelta a Mallorca, he fought back to win again in Pais Vasco, finishing in the top 10 on all six stages and coming second in the points classification. Kwiatkowski would then finish 4th in Strade Bianche and 3rd in the Trofeo Campania before taking his first stage win of the year in the Vuelta a Guatemala. In a result mirroring his earlier achievements, he would win the overall and youth classifications whilst also coming second in the race for the points jersey.

Avoiding the lures of a Grand Tour, Michał continued to dominate with a stage win and some very high placings in the Tour of Northern Europe before again taking a stage in the Tour of Britain. For the first time since Toowoomba, he would also take home the trifecta of winning the overall, points and youth classifications from his final stage race of the year. After matching his 2nd place finish from last year at the Bucaramanga Classic, Kwiatkowski broke through for his first monument victory by winning in Lombardia. While he was unable to follow up this success at the World Championships, Kwiatkowski retained his National Time-Trial title to conclude an incredible breakout season.

The world’s greatest time-trial rider proved unstoppable in his favourite discipline once again. He started the season in Italy, first at the Trofeo Campania where Martin comfortably beat Wiggins to score his first win. Whilst taking a minor role as a domestique in the Giro d’Italia, Martin took out the time-trial on stage 11 with only Froome able to come within a minute of his time. His strong form continued as he then took nearly two minutes off his nearest rival on the opening stage of the Deutschland Rundfahrt. Tony would retain the lead for five days and held on to finish inside the top 10, his best stage race result of the year. Success however was slightly more limited this year, with the “Panzerwagen� again being used as a team-mate in some of the bigger races on the calendar rather than leading the team in smaller races such as the USA Pro Challenge and other tours around Austria and Germany as in 2014.

Nearing the end of the season, Tony would get his chance to shine once more in the Chrono des Nations where he retained his title 42 seconds ahead of Bradley Wiggins. Along with comfortably retaining his title as German National Time-Trial champion, he finished off the season by retaining his title as World Time-Trial Champion, winning each by a comfortable margin to retain his crown in style. This now makes it a record of five consecutive years in the rainbow jersey for Martin.

After some of the best results of his career in 2014, Mollema came into season 2015 full of confidence. The Dutchman showed his strength at the Tour of Toowoomba, finishing in the top 10 on four of five stages. However, his team let him down in the Stage 2 team-time-trial which meant he could only claim 3rd overall behind Michał Kwiatkowski. That was followed up by some consistent-if-not-brilliant performances at Pais Vasco and Strade Bianche before claiming top ten finishes at the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, Liège - Bastogne - Liège and La Jurassaine. There were more signs of the good things to come when Bauke proved to be one of the strongest climbers in the Deutschland Rundfahrt, with three top ten finishes and a 3rd place in the points classification. After a quiet Course de la Paix, it was time to move on to a big goal race - the Vuelta a España.

With a weaker field than the year before, Mollema would instantly mark himself as a contender after winning stage 4 and taking the overall lead off Kittel. Although Joaquím Rodríguez took the lead on stage 8, Bauke would hit back, winning stage 10 to take back the lead. After narrowly holding the jersey away from Betancur, Mollema would stretch his lead over his two main competitors on the stage 13 time-trial before one of the most thrilling battles of the year. The last week saw him hold off a rampant Rodríguez, not allowing the Spaniard to gain any significant time gaps as Mollema won his first Grand Tour in a big upset. While he just missed out on defending Il Lombardia and finished 2nd and 6th in Japan and Bucaramanga, it hardly mattered as he became the first Dutch GT victor since Joop Zoetemelk in 1980.

The Colombian climber and winner of last year’s Tour de France, Quintana decided not to try the Giro-Tour double this year, instead starting his Tour preparation with the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco. Victorious on stage 2, he briefly held the race lead before eventually finishing 4th behind Kwiatkowski. At the Vuelta a Tachira it was a similar story, with Quintana winning stage 2 before falling just short, finishing just behind Nibali and/or Rodríguez again in the decisive stages 3, 7, 8 and 9 to take 2nd overall and the youth classification. He finished 9th at Liège - Bastogne - Liège, but it would take until his last race before the Tour de France for Nairo to take an overall victory, winning a one-on-one battle with Chris Froome on stage 4 of Mount Fuji to set up another epic battle in July.

It was a good start for Quintana in France. After winning stage 4 and gaining a small gap on his GC rivals, Quintana would take the maillot jaune following stage 7. Despite winning once more on stage 9, the jersey would change hands after Alberto Contador gained over a minute in the individual time-trial. It wouldn’t last long, with Quintana gaining almost two minutes on both Froome and Contador on stage 13 to catapult him back into the lead. The race wasn’t over yet however, with Contador cutting the Colombian’s lead to just 3� following the team time-trial and successful late attack on stages 16 and 17. With a victory on the mountain time-trial stage 20, Quintana would secure his second consecutive win at the Tour along with his fourth stage. With his #1 goal achieved, Nairo then won Bucaramanga and the National Time-Trial Championship to round off another incredible year from the young star from Ecopetrol.

It was again a case of ‘close, but no cigar’ for “Purito�. Following a season full of wins which saw him win both the World Tour and Prestige Rankings, he won his first race of the year at March’s Strade Bianche. His title defence at the Vuelta a Tachira started off brilliantly, but despite finishing in the top ten in all ten stages, he would just win the one with five agonising podium finishes. After losing the lead after stage 5, Rodríguez finished in 3rd position. He was 3rd again at the Amstel Gold Race before Rodríguez finally scored a victory at La Flèche Wallonne. Following a top ten at Liège - Bastogne - Liège, the Spaniard took a mid-season break. On return at the Tour of Mount Fuji, it was a similar story for Joaquím who won the final stage after two podium finishes claiming 3rd place behind Quintana and Froome.

Despite these mixed results, it was now time for the Vuelta, where he hoped to improve on last year’s career-high 2nd placing. Following victory on stage 5, the Spaniard sat just 4� behind Bauke Mollema. With the first week dominated by sprinters, Rodríguez took the lead on stage 8 before losing over a minute to Mollema on stage 10, falling to a familiar 3rd place behind Carlos Betancur. Despite losing more time to the Dutchman following the stage 13 time-trial and subsequent days, it appeared that the curse may finally be broken, with Purito taking three consecutive victories on stages 17, 18 and 19 to ramp up the pressure in the mountains. Mollema however, would not be cracked as he held a 47� lead following stage 20 to shatter the Basque dreams with Rodríguez taking second again. The remainder of the year would see two more podium finishes at Bucaramanga and Lombardia and an 8th at the World Championships, before Joaquím retained the jersey as road race champion of Spain. Will he ever break the curse and win a grand tour or world championship? Only time will tell.

Arguably the most popular rider in the peloton, Sagan gave his fans plenty to cheer about in 2015. After starting his season with a 5th place at the Palm Classic in the Emirates, Peter was unable to repeat his terrific 2014 form at the Tour of Toowoomba, rarely even being seen during the race. Some doubts were cast aside during the Spring Classics season with Peter claiming 5th in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad before coming 2nd behind Cancellara in a sprint finish at Milano - San Remo. He would also achieve his best result of the year, finally breaking through for his first Monument victory at the Ronde van Vlaanderen in April. After finishing just outside the top ten at Liège and winning a sprint for 3rd place in Lincoln, Sagan set out to race his first Grand Tour in two years at the Tour de France.

After finishing second on stage 2 to Alberto Contador, Sagan would unexpectedly lose time and the youth jersey on the cobbled third stage before finishing second again to Bryan Coquard on stage 5. A disappointing first week was soon forgotten as the Slovak took stage 8 ahead of Coquard, also edging in front of him and John Degenkolb to take the points jersey lead as well. Success was not to be for Sagan though as he would lose the jersey following stage 11 and never really looked like taking it back. A podium finish on stage 16 and victory on the final day in Paris eased some of the pain before a surprisingly good 6th place at Lombardia saw Peter return to form once more. He finished off the season in fantastic style, winning three stages along with the points, youth and general classifications at La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, and coming 5th in the World Championships before regaining his title as National Road Race Champion of Slovakia.

OZrocker (well, obviously)
Silvio Herklotz
The Rider
knockout
Luis Leon Sanchez
Ollfardh
Shonak
matt17br
Bikex
Croatia14
trekbmc