Great Moments of the 2018 UCI WorldTour

Thankfully, the 2019 WorldTour is less than a month away. There will be a slightly different scoring system in place, and Pro Continental teams will be selected for inclusion in WorldTour races by a ranking system. Also, there will be an orange-clad team. As the calendar year draws to an end, let’s take a look at some of the most notable and exciting moments of the past WorldTour season.

The Shark attacks on the Poggio to win Milan-San Remo

Vincenzo Nibali had a mixed season, as a fan-caused crash on Alpe d’Huez forced him to withdraw from the Tour de France with a fractured vertebrae, an injury that clearly affected his Vuelta a Espana campaign. But winning his second Monument, the Primavera, will go down as one of the great victories of his career.

With headwinds discouraging attacks, Nibali followed a dig from Latvian Krists Neilands (Israel Cycling Academy) on the Poggio, bridging over to two up the road. No one could stay with him and none of his main rivals responded. His nine-second lead at the top of the Poggio was the same at the bottom and the Shark of Messina gritted his teeth to just barely hold off the sprinters on the Via Roma.

Marc Soler’s final stage thrust to steal Paris-Nice victory from Simon Yates

The Movistar Trident was so underwhelming that team management has broken up the band for 2019, with only two of the three at any one Grand Tour.

Two of Movistar’s 2018 WorldTour highlights came from non-Trident riders. Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz had the team’s best Grand Tour GC result with fourth in the Giro d’Italia, and the only other rider to win a WorldTour stage race besides Alejandro Valverde was Marc Soler’s victory in Paris-Nice. It was a foxy move that took the title.

Simon Yates nicked the race lead from red-hot LL Sanchez by winning the penultimate stage, and the Mitchelton-Scott man led sixth place Soler by 37-seconds going into the final, wet day around Nice. Soler broke away late with two other riders, earned a two-second bonus on the road and then took a three-second bonus while finishing third, 35-seconds ahead of Yates. It was a bold move in horrible weather that led to the highlight of Soler’s career so far.

Paris-Roubaix goes to Peter Sagan

Peter Sagan was the fifth world champion to win the Hell of the North in the rainbow jersey, his second Monument triumph after the 2016 Tour of Flanders.

With 55-km remaining Sagan dashed away to reach his rival Greg van Avermaet and then left the Belgian to bridge across to the remnants of the day’s breakaway. The Slovakian did the lion’s share of the work in the break, holding off a high-powered chase that included world cyclocross champion Wout Van Aert.

Sagan only had one breakmate to beat in the Roubaix velodrome and made no mistake in taking a famous win.

Chris Froome’s audacious solo attack at the Giro d’Italia to seize the pink

Chris Froome’s unresolved Salbutamol case weighed heavily on the four-time Tour de France and reigning Vuelta a España champion and Sky as they headed into the Giro d’Italia. By the 19th stage, Froome was 3:22 down on Simon Yates and 2:54 behind Tom Dumoulin after early crashes and mediocre form.

Sky pushed the pace on the Finestre, a mountain 90-km from the finish line. With 6-km left to climb and old-of-sorts Yates distanced, Froome attacked and no one was able to go with him. What happened next was extraordinary. With Dumoulin, Thibaut Pinot and a teammate, Angel Lopez and Carapaz in semi-cooperative pursuit, Froome stayed away for three hours, his lead increasing over the Sestrière and final Jafferau climb.

Froome seized the pink jersey with his audacious attack, Yates disappeared from the top-10 and Dumoulin, runner-up by 46-seconds in Rome, would regret not time trialing on Finestre in an attempt to bridge.

Sky leadership drama at the Tour de France

Froome’s Salbutamol problem became more intense as his Tour defense drew nearer. Six days before La Grande Boucle, the race’s organizers, ASO, tried to block Froome from racing. The next day the UCI cleared Froome by closing the case. Only a binary narrative seemed likely: Froome would either win his fifth Tour and achieve heroic redemption, or he would fail, flooding the Twittersphere with unmitigated schadenfreude. However, a third story played out that proved even more interesting than the win-lose dichotomy.

Froome suffered a bummer of a first stage, crashing with 4-km to go and losing time to teammate Geraint Thomas and several of his rivals. But Sky continued to back Froome over the Welshman. Thomas later told the media that he was informed that the team would leave him behind if he punctured on the Stage 3 team time trial even though he led Froome by 53-seconds.

However, Thomas was on the greatest form of his career, and his back-to-back summit finish victories on La Rosière Espace San Bernardo and Alpe d’Huez were imperious displays. Thomas won the yellow by nearly two minutes over Dumoulin, while Froome had to save his podium spot on the penultimate stage chrono from emerging Grand Tour threat Primoz Roglic.

The Swashbuckling Julian Alaphilippe Show

Quick Step’s exciting Frenchman Julian Alaphillipe might have won Fleche Wallonne and the Clasica San Sebastian in 2018, but the most beloved performance for his compatriots was at his home tour in July.

At the Tour de France Alaphilippe was in fourth place before Stage 8. That day he got caught up in a late crash along with Dan Martin and lost a chunk of time. Thereafter, Alaphilippe was free to fly, and he most certainly spread his wings. Two stages later he was in the breakaway on a medium mountain day, winning in Le Grand Bornand and taking over the KOM lead, one he would not relinquish.

He kept in the breakaways and on the attack, winning another stage in Bagnères-de-Luchon and coming in second in Mende while continuing to rack up the mountain points, winning the polka dots by a wide margin. With Romain Bardet moving backwards in the GC after two consecutive Tours on the podium, Alaphilippe was the darling of the French crowds.

⚪? Maillot à Pois – Julian Alaphilippe ?? ⚪?
Two stage wins and a polka-dot jersey. What an amazing Tour de France for @alafpolak! ?
Deux victoires d'étapes et un Maillot à Pois : quel Tour incroyable pour Julian Alaphilippe ! ?@CarrefourFrance#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/2lqpvv6aM5

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 29, 2018

Simon Yates’ redemption at the Vuelta

Simon Yates wasn’t the only rider to suffer an implosion at the Giro d’Italia—teammate Esteban Chaves, Thibaut Pinot and Fabio Aru had meltdowns that saw them plummet down the GC or withdraw. But Yates capitulated after 13 days in pink, falling from first to 22nd on the last two days in the mountains.

Mitchelton-Scott’s protected rider at the Vuelta, Yates’ main competition going into the final eight stages consisted of two prongs of the Movistar trident: Nairo Quintana and Alejandro Valverde. But even before the last rest day, Yates’ sterling attacks put more time into the duo. After the Stage 16 time trial Valverde was still within striking distance. On the day that Michael Woods won on Balcón de Bizkaia, Quintana lost his grip on a podium spot.

Two days later in Andorra, Yates finished second to Pinot to put almost two minutes on Valverde, who wouldn’t even be in the top-four 24-hours later.

Yates not only won his first Grand Tour with panache and smarts following May’s nightmare, he also gave British riders a sweep of the Grand Tours. He claimed the 2018 WorldTour individual title as well.

Thibaut Pinot wins the Race of the Falling Leaves

Those who witnessed it will never forget the sad sight of Pinot failing to keep down his gels on the penultimate stage of the Giro, illness causing him to plummet off the podium and not start the next day’s procession into Rome. By the Vuelta he was feeling chipper again, taking two stages and riding into 6th place.

But Pinot’s masterpiece of 2018 was his first Monument victory in Il Lombardia. The Frenchman was on fire that week, coming second in the Tre Valli Varesine on October 9, winning Milan-Torino the next day and triumphing at the Race of the Falling Leaves on October 13.

Pinot, Nibali and Roglic shuffled away on the Sormano climb, Roglic was distanced on the Civiglio and then Pinot unhitched Nibali with 10-km to go. The Frenchman was the first to win the Milan-Torino and Il Lombardia double in 16-years.