2015 cycling preview

The coming year in cycling has a lot to live up to after a memorable 2014.

But with a four-way battle for Tour de France victory brewing, multiple attempts on the hour record planned, the first edition of the Tour de Yorkshire being held and the usual collection of classics and stage races also on the schedule, 2015 has the potential to be just as good.

Here are the highlights of the season ahead...

January

After three long months without racing, the campaign gets under way at the Tour de San Luis in Argentina (January 19-25) and the Santos Tour Down Under in Australia (January 20-25). The Tour de San Luis remains a third-tier race but continues to grow in popularity, with warm weather and a mix of flat and mountainous stages attracting some of the best climbers and sprinters in the world. Nairo Quintana won the 2014 race and has already announced he will return in 2015, while Mark Cavendish has also confirmed his participation. Across the Pacific, the Santos Tour Down Under once again has a hilly flavour, so expect the pure and punchy climbers to be to the fore in the first UCI WorldTour race of the year.

The women’s season also gets under way with the second edition of the Tour Femenino de San Luis (January 10-16), a race at which Britain’s Hannah Barnes won a stage and briefly led overall last year.

The first attempt on the hour record will also be made in January, with Australia’s Jack Bobridge bidding to break Matthias Brandle’s current best mark of 51.852km in Melbourne on January 31.

February

The bulk of February’s road racing is held in the Middle East, with the sprinters getting a chance to rack up early-season stage wins at the Dubai Tour (February 4-7) and Tour of Qatar (February 8-13), before the climbers and general classification riders then get their chance to show off the fruits of their winter training at the Tour of Oman (February 17-22). The latter is quickly becoming the first race in the build-up to the Tour de France and Chris Froome is likely to return in search of a third consecutive victory. Any general classification (GC) rider who doesn’t fancy the trip to Oman is likely to be found at the Volta ao Algarve (February 18-22) instead, while the classics get under way with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (February 28), which was won last year by Team Sky’s Ian Stannard.

The women also get to sample some Middle Eastern sunshine at the Ladies Tour of Qatar (February 3-6), before the peloton heads even further east for the Tour of New Zealand (February 18-22), which is back on the calendar after a two-year absence. The classics then commence with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on February 28.

There’s also key action on the track this month, with the UCI Track Cycling World Championships being held in Paris from February 18-22. Preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio are now well under way and the world championships will consequently be an important staging post and provide a key barometer of how riders and countries currently match up against their rivals.

Elsewhere on the track, there will be two more attempts on the men's hour record in February, with Rohan Dennis attacking it in Switzerland on February 8 and England’s Alex Dowsett making his bid in London on February 27. Twenty-four hours later, Dame Sarah Storey will look to set a new women's hour record in London on February 28.

March

The road season gets into full swing in a jam-packed March. For the men, the classics continue with Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne (March 1), Strade Bianche (March 7) and Roma Maxima (March 8), before the first one-day Monument of the year, Milan San-Remo, takes place on March 22. Britain’s Ben Swift finished third in the 2014 edition and has already highlighted the race as a major target for 2015. Focus then shifts north to Belgium for an intense week of classics racing at Dwars Door Vlaanderen (March 25), E3 Harelbeke (March 27) and Gent-Wevelgem (March 29).

The month is also laden with high-pedigree stage races. Paris-Nice (March 8-15) is first up, but it will once again run concurrently with Tirreno-Adriatico (March 11-17), which usually boasts the more mountainous route of the two and is consequently likely to be the chosen option for climbers and Grand Tour hopefuls. Alberto Contador won the 2014 edition but can expect to face stiff competition to make it two in a row from the likes of Froome and Vincenzo Nibali. The GC riders will then resume battle at the equally hilly Volta a Catalunya (March 23-29), which was won by Joaquim Rodriguez last year.

March is just as busy for the women as it is for the men. The UCI Women’s Road World Cup gets under way with the Ronde van Drenthe (March 14) and Trofeo Alfredo Binda (March 29), while first ladies edition of Strade Bianche (March 7), Omloop van het Hageland (March 8), Molecaten Drentse 8 (March 12) and Gent-Wevelgem (March 29) are among a clutch of other classics taking place.

April

The men’s classics continue to come thick and fast in another action-packed month. The second Monument of the year, the Tour of Flanders, takes place on April 5, with Fabian Cancellera no doubt eyeing back-to-back wins and fourth victory in total. Next up is by Scheldeprijs on April 8, and then it’s time for the third Monument, Paris-Roubaix, on April 12. Sir Bradley Wiggins is targeting victory in the latter after finishing ninth in 2014, so that’s definitely not one to miss. With the cobbled classics now all out of the way, attention turns to the three hilly Ardennes classics: Amstel Gold Race on April 19, La Fleche Wallonne on April 22 and then the fourth Monument, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, on April 26. Simon Gerrans won the latter in 2014 but Nibali is reportedly keen and could well make it a key spring objective.

Preparation for May’s Giro d’Italia continues with two short but hilly stage races, the Tour of the Basque Country (April 6-11) and then the Giro del Trentino (April 19-24), while the build-up to the Tour de France resumes at the end of the month at the Tour de Romandie (April 28-May 3). Froome has won the last two editions of the race and is expected to bid to make it three in a row.

For the women, the third and fourth events of the UCI Women’s World Cup take place in April, with the Tour of Flanders being held on April 5 and La Fleche Wallonne following on April 22, while the first big stage race of the season also arrives in the form of the Energiewacht Tour (April 8-12).

May

The Tour de Romandie reaches its conclusion in the opening three days of May, but this year it has to share the limelight with the Tour de Yorkshire, which is being held for the first time from May 1-3. The race is ranked in the third tier of professional cycling and while it won’t attract all of the best teams in the sport, the likes of Team Sky and Giant-Alpecin are expected to be present so the standard should be high and the racing exciting.

All attention will then shift to the first Grand Tour of the season, the Giro d’Italia (May 9-31). Nairo Quintana won the 2014 edition but with the Colombian expected to skip the race to focus on the Tour de France instead, Contador will be the favourite for victory. The race contains seven summit finishes and a huge 59.2km time trial, so it should be a riveting watch. The Tour of California (May 10-17), Bayern Rundfahrt (May 13-17) and the Tour of Norway (May 20-24) also take place in May should the Giro not give you a sufficient fill of racing.

The Festival Luxembourgeois Elsy Jacobs (May 1-3) kicks off the month for the women and is followed by a spree of one-day races, including the fifth World Cup event of the season, the Tour of Chongming Island, on May 17.

June

June is just about the quietest month of the season for the men but two vital Tour de France warm-up races ensure it is nonetheless hugely important. First up is the Criterium du Dauphine (June 7-14), which tends to be favoured by the climbers and general classification riders, and then focus switches to the Tour de Suisse (June 14-21), which is usually the race of choice for the sprinters, time-triallists and all-rounders. Andrew Talanksy was the surprise winner of the Dauphine in 2014 but expect normal service to be resumed and a big-name GC rider like Froome, Contador or Nibali to claim the yellow jersey in 2015. Rui Costa has won the last three editions of the Tour de Suisse and will now no doubt be thinking about equalling Pasquale Fornara’s record of four victories.

June is busier for the women. British fans will get another chance to see the world’s best in action at the Women’s Tour of Britain (June 17-21), which is preceded by the Emakumeen Bira stage race in Spain (June 10-14) and followed by the ladies’ Giro del Trentino in Italy (June 19-21).

The bulk of the national championships across the world are then held at the end of the month, with the British version taking place in Lincolnshire on June 25 (time trials) and June 28 (road races). Wiggins, meanwhile, is widely expected to attempt to break the hour record at some point this month.

July

The Tour de France dominates the agenda in July, starting this year in Utrecht in the Netherlands on July 4 and ending, as usual, in Paris on July 26. It is cycling’s most prestigious race and in 2014 it also promises to be one of the best. Froome, Contador, Nibali and Quintana are all expected to take part and with five summit finishes but only 14km of individual time trialling, a nip-and-tuck battle in the mountains is in the offing. But it’s not all about the general classification, because the race to be king of the sprints should be as a hard-fought as ever. Marcel Kittel dominated the 2014 race by taking four wins, but Cavendish will no doubt be keen to make up for lost ground after crashing out on the first stage last year.

The biggest stage race in the women’s calendar, the Giro d’Italia, also takes place this month (July 3-12) and 2014 winner Marianne Vos will surely be back in search of a fourth victory. The ladies' peloton will then join the men in Paris on July 26 for the second edition of La Course by Le Tour de France.

August

The Tour might well be over but the season continues apace with the ever-entertaining Clasica San Sebastian on August 1 and, for British fans, the third edition of the RideLondon-Surrey Classic the following day. The former is geared towards climbers and was won last year by Alejandro Valverde, while the latter is a sprint race won in 2014 by Adam Blythe. A spree of stage races then follow, including the Tour of Poland (August 2-8), Vuelta a Burgos (August 4-8) and the Eneco Tour (August 10-16), before it’s time for the third and final Grand Tour of the season, the Vuelta a Espana (August 22-13).

The Vuelta is usually the most mountainous of the three Grand Tours and consequently the most entertaining, and although the route has not yet been announced, it’s a safe bet to expect more of the same in 2015. The only question is, which riders will be there? All will depend on who still has form and condition following the Tour, but don’t be surprised to see Froome on the starting line after hinting in recent weeks that he could well return to the race, in which he has twice finished runner-up. Whoever takes part, it should be a great spectacle.

August is a crucial month for the women, as it hosts the final four events of the UCI Women’s Road World Cup. The Sparkassen Giro (August 2) gets the series back under way after a two-and-a-half-month break, before the contenders for the overall title head to Sweden for the Open de Suede Vargarda team time trial on August 21 and then a road race of the same name on August 23. The World Cup then draws to a close at the GP de Plouay in France on August 29. Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead won the World Cup in 2014 but expect Vos, who claimed the title in four of the previous five years, to mount a serious challenge to get it back.

September

The second two weeks of the Vuelta take place in the first half of the month, but it will once again have to share the limelight with the increasingly popular Tour of Britain from September 6-13. Not only are more and more fans turning out to see the race each year, but better and higher-profile riders are also being attracted by demanding and unpredictable racing that acts as a perfect warm-up for the world championships later in the month (see below). Michal Kwiatkowski finished second overall at the 2014 Tour of Britain and went on to win the world road race title, so don’t be surprised to see other rainbow jersey hopefuls in 2015 following his lead and heading to Britain this year.

The women’s schedule is packed with stage races in the first half of the of the month, with the Boels Rental Ladies Tour (September 1-6), Lotto Belisol Belgium Tour (September 10-14) and Giro della Toscana (September 13) being the pick of those taking place.

With all the stage racing done and dusted, both the men and women will turn all attention to the UCI Road World Championships (September 20-27), which this year take place in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. The road race course is once again a rolling one comprising of multiple laps of a 16.5km circuit around the city centre. The number of laps and total distances for each race are still to be announced, but what is for certain is that each lap contains a ramp of 20 per cent in gradient, so expect attritional battles in which climbers will hold the advantage. The time-trial courses are also rolling and technical towards the finish. As always with the worlds, it should be a great week of racing and is definitely one of the diary.

October

With the Tour of Beijing no longer in existence, the only WorldTour race in October – and last of the season – is Il Lombardia on October 4. The fifth and final Monument, the “Race of the Falling Leaves” is a hilly one-day classic geared towards climbers and always delivers compelling racing. Dan Martin took a famous win in the 2014 edition and given that wins in this particular race have a habit of coming in twos, keep an eye on the Irishman once again in 2015. Both the men’s and women’s seasons will draw to a close at the Chrono des Nations time trial on October 18.