It’s more than eight months since the Santos Tour Down Under, the opening event on the 2016 WorldTour calendar. And with the completion of last Sunday’s Il Lombardia, male road cycling’s highest level of competition is now complete for another season.
A look at the individual rankings shows that Peter Sagan (4,759 points) took a comfortable victory by season’s end, finishing nearly 1,000 points clear of his nearest challenger, Chris Froome (3,771). Vuelta a España winner Nairo Quintana (3568.25) was third, Greg Van Avermaet (3548.25) was fourth and two-time defending champion Alejandro Valverde (2,916) was fifth.
Sagan’s victory is the result of several big one-day wins (Gent-Wevelgem, Tour of Flanders and the GP de Quebec), victories in WorldTour stage races (Tour de Suisse, Tour de France and the Eneco Tour) and, perhaps above all, consistency across the season. Sagan had a staggering seven second-place finishes and six third-place finishes in WorldTour races this year.
But the story of the 2016 WorldTour goes well beyond Peter Sagan. In this retrospective gallery we feature photos from each of the season’s WorldTour races, recapping the defining moments and some of the great performances.
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- Richie Porte came into the Tour Down Under saying he was underdone. That didn’t stop him winning on Willunga Hill for the third time in a row.
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- Simon Gerrans took two stage wins (including this one in Victor Harbor) en route to winning his fourth Tour Down Under.
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- In his first race for the year Michael Matthews took a surprise win in the Paris-Nice prologue ITT, earning himself a stint in yellow. He tangled with Nacer Bouhanni on stage 2 and while Bouhanni crossed the line first, the Frenchman was relegated giving Matthews his second win.
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- Geraint Thomas won Paris-Nice overall off the back of a second place on stage 6.
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- With the queen stage of Tirreno-Adriatico cancelled due to heavy snow, the race took on a different complexion. A stage win on the penultimate day of racing …
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- … was enough for Greg Van Avermaet to win the race overall.
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- Milan-San Remo was won by Arnaud Demare – the French sprinter’s biggest career victory.
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- Crashes took out some of the big favourites in Milan-San Remo, including a dejected Michael Matthews.
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- Wout Poels rise through the ranks continued with victory on stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya.
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- Nairo Quintana won the race overall ahead of Alberto Contador and Dan Martin.
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- At E3 Harelbeke it was the current world champion Peter Sagan and his predecessor Michal Kwiatkowski that rode away from the rest of the field.
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- Kwiatkowski took a comfortable victory with a late surge.
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- Sagan didn’t take long to make amends, winning Gent-Wevelgem just two days later. It was his first win as world champion.
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- Antoine Demoitiè passed away nearly a year ago. The new safety measures try to make things less dangerous within the pro peloton.
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- It was the “Peter Sagan show” at the 2016 Tour of Flanders, the world champion cracking his rivals and riding away to a thrilling solo victory – his first Monument win.
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- It was fitting finish to the Tour of Flanders, with world champions Lizzie Armitstead and Peter Sagan winning both the women’s and men’s editions of De Ronde. Photo: Kristof Ramon.
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- In what has become his trademark style, Steve Cummings broke away on stage 3 of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and managed to hold off the bunch.
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- Contador won the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco.
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- It was the surprise victory of the year: Matt Hayman beating Tom Boonen et al to win Paris-Roubaix.
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- Dan Martin (third) and Julian Alaphilippe (second) were good enough to give Etixx-QuickStep two spots on the podium at Fleche-Wallonne …
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- Alejandro Valverde won his fourth Fleche Wallonne in 2016.
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- Riders faced dreadful conditions at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, including heavy rain and several blizzards.
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- Wout Poels proved strongest in the finish, finally giving Sky its first Monument win in its seventh season.
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- Sky would also find success at the Tour de Romandie, with Chris Froome building towards the Tour de France with victory on the stage 4 uphill finish.
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- Nairo Quintana was the big winner though, adding overall victory in Romandie to his Catalunya victory from earlier in the year. A Tour de France showdown was looming.
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- The Giro d’Italia produced one of the battles of the year. Steven Kruijswijk was leading the race before a crash on stage 19 ended his chances of a maiden Grand Tour success. Meanwhile, Esteban Chaves and Vincenzo Nibali were battling it out for the maglia rosa.
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- Nibali rode an impressive final few stages to take back time and win his second Giro d’Italia.
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- Chris Froome’s build-up to the Tour de France continued with a third overall victory at the Criterium du Dauphine. He’s seen here riding to victory on stage 5 ahead of former teammate and good mate Richie Porte.
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- The Sky Train was well and truly taking shape as the year’s biggest race loomed on the horizon.
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- Over in Switzerland Tejay Van Garderen was also turning heads, winning a stage of the Tour de Suisse and leaving many to wonder how the American would fare at the Tour.
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- Twenty-two-year old Miguel Angel Lopez won the Tour de Suisse overall after finishing second on both of the final two stages.
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- Many fans and pundits had written Mark Cavendish off before the Tour de France, saying the Manxman was over the hill. He responded in emphatic fashion, taking no fewer than four stage victories as his Dimension Data team won a total of five.
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- Undoubtedly the image of the Tour de France, and probably the 2016 season. Chris Froome runs up Mont Ventoux after a traffic snarl saw his bike damaged at a crucial moment. He’d lose time on the stage, but that result was later overturned. In the end he won his third Tour de France by more than four minutes.
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- Fernando Gaviria took two stage wins at the Tour of Poland …
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- … but it was Tim Wellens who claimed overall victory after winning stage 5. Note the saliva on his chin after finishing 13th on the final-stage ITT and securing the win.
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- Bauke Mollema went some of the way to making up for a frustrating Tour de France by winning the Clasica San Sebastian with a late solo move.
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- The 2016 Vuelta a España had a truly stacked field, including Nairo Quintana, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. Quintana found the form that eluded him at the Tour, winning stage 10, taking the lead and never letting it go.
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- Another second place at the Vuelta for Chris Froome, while Esteban Chaves added to his second at the Giro with an impressive third place.
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- Another wayward sprint from Nacer Bouhanni, another relegation. Caleb Ewan was given victory at the 2016 Cyclassics Hamburg (his first European win of the year) after the race jury deemed that Bouhanni had cut the Australian off.
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- Oliver Naesen took out the Bretagne Classic-Ouest-France, earning himself a two-year contract with Ag2r La Mondiale (his IAM team is closing at the end of the year).
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- Peter Sagan returned to the winner’s list at the GP de Quebec, beating out Olympic champion Greg Van Avermaet.
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- Van Avermaet got his revenge a few days later, beating Sagan at the GP de Montreal.
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- The moment that Niki Terpstra was told he’d won the Eneco Tour.
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- Il Lombardia: the season’s final WorldTour race and among the most beautiful.
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- At Il Lombardia, the fifth and final of the season’s Monuments, Esteban Chaves took the win from a small group, capping off a brilliant season.