The 2018 Tour of Flanders will have one of the most wide-open fields of contenders in recent memory, with numerous riders to choose from as possible winners. Who can stop the Quick-Step Floors blockade? Will Peter Sagan shake off his bad luck of last year? Has Philippe Gilbert been hiding his form? Cyclingnews picks a dozen of the top riders to watch on Sunday.
Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing)
In his pre-race press conference, Greg Van Avermaet disclosed that the Classics are decided by '90 per cent legs and 10 per cent luck'. While the majority of statistics are almost certainly made up, the Belgian's assessment holds a line of truth to it. The problem for Van Avermaet, however, is that based on his performances thus far this year, he is bare in both legs and luck. That's not to propose he has performed poorly, far from it, but in the last few races he has missed whatever spark that dazzled 12 months ago when everything he touched turned to gold. In Dwars door Vlaanderen, he followed rather than led when Tiesj Benoot attacked, before eventually fading into the chase group, and while Wednesday's semi-classic will not define Van Avermaet's season, his next set of races will.
Flanders has been a race of mixed fortunes for the Olympic champion. He has stood on the podium three times in the last four seasons but a win has eluded him through a blend of crashes and superior opposition. This year the opposition has improved; Peter Sagan has found form, the Quick-Step juggernaut looks unstoppable, and Van Avermaet is playing catch-up. But Sunday is not a Gent-Wevelgem or a Dwars door Vlaanderen, and Van Avermaet undoubtedly has the skills to win. Maybe he just needs a bit more than 10 per cent of luck this time around.
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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)
Despite his bulging palmarès, the Tour of Flanders remains Peter Sagan's one and only Monument victory. His past record has also included a second place and two more top-10 finishes. The world champion's Classics campaign thus far has been a tale of two halves after delaying his cobbled debut until E3 Harelbeke last week. The so-called mini-Flanders was a day Sagan will not want to think about too much, after missing the crucial splits and rolling in more than three minutes down. He turned his fortunes around two days later with victory at Gent-Wevelgem, showing that you can't keep a good man down.
Gent-Wevelgem, as Sagan was pointed to remind us, is a very different prospect to the Tour of Flanders, but the performance shows that E3 was a blip rather than a lack of form. If he was to win Flanders on Sunday, he would be one of the rare riders to do so having finished outside the top 10 at E3 Harelbeke. However, rare achievements are something that Sagan specialises in.
Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors)
Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal)
Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Floors)
Zdenek Stybar (Quick-Step Floors)
Niki Terpstra (Quick-Step Floors)
Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac)
Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida)
Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo)
Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale)
Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/tour-of-flanders-12-top-contenders
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