The 14th edition of the Amgen Tour of California is set to be a wide-open race, with a first stage just for the sprinters, two early high mountain stages and a short, punchy mountain stage to Mt. Baldy the key features of a time-trial free event.
It's impossible to predict who will be on top form after breaks from the Spring Classics and early season stage races, but Cyclingnews has chosen five riders to keep an eye on in the race.
There are many worthy riders who didn't make the short list - John Degenkolb (Trek-Segafredo) is looking to re-establish himself as top dog in the bunch sprints, as are Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) and Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Merida), but they'll be up against the dominant Deceuninck-QuickStep train piloting Fabio Jakobsen and fearless upstarts like Jasper Philipsen (UAE Team Emirates), Cees Bol (Sunweb), Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Ineos) and Edwin Avila (Israel Cycling Academy).
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Similarly, strong climbers like Bora-Hansgrohe's Maximilian Schachmann, Ineos' Gianni Moscon and David de la Cruz, 2017 Tour of California winner George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) all deserve to be on the list, but there can be only five.
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe)
With the first stage a pan-flat 143km circuit in and around Sacramento, barring extreme weather or in-fighting between the teams it will be one for the sprinters and who else to watch aside from the King of California, Peter Sagan?
Since having the rainbow bands wrested from his shoulders by Alejandro Valverde, Sagan has put just one win onto his palmares at the Tour Down Under. Perhaps his globetrotting January where he went from Australia to Argentina contributed to an early-season illness that hurt his Classics campaign, but the Slovakian will be looking to regain his spark in a race where he's already enjoyed incredible success, with 15 career stage wins, five points titles and one overall victory in 2015.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates)
Brandon McNulty (Rally UHC Cycling)
Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo)
Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data)
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/5-riders-to-watch-in-the-tour-of-california
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