Mat Hayman (Orica-Scott) on the pave(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, Annemiek van Vleuten and Amanda Spratt on the podium(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Simon Yates finished second atop Coll de la Rabassa during stage 19 at the Vuelta(Image credit: Getty Images)
Geraint Thomas (Sky) stays in yellow after the climb to Geraint Thomas (Sky) finishes third on the Col du Portet, stage 17(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Team Sky's Chris Froome in Rome on his special pink Pinarello as winner of the 2018 Giro d'Italia(Image credit: Getty Images)
Elia Viviani beats Peter Sagan and Giacomo Nizzolo to win stage 10 at the Vuelta(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) sported a thick beard at Bora-Hansgrohe's training camp (Image credit: Bora-hansgrohe / VeloImages)
The 2019 season is about to begin, but before the racing begins, Cyclingnews looks back at the key moments of the 2018 season and the numbers that defined it.
2018 was a year that Peter Sagan won his first Paris-Roubaix, British riders won all three Grand Tours with Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and Simon Yates, while Alejandro Valverde and Anna van der Breggen took their first road race world titles. Almost everything Annemiek van Vleuten touched turned to gold, while Boels Dolmans ruled the roost for the women's teams.
76 – The number of victories claimed by Quick-Step Floors, making them the most successful team in the men's peloton. The Belgian team opened their account early in January when Elia Viviani won stage 3 of the Tour Down Under. After that, Quick-Step Floors won every month until October with Fabio Jacobsen earning them two wins at the Tour of Guangxi to close out a hugely successful year.
18 – Viviani was the highest contributor to Quick-Step Floors' large victory tally, with 18 wins. After a successful debut with his new team Down Under, Viviani racked up wins at the Giro d'Italia, the Italian national championships and the Vuelta a Espana among others. With Fernando Gaviria set to ride with UAE Team Emirates next season, the pressure will be on Viviani to deliver yet again for Quick-Step in 2019.
13 – The number of wins taken by a dominant Annemiek van Vleuten. The Dutch rider was in the form of her life in 2018 and won her first Giro Rosa title in fine fashion ahead of South Africa's Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. Van Vleuten won the women's WorldTour ranking and defended her world time trial title.
4,329.99 – The points earned by Boels Dolmans over the season to comfortably secure the Women's WorldTour team title. While Mitchelton-Scott took more victories across the season, Boels Dolmans dominated the WorldTour competition winning eight of the 24 races and often getting a second rider on the podium in the process. This was all with a reduced roster while Lizzie Deignan was on maternity leave and Anna van der Breggen skipped the Giro Rosa to focus on the Worlds at the end of the year.
6,360.5 – The kilometres ridden by WaowDeals rider Anouska Koster over the course of the 2018 season. She raced more than any other rider in the women's peloton with 62 race days under her belt after starting the season at the Santos Women's Tour in January and closing it with a fifth at the Lotto Belgium Tour in October.
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14,260.6 - Alessandro De Marchi raced the most kilometres raced this season in the men's peloton, clocking enough kilometres across 90 days of racing to go more than a quarter of the way around the globe.
80 – The distance in kilometres that Chris Froome rode solo to win stage 19 of the Giro d'Italia in Bardonecchia, three minutes ahead of his nearest challenger Richard Carapaz. After a difficult start to the race, his long-range attack would also revive his bid for the overall victory. Having started the day 3:22 behind the maglia rosa, Froome would end the day 40 seconds in the lead and would go onto win the general classification.
91 – The most race days ridden by any rider in the men's peloton in 2018. Gorka Izagirre was the rider responsible for it, riding just one more day than his brother Ion. The elder of the Izagirre brothers kick-started things at the Tour Down Under and raced every month but May until he closed his season at Il Lombardia. He and his brother are set to switch Bahrain-Merida for Astana in 2019.
48 – The number of minutes it took Annemiek van Vleuten to climb the Monte Zoncolan at this year's Giro Rosa. The Zoncolan was included for only the second time in the history of the women's Grand Tour, over 20 years after it was first raced. Climbing the Ovaro ascent, the side favoured by the Giro d'Italia over the last decade. Van Vleuten was the only rider to match Moolman-Pasio on the slopes and eventually won the stage by 40 seconds to move into the race lead.
20 – The number of consecutive Grand Tours that Adam Hansen rode and completed before bringing his run to a close at the end of the Giro d'Italia. The run began way back at the 2011 Vuelta a Espana and saw him amass a whopping 70,000 kilometres and complete 419 days of racing. There were a couple of times when the record-breaking run almost ended but Hansen kept going, before deciding to call time on it this year to allow himself other opportunities.
80 – This number again. Rather than Froome's solo effort to unseat Simon Yates at the Giro d'Italia, it is the number of points that Yates beat Peter Sagan by to top the men's WorldTour ranking. After his disappointment at the Giro, Yates went on to win his first Grand Tour title at the Vuelta a Espana. Despite the Giro disappointment, the three stage wins and time spent in pink earned him plenty of WorldTour points, as did his podium places at Paris-Nice and the Tour de Pologne.
37.8 – The average speed in kilometres of Geraint Thomas' Tour de France winning ride, 37.833km/h to be more precise. The Welshman claimed his first Grand Tour victory after moving into yellow in the second week of the race. It was expected that he would have to hand over the reins to his teammate Froome, but Thomas proved stronger in the mountains and would go onto win the race by 1:51 over Tom Dumoulin, with Froome sitting in third place.
11 – The number of Dutch women's road race world champions after Anna van der Breggen won her first title in Innsbruck at the end of September. Van der Breggen's win pushed the Netherlands ahead of France, who have 10 former road race world champions. The Dutch have won a total of 30 medals in the women's road race with 14 silver medals and five bronze. Keetie van Oosten-Hage won them their first with a silver medal in 1966 and two years later she took the rainbow stripes.
2000 – The year that neo-pro Remco Evenepoel was born. Evenepoel will be the youngest rider in the WorldTour at just 18 when he steps up with Deceuninck-Quick-Step in 2019. The young Belgian has been on the radar of Patrick Lefevere's team for a while and confirmed his talents with an emphatic double at the World Championships with victory in the junior time trial and road race.
40 – Mat Hayman's age. The Australian will be the oldest rider in the WorldTour at the start of the 2019 season. It won't be for long, though, as he is set to retire after the Tour Down Under in just a few weeks. When he steps down, the oldest mantle will be handed to the 39-year-old Roy Curvers, who pushed back his retirement until the end of the 2019 season.
Born in Ireland to a cycling family and later moved to the Isle of Man, so there was no surprise when I got into the sport. Studied sports journalism at university before going on to do a Masters in sports broadcast. After university I spent three months interning at Eurosport, where I covered the Tour de France. In 2012 I started at Procycling Magazine, before becoming the deputy editor of Procycling Week. I then joined Cyclingnews, in December 2013.
