Paris (AFP)

Routes, transfers, ambitions, news: four things to know about the WorldTour season which starts Tuesday in Australia with the Tour Down Under:

Climbers at the party

2020, year of climbers? They already have the key moments of the big tours for them, this season they will have the race for the Tokyo Olympics and the Worlds in Switzerland to showcase their qualities. A par with the punchers of the type of Julian Alaphilippe who, after the Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (candidate for Olympic gold at almost 40 years), embodies this category at ease also in the classics.

"I am aware that this may be the best year of my career," said the Frenchman cautiously for 2019. He claims to have "reset the counters" to better plan for a very exciting program. "I didn't want to stay on top of what I had learned," he explains. In the crosshairs of his spring, the Tour of Flanders which he will discover ("I have dreamed of it for a long time") and the Ardennes classics.

The new power of the Tour

The Slovenian Primoz Roglic, winner of the Vuelta, the Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk (3rd of the Tour 2019) and the major reinforcement, the Dutchman Tom Dumoulin: Jumbo intends to present a trio of leaders to win the next Tour de France, confiscated in recent years by Ineos training (ex-Sky).

The British group, faced with the Dutch threat, has already announced to bet on the first two of the 2019 Tour, the Colombian Egan Bernal and the Welshman Geraint Thomas. With, perhaps, Chris Froome. Provided that the quadruple winner of the Tour becomes competitive again after his serious accident last June. "He really wants a fifth victory and is working very hard to reach the required level," notes his boss Dave Brailsford, without specifying the program of the British runner.

Thibaut Pinot, whom French supporters are impatiently waiting for on the Tour in view of his 2019 journey which left him hoping for victory until two days before the finish, rubs his hands about the situation: "I am rather happy that there is a rivalry between Jumbo and and Ineos, it's going to be a little bit + to go up + up, it's up to me to take advantage of it. The faster it goes in the passes, the better it will be for me if I have the right legs. "

Hopes are already high

For having overturned all codes last year, Remco Evenepoel arouses immense curiosity. How far will the young Belgian, about to celebrate his 20th birthday, go? Go to the Giro, its first big tour and also its first test in the high mountains, and to the Olympic Games. "It is never too early to win," said the prodigy.

Other young people are shaking up the hierarchy. In the Tour, the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (21) will make his debut. Last year, he climbed, for his first year in the elite, on the podium of the Vuelta (3rd). In Paris-Roubaix, Mathieu van der Poel, the terror of cyclo-cross, will immediately be among the favorites. The Dutchman (25), grandson of Raymond Poulidor, will compete in most of the spring classics before devoting himself to mountain biking to try to become an Olympic champion in Tokyo.

An Israeli team in the WorldTour

The presence of an Israeli formation, a first for this country, represents the main innovation of the WorldTour, if we consider that the return of the French team Cofidis (with Viviani) and the generalization of disc brakes are logical. . Isräel Start-up Nation, which has taken over Katusha, is qualified for all races, including the Tour de France.

In the off-season, no star has hung up on the bike even if the best known of the new retirees (Cummings, S. Dumoulin, Devolder, Bennati, Eisel, Renshaw, Phinney) have long scoured the major races. The peloton of the 2020 elite is 540 runners -106 of them start in the WorldTour- divided into nineteen teams. Two (the American Quinn Simmons at Trek, the Spanish Carlos Rodriguez at Ineos) are not even 19 years old. The trend is towards youth, even if cycling remains a traditional sport. Sometimes recent, like the Tour Down Under. The Australian race was created in 1999.

© 2020 AFP