In January we predicted who would win cycling's biggest races in 2017. Here's how we got on...
Cycling Weekly's "experts" have their say
At the start of the year, some Cycling Weekly's greatest analytical minds used their expert knowledge to predict the winners of some of the biggest races of the 2017 season.
Now, with the racing at an end (with all due respects to the ongoing Tour of Fuzhou), we're going to look back at how we got on.
In all honesty, this was over as a contest by the end of April, as news writer Sophie Hurcom enjoyed a successful spring campaign to predict Alejandro Valverde's win in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Greg Van Avermaet's victory in Paris-Roubaix, while the rest of the field struggled almost as much as Jon Dibben rolling into the Roubaix velodrome nearly 50 minutes down.
However there were no successful predictions of Tom Dumoulin's Giro win, or the scintillating solo performance of Philippe Gilbert at the Tour of Flanders.
Thankfully the summer brought more success for most as five of our "experts" justified this title by picking out Chris Froome to pull off a historic Tour de France/Vuelta a España double.
Finally, the World Championships brought more mixed results, with two picks for Peter Sagan to pick up his third successive rainbow jersey, although no one predicted Chantal Blaak's solo win in the women's race.
We'll be back in January to gaze into our crystal balls once again, and you can see the full list of predictions below (no sniggering, please)
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Correct predictions in bold.
Gregor Brown - Freelance Writer
Tour of Flanders: Luke Rowe
Paris-Roubaix: Tom Boonen
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Adam Yates
Giro d’Italia: Esteban Chaves
Tour de France: Nairo Quintana
Tour of Britain: Rohan Dennis
Vuelta a España: Chris Froome
World Championships road race (men): Simon Yates
World Championships road race (women): Lizzie Deignan
Simon Collis - Content Director
Tour of Flanders: Peter Sagan
Paris-Roubaix: John Degenkolb
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Wout Poels
Giro d’Italia: Vincenzo Nibali
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Steve Cummings
Vuelta a España: Fabio Aru
World Championships road race (men): Peter Sagan
World Championships road race (women): Megan Guarnier
Sophie Hurcom - News Writer
Tour of Flanders: Peter Sagan
Paris-Roubaix: Greg Van Avermaet
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Alejandro Valverde
Giro d’Italia: Vincenzo Nibali
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Sep Vanmarcke
Vuelta a España: Chris Froome
World Championships road race (men): Alexander Kristoff
World Championships road race (women): Lizzie Deignan
Hugh Gladstone - Deputy Editor
Tour of Flanders: Greg Van Avermaet
Paris-Roubaix: Tom Boonen
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Dan Martin
Giro d’Italia: Nairo Quintana
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Tom Van Asbroeck
Vuelta a España: Chris Froome
World Championships road race (men): Edvald Boasson Hagen
World Championships road race (women): Anna van der Breggen
Vern Pitt - News Editor
Tour of Flanders: Peter Sagan
Paris-Roubaix: John Degenkolb
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Julian Alaphilippe
Giro d’Italia: Nairo Quintana
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Edvald Boasson Hagen
Vuelta a España: Chris Froome
World Championships road races (men): Alexander Kristoff
World Championships road race (women): Lizzie Deignan
Henry Robertshaw - News Writer
Tour of Flanders: Peter Sagan
Paris-Roubaix: Peter Sagan
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Romain Bardet
Giro d’Italia: Nairo Quintana
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Geraint Thomas
Vuelta a España: Chris Froome
World Championships road race (men): Julian Alaphilippe
World Championships road race (women): Lizzie Deignan
Richard Windsor - Digital Editor
Tour of Flanders: Peter Sagan
Paris-Roubaix: Ian Stannard
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Julian Alaphilippe
Giro d’Italia: Nairo Quintana
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Steve Cummings
Vuelta a España: Chris Froome
World Championships road races (men): Peter Sagan
World Championships road race (women): Anna van der Breggen
Nigel Wynn - Associate Digital Editor
Tour of Flanders: Sep Vanmarcke
Paris-Roubaix: Peter Sagan
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: Adam Yates
Giro d’Italia: Mikel Landa
Tour de France: Chris Froome
Tour of Britain: Rohan Dennis
Vuelta a España: Alberto Contador
World Championships road race (men): Greg Van Avermaet
World Championships road race (women): Anna van der Breggen
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