Every bike race contains a hundred stories or more, and every season is liberally peppered with drama. The 2022 road campaign was no exception in that regard, with incidents and intrigue aplenty from February to October.
The generational dominance of Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Annemiek van Vleuten was a common thread throughout the entire season, but there was no shortage of surprises and upsets along the way. Even apparently straightforward races conjured up a late twist.
There was drama on and off the bike in 2022, including the police raid of Bahrain Victorious ahead of the Tour de France and the debate over Mark Cavendish’s exclusion from QuickStep’s selection for La Grande Boucle.
Elisa Balsamo’s disqualification at Paris-Roubaix generated its share of polemics, while Van Vleuten’s crash in the relay at the World Championships only heightened the impact of her remarkable triumph in the road race a few days later.
As 2022 draws towards an end, Cyclingnews takes a closer look at some of the most dramatic moments from the pro road season.
Mohorič’s dropper post descent at Milan-San Remo
“I destroyed cycling once with the supertuck, now I’ve destroyed cycling again,” Matej Mohorič grinned when he took a seat in the press conference room in San Remo’s Palafiori. He hadn’t, of course, but a little hyperbole was perhaps understandable after a heist of the kind Mohorič pulled off at Milan-San Remo.
His fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar had dominated the build-up to Milan-San Remo after dominating Strade Bianche and Tirreno-Adriatico, and all the pre-race talk seemed to centre around when and where the double Tour winner would launch his inevitable onslaught. There was fanciful talk that he might go on the Cipressa or even sooner, but instead he bided his time until the Poggio.
Pogačar, not for the last time this season, wasn’t quite stronger than his errors. He mistakenly made his first attack into the wind and although he continued the barrage all the way up the climb, he couldn’t quite slip away from Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel et al. Mohorič, meanwhile, hung back and saved his strength as best he could, with Damiano Caruso and Jan Tratnik pacing him almost all the way up the Poggio.
On the drop over the other side, Mohorič took over, surging to the front and then swooping clear with a display of white knuckle descending not seen since Sean Kelly…
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