Mark Your Calendar Now For These Men’s and Women’s Pro Cycling Races in 2022
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Despite COVID-19 doing it’s best to interrupt the start to the racing calendar by forcing riders in and out of races, the 2022 season is well underway with early season events taking place in southern Europe and the Middle East.
And while the specter of COVID-19 still looms large, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that, for the most part at least, the season can move ahead as scheduled. Here’s a rundown of the races we can’t wait to see in 2022.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad — February 26
While racing got underway a few weeks ago in southern Europe and the Middle East, most purists don’t consider the season to have really started until the running of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, which is Belgium’s first race of the year. With events for both men and women, the “Omloop,” as it is affectionately called, offers everything we love about the spring Classics: rain, wind, cobblestones, and many of the short, steep “bergs” that speckle the Flemish countryside.
On the men’s side, Belgian riders and teams often lead the way: Italy’s Davide Ballernini won last year’s race for Belgian super-team Deceuninck–Quick-Step (now called Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl). Belgium’s Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) is another top favorite, even though it’s only his first race of the season.
The women’s event should be headlined by the Netherlands’ Annemiek Van Vleuten (Movistar), who last won the race for the first time in 2020. She’ll likely face stiff competition from her compatriots Ellen Van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (SD Worx). Dutch women have won ten of the race’s sixteen editions, including the last three in a row.
How to Watch: FloBikes
Strade Bianche — March 5
Taking place on the white gravel roads of Tuscany, Strade Bianche is easily one of the hardest and most beautiful races of the year. A race in which the strongest rider always wins, it makes sense that the event’s list of winners reads like a Who’s Who of the sport’s best racers.
For example, the Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) won last year’s men’s edition with an attack that left France’s Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), the reigning world champion, and Colombia’s Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers), winner of the 2019 Tour de France, unable to respond. The Dutchman, still recovering from a crash in last year’s Olympic mountain bike race, might not be on the starting line this year, though, leaving Alaphilippe, who won back-to-back world championships last October and took this race in 2019, as the top favorite.
On the women’s side, the Dutch should again lead the way: van den Broek-Blaak won last year and van Vleuten won in 2019 and 2020. But keep an eye on Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo), who won the race in 2017, and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), a four-time podium finisher.
How to Watch: GCN Race Pass
Milan-Sanremo — March 19
At almost 300km, Milan-Sanremo is the longest one-day race on the calendar. And thanks to the fact that the outcome is almost always decided in the final 10K, the riders say it’s the easiest race to finish, but the hardest race to win.
The first of cycling’s five Monuments, we love Milan-Sanremo’s slow build to the finish as the riders head south from Milan toward the coast, then wind their way along the sea toward the climbs that make-up the Monument’s traditional finale—especially the Poggio, a short, punchy ascent just a few kilometers from the finish line whose treacherous descent often creates more gaps than the climb itself.
The race is ideal for riders who can climb, descend, and win a small group sprint—riders like van Aert and Alaphilippe, winners in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Last year’s race went to Belgium’s Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), who made a surprise attack between the foot of the final climb and the finish line and held on to take the biggest victory of his career.
And while there’s no women’s Milan-Sanremo, the Trofeo Alfredo Binda, a major stop on the women’s WorldTour and a pillar of the former women’s World Cup series, takes the place the next day–and can be streamed live via GCN. Longo Borghini won last year’s race, attacking 25km from the finish to take a spectacular solo victory.
How to Watch: GCN Race Pass
Tour of Flanders — April 3
Many riders consider the Tour of Flanders (known locally as the “Ronde van Vlaanderen”) to be the hardest one-day race on the calendar. The men’s event features over 250km of the toughest terrain in the Flemish region of Belgium, with tight, technical roads, cobblestones, and short, steep climbs called “bergs.” The course is so challenging that it can take years for a rider to master the nuances of the race enough to actually contend to win it.
Last year’s race went to Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), a powerful rider who won the E3 Prijs semi-Classic a little more than a week before the Ronde. Breaking away late in the race with van der Poel, the defending champion, few gave Asgreen much of a chance. But he timed his sprint to perfection, upsetting the Dutchman to win the race in front of his team’s home sponsors. Van der Poel and Asgreen should again be favorites this year, along with van Aert, who’s never won the Ronde despite being perfectly-suited for it.
In the women’s event, look for another battle between the Dutch and the Italians with van Vleuten, the defending champion, headlining a list of contenders that should includes her compatriots, van den Broek-Blaak (SD-Worx) and Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma), both former winners of the event. For the Italians, Longo Borghini and UAE Team ADQ’s Marta Bastianelli (who won the race in 2015 and 2019, respectively) should lead the way. Coryn Labecki, the only American to have ever won “de Ronde” (in 2017), now rides for Jumbo-Visma and could benefit from all eyes being on her teammate Vos–especially if the race comes down to a sprint. And they’ll have added incentive: the organizers announced that the women will get the same prize money (€50,000) as the men, a big raise from previous editions.
How to Watch: Flobikes
Paris-Roubaix — April 16 and 17
The “Hell of the North.” The “Queen of the Classics.” Whatever you call it, Paris-Roubaix is probably our favorite race on the calendar. The final half of this 255km Monument includes about 55km of Northern France’s worst cobbled roads, so it’s packed with drama and always produces a worthy champion—even when it’s a dark horse. This year’s race takes place two weeks after the Tour of Flanders (instead of one) to accommodate the French national election.
Saturday brings the second-ever women’s Paris-Roubaix, which starts in Denain and follows the final 115km of Sunday’s men’s race—all the way to the finish line in the Roubaix velodrome. Run during truly hellish conditions last October (after yet another postponement due to COVID-19), Great Britain’s Lizzy Deignan (Trek-Segafredo) won last year’s inaugural event following a long solo breakaway. The Briton will certainly be back to defend her title with Trek-Segafredo, but we’ll be watching Vos, who desperately wants to add this race to her palmares.
In last year’s men’s race, Italy’s Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-Merida) outsprinted Belgium’s Florian Vermeersch (Lotto-Soudal) and van der Poel to win Italy its first cobblestone trophy since 1999. The European Champion should be back to try and show his performance was no fluke, but all eyes will be on van der Poel and van Aert—especially if one of them won the Tour of Flanders two weeks earlier.
How to Watch: Peacock Premium
Giro d’Italia — May 6 to 29
While the Tour de France gets all the prestige, the riders generally consider the Tour of Italy (the “Giro d’Italia”) to be much, much harder. This year’s race finally starts in Hungary—it was set to begin there in 2020, but COVID-19 spoiled those plans. Beginning on a Friday, the Giro’s Hungarian experiment consists of a short individual time trial sandwiched between two sprint stages, followed by a Rest Day to get everyone to Sicily, where the first of four summit finishes awaits atop Mt. Etna.
Always characterized by its mountains, the 2022 Giro boasts five more high mountain stages and three more summit finishes, including stages that finish atop the Blockhaus (Stage 9) and the Passo Fedaia (Stage 20). As usual, the final week is a beast, with three vicious mountain stages before the final time trial in Verona.
Thanks to injuries and COVID-19, we’re still waiting to see which riders will add the race to their programs in 2022. But we do expect the Netherlands’ Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) to make the Giro his first grand tour since 2020. The Dutchman won the race in 2017, but has struggled with injuries since. After taking some time away from the sport at the start of last season, he’s now back and ready to try and pick up where he left off.
This could also be the last Giro for Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali, a two-time winner of the event who’s again riding for Astana, the team with whom he won both of those titles. He faces long odds, but he’s never one to go down without a fight–especially in his home tour.
How to Watch: GCN Race Pass
Tour de France — June 26 to July 18
If the 2020 Tour de France was an announcement, then last year’s was a coronation, as Slovenia’s Tadej Poga?ar (UAE Team Emirates) dominated the race from start to finish, winning four stages, the General Classification, and the King of the Mountains and Best Young Rider classifications. No one came close to challenging the then-21-year-old. He’s favored to take his third title in 2022.
The 2022 Tour begins in Denmark, with a short individual time trial followed by two coastal flat stages on which wind and rain could be factors. During a Monday Rest Day, the race heads to France for a cobbled stage (Stage 5) and a summit finish on the Super Planche des Belles Filles (Stage 7) which includes the steep, gravel goat path the organizers added in 2019.
The race hits the Alps during the second week, including the return of Alpe d’Huez, whose 21 hairpins haven’t greeted the Tour since 2018. The third week brings two summit finishes in the Pyrenees and a 40km time trial on the Tour’s penultimate day.
The race should come down to a battle between Poga?ar and team Jumbo-Visma, whose riders Primo? Rogli? and Jonas Vingegaard have finished second to the Slovenian two years in a row. The Dutch team is the deepest in the sport at the moment, but it will take everything they can muster to stop Poga?ar.
How to Watch: Peacock Premium
Giro d'Italia Donne — July 1 to 10
In the absence of a women’s Tour de France, the Giro Donne was the longest, hardest, and most prestigious women’s stage race on the calendar. Last year’s race was dominated by SD Worx, whose riders Anna van der Breggen, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio, and Demi Vollering finished 1-2-3 on Stage 2’s summit finish on the Prato Nevoso. They remained untouched throughout the Giro Rosa’s final eight days, winning two more stages along the way and filling all three spots on the final podium.
Details have yet to emerge about this year’s course (they always arrive at the last minute), and we’re curious to see which riders attempt to tackle the Giro Rosa and the new Tour de France Femmes two weeks later. Winning both might be a tall order, but some women will certainly head to Italy hoping to put the finishing touches on their form for the Tour de France Femmes two weeks later.
How to Watch: We’re still waiting to hear if the race will be streamed in 2022. The inconsistent broadcast is one of the greatest examples of the disparities that still exist between men’s and women’s pro cycling.
Women’s Tour de France — July 24 to 31
After facing years of pressure from advocates and racers, the organizers of the Tour de France announced the return of a true women’s Tour de France last May. Consisting of eight stages, the race will begin on the final day of the men’s Tour and finish one week later.
The racing should be exciting from start to finish, with a mixture of stage profiles that should reward a true all-rounder. The race concludes with a weekend in the Vosges mountains, and the final stage ends with a summit finish on the Super Planche des Belles Filles, providing an exciting conclusion to what we expect will be a spectacular event.
As far as a favorite is concerned, van Vleuten has won just about every women’s race on the calendar and is already building her season around the last week in July.
How to Watch: Peacock Premium
The Tour of Spain — August 19 to September 11
As the final grand tour of the season, the Tour of Spain (“Vuelta a Espa?a”) is traditionally a last chance for riders hoping to end the year on high note, earn a contract for the following season, or get themselves in shape for the world championships in late September. With lots of mountains and a start list filled with motivated riders, the Vuelta always delivers some of the year’s most exciting finishes.
At this point in the season it’s tough to predict who will add the Spanish grand tour to their program, as lots of things can change between now and September. Rogli? has won the race the last three years in a row, but if manages to finally win the Tour de France, he might step aside and let one of his teammates (Vingegaard, Dumoulin, or perhaps American Sepp Kuss), lead the team instead. We also can’t wait to see what kind of hot mess Movistar brings to the race: as documented by the Netflix series “The Least Expected Day” the Spanish squad always finds a way to both animate and implode.
How to Watch: Peacock Premium
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