Published January 1, 2026 06:55AM
Yes, it’s time for predictions ahead of the 2026 racing season.
It would be too easy to say that Tadej Pogačar steamrolls to a fifth yellow jersey and Lotte Kopecky barrels to another road title.
Why not pedal out onto that proverbial limb and really make some truly wild predictions?
Last year, we rolled out our not-so outrageous predictions for a new season and didn’t fare too poorly. This year, we’re adding a layer of craziness to our bold, beyond-the-norm picks for 2026.
How many versions of crazy are there in professional cycling these days? A lot.
There’s crazy good, as in Pogačar being Pogačar over the past 24 months.
There’s crazy bad, per the endless UCI rules on sock heights and handlebar widths. And the mind-boggling, crazy-wrong tactics that saw Isaac del Toro lose the Giro d’Italia last May.
There’s also the I-didn’t-see-that-coming crazy, with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot winning both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France Femmes.
So what’s in store ahead of the blank racing calendar? Let’s hope it’s more of what’s been the best decade of racing perhaps in cycling’s history. Here are my most outrageous and crazy predictions for 2026:
Ineos Grenadiers wins a grand tour
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OK, you want crazy predictions? We got crazy.
In a season when Pogačar and Vingegaard and the Remco/Red Bull machine are expected to go 15 rounds in the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España are suddenly open. The Vuelta will surely attract whoever doesn’t win the Tour, plus Primož Roglič will be there, and it’s the freakin’ hardest grand tour ever.
So the new-look Ineos Grenadierswith their — yes! — crazy ugly whiteish gray shortsroll the dice, and go all-in for the Giro. The thing is, they don’t broadcast it to the hills.
The ever-proud squad is intent on awakening from its super team slumber and quietly brings new signing Oscar Onley to the Giro. To downplay the hype, the team brass say it’s a preparation race for the Tour de France.
Ever so slyly, they surround him with the muscle men from Ineos’s still formidable classics train. Although he’s only been in the Ineos system for a few short months, he adapts quickly. He’s leaner, more durable, and is racing with a plan.
Ineos doesn’t want to make much noise. In fact, they’re purposely holding Onley back in some of the early mountain stages. Even if it’s a Giro “light,” the final week is still brutal enough to separate the wheat from the chafe.
He bleeds time in the 40km TT, but against the GC threats, he’s still close. Once the final week hits, Onley rides with diamonds in his pedals to crack the likes of Ben O’Connor, Enric Mas, Jai Hindley, and finally Joǎo Almeida to deliver the stunner.
Ineos Grenadiers wins the Giro for its first grand tour since Tao Geoghegan Hart in 2021. How crazy is that?
Wout van Aert wins Flanders-Roubaix double
And then there’s crazy overdue. Cycling’s gods can be as cruel as they are generous.
Wout van Aert — arguably one of the most talented classics-style racers to have ever ridden a bike — is seemingly cursed when it comes to the predictions of winning the big ones that truly matter for a rider of his profile.
Yes, he’s won a monument. Ditto for taking huge victories in grand tours, playing the kingmaker in the Tour de France, or smashing his way from one high to another.
But everyone knows his career has also been marked with blunders, setbacks, injuries, and stinging defeats.
Yet Van Aert always picks himself, always takes another beating. And sometimes he’s paid back, like with his emotional win over Montmartre to cap the 2025 Tour.
In 2026, Van Aert races to redemption.
It’s not an overreach to say he’s due big time. Predictions are not enough; nothing is free in cycling. Van Aert will have to earn it. And for once, the stars will align.
And to make it truly crazy and outrageous, it won’t just be a one-off, feel-good win at Flanders.
Van Aert will defy the odds, beat today’s classics cycling gods in the forms of Mathieu Van der Poel and Pogačar to not only win De Ronde, but back it up with the legacy-making double at Paris-Roubaix.
Van der Breggen stuns the cobble-eaters at Paris-Roubaix
Anna van der Breggen‘s 2025 comeback didn’t earn the kudos it deserved.
True, she won only once all season, with a stage at the Vuelta Femenina, but after three full seasons away, perhaps predictions were not quite in line with the realities of being sidelined for that long.
Her comeback season was also overshadowed by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, who soaked up much of the oxygen in 2025 with awesome wins at Paris-Roubaix Femmes and the Tour de France Femmes.
But peel back her results, and AVDB posted an understated but high-quality season. Silver at the world time trial championships, bronze at the European road race, second at Strade Bianche, and with 3rd, 6th, and 11th, respectively, across all three grand tours at the Vuelta, Giro, and Tour, and Van der Breggen’s return was nothing short of spectacular.
For 2026, AVDB will have a full WorldTour season in her legs, and we can expect some crazy-good results from her.
My wild and wacky pick for the spring classics? She wins Paris-Roubaix.
As the queen of Flèche Wallonne, with a record seven wins, she obviously thrives more in punchier terrain. In 2021 and again in 2025, she steered clear of the brute nastiness of Roubaix. In 2026, she’ll make the surprise start and blow everyone away.
Here’s how it happens: She has the legs, the racing acumen, and that nothing-to-lose mentality that will drive her to the front. With SD Worx riding with Lorena Wiebes for a sprint finish, AVDB will have the freedom to attack to force the chase.
She’ll get away, and similar to how Ferrand-Prevót won last year, her rivals will be left choking on her mud as she buries it solo into the velodrome.
British boy wonder Brennan stuns favorites for worlds crown
Here’s one to double down on for 2026 predictions: Cycling’s latest boy wonder Matthew Brennan will surprise everyone to win the elite men’s rainbow jersey.
Who knew this British wunderkind would explode in 2025 as one of the most talented classics-style riders since, well, Pogacar?
Though he’s still eligible for the U23 ranks, Brennan leaps at the chance to race the elite men’s worlds.
The British worlds team is loaded with talent, with Tom Pidcock, the Yates brothers, Oscar Onley, Ben Turner, and Ethan Hayter headlining the squad, with Brennan being given a free role.
With his fast finishing speed, he’s the best sprinter the Brits will have in Montréal. No one expects the grinding course to deliver a sprint, so Brennan is simply told to stay in the front pack, not chase any moves, and save the legs for the final two laps just in case the race comes down to a reduced sprint.
And by God, it does. Pogačar’s trademark explosiveness is — insert expletive here — kept in check by the massively motivated and surprisingly coordinated Dane, Dutch, and Belgian teams.
Pogačar is caught with a half-lap to go by an elite group of 13. Sneaking his way in there is Brennan. A series of late-race flares are reeled in, and Van Aert, Van der Poel, and Pedersen open up the mega-watt superstar sprint, only to be pipped at the line by Brennan.
He becomes the youngest elite men’s world champion since … well, you know who.
Del Toro pulls a Kuss to win the Tour de France
Want bat-shit crazy? Here we go: Tadej Pogačar doesn’t win the Tour de France.
Here’s the scenario. Isaac del Toro makes his Tour debut without any pressure as Pogi’s wing man, just play Greg LeMond to Bernard Hinault, circa 1984, follow his wheel, take some pulls, survive three weeks, and — oh yes yes — a debut podium.
But then something truly crazy happens: Del Toro is cut loose in an early long-range breakaway in the Pyrénées to put pressure on Pogi’s GC rivals and gains huge time, so much that he takes the yellow jersey.
Does this remind you of Sepp Kuss in 2023 Vuelta a España? You bet it does.
Then chaos ensues as Visma and Red Bull start attacking Del Toro mercilessly. Pogi, ever the patient patron, is content to let his prince-in-waiting take the yellow tunic. He follows the wheels but doesn’t come over the top, supremely confident that his moment will come.
Defying the odds, Del Toro defends yellow in the stage 16 time trial to set up the UAE intra-squad battle in the Alps. Things get messy when UAE tries to thread the needle to keep Del Toro on the podium, yet open the door for Pogačar to take the fifth yellow jersey.
In the first of two stages at Alpe d’Huez, Pogačar uncorks a nuclear solo attack to win the stage, but similar to 2023, when Kuss found allies on the road, all of Visma join forces to tow Del Toro to the line to keep him barely in yellow one more day in the team’s bid to secure Vingegaard’s podium spot.
Pogačar and Del Toro agree to race it out on the final Alpe d’Huez stage; may the best man win.
Pogačar unleashes on the Col du Galibier, dropping Del Toro and everyone else, but something inside Del Toro clicks. He counters and bridges across to Pogačar on the Col de Sarenne.
The pair attack over the top to distance the shattered peloton, but Pogačar cannot drop Del Toro. Looping back for the final kick to the line at Alpe d’Huez, they repeat the Hinault-LeMond moment of 1986: Pogačar wins the stage, and Del Toro takes the miracle yellow.
That would push the crazy, outrageous scale to 11. What are your over-the-top picks for 2026?
