Philips: 5.5

Insufficient spring for a rider of his caliber, also due to the fall in the final of the Nokere Koerse, the Belgian struggles to shine and to achieve important placings. He still manages to win the Kurne and to place himself on the podium at Omloop and Schelderijs. At Roubaix he is the last to let go of the wheel of Pogacar and Van der Poel , but at Mons-en-Pévèle his lights go out and he finishes outside the top ten.

Jorgenson and Girmay: 5

Two potential protagonists of the northern races, are competing in a   anonymous campaign   and without any significant flashes. Much more was expected from both: the Visma rider placed in the top ten at Dwars and E3, but completely collapsed in the final flat stage of Flanders; the Eritrean, on the other hand, obtained a decent 7th place at Ghent and a 15th at Roubaix, which were not enough to pass.

Soudal Quick Step: 4

Once upon a time there was the   Wolfpack , a team capable of dominating the northern classics and being the strongest team on the cobbles. Soudal is partially saved by Merlier 2nd in Gand and winner of the Schldeprijs and by the escape of Pedersen 4th in E3. The rest is a disaster: even   out of the top 20 of both monuments   and never any protagonist in the various races.

Mohoric: 3

The biggest disappointment   of this northern campaign: totally out of shape compared to the rider admired in recent seasons. He never manages to fight even for a top ten and his value in Fantacycling goes from 22 to 14 fantamillions.

From Lie: sv

The Belgian's potential is unquestionable, but at 23 years old he has not yet managed to make the leap in quality. The Lotto rider only runs the first northern classics, without any highlights and then he is even put   out of pink   from his team, due to his poor condition and lack of professionalism in terms of training and diet.

I give a 0 rating to some fans

True, these are isolated cases compared to hundreds of thousands of fans spread across all the races in the north, but what happened twice to Van der Poel is   unacceptable , especially in a sport like cycling, which is not used to certain attitudes from fans. The Dutchman in fact received a   spit   during the E3, while he was racing towards a solo victory and, later, at the Paris-Roubaix he was   hit in the face by a full water bottle while tackling a stretch of cobblestones at very high speed.