Be sure to check out my first posts on Julian Alaphilippe & Matej Mohorič
Next Up - Niccolò Bonifazio!
Bonifazio broke out on the cycling scene in 2013, riding for Lampre - Merida (now known as UAE - Team Emirates), and started picking up some commendable sprint victories in some of the minor Tours (e.g. Tour de Pologne ('16) & Tour of Japan ('14 & '15)). The Italian also finished a very credible 5th at Milan-Sanremo in 2015, showing that when he's at his best, he has what it takes to fight it out with the big dogs.
How did he perform in 2018?
I haven't picked Bonifazio as a rider to look out for based on his 2018 form. It was nothing short of dreadful, 3 years of breakthrough riding and as soon as he moves over to Bahrain - Merida he stagnated.
He had just a single Stage win at the Tour of Croatia, and podium finishes at Vuelta a San Juan (Stage 1), Giro d'Italia (Stage 7, 12 & 17), Tour of Slovenia (Stage 1) and the Deutschland Tour (Stage 1).
What can we expect him to win in 2019?
Bonifazio has already surpassed his results from 2018 with three victories at the La Tropicale Amissa Bongo (Tour of Gabon), showing that he's on better form than André Greipel is. Sprinting is actually based on confidence quite a bit, and I think those wins will give him the boost required to win some more.
He's also moved over to Direct Energie (a Continental Pro [Div 1] team) so most of his races will likely be against weaker opposition with less World Tour teams racing in his field.
He's yet to reveal most of the races he'll be riding, so it's hard to guess where the wins will come from, but I reckon those three wins are just the start. The Tour of Oman should be a good target for him, and Dimension Data are expected to race Alexander Kristoff so that'll be a good challenge to see if 2019 will truly be exceptional for the Italian.
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