(digitized music)
- It's now time to have a look at our most successful bikes
of the 2018 Women's World Tour.
- Yeah, that's right.
And with GCN behind the scenes,
boffins have been busy with the highly complex
GCN points award scheme,
and have computed the following list,
based upon race results in the Women's World Tour of 2018.
- So, without further ado, here's our rundown of the top 10.
Let's see what's top of the pops.
In at number 10, it's the Canyon Aeroad.
This wasn't a standout year for Canyon,
with Kasia Niewiadoma, taking their only World Tour win.
But it was a pretty great win.
Niewiadoma attacked from a super select group
with eight kilometers left to race,
soloing to victory in some truly grim conditions.
The Canyon's tram team will be hoping
they have a better season next year,
building on their stunning win
of the World Championships team time trial.
- In ninth place, the Orbea Orca makes our list
thanks to Katie Hall's breakthrough win
at the Tour of California.
Taking the overall and the queen stage, in fact.
Amazingly for Hall,
this win secured her a contract for 2019 with Boels Dolmans.
So expect to see her lighting up some
pretty big races next season.
- In equal ninth, we've also got the Fuji Transonic.
Thanks to another breakthrough win.
This time, for Charlotte Becker of Hitec Products,
taking a stage and the overall
at the tour of Chongming Island.
- Coming in at equal seventh place, we've got three bikes!
First up is the Colnago V2R, of Wiggle High5.
The standout win for this bike has to be Kirsten Wild's
RideLondon Classique victory.
- Next up we've got the Liv Avow, of team Sunweb.
Now Sunweb won three world tour team time trials
this season but were ultimately disappointed
to miss out on the world championship title.
- And finally, we've got another TT bike,
the Scott Plasma, riden by Mitchelton-Scott.
And more precisely, by Annemiek van Vleuten.
Van Vleuten dominated the world tour time trials
this year, winning every single world tour
individual time trial she rode.
Her best victory on the Plasma has to be
the uphill TT at Giro Rosa.
Just about every other rider
was on a climbing road bike,
and Van Vleuten beat them all on her TT rig.
How cool is that? - That's impressive.
At number four, it's the Liv Langma.
The second Liv bike on our list.
Now this wasn't quite a stellar year for the Langma,
with Team Sunweb having a strong,
but unremarkable season, compared to last year,
where Coryn Rivera alone took four wins on the Langma.
- Now at number three it's the
Ridley Helium SLX of team WaowDeals.
Where Marianne Vos took all but one
of the seven wins on the Helium this year.
A real return to form for the iconic Dutch rider.
I mean, how about winning every single stage,
and the overall, at the Tour of Norway for dominance?
- That is dominant. - Love it.
- Now it's worth a pause at this point,
because although we've got a top ten
most successful bikes, the top two really
are in a league of their own, such was the dominance
of two squads, well unarguably, two riders,
in this year's Women's World Tour.
The two bikes at the very top of our list
have actually won more world tour races
than the rest of the list put together.
- So while looking at those top two,
it's worth having a bit of a look at
how these two squads have dominated
the year in women's racing.
Just missing the top spot in at number two
is the Specialized Tarmac,
with 12 wins plus the world championships.
Now this will probably come as a surprise
to most of you out there, but the Specialized Tarmac
of Boels Dolmans doesn't quite top our list.
Since their breakthrough season in 2015,
Boels Dolmans have been the undoubted
super-team of women's cycling.
There's almost no race in the year
that the Dutch squad isn't a factor in the final result.
Boels Dolmans have always prided themselves
on their one-day successes, and this year is no different.
In the first big block of one-day races,
the Specialized Tarmac was,
well it won six one-day victories.
- I mean they include four wins in eight,
for arguably, the greatest rider in women's cycling
at the moment, Anna van der Breggen.
The bike's finest moment though,
probably came on the 29th of September,
when Van der Breggen attacked solo the world champs
to win by an incredible three minutes and 42 seconds.
Even more amazingly, this was Van der Breggen's
first ever world championships win.
This has to be one of the greatest riders,
of the year, without a doubt.
- That's right.
Coming in at number one, it is the Scott Foil.
Riden by Mitchelton-Scott.
Now as we said, Van Vleuten has had
an absolutely stellar season.
Her victory at the course for me,
has to be the race of the year.
It looked for all...
Well, basically Van Vleuten had been beaten
by Van der Breggen, but,
the Mitchelton-Scott rider never gave up the fight
and managed to claw her way past Van der Breggen
literally in the final meters.
- But it really was in Giro Rosa
where the Scott Foil had its finest hour.
Jolien D'Hoore started things off
by taking two sprint wins in a row.
And it was on stage four, the first summit finish,
that we really saw the dominance
of the Mitchelton-Scott climbing duo,
of Amanda Spratt and Annemiek van Vleuten.
While the bunch marked Van Vleuten
Spratt attacked solo for the win.
- But from then on, it really was the Van Vleuten show.
As she won three of the final four stages.
On the stage nine summit finish at Monte Zoncolan,
Van Vleuten just needed to follow the attacks,
as she already had a nearly three minute lead overall.
Instead, the Dutch woman was the one putting
in the attacks, riding away to a solo victory herself.
Greedy.
(laughs)
- The final question for us to talk about is
what's going to happen next year?
Boels-Dolmans have made some great signings
for the 2019 season.
With Jolien D'Hoore they now have probably
the best puncheur sprinter in the peloton.
And the Tour of California winner Katie Hall,
is one of the most exciting climbers on the scene.
- Now Mitchelton-Scott meanwhile will be hoping
that Amanda Spratt will continue her meteoric rise
and the duo of Spratt and Van Vleuten
could be always impossible to handle
in the climbs next year.
- What about the new super-team in
women's cycling next year?
Maybe next year we'll see a trek at the top of our list.
Well the trek team we're gonna have
Lizzie Deignan, Lotta Lepistö, and Elisa Longo Borghini.
I mean that's gonna be a crazy strong lineup.
- Yeah, isn't it?
I'm so excited actually.
I can't wait for it to get going.
- Yeah, I can't wait to sit back with some cold beers
and watch the racing next season.
Fortunately, I've got one of these GCN bottle openers,
which are available in the GCN shop.
- Beers are sold separately, aren't they?
- Yeah.
That's important to point out.
Thanks for watching.
Thumbs up, subscribe, and if you've not seen
the men's list yet, well you can click down here for that.
- Efficient Orin, I like it.