Immediately deploy the lineup at Fantacycling, because there had never been - anywhere and all together - Evenepoel , Van Aert , Sagan , Pogačar , Roglic and Valverde . The great absentees are the world champion Alaphilippe because he has just become a father and preferred to stay up at home at night, the Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel, who came to Japan to look for gold in mountain biking .

Evenepoel has been standing still since June. Last race: the Belgian national championship.

The track is tough. Very hard. Perhaps the hardest ever. More than Rio 2016. There are four rips - Doshi, Kagosaka, Mikuni and then again Kagosaka - with the ascent of Mount Fuji placed in between. Even internal struggles can take their course: inside Belgium , inside Italy ( Nibali and Ciccone have broken up), inside Slovenia .

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Very hard path, with what the Spaniards call the Japanese Mortirolo . The Mikuni, about 7 km at 10% average. Nibali told Ciro Scognamiglio for the Gazzetta dello sport that «the podium counts. I hear that it is a less important title in cycling. But ask Van Avermaet. The Olympics has something more » .

Two stars and a flag, is the title of the team for Slovenians Pogacar and Roglic , who knows how many comrades and who knows how many rivals. The first feels he is the captain of the line race after the Tour won, the second seems to be points on the time trial. It looks like the Spain of the Duitama World Cup with Indurain and Olano. The first had to be the captain in the line and won the time trial, the second was semi-unbeatable in the time trial and won in the line. With a flat tire. We will see, between night and dawn ...

Meanwhile, deploy your lineup at Fantacycling !