Top 50 races of 2021 season - Part II (40-31)

This is the second part of the weekly series which will rank my favourite races of the 2021 cycling season - Part II will be stacked so there is no point in waiting, let's reveal the best among the bests!

40. Antwerp Port Epic. Winner: Mathieu van der Poel

This race marked the comeback of Alpecin's superstar Mathieu van der Poel from his crash at Olympic Games, and although everyone thought he is gonna be rusty, he did his best to impress everyone, including his critics. The decisive attack came with 25 km-s to go on an unpaved sector near beautiful Antwerpen, for which only Taco van der Hoorn could react. As they went towards the sprint, it was almost obvious who was gonna win, credits for Taco for fighting till the end. The sportsmanship in the end was also pretty cool, it was a good race overall.

39. UAE Tour - Stage 1. Winner: Mathieu van der Poel

The only proper echelon stage of the 2021 season. We know that the Middle East ccan produce some heavy winds but as we hopped onto the live broadcast of UAE Tour this year, it was game over for more than 130 riders in peloton as they were pretty far behind from the small, 20-person leading group. The small bunch sprint went to van der Poel's hands, who has won the stage ahead of David Dekker and Michael Morkov, while Pogaar almost outsprinted Viviani for 5th. Crazy stage but I would like to see more of it in 2022.

38. Paris-Nice Stage 7. Winner: Primoz Roglic.

The title of the video is pretty telling: Roglic was really merciless on this cold Saturday near Nice. This was the day, where the world got to know Gino Mader's name after he was cruelly denied from taking the stage victory. Roglic's attack was mega, though, that is why he is the best in this discipline. This was one of the main talking points in March and this stage has really proved itself to be a classic... but what happened after this stage in the same race will come shortly on the next episode.

37. Giro D'Italia - Stage 3. Winner: Taco van der Hoorn

Taco's dream breakaway day, which became a redemption for him. He was a great talent when he was young, but injuries and really unfortunate circumstances denied him from the career path he was meant to go along. On this Monday in May, he finally took his career into the right path again, and yeah, you might say the final was so technical that peloton would never had a chance to catch him - but honestly, after Giro, he produced some stellar races. Happy that he got his chance at Wanty, and he will e one of the key riders for the team next year.

36. Giro dell'Emilia. Winner: Primoz Roglic

Roglic and San Luca is such a great love affair that I can live with it. Seriously, whenever they are going up this legendary hill, Roglic always wins, no matter how. He is an amazing rider. We have to mention the leading group here as well, this was one of the strongest leading group I have seen this year and only the greatest could have won this race - this time it was the Slovenian Jumbo-rider and legend himself.

35. Druivenkoers - Overijse. Winner: Remco Evenepoel

Evenepoel had an incredibly stellar Augst with lots of victories and memorable performances - but one of the most remarkable one was the Druivenkoers - Overijse race with a 61 km solo attack, which he delivered in an explicitly masterful way. In overall, this race was also Deceuninck-Quick Step's best race of the season - at least, tactically, as there were 3 of them in top 4 and 5 of them in top 14. Tactical masterclass.

34. Gent-Wevelgem. Winner: Wout van Aert

Personally, Gent-Wevelgem has never been my favourite race but this year's edition was one from the better ones. Kemmelberg and echelons really took its tolls and as always, it was the classics specialists, who flourished under such circumstances. In the end, it was the Italian armada of Nizzolo, Trentin and Colbrelli against van Aert and the Belgian rockstar took the win on his home court, which actually made him the ultimate favourite ahead of next week's Ronde van Vlaanderen.

33. Tour de France - Stage 17. Winner: Tadej Pogacar

This year's Tour de France was not the most exciting one, but the end of the race, especially with the Queen Stage was a good point in this competition. The stiffness and the wonders of the Tokyo Olympic Champion Carapaz, the Danish youngster Vingegaard and Slovenia's finest Tadej Pogacar gave the race a taste we will not forget for a while. Col du Portet was a perfect location for such a battle but just as in Roglic's case, Pogacar is also pretty much unbeatable on those mountain sprints.

32. Danilith Nokere Koerse. Winner: Ludovic Robeet

One for the hipsters. Nokere Koerse was a really interesting race with cobbles and bad weather, and the one where peloton really counted himself wrong at the bad time, or the break was strong enough, I still don't know. The grin on Damien Gaudin's face will live with me forever, but I am just as happy with Robeet's win, this was probably the win of his career. Honorable mention to Luca Mozzato, who won the bunch sprint, he had a great season, and I would like to see him on a higher level in 2022 or 2023.

31. E3 Saxo Bank Classic. Winner: Kasper Asgreen

An absolute classic from Kasper Asgreen. Many could have forgotten this race but to be fair, we can't deny nor forget how Asgreen clinged himself to his 10 second lead for 70 kilometres. It was an absolutely brilliant ride from the Dane and to be honest with you, I am now regretting that I didn't put this race higher in my list, it was a proper fight with elements, with body, but Asgreen has evolved himself into a world-class rider this season, and you will understand why I'm saying this in the next episode of the series.