Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) – winner

When Greg van Avermaet beat Peter Sagan to overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico by a solitary second, after both men had emptied themselves in the final stage time trial, it looked like it was going to be one of those years for the Slovakian.

And when he found himself on the second step of the podium again, after a great ride alongside Michal Kwiatkowski at E3 Harelbeke, it only strengthened the suggestion.

That was the 69^th individual second place of Sagan’s career but the world champion hit back in style.

A gritty win at Gent-Wevelgem was a reminder of what Sagan is capable of, and the Tour of Flanders success which followed was a huge milestone in his career.

A first Monument, achieved while wearing the rainbow jersey, after showing incredible strength to repeatedly attack before ridding himself of Sep Vanmarcke on the Paterberg, was Sagan at his very best.

Paris-Roubaix didn’t go to plan, getting caught behind crashes and ultimately missing out on a top-ten place in the final sprint, but the ‘curse of the rainbow jersey’ looks to be well and truly banished.

Results: E3 Harelbeke – 2^nd; Gent-Wevelgem – 1^st; Tour of Flanders – 1^st; Paris-Roubaix – 11^th

Sep Vanmarcke – winner

Sep Vanmarcke did seemingly everything but claim victory at the cobbled Classics. However, with the Belgian powerhouse enjoying another fortnight of consistent results, he emerges from the campaign as one of our winners.

Vanmarcke’s attacking instinct shone throughout, with second place at Gent-Wevelgem, third at the Tour of Flanders and fourth at Paris-Roubaix his rewards for aggressive rides in all three races.

A win continues to elude him, but the 27-year-old continues to go close and it seems implausible that he will finish his career without making the breakthrough on the cobbles.

While some may consider Vanmarcke’s campaign disappointing having not stood on the top step of the podium, it would do a great discredit to his consistency and aggressive style.

Vanmarcke remains one of the key men to watch in the spring, and there will be plenty willing him to finally claim a victory in 2017.

Results: E3 Harelbeke – 8^th; Gent-Wevelgem – 2^nd; Tour of Flanders – 3^rd; Paris-Roubaix – 4th

Imanol Erviti – winners

Chances are, Movistar’s 32-year-old Spaniard Imanol Erviti won’t be the first name you think of when it comes to the cobbled Classics, despite the fact he has raced at every Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix since turning pro in 2005.

That probably says a lot about Erviti’s previous performances on the cobbles, and the Movistar team’s record in the northern Classics, but that might be about to change after two impressive showings from Erviti just seven days apart.

In the break at the Tour of Flanders, Erviti was the last of that move to be caught and managed to stick with the main group of contenders to hold on for seventh place.

And as if to prove it was not just a one-off, he repeated the trick at Paris-Roubaix a week later – eventually finishing in ninth place in the Roubaix velodrome.

Of course, Mat Hayman’s victory – having also been in the day’s break – somewhat overshadowed Erviti’s achievement but the Spaniard was the surprise package of the cobbled Classics.

Results: Tour of Flanders – 7^th; Paris-Roubaix – 9^th

Etixx-QuickStep – losers

While Tom Boonen finished second at Paris-Roubaix, his Etixx-QuickStep team failed to win any of the four UCI WorldTour cobbled races for the second year running.

Patrick Lefevere’s Belgium super team are the big hitters when it comes to the cobbled Classics, racing on ‘home soil’, with a team packed full of big-name cobble-busting stars.

In fact, Marcel Kittel’s victories at Scheldeprijs and on stage 3a of Three Days of De Panne are the only victories on the cobbles of any sort to their name in 2016.

And, whereas in 2015 QuickStep riders were second in all four of the major one-day cobbled races, the team doesn’t have that consolation this year either, with Boonen’s Paris-Roubaix runner-up spot their only podium finish.

To rub salt into the wounds, it was a former QuickStep man, Michal Kwiatkowski, who won at E3 Harelbeke – a race which at one point had seen four Etixx men in the front group.

Big things are expected of Etixx-QuickStep in the cobbled Classics, but – for all the talent packed into the team, and all their attacking intent – they were unable to deliver.

Results: E3 Harelbeke – Matteo Trentin, 12^th; Gent-Wevelgem – Fernando Gaviria, 6^th; Tour of Flanders – Zdenek Stybar, 8^th; Paris-Roubaix – Tom Boonen, 2^nd

Alexander Kristoff – loser

Winner at Milan-San Remo in 2014 and the Tour of Flanders last year, big things were expected of Alexander Kristoff, particularly with John Degenkolb out injured.

But the Norwegian suffered one of his worst spring campaigns for some time, failing to make an impression on any of the cobbled Classics.

Finishing 53^rd at E3 Harelbeke and then being ruled out of Gent-Wevelgem with illness pointed to things not being right, but when Kristoff stormed back to win the first stage of De Panne expectations were raised once again.

But while he finished the Tour of Flanders in fourth, Kristoff rode a passive race and never looked likely to get on to the podium – and his campaign finished with a 48^th place at Paris-Roubaix, more than 14 minutes in arrears.

By his own admission, Paris-Roubaix is by far his least favourite of the cobbled Classics so a credible fourth at the Ronde, having been ill a week before, is by no means a bad result.

But Kristoff has raised expectations with his two Monument wins in the last two years, so to finish the spring without even a podium place in the major races is a thumbs down from us.

Results – E3 Harelbeke – 53^rd; Gent-Wevelgem – DNS; Tour of Flanders – 4^th; Paris-Roubaix – 48^th

Greg van Avermaet – loser

Not all those riders who suffered a disappointing spring campaign did so due to bad form. Greg van Avermaet (BMC Racing) who was the form man heading into the cobbled Classics after a stunning start to the season but saw his campaign ultimately curtailed by a crash.

Winner of the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, top ten at both Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo and a surprise overall winner at Tirreno-Adriatico, after extreme weather forced the cancellation of the high mountain stage, Van Avermaet was seemingly the man to beat this spring.

But illness slowed his momentum, forcing him to miss E3 Harelbeke and, after bouncing back to finish ninth at Gent-Wevelgem, a crash at the Tour of Flanders brought his spring to an end.

One of five BMC Racing riders brought down in a crash with more than 100km still to race, a broken collarbone left one of the pre-race favourites crumpled in tears at the roadside.

BMC Racing DS Valerio Piva summed it up well, concluding: “He was ready to win the Tour of Flanders but instead he’s ended up in hospital.”

Van Avermaet, who had finished third at both the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix 12 months ago, will look back on 2016 as the year of what might have been.

Results – E3 Harelbeke – DNS; Gent-Wevelgem – 9^th; Tour of Flanders – DNF