Alexander Kristoff has enjoyed a stunning couple of weeks since narrowly missing out on defending his Milan-San Remo title in Via Roma last month.

Since that second place at La Primavera he has not finished outside the top-ten once – his tenth place at Paris-Roubaix being his lowest finish since the mountain time trial at Paris-Nice.

Kristoff’s incredible run included five straight victories on the road – three on the bounce at the Three Days of De Panne before triumphing at the Tour of Flanders and Scheldeprijs.

His form was such, he only ceded 18 seconds to Sir Bradley Wiggins at the concluding time trial of the former, enough to comfortably hold on to overall victory.

What is even more ominous for his rivals is that his wins have not just come courtesy of his sprinting either – stage one at De Panne was won from the break, while the Tour of Flanders saw him match Niki Terpstra’s attack and barely break sweat in outsprinting the Dutchman.

With 11 wins to his name now this season, including that overall title at De Panne, Kristoff has been the form man in the peloton so far this year.

Only Richie Porte – with seven wins to his name, including back-to-back overall victories at Paris-Nice and the Tour of Catalunya, is above him in the world rankings.

The Norwegian started the campaign as an ever-improving sprinter with decent ability in the cobbled Classics.

He ends it as arguably the next big thing in one-day racing and – alongside our next winner, John Degenkolb, will be the man to beat in 12 months’ time.