Blazin' Saddles: The defining moments of the 2016 cycling season

From the unluckiest riders of the year to the biggest shocks of 2016, via the surprise packages, unsung heroes and stunning breakthroughs: our series of off-season blogs has delved into the two-wheeled nitty-gritty of the past 12 months.

After a curmudgeonly left-field peep at the underachievers and must-do-betters of the year, last week we turned our thoughts to high-profile transfers and retirements of the year.

Now it's time to look less at specific riders and more at the particular moments – the magical, the morose, the cataclysmic, the catastrophic – that shaped the season. Here, Felix Lowe reveals his 10 defining moments of the 2016 cycling season.

The season had barely got started when the accident professional cycling feared would happen struck during Gent-Wevelgem in late March. Numerous incidents involving race vehicles had peppered the previous season, with the likes of Peter Sagan, Jakob Fuglsang, Greg van Avermaet and Jesse Sergent just a handful of names to have been floored to varying degrees of seriousness.

When 26-year-old Demoitié died from injuries sustained after a motorcycle collided with him following a high-speed crash during the semi-classic, cycling was left in mourning. One day later, another Belgian, Daan Myngheer, passed away after suffering a heart attack during the Criterium International.

One month before Demoitié's death yet another Belgian, Stig Broeckx of Lotto Soudal, had been knocked down by a motorbike during Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. If Demoitié's tragic passing set the agenda for cycling and stressed the need for urgent action, the fact that Broeckx was involved in yet another incident with a motorcycle in the Tour of Belgium in May showed that a solution is far from being found.

Some six months on, Broeckx finally came out of his coma earlier this week but the road to recovery from serious brain injuries will be a long one. Demoitié's death was already one too many; Broeckx could have doubled that tally – and it's not as if the sport hadn't been warned. It's high time the UCI and race organisers stopped brushing this problem under the carpet.

It took him a while but finally world champion Peter Sagan joined the list of Monument winners by soloing to victory in the Ronde van Vlaanderen. If his win at Gent-Wevelgem had been overshadowed by the Demoitié tragedy then Sagan – himself a victim of a collision with a motorcycle in the 2015 Vuelta – was able to help the sport turn a page after putting on a masterclass in the rainbow stripes.

Having made light work of the uphill cobbles to power clear of Sep Vanmarcke on the Paterberg, Sagan rode the final 14km alone to take his biggest classics win to date before dedicating his victory to both Demoitié and Myngheer. A classy gesture from a rider who made headlines for the wrong reasons three years earlier when, runner-up, he pinched the posterior of a podium girl.

No better was the changing of the guard encapsulated than in the heart-in-mouth moment, 46km from the finish of Paris-Roubaix, where Sagan – with just his left foot clipped into the pedals – bunny hopped over a sprawling Fabian Cancellara after the Swiss skidded on the muddy brow of the Mons-en-Pévèle cobbled section.

Cancellara showed true grit to get up to finish the race he had triumphed in on three occasions – but a lowly 40th place would not have been how he'd planned to bow out. To make matters worse, Spartacus even hit the deck during his valedictory lap of honour...

Sure, Sagan never managed to close the gap on the leaders – who were led home spectacularly by veteran Aussie Mat Hayman – but ultimately, Sagan would make more headlines than Cancellara over the course of the season, despite the latter's fitting Olympic time trial gold.

That the Ardennes classics have become boring and predictable is not open to debate. But no one would have begrudged Amstel Gold victory for Italian veteran Enrico Gasparotto, who pointed to the sky in memory of his Wanty-Groupe Goubert team-mate Antoine Demoitié after defeating Denmark's Michael Valgren in a two-way sprint in Valkenburg. A poignant end to an otherwise dour race in drastic need of a rethink.

A wall of ice came between Steven Kruijswijk and the maglia rosa in May's Giro, the flame-haired Dutchman looking all but certain of winning a maiden Grand Tour before crashing on the descent of the Colle dell'Agnello following an acceleration by Vincenzo Nibali. The result? A triple overhead spin of his Bianchi as Kruijswijk went over the bars and onto his back.

Kruijswijk's single moment of calamity gave a yo-yoing Nibali a lifeline and the Shark turned a six-minute deficit on its head, leapfrogging Esteban Chaves one day later on the race's penultimate stage to secure a second Giro crown. If Kruijswijk ever has a better chance of glory then this humble blogger will ride up the Agnello naked.

To win his third Tour de France Chris Froome ran the gamut of versatility – attacking on the descent of the Peyresourde, joining forces with Peter Sagan in the crosswinds and even ditching his bike in favour of an uphill jog to Chalet Reynard. Some said that by doing his best Forrest Gump impression on the Ventoux Froome was showing his never-say-die competitiveness, others said he was cheating; either way, it made for bafflingly brilliant viewing and gave the Tour its most enduring image in recent history.

It was also reassuring for us armchair fans to see that Froome runs with all the poise and elegance as he does riding a bike.

Alberto Contador may never win another Grand Tour but he can still be the master of sniffing out an opportunity to attack. With Froome and his Sky team-mates dozing near the back of the peloton, Contador joined forces with Colombia's Nairo Quintana to pull off the coup of the season as Tinkoff and Movistar combined to put Froome to the sword and all but end his hopes of a maiden red jersey in the Vuelta.

Gianluca Brambilla took the spoils at the end of the 118.5km stage on a day that 92 riders finished outside the time limit. The shortest day of the Vuelta proved to be the most decisive and Contador, although he faded, proved the architect of what was arguably the most exciting day's racing of the year.

The hills around Rio were meant to make the Olympic road race so selective that even Peter Sagan opted to give it a skip. But in the end the gold medal went to a classics specialist more renowned for his kick than his climbing – a man who, like Sagan, has been lumbered with the bridesmaid's tag all too often.

Sure, a lot came down to the face that Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao crashed out on the final descent – but you have to be in it to win it, eh Peter? Besides, had he held on, GVA would have always held the advantage in a sprint – as he showed when powering clear of Rafal Majka and Jakob Fuglsang at the finish.

It capped a stellar season for Greg van Avermaet, who had already showed glimpses of his ability to deal with the steep stuff during stage 5 of the Tour, which he won in the Massif Central en route to securing the yellow jersey. On reflection, Sagan might well have thrown his hat into the ring rather than grapple with punctures and mechanicals on the MTB circuit.

By becoming the first Colombian to win a Monument by pipping Diego Rosa in the Race of the Fallen Leaves, Orica-BikeExchange's Esteban Chaves not only capped a remarkable season that also saw him podium in both the Giro and Vuelta, but also ensured that each of the five Monuments of 2016 produced first-time winners.

Arnaud Démare's Milan-San Remo win came after an alleged sticky bidon incident; Sagan's Flanders triumph perhaps ushered in a new era on the cobbles; Mat Hayman's emotional win denied a slice of history for Tom Boonen; Wout Poels finally delivered that elusive Monument scalp to Team Sky; but victory for the smiling Colombian Chaves arguably capped them all and was just rewards for one of the stand-out riders – and teams – of the season.

Watch the replays of the decisive moment of the men's road race in Qatar closely and you'll see that Slovakia's Sagan is the last man to bridge over to the decisive move after the expected echelons split the pack on the outward loop into the Arabian desert.

With just one team-mate in Michal Kolar at his disposal, the reigning champion still had it all to do – and had Mark Cavendish followed British team-mate Adam Blythe's wheel in the finale, and not the back wheel of Sagan, then the Manxman could well have capped his own extraordinary season with a second set of rainbow stripes.

But as it was, victory – perhaps fittingly – went to the best all-round rider in the peloton, and the only guy who can bunny hop prone riders with one foot in the pedal, who can close a gap single-handedly, who can win five consecutive green jerseys in Paris, who can dance to Grease and still look vaguely cool, and who could well yet become the first rider in history to win three successive world titles next year in Bergen.