Spring Classics
As a Belgian team the team has had always a big focus in the classics, but in the cobbles they've deeply struggled to get results, but that hasn't been a serious issue as they've been able to get wins in all kinds of races. Starting with Wellens in the podium of Omloop and then Keukeleire/De Buyst finishing in the Top10, and although there weren't brilliant results the team was very consistent throughout the sprint with Top15's in E3 and Gent-Wevelgem and Top10's in Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour de Flandres only with a miss in Paris-Roubaix.
As for the road it started off pretty strong in Mallorca with a classic Wellens win and Ewan second in the Great Ocean Road Race, Tiesj Benoot had a superb Strade Bianche in fifth with Wellens in the Top10 too, he also had a third in Brabantse Pijl and eleventh in Liège whilst the true star of the Ardennes was Bjorg Lambrecht who finished sixth in Amstel and fourth in Flèche with Lawrence Naesen taking a Top10 in Frankfurt.
Stage-Races
Somewhat moderate until Andalucia where Wellens took a couple of wins, Ewan took a win in UAE and Campenaerts took another in Tirreno-Adriatico, good wins but with few overall results inbetween. Then came Thomas de Gendt's brutal Catalunya win which in itself was followed by a couple of wins in Turkey by Ewan, they weren't coming in big number but the quality was very present in their wins.
In the Belgium Tour and ZLM the team took another trio of wins whilst in the pre-Tour stage-races the overall was a slight focus as Benoot took a strong fourth in Suisse and Lambrecht taking a nice result just outside of the Top10 in the Dauphiné. In the later months there was also a win in Wallonie, one in BinckBank alongside an overall podium place by Wellens followed by another couple of wins in Denmark making for a strong period complemented by the Tour's results.
Grand Tours
Caleb Ewan's trio of wins in the Tour was definetely one of the sprinter plotlines of the year, there was a lot of pressure in him to perform in the team but it's safe to say he turned the table around completely and together with de Gendt's beautiful win in the Massif the team's Tour was one of the most successful and they still hit the post in other occasions, the wins flew in and after the couple he had in the Giro he safely established himself as one of the big sprinters in the peloton, which was indeed the focus they've had during the Grand Tour season.
Although, the Vuelta is perhaps where the expectations were broken the biggest as Carl Frederik Hagen had a massive race finishing eightth after a consistent, strong and smart race, taking advantage of a breakaway to sneak into the GC fight, rode the mountains in a way everyone, maybe even him were surprised and resisted the traps put throughout the three weeks including a crosswind hit stage where a lot of his rivals completely lost their chances.
Season Finale
And in the wrapping months of the season the team really performed strongly, Top10's in San Sebastian/RideLondon with a runner-up from Ewan in Hamburg and Benoot in Bretagne and a quick look at the results sheets represents the consistency the team achieved in the finale. In Canada Wellens took ninth and fourth for a strong stint and Carl Hagen finishing seventh in Guangxi to wrap it up. In the meantime though, in one-day races from September on there were six Top10's in classics, in Britain, Deutschland and the win Caleb Ewan had in the Brussels Cycling Classic which turned out in one of the best cycling pictures of modern times, in my opinion of course, wrapping the win count was an amazing solo win by Jelle Wallays in the gravel roads of Paris-Tours.
Highlight: 23 (12)
Best Performer: Caleb Ewan
Biggest Surprise: Carl Fredrik Hagen
Negative Surprise: Adam Blythe
Ranking: 7/10