Spring Classics
With Daryl Impey kicking it off with a podium in the Great Ocean Road Race, after his Tour Down Under of course it was a great start, the opening weekend didn't go that well although Trentin was present and that was essentially the spring for him, seventh in E3 and Gent-Wevelgem, he was consistent but he always looked to be overworking and feeling the pressure of being a strong sprinter in relation to his rivals, and in the main cobbled races he just wasn't there in the end. Mezgec also had a Top10 in De Panne and that was it for the cobbled classics.
I've mentioned the start of the of the season, Trentin's racing was similar in Milano Sanremo as he made the deciding move but then overworked and didn't have legs to sprint in the end at all finishing tenth, and well there haven't been many results in this part in the one-day races, and the Ardennes would almost come out unmentioned if it weren't for a fourth place by Adam Yates in Liège.
Stage-Races
Here the story was very different, with a stage win and the overall in the Tour Down Under by Daryl Impey the season couldn't have started better, then win in the Herald Sun Tour, two in Valencia and three in Andalucia also with Impey and Durbridge taking some national titles early on, in March when things were getting serious the team performed, Haig finished Paris-Nice in fourth with Simon Yates taking a stage, and in Tirreno Adam Yates finished second with a TTT win in there and then he went on to finish second in Catalunya aswell with a stage win to his name and then still went on to another overall result in Basque Country with fifth and yet another stage win.
It is safe to say it was a very positive start of the season in the multi-day races, in the following months stage wins came in Norway and Slovenia, Dauphiné and Suisse came without anything to show for but that wasn't a sign of what were to happen in the Tour. The team still managed a couple stage wins in Poland by an impressive Luka Mezgec and a domination in Czech with a couple wins and Impey taking overall.
Grand Tours
The Grand Tours were arguably the biggest goal of the team for the season, with a team lead by the Yates twins and supported by several specialists and up-and-coming talents it's definetely a place the team places a lot of focus on. The Giro for a starts was a very neutral race, after a strong start by Simon Yates he then seemed to fade throughout most of the race, he who seemed to have his build-up perfect looked to be lacking his top form, never cracking but never having the legs to follow the big guns where it mattered, he ended up eightth overall which came as a bit of a disapointment but they still managed to take a win with Chaves.
That disapointment however was made up in the Tour as Simon battled on to take two wins out of breakaways in the mountains, close to his third actually when the stage to Tignes was cancelled he still struck gold and Matteo Trentin and Daryl Impey both managed to take wins aswell which made for a great race in that fashion, all from breakaways I must say, the team looked perfect with exception of their leader Adam Yates who faded in the mountains and never looked as good as he did earlier in the season.
Then in the Vuelta there were some notable absences but the team focused on breakaways and Luka Mezgec, the latter had to abandon due to a big crash, Chaves started the race well but early on lost track of the GC fight whilst it was Mikel Nieve who snuck into the Top10 with a more consistent race.
Season Finale
With a couple of stage wins and second overall the team's race in Britain was strong and it was where Matteo Trentin established himself as a main favourite for the worlds, he won Trofeo Matteotti too but not with team colours and then went on for the well known second place in the worlds, and finished his season with four Top3's in the Guangxi sprints.
He also finished seventh in Hamburg, then Jack Haig was on the podium of Bretagne, he and Impey finished eleventh in the Canadian classics, Haig and Adam Yates then went on to ride the Italian classics strongly with Haig topping it off with sixth in Lombardia, whilst some more wins came in Croatia where Yates won the queen stage and the overall.
Wins (WT): 35 (13)
Highlight: Simon Yates' couple of Tour wins
Best Performer: Matteo Trentin
Biggest Surprise: Edoardo Affini
Negative Surprise: Michael Albasini
Ranking: 8/10
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