Spring Classics
It was a strong start to the season in the opening weekend as Owain Doull finished second in Kuurne, Halvorsen was sixth in De Panne which brought a bit of motivation but didn't follow in the major lead-up to the big ones, Luke Rowe finished sixth in Dwars door Vlaanderen but most of the big races had results around the Top20 for the team.
The Great Ocean Road Race was a good start for the road as Rowe finished sixth, Geraint Thmoas took twelveth in Strade Bianche and Kwiatkowski had his highlight of the year wrapping up the podium in Milano Sanremo, Lawlss took a podium too in Scheldeprijs and as for the Ardennes it was no disaster but there was no highlight, a Top10 in Liège by Poels and two results right by it in the other two.
Stage-Races
Poels in third was a strong start to the line of results that came in another successful season, quickly on the team won the Herald Sun Tour with an extra two stages, podiums in Algarve and Colombia with an added stage win in Provence provided a strong warm up for the World Tour racing, there were Top10 finished in UAE and Tirreno-Adriatico but a strong and well earned win in Paris-Nice from Bernal who then went on to finish third in Catalunya aswell. A third place in Romandie was the return of Thomas to great form, it was a strong period as the team conquered almost in succession the Tour of the Alps and also the Tour of Yorkshire with Sivakov and Lawless respectively, there was also a win and a podium GC in Norway before the pre-Tour.
Egan Bernal as we know took Suisse with ease and a stage win to his name whilst Poels was fourth in the Dauphiné where he took a stage win too, adding to van Baarle's final stage one, and Ivan Sosa also put his name to the list as he won in Occitanie taking second in the overall. Later on the season Sosa took home the Vuelta a Burgos and the two queen stages in it in a dominant display, the team also won Pologne as Pavel Sivakov took great focus and won from his consistency and in BinckBank Ganna took a win aswell.
Grand Tours
The Giro had quite a story to it, as Bernal dropped his plan of contending it after an injury the task was left for the remaining youngsters who were almost all reunited, it was up for Tao Hart and Pavel Sivakov and the last one ended up the leader and in quite fashion as he took ninth after a strong and consistent race, specially for a 21-year old (at the time).
At the Tour it was the story we all know, Froome's absence, Bernal and Thomas' co-leadership that stood until the final tests in the Alps where Bernal stormed away and as the youngest finisher of the race, he was the fastest rider to finish it, with no stage wins to his name but with a performance that was unmatched. Finally in the Vuelta there wasn't much to show, as none of the team leaders had their presence marked it was a race of hunting stage wins, Tao Hart was close, De La Cruz was close to being in red but in the end there was nothing to take from it.
Season Finale
In the final classics there weren't that many results to take into acount, none in August but come the Italian ones the results came, a win Gran Piemonte was the team's final one, there were podiums in Giro della Toscana and Memorial Marco Pantani in the run-up to the final goal of the season which was Lombardia where Bernal took another big podium to his palmares. Ganna finished second on the Chrono des Nations and Diego Rosa filled the podium in Guangxi for a strong season finish.
Wins (WT): 26 (8)
Highlight: Bernal's Tour win
Best Performer: Egan Bernal
Biggest Surprise: Ivan Sosa
Negative Surprise: David de la Cruz
Ranking: 8/10
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