Spring Classics
In te cobbles it was a solid start to the season with a fourth place in Kuurne in there, Wout van Aert finished second in E3, the team put on a depth performance for a sprint in Gent-Wevelgem but Danny van Poppel could only finish fourth from that work, was then seventh in Dwaars door Vlaanderen, Van Aert then finished fourtheenth in Flandres and Mike Teunissen wrapped it all up with seventh in Paris-Roubaix. There was a win that came from Dylan Groenewegen in De Panne which made the cobbles a profitable terrain.
As for the other classics the results came just as frequent, Wout van Aert's relative lack of results in the cobbles was compensated by his third place in Strade Bianche followed by a sixth in Milano Sanremo for a strong spring overall, if only it weren't for the lack of a result in the Ardennes it would've been a strong sprint in every terrain.
Stage-Races
However if the classics were good than what to say of the stage-races. Without even counting the major ones, solely in the week-long races the success came very high with Roglic early on taking the win in the UAE Tour alongside a couple of stages for the team, then repeating it in Tirreno Adriatico before later on taking yet another overall success with some domination in Romandie, winning overall alongside three stages, impressive to say the least.
As for the rest of the team, stage wins in Valencia and Algarve kicked things off, in Paris-Nice Groenewegen took a couple of wins whilst George Bennett finished sixth in the GC, Kruijswijk took a fifth in Catalunya and in May Bennett was fourth in California. As for the rest of the World Tour there were stage wins in both the Dauphiné and Suisse, in Pologne Vingegaard also took a maiden win and BinckBank saw overall success once again as Laurens de Plus came out of the Tour flying and took over the race.
From the others it can be said utter domination, in Dunkerque the team took five out of six stages and the overall and in the ZLM Tour it was similar, where in five stages the team took four and the overall, with Groenewegen/Teunissen/Jansen/Van Emden all sharing the win count here.
Grand Tours
With Primoz Roglic coming in as one of the stage-racers of the season his Giro run was a success, with the peloton against him and the lack of support from the team due to some bad luck he still fought to finish on the podium, surviving the mountains and attacking hard the time-trials where he took two stage wins. Then he went on the Vuelta with the same goal, but with a stronger team and a lot more consistency, which was what all his rivals lacked, throughout what were three weeks of constant attacking and suffering, Roglic never looked out of control as he surged to his first Grand Tour win after what was already a spotless team, there he took a stage win and Sepp Kuss took another.
In the Tour finally is where the team looked the strongest, Steven Kruijswijk surprisingly took only his first Grand Tour podium as he finished third in a race with no problems, where he always looked composed and De Plus/Bennett made for a superb support on the mountain, it's where Jumbo looked the best despite the crashes that hit the team, they still came out with another amazing four stage wins.
Season Finale
Quite an interesting one, Amund Jansen took fifth place in RideLondon and then also the Bretagne Classic whilst Teunissen took fifth in Hamburg, both coming from a support role in the Tour, as for the stage races Vingegaard was second in Denmark, in Britain Groenewegen took another trio of stage wins making the most out of it and the final race of the season in Guangxi was also good as Tolhoek finished fourth overall.
The real success though came as September started, outside of the success that was the Vuelta the team also had wins in Giro dell'Emilia and Tre Valli Varesine, wins he acomplished before a seventh in Lombardia which were the highlights of the Italian Autumn Classics, Chrono des Nations was the final win of the season by Jos van Emden.
A lot more results came in Eneco, a sequence of Top10's is widely visible in the team's season finale but the win came in the Ronde van Zeeland from Groenewegen with four other podiums in Belgium.
Interview with Paul Martens
Echelons: What were your highs and lows of the season?
Paul: The highs were every race with Primoz until the Giro was finished because it was either a victory or a grand tour podium.
Maybe there was a low for me in the second part of season where I didn‘t reach a level to go for own results, maybe I was in that support role for too long.
E: You’ve been present in countless team wins this season including your first racing day, motivation was clearly present in the group, just how much difference does the psychological make out on the road?
P: We have been very confident right from the start because last year we had already been successful and in a flow.
E: As a veteran in the team you’ve seen the progression of riders as Bauke Mollema, Primoz Roglic, Steven Kruijswijk, Wilco Kelderman and Robert Gesink as Grand Tour contenders.
What was it like to be in such environment during all these years?
P: It is healthy in top sports to see that there are different types of talents so that you can live with defeat. I was always happy working for these strong riders and still am.
E: Finally, with the team having had such an impressive season are there expectations to raise the bar even higher for next season?
P: Of course the objective will be to be better and to win a big classic and a Grand Tour, maybe now the Giro or the Tour.
Wins (WT): 51 (25)
Highlight: Roglic's Vuelta win
Best Performer: Primoz Roglic
Biggest Surprise: Mike Teunissen
Negative Surprise: -
Ranking: 10/10
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