On paper a team that could be said have got worse over the off season. But with a deeper look at who has left the team the best point scorer was Sven Erik Bystrom 198 pts. That said the team didn’t add any huge points scorers too the team instead preferring to train Joeri Stallaert to an impressive 81 cobbles rating. Stallaert already managed 11th (Appia), 8th (Ronde) and 22nd (Roubaix) in last years classic campaign and his strong sprint makes him an interesting training prospect from this off season very likely to have become a top 10 cobbled rider in the PT weather it has pushed him beyond how he finished last season only time will tell.

Other leaders on the team start with Jonas Ahlstrand the absolute leader of the team. His competition has grown this season with the training of Bryan Coquerd, Michael Van Stayen amongst others but with Stallaert and newly signed Bertillson he has two very capable lead out men should he get to use them. I’d predict a slightly less fruitful season for Ahlstrand with the competition now much improved but still a top 50 rider finish.

Next is the duo of Tim Wellens and David Abal both are very much in the 3rd tier of PT GT leaders that should top 10 any GT but need a weak one to be able to go higher. Having two of these riders does at least mean all GT are covered and should there be a very weak startlist like the Giro last year Spotify will have it covered.

The rest of the team is very much average in terms of domestiques for this level though Kristian Haugaard Jensen had a particularly good season for this writer a couple of years ago and maybe one to watch.

Double TT duo Phan Age Haugard and Victor Campenaerts should also score better then usual due to a weak looking TT field in the pro tour this season.

All in all it was a brave call to go for Stallaert when training this season over home boy Ahlstrand, Wellens or even Jensen and Ludvigsson combo to gain to 2nd leaders. For it to pay off Stallaert may need a few top 3’s and probably a win as winning potential is very short in this team. Ahlstrand can still win any PT sprint but it must be unlikely he’s going to have a better season then last year with all the sprinting training to other rides in the division. It’s not looking good for the Swedes.

Not the greatest amount of change with the addition of Yuri Trofimov and the training of Patrick Schelling the main stregnthing of the team with most of the teams spending power behind getting Patrick Muller.

To start with the weakness of the team sprints wise their is no top leader though Theo Reinhardt is no forlorn hope in the sprints due to his wicked high acceleration. He could have some success in stage races with a low sprinter turnout.

Secondly cobbles is not the weakest area of the team though Lukas Sprengler will forever have some limitations in the big classics with low stamina, low hill. However his high cobbled stat is going to be a factor and top 10-15 depending on the difficulty of the course will be in order. He is backed up by Tom Bohli who looks more then capable of the odd top 20 here and there in the cobbles.

The hills is where the main improvement rider wise comes in man-game legend Yuri Trofimov. He is not going to be the force of old in one day classics though top 10’s should be achievable. The real positive for Trofimov is his obvious advantage in stage racing. Any stage race with a hilly stage and time trial is certainly going to mean a top 5 performance for Trofimov.

UBS have spent a good chunk of the off-season just training Patrick Schelling. 38th in the PCT rankings last season. Trained in both Time Trial and Mountains in the off season Schelling has got to a top 15 level rider in a good GT but has the potential to go as high as 6th - 10th in a weak GT.
The big weapon on the UBS roster is Andrey Amador. In his last year at the height of his powers the Costa Rica born rider was fantastic last season in the PCT. This year he’s one of the riders who could benefit from Pluchkin being in PCT. However he only scored 1064 points last time he was in the PT and with Trofimov declining that may not be enough to save the Swiss team from another Relegation.

It was a good off-season for UBS. They filled a big hole short term with Trofimov and Schelling certainly makes another nice piece for 2nd tier GT riding. However they really lack a huge points scorer which from what Amador has shown whenever he has been at this level he is not. In a ordinary year they would probably be safe but there is little between the teams this year and not having a big leader will probably relegate them for me. But they will be very much on the edge.

A bit of a changing of the guard at Tinkoff with long time stalwart Yuri Trofimov on the way out. To replace him a full cobbles squad with last year’s at least joint 3rd best cobbled rider Florian Senechal and compatriot Michel Sibilla added to young russian duo of Subov and Sulimov.

First though let’s start in sprint and hills because really there is nothing major in scoring terms on either terrain. Though Porsev managed an impressive 153 points last season and Ilnur Zakarin is always dangerous in the right break picked up 184 points.

Onto to the TT’s, Tinkoff are going to be a beneficiary of the weakness in the Time Trial from the division as a whole. With 5 riders 79 over above in TT if they can get all 5 out to TTT they have a big shout to win them. This is obviously unlikely with Kritsky’s raceways likely to be used elsewhere. However there are plenty of back ups with 73-70 in TT that could fill a spot in the TTT.

Onto the Mountains and well to put it bluntly I’m not a fan of Kritsky’s stats combo in this version of PCM. His low acceleration and downhill are not suited to the game and it really shows in his results. 777 points 2016 and 428 2017 is dreadful for a guy costing 650,000 in wages. I can’t see him having a better season this year and honestly think 2 GT’s would be the way to go as his recovery stat being good would hopefully offset how bad his acceleration is. Kolesnikov will be up to his old tricks in GT and should have a good 200 point + season.

Now the one real strength of the Tinkoff team Cobbles! Senechal, Sibila and Suminov are all fantastic on the cobbles. Senechal 4th in Ronde and 2nd in Paris - Roubaix last year is a top tier cobbled rider and with GVA declining this season could make the step to being the number 2 in the cobbled ranks. The support behind him is going to be strong with Suminov perfect for Ronde and Strada Appia Antica and Sibila perfect for flat cobbled races like Paris - Roubaix and East Midlands Cicle Classic. This will be a big point scorer for Tinkoff but is it enough? Aker managed to score around 2000 points from there Classics team last year and Tinkoff is about a similar strength.

For me Tinkoff are just wasting too much Salary Cap on Kritsky to survive having a homelike that were a big leader could be is too much of a deficit to overcome and this could finally be the year that they relegate.

Big changes for the German’s this year. Long time leader Gerald Ciolek has left the team along with top cobbler Adam Blythe also leaving the team. None of there wages of transfers fee have gone on other star names though Remi Cavanga looks certain to be a rider to note in the future. With the long awaited peak of Silvio Herklotz and the training of Double star in the hills and sprints Arnaud Demare having worked hard on his sprints in the off season in the hope of producing a stellar season. The team has moved up the rankings though that is in some part due to the top teams losing a bit of spark this year so how do they look on each terrain.

The cobbles are Puma’s weakest terrain with only Tim Declarq capable of scoring on terrain. He is not without a shot at top 15-20 in the big events though and is certainly a fine leader for a team’s weakest terrain.

In the time trial department Puma have a few options with Jascha Sutterlin, Patrick Bevin and Dylan Van Barle are all more then capable of riding for top 20’s on any stage with stage wins possibly for Sutterlin throughout the season. Behind these three there are signs of a capable TTT team. Even when taking out Kelderman and Herklotz from the team there are still 7 good TT riders. This should allow Puma to be competitive in any TTT they want allowing for another source of points throughout the season.

Only go the two real strength for Puma is in the sprints. Though they have only one real leader in the category. Arnold Demare is a real star especially after some more training over the off-season he really has entered the top echelon of pure sprinters, when you then add that he is one of the best 25 punchuer in the division too he is a special talent and if it wasn’t for one Belgian he would certainly score even more points then he is likely too this year. His lead out train leaves a bit to desire though guys like Hadi and Wackerman will still be able to lead out after hilly terrain which is most likely the days when Demare will have the biggest advantage over his rivals.

Now the bit that most excites me about Puma. Silvio Herklotz is built for this version of the game and is the prototype rider you would build. High acceleration high fighter high downhill, good enough flat and great back up stats. He even has the joint 2nd highest hill stat of all the big contenders. He will probably struggle to win a GT this year but a podium will be attainable and as soon as his mountain is trained he will be a top favourite for every race (I would give him a great chance at a top 3 in Lichenstein too). 2nd leader a plenty on this terrain with Arndt, Nerz and Bongiorno all having times in the season they will be helpful. Nerz could even top 10 a GT given the right circumstances.

All in all one of my top contenders too even win the division should luck favour them however I see them just failing with next season more likely for them to win the division. That being said I see them right up there in the top 5.

Well what an off-season for T-Mobile. With the mega star Rein Tarramae already in place the team constructed a ProTour winning team around him. In came Teejay Van Garderen another star of the division, Jacob Fielder the division 2nd best TT rider and Florentino Marquez perennial overachiever.

Let’s start with the bad points of the team though. In the cobbles and sprints there isn’t really any notable point scoring for the team. Geoffrey Soupe and Mitch Docker will be possible scorers at the end of long GT but apart from that nothing.

Onto to the good parts of the team and TT’s is certainly one of them. Fielder is going to be even more useful then last season due to the weakness in the TT in the division. With a 2 point gap after himself and Phinney in the TT ranks even with the unpredictable nature of TT he should be a good scorer this year.

On the hills TVG should be in for another great season with his great back up stats for this game. His insanely high acceleration and fighter stats should see him have a good chance to top 5 in the Ardennes classics. He a good team-mate in Buchmann who could pick up a few points in these races just by being near the front for TVG.

In the mountains Taaramae what else is their to say this must be his year. So unlucky in the TDF last year he will likely go one better this year providing the right amount of support is given to him and he is the best stage racer in the world. However excitingly he is not the only great stage racer in the team. There is Mikayi Krasnoperov “YEY�. No seriously Florentino Marquez will score many points in the other GT Taaramae doesn’t turn up in and could be a danger to surprise top 5 or maybe take KOM. Krasnoperov will be there… and I wouldn’t hate the idea of him being a super domestique for Taaramae though that would probably be as far as he can go as far as points scoring.

A top top team I can’t see them out the top 5 and they are certainly one of if not the favourite for the division.

Porto did there best to stick to their roots in Portugal and the areas surrounding. There mountain squad will look to keep them up this season with 3 big guns to fire at the Grand Tours.

Starting though the team has nothing in the cobbles literally nothing. There best rider is 67 in cobbles and that’s probably all that needs saying.

Onto to the TT’s, and at first glance Nasicemento should have a good time in most TT’s however the long TT is the only form he is going to be good at and any influence for the Prologue stat is going to have a huge negative effect on him. There is a good TTT team when Reis and Intxausti turn up. Though points maybe hard to come from in the Individual races. Leung could have a few good results in the prologues.

Avelinho is a sprinter who is hampered by poor back up stats low flat, hill and resistance along with average acceleration. He can score well in certain situations but is not going to have the greatest season I believe in the strong sprinting division. Behind him Carvalho is a okay lead out man though suffers again from bad back up stats.

In the hills Claeys and Borges are a good team (why wasn’t Borges trained). Both have there strengths Borges has showed good form in both the Ardennes and Milan San Remo last year the worry would be with Claeys now here he will revert to being a domestique and not going for himself. Claeys though will score a good few top 10’s by himself. Not the best team in the hills but enough to score well.

The mountains is were the team has a lot of depth. Machado, Reis, Intxausti and Vinhas all are above 80. Though in this world of acceleration being so important only Machado and Intxausti have 70 in the category. Even then Machado has very low downhill in 60. They still should guarantee a top 10 in each of the GT but there bound to underperform and the game is too blame really as Reis, Vinhas have been long term projects for the team and it sucks they have been wasted by this version of the game.

With the pool they had to pick from there is not the best Acceleration wise they are probably going to be near the bottom of the table. The decision to not train Borges will be regretted I believe but not the difference between staying up and going down.

One of the top 2 teams in the division for the past two seasons. Moser have had to undergo a slight transformation. Out with three leaders in Petr Vakov, Daniel Veseley and Peter Velits. Replaced with Warren Barguil last season Tour of america winner.

The first thing that stands out with Moser is the lack of weaknesses on the whole with the worst discipline being the TT. Still they have two useful guys here in Turek and Danacik who can provide a top 30 or thereabouts in races. Very little in the way of a TTT squad though.

Stage racing is were the first real loss is notices with long time leader Peter Velits finally leaving the team. In his place young Frenchman Warren Barguil along with Jan Hirt. Barguil has been heavily trained over the winter now a real force in the top 10 of a GT. His amazing recovery good acceleration and downhill should be enough for him to challenge for the top 5 in the one he chooses to go too and with more training he could be a new star. Jan Hirt also shares with Barguil having excellent back up stats. He should be aiming for the top 5 too and with Vsner, Seboka and Kolar there should be enough support to spread between them in the mountains.

Into the hills now and what a surprise another leader with great back up stats. Peter Sagan honed his real life self last year for the first time. with Amstel, Grand Duche and Badaling all falling to the Slovak Hulk. This season with the same game and no real training in the Hills this season he should enjoy another great season. Petr Vakoc will be a big loss points scoring wise though a needed with salary cap issues in the team. No real scoring potential behind him though Jaroslav Marycz could score well from the right breakaways.

Now the Man-Game legend that is Sam Bewley. He will win the individual rankings again probably winning the MG Cobbled Triple Crown of Ronde, Paris - Roubaix and Strada Appia Antica. As well as being the best sprinter in the world there is no real competition for him apart from age. There really is no more to say he is a 2500 points scorer. The real loss here is Daniel Vessley no longer an ace lead-out and valuable 2nd leader for Bewley. Liben Chen and Diseal Engine Lars Crocket have been brought in to replace him with Chen and another new signing Nolan Hoffman probably the best lead out pairing ensuring another good leadout for Bewley without an amazing one.

Well Bewley will ensure they finish in the top 5. Sagan will make sure it’s a top 3. The rest is up to Barguil and Hirt. The real decider of the division this season has probably already been made would Hirt have scored more points as an 82-83 with Barguil as an 79. Then Barguil and Hirt as 81’s. I think the correct decision was made but I still feel there could be one team to beat Moser again.

The Slovenian new promoters are the obvious spiritual home for Simon Spilak as he joins the team ready for his final year at the peak of his powers and one last crack at a 3rd Tour de France and a place in the record books. The real core of the team though was already in place and the three Slovenians Polanc, Kump and Mohoric are all interesting riders that makes up this national super team.

To start though the weakness is the Time Trailing department of this team aside from Stage Racers Spilak and Fairs. No other rider is higher the 72. As well as not having any TTT squad of note this will not be a strong area for Isostar.

In the cobbles though it becomes clear that this team has very little weaknesses with this being there 2nd worst area on paper. Yet still having a very good 2nd tier leader in Jan Polanc. Polanc combines being a very good rider on all terrains with good acceleration and a nice cobbled rating. He is sure to top 10 in at least one of the cobbled classics this year whilst also being a steady stream of points throughout the season. He is unlikely to have any help on the cobbles. With Kump and Spilak the next two useful cobbled riders very likely not to ride any of the races but that should not stop Polanc scoring.

Speaking of Kump sprinting is another category that without a top sprinter Isostar have a very capable versatile leader. Kump is going to be fresh on the hardest of days racing in the mould of Michael Van Stayen and Arnaud Demare. Those two riders both being slightly better then Kump will make it hard for him but I’m sure he will be near the front in Milan San-Remo and other tough days of racing that end in a sprint. Again very little support for him but he has the tools to be a consistent scorer for the team.

Now were the bulk of scoring will come from Simon Spilak one last farewell tour at his peak in his home country team. Spilak will mix and match hilly classics with Grand Tour racing i’m sure. As he has proven the past two seasons he is very capable of 2000+ point in a season it will be interesting this year if that is possible against the juggernaut Rein Taaramae in the TDF. On the plus side Thomas Faiers and Riccardo Riccio would be great domestiques if they go there as well as being good 2nd leaders in the other GT. Faiers in the past has shown an overachieving tendency and will be interesting to watch if he decides to have a crack at the KOM in one of the GT’s.

When Spilak isn’t around in the hills the team can still call upon Matej Mohoric a under 25 rider with stats not too dissimilar to Peter Sagan he would be a good call to over achieve in the Ardennes this year due to his high acceleration and downhill stats. Penrsteiner, Kratochvilla and Wyss all are good domestiques with potential to score should they be allowed the opportunity.

The best team put together by a promoting team since Metinvest? Most probably yes! If Spilak could somehow beat Taaramae they would probably win the whole division but with how one sided towards the Estonian it looked last year before his crash 2nd is probably were he will finish. That should not knock this amazing team out of the top 5 but winning the whole things will be just a step to far. Matej Mohoric has a similar stat line to Sagan and TVG and it would not surprise me one bit to see him in the top 5 and top 10’s in hilly classics on a regular basis.

Only minor tweaks in the off season at Hugo Boss. Though that’s all that was needed after a great first season in the PT. World Champion Simone Ponzi rode excellent and Jose Alacorn won a GT it doesn’t get better for a first attempt. The only notable addition is Alexandre Kristoff Norwegian sprinter/good cobbled rider filling two holes in the team in one go. When you add Tom Jelte Slagther training to 79 hills it was a good off season for the team.

A reoccurring theme for the Division the weakest terrain is time trialing. Though unlike most Hugo still have a very solid TT base though not enough riders to make a great TTT squad. Mario Gonzalez Salas was picked as most likely to surprise for the simple reason there isn’t as many TT riders in the division so compared to previous season he should score more then expected. When you add Ligthart and Aramendia Hugo are not going to be short on TT riders when they need them probably without troubling for the win.

Just slightly better is the Cobbles squad from this team entirely down to Alexander Kristoff potential pulling off top 10’s and even surprise wins in slightly reduced bunch sprints. Though he always has Bewley to beat he’s likely already up the road and Kristoff will win the sprint from whatever group he’s in whether that’s for 8th or 18th is likely to decide how far Hugo can climb this year. Kristoff managed just under 700 points last year another return in that area would be a huge help. Sprinting wise Kristoff leads the team again. Jon Aberstatui and Yoeri Havik are both capable of top 10’s in depleted fields as well giving the team a solid if unspectacular look.

Stage racing ways Jose Alacon is a man-game legend. Alacon will no doubt be attempting to win one or two Grand Tour’s this year. The doubt with Alacon is if he can reproduce the same amount of points as last year were he was fortunate to ride the easiest grand tour of the year. However he scored a respectable 1187 points the year before (only around 450 points less) and is still a top 20 scorer. Behind him Carpaz, Slagter and Ablenado are all capable as back-ups or super domestiques. Carapaz could do a top 10 in GT with an easy starlist and Slagter is a huge threat should he go to any stage race for stage wins.

Onto the main focal point of the team. World Champion Simone Ponzi regaining his crown as the world’s best punchuer overall ranking wise last year it’s actually pretty impressive considering how good Sagan, Lutsenko and Bakelendts all performed. He scored 1570 not a bad return but his lowest for a few years. Will he improve his scoring this year though? Having another top 20 division punchuer in Slaghter by his side will help but the return of EBH and TVG is certainly not going to help and Sean De Bie looks another threat now trained. I’d expect Ponzi to score around the same points all things considered with EBH stopping him scoring the same way he did in 2014.

Hugo Boss are one of the few teams to take a step in the forward direction this year that were already good last season. It’s likely a step of around 600 points but it could be enough to make them a top 5 challenger in my opinion. For them to win it all Ponzi needs a 2000+ plus season and I just don’t see it happening with EBH around.

One of the biggest transformations of the season and certainly one of the most interesting stories Greig who paid the world for EBH last season are unable to agree terms to a contract extension fight hard and lose him in free agency only to sign one of his biggest rival for many years in Jan Bakelendts. That’s not all this team is though and they are well placed to stay up unlike there first attempt two seasons ago. Dan Martin, Kris Boeckmans and Lukasz Wisniowski can all score well at this level and it bodes well for Grieg.

Feeling like a broken record the weakness of the team is you guessed it Time Trials. Certainly not the worst in the division with Laengen and Wisniowski useful in certain situations and with 11 guys over 70 and 14 over 69 they should field a solid TTT squad at each race.

That really is the only glaring weakness in this impressive team Boeckmans covers sprints very well has a good base stats in acceleration and a okay hill stat so speed bumps aren’t going to rule him out of sprints. His downhill worries me but that is a certain situation stat that may only affect him in 5-20% of times leading up to the sprints. He should still be a good scorer as he was last year when scoring 424 points.

Cobbles wise Wisniowski is an exciting rider! A very high flat stat and all round great back ups he is an obvious training candidate for the future and could be a star in 2-3 seasons. This year though I’m sure he will score well though is hard to predict as there are not many riders like him in the game. Lars Boom a kind of reverse version with higher TT and lower cobbles scored 645 last year and somewhere around there is what Wisniowski should be looking for.

Mountains wise Daniel Martin is a useful scorer at this level even managing a top overall in 2015 with just over 1000 points. Having not rode in the PT for two seasons it’s unknown just how well he will score but above 700 points is likely and a is a very good rider for this division. Behind him Sigurd Nessat, Mikael Itturia and Veggard Stake Laegnen are all young and more then useful as domestiques. Nest in particular should be valuable as a breakaway rider in GT.

Finally the hills and a true legend in Jan Bakelendts. Nowhere near the man who tore up the 2012 season when riding for Pearl-Adidas but guaranteed another fine season following consecutive 16-17-15-17-12 in the individual standings he is a 1000+ point scorer and a great rider for the team. His support is very weak no rider apart from Dan Martin over 75 but that shouldn’t stop him scoring well.

A fantastic effort from this promoting team and one that has gone with guaranteed scorers that will see them have there best ever season I am sure. The future is interesting though Wisniowski and Mads Wurtz are going to be stars but Bakelendts, Boeckmans and Martin will be declined by then so likely Grieg are going to be a team with two top riders and a massive amount of cap space to fit one to two stars in and really push for the title.

One rule that should never be broken when doing a PT preview. Do Not underestimate Gazelle! They always over perform a lot of that down to them not having a bad rider so to speak on the roster. All riders are over 4.00xp nearly all are higher then 73 ovl and as such when they put riders in breaks they tend to be very strong. Of course then the addition of leaders Madrazo, Gianni and Teunissan makes them a very strong team.

The weaknesses of the team though to begin. They can't sprint and never have I don't recall them ever having a sprinter. Old habbits die hard.

Time Trialing wise as a team they are strong but individuality average. They could for sure have a win this season in a TTT. Excluding Madrazo they can put out 6 riders above 75 and a couple of 73 rated riders which should help them score well in that discipline. Individually Bibby will go well in hilly TT's along with Kangert and they may steal a top 10 in those specific circumstances.

Cobbles is were there has been a good improvement this season. Teunissan is a good rider capable of getting top 10's in all cobbled classic and very much a useful pick up on a great wage. He is supported by Marc Potts though i'm not sure his wage matches his ability he will be capable on lumpy cobbles as well. Not one i'd got to nearly 200k for but DD says his great i'm sure he will score well.

Hills have always been Gazelle's home and they will always have freakish amounts of depth on the terrain. With just the 11 riders 75 and over this year and another two on 74. Leading wise could be a difficult season for Ginanni first season declining there is a lot more competition this season and I can see him having a worse year then his 22nd overall last season.

And last but not last Angel Madrazo. My first season in MG he won the TDF beating legend Damieno Cunego and looking as though he would go on to have a similar Palmares to the Italian. Since then he's never won a GT 5th in the TDF 2014 2nd in 2015 Giro, 3rd in 2016 Giro and 4th in Vuelta 2017. With only three seasons left at peak he looks likely to never win a GT again. However he still is a good 1000 point a season rider and more then capable of leading a team with great sub leaders like Gazelle. Behind Madrazo Formolo, Karnulin, Sonitskiy, Bibby and Kruisjwick are all top 10 finishes in different stage races throughout the season. Sonitskiy picked out as the surprise as with his Downhill and Resistance it's only a matter of time before he wins a GT KOM.

Decent effort in the transfers by Gazelle. Gaining Teunissan should negate the decline of Ginanni points wise. Other additions have come at a questionable price but Gazelle have a knack of finding riders that score from breakaways and other situations and it's usually wise to bet for them rather then against.

Last season top team have undergone a rebuild to start the new season. With old superstars Simon Spilak and Jerome Coppel leaving the team and Youth joining in Pascal Ackerman and Greeks Ioannidis and Giannoutsos whose impact won't be felt for a while just yet. Leaving Festina in a precarious position pre training of needing a true leader. They went with training Bryan Coquard into the best pure sprinter (sprint and acceleration combined) in the division has it been enough to see them survive this season and rebuild for the future?

Individually as would be expected by a team managed by a former PT winner they have covered all the basis the team unlike many in the division has a good quality TT rider in Vlastos though no TTT squad behind him. His points scoring ability should at least hold if not increase from last years he already scored 328 last year. This year Fielder total of 456 may not be the worst target to go for.

Hills wise Koretzky could be great but isn't a top rider at the moment and is in the kind of middle of the road similar to Bruno Borges of Prio Porto. He's only slightly worst stat wise then Alexey Lutsenko who scored 1308 points last season yet Koretzky and Borgres both scored very similar in 527 and 520. More then likely Koretzky was a rider who could have been trained but was moved aside to allow Coquerd to be which is a shame as with 82 hills he would of been very interesting this season. Behind him is Robin VDH he's just a bit rubbish acceleration wise to really score at this level. He did okay in CT last year and I'm sure Sotd will find the right races for him but he's not a great signing for me and his wage is horrible at 327,000.

Cobbles wise things look bright again for Festina. Maxime Daniel has a nice but not great stats combo he will be useful in the cobbled classics all year and should score a good top 10 every now and then. Being french and a half decent lead out man will also be a plus as he won't waste many racedays. Supporting him is another leadout/cobbled rider in Weber can't complain with him decent wage and looks more then useful throughout the season and two useful 50k riders in Archimandrites and Karatzios with the latter being good to improve in the future a very solid if unspectacular cobbles line up.

Now onto one of the big guns and Pierre Henri Lescuiner has his first year leading the team in the mountains. With 14 riders having better Mountain stats then him top 5 in GT are unlikely though a top 10 is very possible and with a lucky startles who knows. Another who training wise could be good in the future looking like a better Andrei Amador or a poor mans Rein Taaramae. Behind him Chamorro and Vasyliv are again fine riders both have their pros Chamorro looks useful in breaks and as a helper Vasyliv should keep himself in and around the top 20 with his okay TT and Recovery.

Finally the teams big gun in Bryan Coquard probably overtaking Ben Swift as the worlds best pure sprinter now though there will be very little between them. I'd say the hope for Coquard is for him to reach the kind of max points a Sprinter can get in PT at 1900 (though last year the top pure sprinter managed 1219). If he reaches that target then all will be fine for Festina. The fear will be he has a Degenkolb season and as Iberia discovered last year that leaves you in all sorts of problems as he suddenly scored 900 points less then the season before. To safeguard they have built a really good leadout train. Tzortzaksis will be a good final leadout and Emerson Santos and Jocelyn Bar are the perfect 3rd lead out man Santos could also do a job as final lead out.

All in all Festina is a team that appeal to the eye a lot. No obvious weakness and a lot of potential for big time scorers in future seasons. Banking on a sprinter though is always a guessing game and they have done there best to safeguard that he will score well Jocelyn Bar for sure should be worth his weight in gold if he consistently brings Coquards lead out man to the front. Behind there is a mix of solid leader Lescuiner and Koretzky, okay leader Daniel and Vlastos and that should be enough to keep them relatively safe without having the success of previous seasons.

Heine wrote:
Weeeee! Really looking forward to this

I also love your format, looks much nicer than mine

knockout wrote:
This is looking very intriguing as far as the volvo preview promises. I like the format a lot as it hopefully leads to more unique posts about the teams. Dont fear to be harsh on any team, it imo leads to the most interesting discussions. If you think that I'm totally stupid for ignoring TTs and mountains the way i do, call me out for it and write it as you think. Makes the content better than if you're trying to be too polite

Thanks for the preview!

ember wrote:
Very nice write-ups, and good to see you write your thoughts in a direct way

Especially your Volvo approach is interesting, and I think I only agree that points wise investing the Stallaert money in buying a leader would be a better move. But as viking90 points out, if they avoid relegation, they have picked up several talents that should become very nice in future seasons.

viking90 wrote:
Im afraid you are quite right about my team, we look weaker.
Really regret that I did not pay enough to Keep Reimer.

Regarding the training I did not have faith in getting Ahlstrand to 84 at Giro last year he was the best sprinter, he and two more guys at 83 SP but Ahlstrand 3&4 stats better in ACC. He did not win one stage...
I felt it would get more pts training Stallaert instead.

And for that I needed some money by selling some 2nd leaders but did not have any real plan to replace those points so I ended up signing 4 decent talents instead. (Tanfield max at 79TT) Eriksson (78HI) Tiller (78COB) Halvorsen (80 SP ACC). But that wont help us this season.

Anyway it is up for Abal and Haugard Jensen to surprise this year aswell

Thanks for doing a PT preview Always nice!

SotD wrote:
Nice write-up so far. Will be keen to see what my team get for the evaluation. Surely going to be much much worse than what we have been used to, but how bad will it be

Bushwackers wrote:
Thanks for the write-up. I think its a pretty accurate assessment of my squad, but I like to think we will just avoid relegation (I hope so at least). Especially accurate is putting Goncalves as the surprise package, as he has stolen some great results in the past. I'm really counting on Amador to perform well and Trofimov to still be strong enough to score despite his regression.

By the way, 3 very nice jerseys to start things off!

viking90 wrote:
@jt totally fair point.
Stallaert had som good results outside the Cobbles last year that I can´t trust on this time like 4th at Lac Megantic Classic.
But I expected him to get better then 22nd at Paris Roubaix, atleast 8th as last year in Ronde Vlaanderen, better then 11th at Strada Appia Antica.

Hopefully we can surprise you and stay safe this season aswell

Heine wrote:
I really, really hope you are right, a podium would be awesome for my team. I am afraid that we give away too much in sprints and cobbles, and that TT-randomness (and my planning) makes Fiedler score less than he should. Also, it is not a given that Rein beats Spilak in TDF, and the looser there loose a lot of points. Maybe someone will call me totally stupid for ignoring sprints and cobbles?

Will be exciting to see TVG ride, never had such a good puncheur and that will be really fun, also being able to send both Buchmann (even though he is mostly TVG domestique) and Preidler to lead some races is something I really like


Great preview, really looking forward to reading about everyone else

cio93 wrote:
3rd to 6th sounds like a reasonable estimation that still slightly exceeds my own expectations.

Thanks for at least mentioning one of my acquired talents in Cavagna (unlike the other previews), but I would put the loaned out Ganna in star potential over him at the moment. Certainly two interesting candidates for training once Project Demare is finished.
You're right that we want to push our advantage with him on tougher stages by focusing our leadout options on those days, a flat train wouldn't do him that much of a favor anyway since Demare prefers to come from the slipstreams and pass tiring guys in front, that's where the saved energy comes into play.

I'm not sure if Bevin will be a surprise package, his RES is too worrying in the broader picture, but then again it's supposed to be an unpredictable category.


All in all, thanks for the well-structured and enjoyable preview so far, I'm excited to read the rest.