Team eight in my season preview and it's the Swiss/Russian team with the lovely wireless shifting bikes, Katusha-Alpecin.
Last Season
2017 was a strange one for Katusha. Their highest profile rider, Alexander Kristoff, scored a lot of points on the World Tour and won a silver medal at the world championships, but things didn't really go to plan. He waited until May to win a race on the World Tour, the Eschborn Frankfurt Rund um den Finanzplatz (try saying that drunk). He was the fastest from the bunch at Milan-San Remo, but all three podium places had gone already, and his best cobbled result was at the most important race but fifth at the Tour of Flanders is still below his high expectations. second places in stages at Paris-Nice, the Criterium du Dauphine and the Tour de France showed he had the speed this year but wasn't able to convert it into victory in world class bunch sprints. He then ended strongly with RideLodon-Surrey classic win and the aforementioned silver medal in Bergen.
Katusha's over big point scorer of the year was Ilnur Zakarin (above, in red), who had a lot of high placings on stages in the two grand tours he entered, while getting fifth overall at the Giro and a podium place at the Vuelta. Simon Spilak, something of an enigma, won the Tour du Suisse, probably the team's biggest result of the year, for another pile of points.
There was a major disappointment though, new signing Tony Martin. Martin is one of the greatest time trialists of all time, with four world titles, but 2017 was a year to forget. Fourth in both time trials at the Tour de France, and ninth at the world championships, Martin's big goals for the year featured underwhelming performances. He wanted to ride for himself at Paris-Roubaix too, and finished 76th, oops. He did win a stage of the tour of Valencia, and the German national time trial, but that's not really enough.
Who left?
Alexander Kristoff, which leaves a massive hole in the team to be filled by someone who will be mentioned later. Sven Bystrom, Matvey Mamykin, Rein Taarame and the retiring Angel Vicioso also leave.
Who's Joining?
Ivan Drago on a bike, Marcel Kittel (above) is the highest profile signing for Katusha. He's ridden for sponsors Alpecin before, and his great hair might have something to do with it. He was the fastest guy at the Tour de France last year, and is probably the best guy in the world for a standard sprint finish. He's not as versatile as Kristoff but he'll win more races which is what Katusha need. He's joined by former hour record holder Alex Dowsett, Nathan Haas, Ian Boswell, Matteo Fabbro, Willie Smit and Steff Cras. Decent intake of useful riders.
How will 2018 go?
Zakarin will continue to look ungainly on a bike and be top 10 at whichever grand tour he goes to. Kittel will win all the time but might not even go to the Tour de France given the brutal route. The rest is a bit of a mystery.