The former Orica-Scott team were the seventh placed team last year.
Last Season
2017 was meant to be the year for Esteban Chaves(above), but instead it was a year to forget for Esteban Chaves. A knee injury early in the year meant he wasn't able to prepare as he would have liked for the Tour de France. After his second place in the Tour Down Under, and two grand tour podium places in 2016, the best result he had in Europe was 11th at the Vuelta. The death of a close personal friend in July and a horror crash at the Giro dell'Emilia made it disastrous year all round for the usually smiley Colombian.
In Chaves' place as the leader at the Tour, up stepped Simon Yates. Yates had a pretty strong race, finishing seventh overall and keeping the white jesey in the family after his brother won it the year before. He also won stages of Paris-Nice and the Tour de Romandie (where he was second overall). Adam Yates had a very solid year too. He was sitting second overall at Tirreno-Adriatico before he had to pull out through illness, but managed fourth at the Volta Catalunya, eighth at Liege-Bastogne-Liege, ninth at the Giro and fifth at the Tour de Pologne.
Swiss sort of sprinter Michael Albasini had a pretty succesful year winning stages at the Tour of the Basque Country and Tour de Romandie as well as a podium at the Amstel Gold Race. Jack Haig and Daryl Impey also won stages of world tour races, but the bulk of the wins were Caleb Ewans. Starting with four stages of him home race the Tour Down Under, throwing in a win at the F1 track at the Abu Dhabi Tour, a stage of the Giro and a stage of the tour of Pologne, he finished with three wins at the Tour of Britain.
Who Left?
Veteran enigma Simon Gerrans moves to BMC for one last season of pro cycling Jens Keukeliere, Magnus Cort Nielsen, Ruben Plaza and Mitch Docker also leave, which is a lot of familiar faces to go at once.
Who's Joining?
The big name to join is Matteo Trentin(above), who won four stages of the Vuelta last year to complete his set of wins at all three grand tours. He also won Paris-Tours and was fourth at the world championships, so he's certainly got a lot to offer. He's joined by former Giro king of the mountains and key member of the Sky Tour de France train Mikel Nieve, and the big engined Jack Bauer.
How will 2018 go?
Hopefully Chaves gets back to his best, if he does he might win something huge. Trentin to be a surprise winner at Paris-Roubaix and generally be a nuisance in slightly harder than normal sprints. The Yates twins to continue to improve, but the results to stay about the same as the gap to the very top is a big one to bridge.