Fourth in the World Tour last year, yet they were my team of the year.
Last Season
Three major jersey winners at grand tours and two gold medals in the world championships were the highlights of a very strong season for the Dutch/German squad. A young team with very few big stars, their surprise team time trial victory in Bergen (above) perfectly encapsulated their season.
Spearheading the team was the incredible Tom Dumoulin. His win at the Giro was one of the best grand tour rides in recent memory. He wasn't heralded as a potential winner beforehand, but he combined his incredible time trialing ability (winning stage 10 and second on stage 21) while being close to if not the best climber in the race. Had he not had his toilet trip on the hardest stage of the race (to Bormio), and had he a stronger team (maybe Wilco Kelderman not crashing at the bottom of Blockhaus would have helped) he would have run away with the race by quite a huge margin. He supplemented his pink jersey with the overall win at the BinckBank Tour, and a comfortable win at the world time trial championships.
Other than Dumoulin's success, Sunweb also had a phenomenal Tour de France. Michael Matthews won the war of attrition to take the green jersey, while Warren Barguil won the polka dot king of the mountains jersey. Both of those riders also won two stages each and Barguil was 10th overall. Barguil didn't have a great end to the season though, as he refused to help Wilco Kelderman's Vuelta bid (that ultimately ended in fourth place) so was sent home by the team.
Who left?
For obvious reasons mentioned earlier, Sunweb will be disappointed but not devastated in hindsight that Warren Barguil is leaving. It's strange that he's dropping down a level to pro-continental, but riding for Fortuneo-Samsic allows him to spend more time with his family, and he'll still get to ride the Tour de France for as long as he's good enough to be worth their wildcard. Also leaving, Ramon Sinkeldam, Georg Priedler, Bert de Backer and Zico Waeytens.
Who's joining?
The standout rider is proably Ted Theuns from Trek-Segafredo. He's joined by Martijn Tusveld, Louis Vervaeke, Michael Storer and Jai Hindley.
How will 2018 go?
Dumoulin (above) will win another grand tour, which looks most likely to be the Giro. Winning the tour as well seems a bit much. Michael Matthews has a strong chance of winning Milan-San Remo and the Amstel Gold race, and will push Sagan close for the green jersey in France.