So it's the last team in my season preview, the richest team also turned out to be the best last year, maybe.
Last Season
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was always the Froome of times. Chris Froome (above) achieved some incredible stuff on the bike, but over the off season all of that has come into question. Let's start with the positive. Froome won his fourth Tour de France, the overall victory being the first thing he won all year. He then backed that up by winning the Vuelta, and then two bronze medals at the world championships in Bergen. Now the bad: on stage 18 of the Vuelta, his urine was analysed to contain twice the allowable limit of salbutamol. As far as I can tell, this would not offer a significant performance advantage, but it is illegal. He is being asked to provide reasoning to the UCI, and if he fails to satisfy them, he will face a ban, and likely lose his results (at least the Vuelta, maybe the worlds medals too). This not only has the potential to tarnish last year, but ruin this coming season too.
The unadultered positive for Sky was Michal Kwiatkowski. Wins at Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and Clasica San Sebastian and podium places at the Amstel Gold Race and Liege-Bastogne-Liege were supplemented by an incredible performance at the Tour de France in assistance of Chris Froome.
Froome wasn't the only rider to have ups and downs. Geriant Thomas started the season in great form, and would have been in contention for the overall at Tirreno-Adriatico were it not for a wheel failure in the team time trial. He won the Tour of the Alps showing his great form, but then at the Giro he was part of the motorbike crash at he bottom of Blockhaus and had to pull out. He then carried his great form into the Tour de France, winning the opening time trial to wear the yellow jersey, before crashing on the stage to Chambery so having to pull out again.
Gianni Moscon had the most perplexing of years. He got a top 5 finish at both Paris-Roubaix and Il Lombardia, which on paper should be impossible. He threw into the mix an Italian time trial championship win with being a reliable mountain domestique for Froome at the Vuelta. Oh and he challenged to win a bunch sprint at the same race. Sounds great right? On the downside, he racially abused Kevin Reza at the Tour de Romandie, was reported to the police by FDJ for a crash involving one of their riders, and disqualified from the world championship road race for holding onto a car. Swings and roundabouts.
Who's left?
Mikel Landa (above, left) has left so he can lead a team at a grand tour. Probably the strongest climber at this year's Tour so maybe he has a point. Mikel Nieve, who was also part of Froome's train, moves to Mitchelton-Scott. Pete kennaugh, Ian Boswell, Elia Viviani and Danny Van Poppel also go.
Who's joining?
David de la Cruz is the most established rider of the very young intake for Sky. De la Cruz has won several races at World Tour level, including a spell in the red jersey at the 2016 Vuelta. Jonathan Castroviejo, Egan Bernal, Pavel Sivakov, Kristoffer Halvorsen, Chris Lawless and Dylan Van Baarle make up the rest.
How will 2018 go?
Honestly who knows? Froome could win the Giro-Tour double. He could miss the whole season. He could on paper do both if it takes long enough to make a decision. This leaves a giant question mark over their season. If he's banned, Thomas would be the natural guy to take over in either race, but they may also have to resort to Moscon and Kwiatkowski as strong all rounders. Sergio Henao will keep being very good at one week races but fail to convert that into the three week tours.