Cannondale-Drapac began the 2016 season with some big signings and some big ambitions. However, illness, crashes, injury and some struggles off the bike saw them miss the mark in the early part of the season and left them languishing near the bottom of the WorldTour rankings until a strong Vuelta a España pulled them into the top 10 by the end of the season.
The team ended the season with 10 victories, although none were at WorldTour level. Speaking to Cyclingnews at the Rouleur Classic earlier this month, team manager Charly Wegelius was relatively upbeat about the team's 2016 campaign. "I think they were just near misses," Wegelius said of the team's disappointing results at the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France.
"Unfortunately, it doesn't take much for things to go wrong with things like that but at the end of the day, we finished 8th in the rankings, one place behind Etixx-QuickStep, which is a really big team. I know that nobody is very interested in points, but you don't get points for finishing at the back of races so we must have done something right."
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The key to Cannondale-Drapac's late resurgence was Andrew Talansky’s fifth place at the Vuelta a España. Talansky was originally meant to link up with new signing Pierre Rolland at the Tour de France but endured a torrid first half of the season. Injury first took him out of Paris-Nice but then he struggled to find the form he needed and in June he announced that he would skip the Tour de France for the first time since 2013. The break proved to be just the tonic for Talansky, and he came back to win a stage of the Tour of Utah and finish fifth overall at the Vuelta a Espana.
Following the Vuelta, Talansky opened up about the issues he had struggled with throughout the year. Wegelius says that it was all about letting go of the pressure for Talansky and is happy that the American is back on track.
"It was the Talansky that we know. He was very tenacious and consistent. He never really had a breakout but he never lost time, and that's how you do well in stage races," he said. "I think we were all aware that he was coming to a make or break moment because you can't constantly build up expectations and then not meet the results that you set yourself without it having an impact on you.
'We believe in Phinney unconditionally'
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