From Vincenzo Nibali’s two Grand Tour podiums to Philippe Gilbert’s stunning resurgence, via, of course, a third World Championships title for Peter Sagan, there were some transfers from last winter that turned out to be very successful indeed over the past 12 months.
But what of those that didn’t go as planned? There were plenty of riders who didn’t hit the heights expected of them at their new teams, and transfers that simply did not work. Cyclingnews takes a look at some of them.
Tony Martin
Moved from: Quick-Step Floors
Moved to: Katusha-Alpecin
Victories: 1
Best result: 1st, stage 2, Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana
What went wrong: There was a time when there was almost a sense of inevitability about time trials that Tony Martin showed up to. But, the German hasn’t looked himself for a good two or three years. After extensive experiments with his position led to a dip in his results, he reverted back late last season and won at the Tour of Britain before winning a fourth world title with an utterly dominant performance in Qatar. It all looked bright for his move to Katusha-Alpecin, a team with a German sponsor and bike manufacturer, but Martin failed to win a time trial this year. He was second at the Volta ao Algarve and the Criterium du Dauphine and fourth on both the opening-day and penultimate-day time trials at the Tour de France. He could only manage ninth at Worlds, and was angry that the course included a steep climb in the finale. As seasons in the world champion’s skinsuit go, it was one to forget.
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Martin wasn’t just signed to win time trials, however. After his revelation as a cobbled classics rider at Quick-Step last year, Martin was handed a dual leadership role at Katusha alongside Alexander Kristoff. For all the excited talk of how Martin could attack and Kristoff sit in for sprints, the best they could manage was Kristoff’s fifth place at the Tour of Flanders, with Martin unable to translate those promising domestique showings into any sort of impact as a leader.
John Degenkolb
Moved from: Team Sunweb
Moved to: Trek-Segafredo
Victories: 1
Best result: 1st, stage 3, Dubai Tour
What went wrong: Degenkolb’s troubles can partly be attributed to factors broadly outside his control – injury and illness. At the Tour de France he was caught up in the crash between Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish on stage 4 and struggled with his shoulder thereafter, while bronchitis forced him to abandon the Vuelta a España, miss the World Championships, and ultimately spend time in hospital.
Leopold Konig
Ben Swift
Andre Cardoso
Sep Vanmarcke
Moreno Moser
Jurgen van den Broeck
Andrea Guardini
Rafal Majka
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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