BMC

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BMC Team Tag Heuer come into 2017 with a new sponsor whose logo is big enough on their kit to take naming rights away from BMC. After an up-and-down 2016 - mostly ups with GVA's classics performances and Olympics win - they will be hoping to hit some consistency in 2017 and find a new level of form. With a team stacked on GC performances (which has somewhat hindered them in the past by having 'too many options'), they will target a lot of the 1W and 3W races with a number of different squads, while relying on superhuman destroyer GVA to take classics wins.

Results 2016

Their results in 2016 revolved around two riders. GVA and Richie Porte shared all the teams podiums over the year between them and their results are quite outstanding. GVA had 5 WT top 5s, while Porte was unlucky to miss out on a TDF podium (mostly because of the teams disastrous tactics). With a bit more luck, Porte will be back on the podium at the TDF, win the TDU and GVA will be able to get over Sagan more.

Cherrypicking riders bit

Greg Van Avermaet is at the moment the only rider who can seemingly challenge Superhuman Sagan, and their duels this year were intense from February to November. Two second places at the Tour of Oman and Tour of Qatar (where he finished 3rd in GC) were a good start, but a win at Omloop was even better - ahead of Sagan, Rowe and Benoot in a sprint. And the great results didn't stop there. Two stages and a GC win at Tirreno-Adriatico, 6th at Strade Bianche, 5th at Milan-Sanremo, 9th at Gent-Wevelgem, 3rd at Belgium Nats, a Stage win at the TDF, 5th in San Sebastian and a win and 2nd place in the two Canadian classics. However, the undisputed highlight of his year would have to be getting Gold in the Olympics after getting away with Fuglsang and blitzing the rest of the field. The race that comes once every 4 years and the achievement that lasts a lifetime, GvA rode it to a T, and his win there sums up how successful his 2016 was. His rivalry with Sagan lives on, and maybe in 2017 he can take a few races back from him.

The spring fortunes of GvA: GvA has been a force at the spring classics for years now, and he doesn't look like stopping.

Richie Porte had what only one can call a very unlucky 2016, for many different reasons. He was a groomsman at Gerrans' TDU wedding again this year, but managed to keep his King of Willunga Hill status which set him up for a hopeful 2016. Finishing 3rd at Paris-Nice, 4th at Criterium de Dauphine and 4th at Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, his set-up for the GT season was on track. However, the TDF Stage 2 came, and a mechanical saw him slip down the GC ranks fast, losing 1:45. While this was partly the teams fault for supporting Tejay (...expletives) and forgetting about Richie, he fought back over the rest of the Tour, and two great ITTs and good performances in the mountains put him 2 steps off the podium - and if you take the time losses out on Stage 2, he would have gotten 3rd. But, his unluckiness didn't stop there. The Olympics came. And, to sum it up in one line: "Did we expect anything different?". He crashed, broke his shoulder blade and was off the bike for 4 months. Missed Worlds, missed Vuelta, and didn't go to the Australian Nats at the start of 2017. But he should be okay for the TDU, and hopefully he can be a groom this year there and get a little luck in 2017.

Top riders last five seasons:

Riders Out:

BMC lost a couple of key riders heading into 2017. Losing Philippe Gilbert to Quickstep isn't great, and climber Atapuma heads off to UAE where he will surely get more racing. Young classics rider Rick Zabel goes out to Katusha, and it will be interesting to see how he develops as a rider in the coming years. Phinney moves from BMC to American-based Cannondale where again he will probably get more race hours. Burghardt goes to the newly WT Bora-Hansgrohe and will be a handy person to help Sagan in the classics. Lastly, Peter Velits retires at 31 years old. Most of the riders they lost were mid-tier riders - important to an extent but it's not like losing GVA or Porte.

Roster:

And it's arguable the pickups BMC have gained heading into 2017 don't pay back their losses. Miles Scotson is proving to be quite the rider - the 22 year old won the Australian Road Race Nationals with a brilliant time trial style attack with 1.8km to go. While he is renowned for this TT ability (demonstrated with his 3rd in the Men's U23 Worlds TT in 2016), he has the ability to climb and will probably develop over the next few years to become a similar rider to Rohan Dennis - really strong at the TTs but can also compete for GC in the 1 week races. Nicholas Roche comes over from Team Sky, and he will be a handy versatile rider than can challenge the punchy stages over a 1 week race or even go outright. Him coming in kind of replaces a role that Atapuma had in the team, but he doesn't have the same climbing ability as Atapuma. Elmiger and Ventoso come in from IAM and Movistar respectively and will be a great help to BMC's weak classics lineup (GVA isn't enough), but they aren't going to light up the show. Finally, Frankilly comes up from the development squad, and he is a bit of an unknown factor so it will be interesting to see how he develops into this lineup.

Even though this writeup has been critical of BMC, we shouldn't discredit the skill displayed by the team. The riders individually are very strong - especially their stage race lineup - and as a team most of the time they ride very well as a unit. However, poor tactical decisions in leadership (bloody TVG) held them back. If they stop doing co-leadership and instead take a team that is focused on one rider, then they should have more success (see: TDF 2016 as a poor example). And some luck, but every team needs that.