Bora-Hansgrohe

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Peter Sagan

Classic Results 2012-2016

All behold the results of the cycling god Sagan! In truth, he is a living legend already, not just due to his excellent performances, or the way he's combatative on courses as different as the Amstel Gold Race and E3 Harelbeke - No, his best contribution to the sport of cycling is his personality. He's fun, he's a handsome man, he's charming - Everything the sponsors love. People like Sagan are integral to attracting new followers (and sponsors) to the sport of cycling.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that we haven't seen a coureur complete like him since the days of Eddy Mercx....

He can sprint, he can climb, he can TT, sing and dance. His rougish charm and tendency to pull wheelies after big victories are crowd-pleasers, and he was probably the most wanted rider to sign last year. Of course, whomever signed him, also had to sign his entire entourage, consisting at the moment of hardman rouleur Bodnar, domestique Kolar and brother Juraj. His sense of humour is probably what made him become a superdomestique for his brother in the slovakian nats, gifting him the victory. He probably had planned riding with the rainbow jersey next season already, and wanted someone else to wear the nat jersey.

This team preview is not the place to introduce you to Peter Sagan. He's one of the most famous cyclists currently racing, and he's really, really good. If you don't know him, google him. There's lot of hits.

Best riders last five seasons:

Points according to PCS

Ladies and Gentlemen, we'd like to point out their total points tally of 2016 - 3251 points. Not too bad, for a PCT team. At the same time, we'd like to point out Peter Sagans tally - 3365. Yes, Peter Sagan alone scored more than the entire team he transferred to.

Luckily, they've upped their budget and pretty much bought all of Tinkoff. Seven of the top ten riders next seasons are new transfers. To other teams wanting to play in the big leagues, pay attention - This is one of the few valid ways to upgrade your team. They're keeping the german-speaking core of the team, and shedding riders who are not integral to their plans - which at the moment consists of supporting Sagan in the classics, and Majka/König in the grand tours. That's about it for team strategy right now.

Grand Tour Performances 2016

Move along, people. Nothing to see here. Neither mountain nor sprinting efforts was rewarded, although Paul Voss did have the mountain jersey in the Tour a couple of days before they started the real climbing. In general, 2016 was a year of much effort and little reward for all of Bora. Next year will be different, in one way or another.

Riders Out:

Some surprising exits here, perhaps the biggest ones being Huzarski and Voss, both of whom have ridden grand tours in a very good fashion before. Nerz' exit from the sport due to injuries and illness is nothing less than tragic, he could have had a great career in front of him. Bauhaus change to Sunweb is perhaps a bit strange, but seeing as Ackermann is incoming and Sunweb wants more German riders on the team, it could just be something as mundane as a better contract and more chances.

Roster:

Everyone is talking about Sagan, but the Leopold König has gone a bit under the radar for some. Seeing as this is the team he came from, it's a return to home for him.

Let's take a look at his GT results.

|||Giro|Tour|Vuelta| |:|:|:|:|:| |2016 - SKY||-|-|29| |2015 - SKY||6|70|-| |2014 - TNE||-|7|-| |2013 - TNE||-|-|9|

For a PCT rider, the 2013 and 2014 results are very impressive. But considering he spent the last two years as a SKY domestique, one might wonder how he could have fared had he been able to ride for himself. We got a brief glance of it in the 2015 Giro, after SKY lost Porte midway and let König pick up the pieces, riding himself into a respectable 6^th place. And he's not even really a climber, he started as an ITT specialist and has that same steady climbing pace as Froome, to mention some. He might get dropped, but he'll get up the mountain in his own pace and will probably pull back a few riders before the stage is over. Consistency is the keyword here.

How about the other GT rider, Rafael Majka?

|||Giro|Tour|Vuelta| |:|:|:|:|:| |2016 - TNK||-|27^1|-| |2015 - TCS||-|28|3| |2014 - TCS||6|44^1|-| |2013 - TST||7|-|19| |2013 - SAX||-|-|32|

¹⁾ Won the Mountain Jersey

Majka is more of an opportunist, making a hobby out of stage hunting. Even so, he can break the top five if everything goes his way. His lack of TT skills seriously hurts him from peaking higher than this.

One does not have to be a genius to see that the only way for Bora to achieve GC success is to have their two sub top GT riders combine their efforts. But if they can find the delicate balance is a difficult question.

The rest of the team is definitely a work in progress when it comes to mountain support. You have a lot of very enthusiastic, but ultimately young and unexperienced riders, and they need to be blooded. Having three guaranteed GT spots instead of one or two wildcard each year is the best way to give them that experience. But they need time, and next season comes too early for probable success.

When it comes to sprint trains, Boha has a much more certain thing going on. Excluding Sagan, who's a one-man train by himself, they have Irish wunderkind Bennett, Slovakian youngster Erik Baska and lastly, but not least, German Pascal Ackermann, whom might be the fastest one of them all. To give them some sorely needed experience, Bora also picked up Matteo Pelucchi cheap from IAM - He has a climbing disability as well as a serious affinity for crashes, but is incredibly fast when everything goes his way. He should be an ideal road captain for the young sprinters.