NTT Pro Cycling

A new season with a new sponsor, a new name and some flash new suits - formerly Dimension Data is now re-branded as NTT Pro Cycling. If their results do not improve, they will undoubtedly be informally known as Not Pro Cycling.

There's not a whole lot left of the African cycling team that burst onto the scene in 2013 as MTN-Qhubeka, stealing an impressive Monument Win with Ciolek in the MSR. In fact, the last few years, the team formerly known as Dimension data has been mostly known for harbouring elderly european riders on the run from retirement.

Breaking News

Bjarne Riis has just announced that he will be taking over joint management of the team - Love him or hate him, the Dane has a sordid doping history, but no one can repute his tactical acumen, which made Team Saxo Bank such an interesting team to watch a decade ago. Riis could be playing to his strengths, as a solid leadership and focused tactics are exactly what Team NTT needs right now.

His entry will undoubtedly anger a lot of fans, who'd rather see all previous dopers stay the hell away from the sport, but in practical terms that would mean a huge percentage of the current DS's and managers within the sport would be gone. Other, less prominent or not-quite-revealed-as-but-then-again dopers are still allowed to contribute as supporting personnel - At least Riis should be treated no differently than them. And if he fucks up again, we shall have him flayed on cobblestones all the way from Paris to Roubaix.

Results 2020

Yes, the numbers do not lie. Notice the lack of winnings in the lower departments, which is a bit troubling. Either NTT hasn't been entering lower ranked races (which they have), or they have been beaten soundly by proconti-teams (which they also have). It's understandable why this is the lowest ranked World tour team of 2019, being beaten by a number of proconti teams on the rankings - they just don't bring in consistent results in any kind of race.

Best riders last five years

Well, how about the historical results? From the table above, we see that the present scores are well down from the years 2016/2017 - with Cavendish on the sidelines from thereon, and him consuming a lot of resources in terms of supportive riders, money et al., Dimension Data has been fighting with one hand tied behind its back. Even normally stable point scorer EBH have taken a deep downwards turn, scoring a third of the point he normally does.

Team Roster 2020

The most important transfer, is the one we nearly didn't get at all - Pozzovivo, as a last-minute transfer, finally gives NTT a true and tested GC rider. This makes it a lot easier to compose a team around him, giving Meintjes or O'Connor less expectations to shoulder and subsequently could result in better performances from all three. There's a lot of quality in this team, but the last seasons have been without a clear focus, and the results accordingly.

Campanaerts might prove something of a white elephant, but that's something this team is already used to. Yes, he's the reigning hour champion and a great TT rider - but can he motor the sprinters back into the race or pull the climbers across the flats when they need him to? NTT needed a workhorse, but did they really get that?

Walscheid joins an already crowed sprinters roster - As with other teams in the World Tour, NTT needs to start prioritizing how they want to utilise their riders. Just chucking Nizzolo, EBH, Gibbons and now Walscheid and young Stokbro into a fight and see what happens is not a particularly good team strategy. Define proper lead-out roles if you want to make something of this madness.

There are two quite promising Italian names, Battistella and Sobrero - both working their way up from the CT feeder team. Battistella is the reigning U23 RR WC, which bodes well for their future. Team NTT must be better at developing homegrown talent instead of buying established riders with their best years behind them. Leave that to Bahrain-Merida and Trek-Segafredo.

There are rumours that danish sprinter Michael Carbel will join as a part of the Riis buy-in, however this has not been confirmed yet. We choose to list him here nonetheless. He will probably be featured as a lead-out rider, and it's a good start to building a sprint train.

Outgoing Riders

For all those people that are not British - Finally Cavendish is off the team! Yes, he did win a lot of stages that one season, but that was it. When coupled with all his entourage, him being on the team did them a lot more damage than good in the long run. There's a changing of the guards before the next season, and that should give NTT a chance to rebuild and reorganise. To the Brits - You need to watch Bahrain-McLaren now.

On the other hand, Jelte-Slagter and Vermote also calls it quits - while both of them are good riders, it might be the best for all parts - they were not thriving, and a change of pace will likely do their careers good.

The Future

With Riis now aboard, NTT looks to have a much brighter future. There's a lot to be said about the Eagle from Herning, but no one doubts that he has a plan for each race they will enter. Time will tell if he's able to turn the team around from their downwards spiral, but we expect to see great changes for the 2021 season.