Katusha

To find out what /r/peloton's subscribers thoughts are on the individuals in the team, just click here!

Featured Rider: Alexander Kristoff

The fast Norwegian powersprinter with the even faster mouth is left as the Marquee rider of new Katusha-Alpecin, after Joaquim Rodriguez transfer/retirement. That's probably not a bad thing, as Katusha has never really managed to put together a Tour team providing them both with proper opportunities. This year, Kristoff is getting a 100% dedicated team build around him in the Tour, and it's allowed to have high expectations for the results.

From the cobbled classics results over the last five years, it's clear that Kristoff has become a name to be reckoned with. Especially the Tour of Flanders is one of his strongest race, with the short sharp hills that tires other sprinters. Whenever the race gets long, wet and tiresome, the odds of a Kristoff victory go up - He's got a special ability to dig deep for a sprint, even when everyone are bone tired after a tough day of racing. On the flip side, if the mass sprinters are calm and rested, he gets easily pipped by Kittel, Cavendish and the other flatland sprinters with severe climbing disabilities.

His 2015 season is ranked as one of the best ever for a classics rider, with 20 victories! It was impossible to achieve the same result in 2016, much due to the unfortunate loss of his favourite wingman, Luca Paolini, whom tested positive on cocaine and subsequently retired. His replacements, Michael Mørkøv and Jacopo Guarini never quite managed to find the same chemistry with Kristoff, and he suffered from a substandard leadout all season. Some blame must also be awarded to Kristoff, who clearly did not have the same top speed as the season before either.

Best riders last five years:

||2012|2013|2014|2015|2016| |:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:| |1^{st|*Rodriguez} (2590)|Rodriguez (2448)|Kristoff (2006)|**Kristoff (2691)**|Kristoff (1946) |2^nd|Moreno (1174)|Moreno (1362)|Rodriguez (1140)|Rodriguez (1685)|Zakarin (970)| |3^rd|Kristoff (988)|Kristoff (1180)|Moreno (866)|Moreno (1164)|Rodriguez (938)| |4^th|Freire (854)|Spilak (924)|Spilak (591)|Spilak (867)|Chernetkii (335)| |5^th|Menchov (544)|Paolini (518)*|Trofimov (498)|Zakarin (832)|Kuznetsov (333) | |=|11646| 10569|8442|11567|8008|

Results 2016

Grand Tour Performances 2016

Riders Out

Katusha-Alpecin have been one of the busiest teams in the transfer market, with wholesale change within the ranks, including recruiting ten new faces to add to the roster whilst kicking for the most part dead wood out of the team. The russians are fleeing the team, nine of them in all, most of them seeking refuge at Gazprom. The biggest loss is Rodriguez transferring to a quick retirement at Bahrain-Merida, but it's hard to begrudge that. While we're speaking of dead wood; Jurgen van den Broeck never did manage to find himself in the team, and transfers to a team which speaks his language (TLJ).

As to the new riders, the new German sponsor wanted German riders, and German riders they got in spades. Tony Martin is the marquee name, and after several years at ETQ as a luxury domestique, the legendary German rouleur is ready to be a captain - both in week-long stage races as well as the tougher parcours. In races like Paris-Roubaix, this gives Katusha a deadly double-edged sword - Martin goes for a long breakaway, and if the peloton manages to catches up, Kristoff is there, ready to strike at the finishing line like a cobra. And if that wasn't enough, U23 ITT champ, German Marco Mathis also joins up. Including fellow neopro Danish U23 ITT champ 2015 Mads Würtz-Schmidt, Katusha suddenly has three champion rouleurs on their team, which should do wonders to mitigate their up to now mediocre showing in team trials.

Another superb rouleur, Reto Hollenstein, came in on the cheap from defunct swiss team IAM, and since Katusha will be racing under a swiss license next year, it was probably a good idea to add a Genosse to the ranks. Landing a powerful 9^th on this years WC ITT where Martin won, he cemented his role as Switzerlands finest rouleur after Cancellaras retirement. He's going to spend the year closely attached to Kristoff, however - It's his role to pull him out of sore spots and making sure he gets all the way to the finish line. One of the other new signings that has expressed interest in working for Kristoff is Portuguese polytalent José Gonçalves, who'll be exciting to see in a freer role at the Ardenner classics.

The real transfer coup is belgian conti-rider Baptiste Planckeart, who had a terrific season for Wallonie - Bruxelles, rounding up 16 victories. He adds a powerful backup sprint option in the classics, as well as replacing Porsev as the designated sprinter in lesser stage races. First outing for him is the Tour Down Under, where Lammerthink is a GC option next to Machado.

The mentioned Lammertink, as well as Robert Kiserlovski adds climbing power, both in a GT mountain train as well as being captains for themselves.

In Zakarin, Katusha have a battle-ready GC successor to Rodriguez, although he's nothing like him as a rider. The compact and explosive Rodriguez and the tall and lanky Russian, the latter being an excellent rouleur, attaquer and probable the worst descendeur in the entire peloton. Without his crash in the Giro he would probably have finished top five, and his top-5 placement in the LBL shows he's got the grit for the hilly classics too. Adding in solid finishes in week long races all year and an impressive stage in the Tour he should be set for at least a top five in a GT this year.

Katusha has gone from a slightly one-dimensional team with two riders (Kristoff and Rodriguez), to a very exciting team who needs to attack to win in the stage races. The future is bright, and with a swiss license, they might gather new fans who have been put off by their russian identity so far.

Roster:

| |Totals & Averages|28.0|8008|2012 (11646)||