Boels-dolmans
Netherlands No. of riders: 11 Under 26: 3 Over 35: 0 Key stat: Boels-dolmans have won 18 of the 37 Worldtour races since its introduction in 2016.
How was the off-season?
It was a calm and uneventful off-season for Boels-dolmans, which makes sense for a team so complete that it’s difficult to see where any improvements could be made. The only personnel changes saw domestiques Nikki Brammeier and Katarzyna Pawłowska replaced by the youthful Skylar Schneider and Anna Plichta, while further continuity was secured as both title sponsors committed to another three years of investment.
Biggest challenge
The 2016 season, in which Lizzie Deignan, Megan Guarnier and Chantal Blaak cleaned up in almost all of the calendar’s biggest races, set a ludicrously high standard for the team, which, despite even the best efforts of new signing Anna van der Breggen, they couldn’t quite match last year. A team that has monopolised much of the world’s top talent can afford to be ambitious, however, and they’ll go into every race believing they can win.
Woman on the spot
Chantal Blaak has never quite had the status of Deignan and Van der Breggen, but, set to race 2018 adorned in the rainbow jersey as reigning world champion, the spotlight will be on her as never before. She won that title through an unanswered counter-attack as part of a very strong Dutch squad, and dare we say she might not have been victorious had she been riding against her formidable compatriots rather than with them? Either way, the pressure will be on to prove she’s worthy of the jersey.
Ones to watch
Having only managed one win outside of her native Denmark, last year’s custodian of the rainbow jersey Amalie Dideriksen knows what that pressure feels like, and she’ll be eager to flourish now it’s no longer hers.
Van der Breggen, by contrast, has won just about everything there is to win apart from the World Championships, and she’ll be eyeing up gold in a favourably mountainous course in Innsbruck, while Deignan will hope for fewer runner-up places and more wins.