Second in the World Tour last season, with 56 wins last year, it's Belgian squad Quick-Step.

Last Season

The best place to start when talking about Quick-Step's season is with the renaissance of Philippe Gilbert. The former world champion had a relatively tough time at BMC, and as soon as he arrived at Quick-Step things seemed to change. His incredible Tour of Flanders victory wasn't a surprise to me (I even had money on it), as he was on great form. He was second at Dwars Door Vlaanderen and E3 Harelbeke and won the main cobbled stage of the three days of de Panne along with the overall. Going in to Flanders, he was seen as somewhere between a wild card and there to assist Tom Boonen in his last week as a pro. Gilbert's initial attack from 100km out seemed to chime with that, as he led Boonen up the Muur. When he attacked a second time from 60km to ride the rest of the race on his own, things seemed different. It was one of the most phenomenal feats I've seen on a bike (worryingly the most similar was Floyd Landis), he just kept riding away from the bunch, and had enough time to lift his bike over his head as he crossed the line. It was everything cycling should be, a legend winning a huge race in great style infront of many fans. He then followed it up two weeks later winning the Amstel Gold Race, outsprinting Michal Kwiatkowski, despite crashing so badly he lacerated his kidney.

Quick-Step's biggest point scorer was Dan Martin, who had a bit of a disappointing year not winning a classic or getting on the podium at the Tour de France. What he did do was be incredibly consistent, third at Paris-Nice, sixth at the Votla Catalunya, second at both Fleche Wallone and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, third at the Criterium du Dauphine, and sixth at the Tour de France. Perhaps that sixth would have been higher had he not been caught up in Richie Porte's crash on the Mont du Chat, both losing time and fracturing two bones in his spine in the process. In that context sixth in the Tour seems pretty phenomenal.

Despite Martin's injury, the grand tours were where Quick-Step as a team shined in 2017. At the Giro they won five stages (four for Gaviria, who seems to be just incredibly fast, and one for Jungels) as well as the sprinters cyclamino jersey for Fernando Gaviria and the white jersey plus eighth overall for Bob Jungels. At the Tour de France, Marcel Kittel won five stages, and were it not for his teammates falling apart due to illness he may well have come away with the green jersey. At the Vuelta, Yves Lampaert took the red jersey with a win in the crosswinds on stage two, followed by four stage wins for Matteo Trentin and one for Julian Alaphilippe. Trentin almost won the green jersey, but a certain Chris Froome decided to take on the intermediate sprint on the final stage.

Quick-Step won so many races I won't be able to list them all, but the full list is here

https://www.procyclingstats.com/en/team/quick-step-floors-2017

Who Left?

So 2017 was the year the previous Quick-Step sponsorship deal ended, along with all the riders contracts. This meant they weren't sure if they'd still exist and as far as I know they do now but with a smaller budget. This means the list of leavers is big. Marcel Kittel (above), Dan Martin, Matteo Trentin and David de la Cruz are the big hitters leaving. They are joined by Julian Vermote, Jack Bauer, Martin Velits and Gianluca Brambilla.

Who's joining?

Elia Viviani(above) is the headline here, a world class sprinter and olympic gold medalist. He's joined by Jhonatan Narvaez, Florian Senenchal, Fabio Jakobsen, James Knox and Jose Alvaro Hodeg.

How will 2018 go?

Gaviria (above) will dominate the sprints worldwide, Alaphilippe will win one of the hilly classics. They'll win a lot of races overall but not much GC-wise.