Bora-Argon 18’s riders are fairly confident the image of their team will be changed profoundly on January 1, when Peter Sagan joins the team.

“We are a pro continental team at the moment with no massive riders, but good riders like Sam Bennett,” Thwaites told Cycling Weekly. “Sagan is just at another level, the current world champion and wins around 20 races a year. Everything changes when he comes to a team, it revolves around him.”

Thwaites says a lot of riders on the team are certain of losing any chances they had to ride for themselves in 2017. Thwaites himself is leaving as he feels he has what it takes to chase Classics success on his own.

“Unless you are a climber then you are pretty much going to be a worker for Sagan. If you are sprinter or lead out man, he is always going to be faster than you and you have to fill in the worker role.”

Rudiger Selig, who sprinted well at the Vuelta, says the image of the team will change for good, adding that as Alexander Kristoff’s former leadout man, he hopes to do the same job for the Slovak.

“Will it be team Sagan? Hopefully we are the Bora team next year, but Sagan has a really big image and the Sagan world is really big,” German Rüdiger Selig explained. “The whole image will change next year.”

Youngster Gregor Muhlberger has just finished his first three week race at the Vuelta. He knows that with all the quality arriving with Sagan, he may not be on a Grand Tour roster in 2017. On the whole though, he thinks the arrival of the World Champion benefits the team.

“For the whole team, it will be a lot different,” Mühlberger said. “With Peter there will be much more photographers and journalists, but it will be good for the team. It may not be good for some, but most of the riders are looking forward to it.”