With the new signings of Alberto Contador and John Degenkolb in addition to some exciting up-and-coming young talent and proven super-domestiques, Trek-Segafredo has taken on an different shape for 2017. The new riders gathered with the continuing Trek-Segafredo team members for a brief two-day camp in Lombardy this past weekend for a first introduction to the team that included bike fitting, clothing measurements, and meetings in a look ahead to next season. 

The team's website caught up with a busy Luca Guercilena (General Manager) on the final day to talk about the team's goals and ambitions for next year.

"With these fundamental changes we want to honor the request of our owners and sponsors," he said. "They definitely wanted to take a further step in developing an even better and stronger team. So it is clear, that first of all, we want to continue supporting what we can call our qualities: The Classics team. That is indeed our first goal. We hired a strong Classics rider in John Degenkolb. With him, we will cover the gap left by Fabian’s retirement. And in the meanwhile, we also wanted to support the whole group. We were able to renew Jasper (Stuyven), who in the future, I think, will be one of the strongest for the Classics. And besides those two, we also hired guys like Mads Pedersen, who is a young talent for this kind of race.

"There will be more WorldTour races next year, but we still have strong guys like Giacomo Nizzolo, Edward Theuns, and Fabio Felline, who is getting stronger every year. We have guys like Jarlinson Pantano and Ruben Guerreiro joining us. So after Liège-Bastogne-Liège we will make the first evaluation, and at that point I want to look back at a successful spring campaign, where we were competitive in the four, five, six big Classics.

"So yeah, I hope the guys are present throughout the whole spring season, and I think we can look at our leaders John, Jasper, Giacomo, Fabio and Jarlinson for that. Because indeed, I would like to see that Bauke (Mollema) and Alberto (Contador) only focus on the GC in stage races. It's just too much to expect from them to be leaders in the Classics and then after that be ready as a GC leader.

In the stage races, the team will be led by Bauke Mollema and Alberto Contador.

"What we have missed up until now was indeed to be really competitive in all stage races. Because thanks to Bauke we were able to have enough results in the stage races, but clearly in the whole WorldTour it is very complicated because there are so many stage races, and we want and must be competitive everywhere," Guercilena said.

"So yeah, once Alberto Contador announced officially he wanted to go on for at least one more year, it was our pleasure to start talking to him. Obviously, he is one of the top GC guys ever, and we are thrilled to have him on board. With Alberto joining the team, first of all, we have a big support for Bauke, and he doesn’t have to carry alone the responsibility for all the races. Secondly, I think it’s clear that having another very strong GC leader and big personality in the team is of great added value.

"Following that path, it has also pushed us to find other riders such as Jarlinson Pantano, who is a strong climber, and can also win himself, as he proved in this year’s Tour de Suisse and Tour de France.

Having two GC leaders puts the team in an entirely different position compared to last year.

"Let’s say that it is clear that with having two leaders the idea is to cover the three Grand Tours. It is evident that at the Tour de France we must be ready with the strongest squad ever. So that means that at the Tour de France we must be competitive, that all the big, talented climbers must be there.

"But at the same time, I want to stress that we want to be competitive in all the big tours. Of course, we cannot decide now what the rosters for the races next year will look like, but we want to be strong at the Giro, the Tour, and the Vuelta. I think that is really the ultimate goal for next season. I am convinced we can have the possibility to win both the Giro and the Vuelta, but the Tour is, of course, the most difficult one to win. That said, I am pretty sure that if we go there with a really strong team, we can even win the Tour.

"For me, the biggest challenge will be to build up good personal relations between the riders. You know, we don’t have so much time to do that, but I am confident that our management group, the sport directors, the coaches, the doctors, and so on, can work on that and make it happen. In the meantime, we keep going with our strong international soul. The experienced guys such as Haimar Zubeldia, Grégory Rast, Markel Irizar will sure be great examples for the new riders, and they will help build up a good atmosphere in the team. If we want to live up to our ambitions, this will be an important factor in realizing them."

The team has also signed some young talents.

"The young ‘kids’ we have hired have proven already to be very talented and in putting them next to these great champions, I am convinced they will learn a lot. That way they can support the team now and assure the future of the team later," Guercilena said.

"Amongst them, we also have Greg Daniel, the current American champion, and I think that is a huge gain because we were following him for quite some time already and this year he made a big step forward. And on top of that, he also brings the stars and stripes jersey to the team, which is always nice to have. He's a guy that has a lot of room for development over the next couple of years. We know him as a real fighter, able to attack. So that is a side we want to support and develop more.

"As I said, I think we will be more competitive everywhere, so we have to be ready right from the start of the season. There will be no excuses. We don’t have just one leader for each race; we will have more possibilities to be present as a strong team, to be present with different leaders. Each one should take his own responsibility and be the leader, but should also be ready when he’s the second leader, to support the team, and to take advantage of certain race situations.

"We have tried to make a big effort and even though it is difficult to make a forecast now, the aim is definitely to be substantially more successful next year. And I am truly convinced we will!"