We stuck to our strategy of spreading the goals around different terrains, something that had worked well for us last season. Having missed out on our top two transfer targets, we're thankful that we went down this path instead of putting all our eggs in one basket. The following is a look into our goals for the 2018 season.

The compulsory Lutsenko goal! Like everyone else, the Kazakh puncheur was our top transfer target this off-season but that plan went out the window a couple of hours in. As such, the responsibility will fall on our lead puncheur to try to pull a surprise result out of the bag. If it happens, even we'll be surprised!

Our sprinters have something to aim at as we target a high result in one of our sponsor's countries. The choice for setting a goal on flat terrain was between this race and another home race at Veenendaal but we were not confident whether we would get to ride the latter because of band preferences.

The third goal on the third terrain. Our mountain train will be up for the challenge as we climb the high slopes in the Kenyan wilderness.

Mountains were the only terrain where we did not have a goal last year and so we've compensated and gone for two this time around. This race will need more than just climbing prowess to tame but we do feel that we have the riders to achieve this goal. This is also our only PTHC goal, with the other three goals in HC races.

Just like last year, we came into our first season of the PCT with the target of establishing ourselves in the division before aiming for promotion. It worked well last season, as we built an all-round team who were able to achieve direct promotion. Although we have more or less met our transfer goals, we still believe that Top 10 is the realistic finishing position that we're looking at. Achieving that would give us an excellent platform to launch a promotion challenge next season.

AbhishekLFC wrote:
Like everyone else, the Kazakh puncheur was our top transfer target this off-season but that plan went out the window a couple of hours in.

Here is our calendar for the coming season. We have been granted access to all our first choice races.

Start	End	Race	Category
10-Jan		Down Under Classic	HC
10-Jan		Clasico San Cristobal	C2
31-Jan		Clasique Pico Basile	C1
5-Feb	8-Feb	Tour of Middle East	HC
8-Feb	14-Feb	Tour de Pologne	HC
10-Feb		Gent Wevelgem	C1
10-Feb	12-Feb	Ras Tailteann	C1
18-Feb	23-Feb	Volta a Catalunya	C1
25-Feb	27-Feb	Etoile de Besseges	C1
28-Feb		Pro Hallstatt Classic	PTHC
3-Mar		Roma Maxima	C1
7-Mar	12-Mar	Vuelta al Pais Vasco	PTHC
10-Mar		Le Samyn	C1
11-Mar	16-Mar	Vuelta a Colombia	HC
14-Mar	15-Apr	Tour of East Java	C1
20-Mar		Strade Bianche	PTHC
24-Mar	28-Mar	Tour of Southland	C1
28-Mar		E3 Prijs	PTHC
28-Mar	31-Mar	Jelajah SKL	C1
31-Mar		GP Herning	HC
1-Apr		Nakhon Ratchasima Trophy	C1
2-Apr	23-Apr	Giro d'Italia	GT
8-Apr		Coppa Placci	C2
26-Apr		Lisbon Classic	PTHC
28-Apr	30-Apr	Corsica International	C1
29-Apr		Veenendaal - Veenendaal	HC
29-Apr		Philadelphia Intl Champ	HC
1-May	5-May	Cheshire Cycling Tour	HC
12-May	14-May	Scandinavia Open RR	PTHC
16-May		Berlin ProRace	HC
23-May	28-May	Olympia's Tour	C1
1-Jun	6-Jun	Tour of Japan	C1
5-Jun		GP Kigali	HC
8-Jun		Riga - Jurmala GP	PTHC
10-Jun	14-Jun	Post Danmark Rundt	HC
18-Jun	23-Jun	Tour of South Africa	C1
26-Jun		Ronde van Het Ijsselmeer	C1
11-Jul	14-Jul	Bayern Rundfahrt	C1
17-Jul		Sakartvelo Trophy	C2
20-Jul		Kenya Mountain Classic	HC
26-Jul	29-Jul	Tour of Beijing	HC
4-Aug		Macskako Kerekparverseny	C1
7-Aug		Clasica San Sebastian	HC
7-Aug	13-Aug	Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt	HC
11-Aug	21-Aug	Volta a Portugal	PTHC
1-Sep	5-Sep	Tour of Britain	C1
4-Sep	11-Sep	Balkans International	PTHC
27-Sep		Rheden GP	PTHC
3-Oct		Giro dell'Emelia	HC
12-Oct	15-Oct	Barbados Cycling Festival	HC
18-Oct		Japan Cup	HC

*Races in bold are goal races.

It was a huge step up from deciding the CT calendar this time last season to making sense of the PCT calendar for this season. 19 more races to compete in, two new race bands to consider (we had not even considered HC races as a possibility last season), and countless possible race clashes to navigate; finalizing our calendar was an experience in itself.

The big news to report from recent days is our acceptance into Giro d'Italia as a wildcard team. We hope we can justify their decision and believe we can send a competitive team to Italy in April to make best use of the opportunity.

Our season starts with the first outing in a HC race, all the way out in Australia for the Down Under Classic. On the same day, we will also be represented in Cuba for the San Cristobal Classic, a race which got our season underway last year as well. January is a month of one-day races, with three in total, but business picks up in February and we have a busy schedule all the way up to June with two-thirds of our calendar covered in those five months.

Our goal races are skewed towards the second half of the season. February sees us chasing our only win goal of the season in the Tour de Pologne, but it's a wait till May for the next goal race, the Berlin ProRace. After that, goals come every alternate month with the Kenya Mountain Classic in July and Volta a Portugal in September.

This being our second season, makes things like logistics and support easier, and we're looking forward to our globe-trotting adventures while travelling to different races. The volume of clashing races are a very new experience this time around, as we had to deal with only three of them last season. Our final verdict on the calendar would be that we've made a couple of mistakes having picked certain races without having looked at how feasible it would be for us to be competitive there. However, things look manageable despite this and we should be competitive in most races we turn up to.

It was so much easier to our leaders in the CT!

We have had our race planning verified and approved by the MGUCI and they've given us the go-ahead to reveal it to the MG universe. Race planning in PCT was way harder than we expected, with multiple revisions necessary before we could finalize our riders' schedules. Unlike last year, where we basically had every leader go to every race expected of them, there are a couple of surprises this time around.

The following, in order of terrains, is where our primary and secondary leaders will start in the coming season.

Our first priority while planning for the season was to send competitive squads to our goal races. Rui Costa leads us is Pologne with Navardauskas and the other Costa in support. Unsurprisingly, we will have the full sprinting arsenal at the Berlin ProRace, with Krieger and Te Brake both in support of Saber. Henao is our designated leader in the Kenya Mountain Classic, with Pantano, Mai, Ruijgh and Poels all starting and forming our mountain train. Finally, it is the fairy-tale story of Rui Costa leading us in the Volta a Portugal, in the last year at his peak. He will have the support of Dieteren and Ruijgh in this race.

We are leaving no stone unturned in our quest to make a good impression at the Giro d'Italia, for which we've received a wildcard. Our GC hopes will be led by Henao, ably supported by Pantano and Poels on the climbs, and the latter also in the TTT. Rui Costa will lead the charge on the hills with support from Navardauskas, both of whom will also form a key part of our TTT train to keep us in GC contention after that stage. Saber is our leader for the sprints and he'll have Krieger as his primary lead-out along with Navardauskas as the first man in the train. Per will also ride this race, mostly as a candidate for breaks, and also as the fifth man in our TTT train. This chance to ride the Giro is also our way of rewarding the youngster for his outstanding season with us last year.

Other notable races that we are targeting this season are the Hilly TT tours of Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Scandinavia Open Road Race, Jelajah SKL, Tour of South Africa and Tour of Britain, both of which will be lead by Rui Costa with a host of hills and TT support tagging along. Navardauskas will also be present in most of these races, and is a contender for a high GC spot in the lower category ones. We are also hoping for a good result at the Cheshire Cycling Tour, with Saber's combination of sprints and cobbles prowess suiting the course to a large extent. Most of the flat classics have both Krieger and Te Brake supporting Saber, and while he's not the fastest in the peloton by any stretch of the imagination, we hope he can be consistent with top 10s and the occasional over-performance.

We have high hopes from Henao in all the races he attends, but are particularly looking at his home race, the Vuelta a Colombia, and Clasique Pico Basile, in addition to our goal race in Kenya, as ones where he excels, mostly because of the absence of hills or TTs in those races. Tour of Japan is an interesting experiment where we've looked the Mountain TT and hoped that it provide enough of an advantage to Henao to make up for his losses in the two hilly stages.

We have also picked our C2 races as ones where we can be competitive, with Dieteren leading in San Cristobal Classic and Copa Placci and Pantano leading in Sakartvelo Trophy. Another important race that the latter will lead is the Tour of East Java, while the former will have leadership duties in quite a few races, including PTHC outings like Strade Bianche and Balkans International.

Like we've mentioned before, our planning is not the best it could've been, and we could've better chosen our C1 races, but we've done the best we could with what we picked. There are many races where certain riders have had to be assigned because of the unavailability of others more suitable for the terrains. It's not ideal and it's not what they signed up for, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Now it's time to wait for the racing.

The management wanted to make sure that we did not go to this race just to make up the numbers. We have selected a team to be competitive in the GC as well as to showcase our diversity.

Sergio Henao will look to recapture last year's form which saw him finish fourth in this race, once again as a member of a wildcard team. Looking at some of the names that have already been announced, finishing so high looks unlikely but we are still hopeful of a Top 10 showing.

Lahcen Saber, supported mainly by Krieger in the sprints, will not be a top contender but we hope for a couple of Top 10 finishes from him.

Rui Costa will target the three hilly stages and hopefully try to get into the breaks in the second and third week.

Ramunas Navardausakas will be an important figure, as he leads our TTT team, will support Saber in the sprints and will help get Costa into good positions on the hilly stages. He will also have a job of keeping Henao safe on the flats, playing the role of our road captain.

Jarlinson Pantano is assigned with the task of being the last man helping Henao on the climbs.

Alexander Krieger will be the chief leadout of Saber, if at all we are able to get a sprint train organized.

Wout Poels will act both as a climbing domestique for Henao and as an important part of our Team Time Trial setup.

David Per lives the Grand Tour dreams at the very nascent stage of his cycling career and will have free role on most stages. His most important role will perhaps be as the fifth man in our Team Time Trial line-up to keep Henao in GC contention into the second week.

Jan Dieteren leads us in our first race of the season, and his first race in Philips colours. In a change from his co-leader status from last season, Jaoa Costa will be his chief domestqiue, with Ruijgh and Muller as backup. The rest of the team is here for the experience which will hopefully help them in the future. We don't expect fireworks from this race, but a solid opening showing would be good.

Saber, another debutante on our team, leads the other race we are scheduled to start on the first day of the season. Much like San Cristobal, we are not getting our hopes too high for this one and would just like to see Saber up there at the end fighting for a Top 5 finish. A Top 10 is a more realistic hope however.

Our final race of January is one where we actually go in with high hopes. Sergio Henao leads us for the very first time this season, and just like every other time he'll do so, the expectations from him is high. This is a course that should suit him, with the shorter climbs too early on in the piece to be decisive. His climbing prowess should help him power away from most of his rivals on the long final climb to the finish. Our whole mountain train will start in support of their leader to try to take control of the race in the final slope and put Henao into a good position to be in the fight for the win.