Quick round-up of the changes we've had over the last couple of weeks:
- Astana have lost one of their Mexican riders with Ingrid Drexel returning to North America to ride for Tibco. They have in the last couple of days renewed Caro Rodríguez, however Drexel had stronger results over the last couple of seasons. They have signed Olena Pavlukhina across from BTC City-Ljubljana, who won Gracia-Orlová and showed some strong performances. They have also brought in Arlenis Sierra as a replacement for Drexel, the Cuban having won a number of races in Central and South America and also the Tour de Brétagne last season.
- Team Twenty16-BIKERIDER are now Team Twenty20-BIKERIDER. What this means for Kristin Armstrong I don't know, but I don't rule out her doing jack for two years before announcing a return, never racing out of the US but being primed for the Olympics, Longo-style. Anyway, obviously Kristin has little relevance to the 2017 roster, however they've retained Chloe Dygert, along with much of their 2016 roster, as well as bringing in Shayna Powless (yes, related to Neilson). They have, however, lost Alison "Action" Jackson, who signed for BePink, where she guested for much of the autumn in Europe.
- Ting-Ying Huang's sojourn in Europe will continue as Servetto have extended her contract after bringing her in as a ringer for the Giro. The team have, however, lost a couple of their young Italian riders to BePink.
- We have a new Italian UCI team in Valcar-PBM. Ilaria Bonomi, signed from BePink, is perhaps the most notable name, but they have a few young prospects who will be of interest in the Italian races, particularly Allegra Arzuffi, sister to Alice Maria.
- BePink have finalized their roster, with the biggest surprise being no Amber Neben - though as she has yet to announce anywhere, don't be surprised if she joins them mid-season on a short-term basis given her age. The team will therefore look to centralize around another elder stateswoman with a chequered history, Olga Zabelinskaya, although personally I'm much more interested in wafer-thin Belarusian escaladora Kseniya Tuhai, who had a spectacular Giro, was top 5 of Ardèche, and is only 21. Ilaria Sanguineti had a quiet 2016 but a very strong 2015 so she could be interesting as well, while Russian Anastasiya Chulkova, who left the team mid-season, rejoins. As mentioned above Alison Jackson is brought in, as are Katia Ragusa and Maria Vittoria Sperotto from Footon.
- Bizkaia have signed Paola Muñoz, Xirayas' Chilean rider who was arguably their most prominent name although with most of her results coming in the American 'pop-up' races ahead of the Olympics judging their level is hard. They've also brought in Cristina Pujol Muñoz, who I believe to be the sister of everyone's favourite ex-Cervélo and Lotto Asian race musketeer Óscar Pujol.
- BTC have confirmed the signing of Änna Zita Maria Stricker last week, so though they've lost Plichta and Pavlukhina, two of their most prominent riders last year, they have kept Radotic and seemingly Bujak as well so they will look to make a lot of races hard, with numerous options from a reduced sprint.