This season was arguably the team's best yet since its inception. Sure, it bagged its first grand tour with Simon Yates' triumph at the 2018 La Vuelta a España.
But it was also victorious on 38 occasions, 17 of them WorldTour wins.
While Yates didn't wear the maglia rosa in Rome at the 2018 Giro d'Italia, his performance was exceptional nonetheless with three stage wins and 13 days in pink.
And with his brother Adam and Colombian Esteban Chaves, the team will look to further build on this new grand tour depth.
“We’re a team that couldn’t target one grand tour with a general classification rider not too long ago,” the team's head sport director Matt White said. “Now we target three grand tours a year and basically with different groups.”
“When you look at our three grand tours from 2018, not too many guys doubled-up. There were 19 different riders that participated in our three grand tour campaigns.
The GC focus at grand tours will remain for 2019, but the Aussie registered outfit is also eyeing Flemish and Ardennes classics success.
“It’s exciting for us and our fans to carry the momentum into 2019, continuing to back our GC riders for overall victory and the classics are also still a focus for us," White said.
“We have a Flemish and Ardennes group that are capable of winning up there and it’s still a very big goal for the team.”
Also thrown into the mix are five new additions, all 25 years or younger in the form of Edoardo Affini, Nick Schultz, Callum Scotson, Dion Smith and Robert Stannard.
“We are losing some experienced riders from the team but every team needs to regenerate and we are in a growing phase as well,” White said.
“We’ve got some really exciting young talent coming into the team...from different facets of our sport as well. I am really happy with the final make up of our group, our future looks very exciting.”
“We can go into next season with another degree of confidence and self-belief, and line up in the three Grand Tours knowing that we have done it once and the challenge for us is to keep doing it.”
The final 25-rider roster:
• Edoardo Affini (ITA, 22) – new signing
• Michael Albasini (SUI, 37)
• Jack Bauer (NZL, 33)
• Sam Bewley (NZL, 31)
• Brent Bookwalter (USA, 34) – new signing
• Esteban Chaves (COL, 28)
• Luke Durbridge (AUS, 27)
• Alex Edmondson (AUS, 24)
• Tsgabu Grmay (ETH, 27) – new signing
• Jack Haig (AUS, 25)
• Lucas Hamilton (AUS, 22)
• Michael Hepburn (AUS, 27)
• Damien Howson (AUS, 26)
• Daryl Impey (RSA, 33)
• Chris Juul-Jensen (DEN, 29)
• Cameron Meyer (AUS, 30)
• Luka Mezgec (SLO, 30)
• Mikel Nieve (SPA, 34)
• Nick Schultz (AUS, 24) – new signing
• Callum Scotson (AUS, 22) – new signing
• Dion Smith (NZL, 25) – new signing
• Robert Stannard (AUS, 20) – new signing
• Matteo Trentin (ITA, 29)
• Adam Yates (GBR, 26)
• Simon Yates (GBR, 26)
2019 Mitchelton-SCOTT – Men’s Squad Stats:
• No. of riders: 25
• No. of Australians: 10
• No. of internationals: 15 (3 x NZL, 2 x GBR, 2 x ITA, 1 x COL, 1x ETH, 1 x DEN, 1 x RSA, 1 x SLO, 1 x SPA, 1 x SUI, 1 x USA)
• Youngest rider: Robert Stannard (20)
• Oldest rider: Michael Albasini (37)
• Average age: 27.64
Note: Statistics for the 2019 season do not include Mathew Hayman who will ride to the Tour Down Under only.
