Mark Cavendish (Etixx-QuickStep to Team Dimension Data)

Mark Cavendish may have finished 2015 with 14 victories to his name, including his 26^th Tour de France stage win, but it was another season which saw his ‘King of the Sprinters’ title slip.

After being beaten four times by Andre Greipel at the Tour de France, Cavendish and Etixx-QuickStep opted to part ways, three years after he left Team Sky to join the Belgian super team.

Lead-out man Mark Renshaw has also made the switch, with Team Dimension Data now possessing a hugely-impressive sprint train.

Tour of Britain winner Edvald Boasson Hagen, Tyler Farrar and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg were impressive as a sprint line-up in 2015 but appeared to lack that one big sprinter to turn top-fives into stage victories.

And in Cavendish and Renshaw they have not one, but two of the best in the business.

At 30, Cavendish has plenty of years left if he can recapture his best form, and with Team Sky’s Bernie Eisel also bound for Team Dimension Data he has a great chance of doing just that next year.

All that remains to be seen is whether Dimension Data become the 18th WorldTour team in 2016 – thus granting them a guaranteed place at all the biggest races – though they appear to be near-guaranteed wildcards to most of them anyway.

Marcel Kittel (Giant-Alpecin to Etixx-QuickStep)

Rewind 12 months and you would not have seen this one coming – in fact, rewind just a couple of months and it seemed highly unlikely, not least because Marcel Kittel was still under contract until next year.

But the German powerhouse sprinter has endured a miserable year, beset by injury and illness, which ultimately led to him missing the Tour de France.

His relationship with Giant-Alpecin went downhill rapidly from there, and the two parties agreed to end a partnership which brought ten Grand Tour stage wins between 2013 and 2014 a year early.

Etixx-QuickStep, with a Mark Cavendish-sized hole to fill in their sprinting arsenal, stepped forward to snap up the 27-year-old’s signature.

And with Colombian sprinting ace Fernando Gaviria also signing on after finishing the year as a stagiaire, you can expect the Belgian super team to be targeting something close to the 54 victories they earned in 2015 again next year.

Indeed, the team boss Patrick Lefevere has been busy during the off-season, and Daniel Martin’s addition also strengthens the squad’s Ardennes Classics and GC ambitions.

Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka to Lampre-Merida)

Tenth at the Vuelta a Espana, Louis Meintjes has bags of potential – and to MTN-Qhubeka’s disappointment he’s opted to move on from the African team in order to fulfill that.

The South African, 23, has proved he can climb with the best in the business and also showed great strength of character in 2015, not least in finishing fifth on stage 12 of the Tour de France despite being battered and bruised from an earlier crash.

MTN-Qhubeka (to be re-named Team Dimension Data in 2016) publicly voiced their disappointment at losing Meintjes and their loss is very much Lampre-Merida’s gain.

The Italian team hasn’t had too much to shout about in recent years, though four Giro d’Italia stage wins – courtesy of Sacha Modolo (2), Jan Polanc and Diego Ulissi – as well as a Tour de France stage win for Rubén Plaza and Vuelta victories for Plaza and Nelson Oliveira made the 2015 Grand Tour campaign a fruitful one.

Meintjes’ addition, though he still has much to prove, could lay the foundations for them improving Lampre-Merida’s GC hopes too.

Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep to Cannondale-Garmin)

Another Colombian on the move is Rigoberto Uran, who is one of a number of big-name riders to part company with Etixx-QuickStep.

A disappointing season saw Uran struggle to replicate the form he showed in earning back-to-back Giro d’Italia runners-up spots in 2013 and 2014, and he will ride for Cannondale-Garmin next season.

In fact, it’s all change for Cannondale-Garmin in terms of their GC ambitions with Dan Martin moving the other way to Uran and Ryder Hesjedal on the move to Trek Factory Racing, while Pierre Rolland (from Europcar) joins Uran at Jonathan Vaughters’ team.

Uran, 28, has those two Giro podiums to his name, while Rolland, 29, comes with four Grand Tour top-tens to his name.

Add the already contracted Andrew Talansky into the mix and you have a team who will be well worth watching in 2016.

Laurens ten Dam (LottoNL-Jumbo to Giant-Alpecin)

Compared to some of the big-name moves, Laurens ten Dam’s switch to Giant-Alpecin may not have registered as highly on some people’s radars but it is a significant move nonetheless.

Tom Dumoulin’s valiant attempt to claim an unlikely red jersey at the Vuelta a Espana, which ended only on the penultimate stage, showed the team lack top climbers to support their GC men.

And, with Warren Barguil and Dumoulin both signing new contracts to underline Giant-Shimano’s new GC focus in the wake of Marcel Kittel’s departure, the arrival of ten Dam adds plenty of climbing talent – and could also see him rekindle his own GC ambitions.

The Dutchman, 34, has enjoyed top ten finishes at both the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana and is capable of doing so again.

And with Kittel and Luka Mezgec out of the door, it appears as though Giant-Alpecin, while they still have John Degenkolb in tow, will be gearing their future ambitions to high overall placings rather than sprint stage wins.

Michal Kwiatkowski (Etixx-QuickStep to Team Sky)

Team Sky have been very busy this autumn, with several big-name signings who could have a big impact in 2016.

First among those is former world champion Michal Kwiatkowski, who will bolster their Ardennes Classics line-up and also offer a very realistic option for week-long stage races as Team Sky continue in their bid to become the undisputed best team in the world – all season long.

Kwiatkowski is joined as a new face at Sky by Benat Intxausti and Mikel Landa too, who will bolster Sky’s climbing unit immensely.

Landa’s form at the Giro d’Italia, where he finished third, and his support for Fabio Aru’s successful Vuelta a Espana highlighted his strengths.

With three Grand Tour stage wins too, it has been a great season for the Spaniard and his addition – alongside that of Intxausti and Kwiatkowski – will more than compensate for the departure of Richie Porte to BMC Racing.

In a winter which has seen two of the world’s best sprinters move, Alexander Kristoff was able to relax, after signing on for another season at Katusha back in the summer.

Joaquim Rodriguez will also stick with the Russian team for another season, which he confirmed during the Tour de France and then celebrated with second place at the Vuelta a Espana.

The man who beat him at the Vuelta, Fabio Aru, also signed a new deal in the summer – tying him to Astana for another two seasons.

Away from the Grand Tours, the string of high-profile departures at Etixx-QuickStep doesn’t extend to their Classics squad – 35-year-old Tom Boonen having committed to another season at the end of August, joining Zdenek Stybar, who penned his new two-year contract in July.