I am going for OPQS - They were a little lacking in the GT's, but they have such a strong team that has so many dimensions. There just isnt a team as dynamic as them at the moment IMO
Does Froome and Contador not finishing the take the shine off what was a pretty dominant Tour win?
Difficult to rank Nibali's season.
He was nowhere in the early season stage races like Tirreno and didn't feature at all in the one-day races he usually does well in like Liege Bastogne Liege and MSR.
Plus, it doesn't matter how dominant the Tour win was the fact is that his two biggest rivals crashed out.
Having said that it doesn't matter what you do for the rest of the year, if you win the Tour then your season is a big success. He'll also always be remembered as one of the few cyclists to have won all three GT.
"In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"
Team OPQS. Riders for me are Dan Martin, the Yates brothers and Terpstra all for being great to watch (if somewhat agonising at times in Dan's case). Oh and Nibali, of course.
I liked Giant for the team. Managed two sprinters for different goals. Although I generally don't like sprint stages they always seemed to be placed nowhere when OPQS and Lotto started to wind it up at 3-5k, then at 1.5k to go all of a sudden the whole train came through and took over. Well that's my memory of a number of races anyway.
It may be misty eyed sentimentality, but Jens for rider of the year. Put Millar to shame in the final year thing. Loads of trademark escapes and (as you will know if you follow him on Twitter) lots of extra non-race activity.
Valverde may have been consistent but I for one cannot get over the shameful shenanigans surrounding his Puerto ban. Does anyone think this unrepentant and cynical doper has really changed during his ban? Arguably he has become MORE successful since. How does that happen? Even the greatest stage racer of his generation couldn't manage that. He's just waiting for another positive IMHO.
And how quickly this forum forgets CHENG!?
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Both delivered consistently and when it mattered. You could only mark Tony down for losing the worlds to Brad I suppose.
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Stybar, Niki, Martin, Alaphillipe, Uran, Poels surprised me.
As for rider, has to be Kwiakowski for me. Having very big wins at the beginning and end of the season.
Nibs was close for me, really enjoyed the way he road at the Tour
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Don't know how Valverde does it-out of this world. Consistent throughout the year. He must have a new training regime or something.
Oh censored , just stood in some dog sh1te!!!
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Can't see much of an argument against Valverde that isn't based on a dislike of him as a person. He was just ever present throughout the season.
I think there are stronger arguments against OPQS but I thought they also were colossal in the classics despite "only" bagging PR
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Difficult to rank Nibali's season.
He was nowhere in the early season stage races like Tirreno and didn't feature at all in the one-day races he usually does well in like Liege Bastogne Liege and MSR.
Plus, it doesn't matter how dominant the Tour win was the fact is that his two biggest rivals crashed out.
Having said that it doesn't matter what you do for the rest of the year, if you win the Tour then your season is a big success. He'll also always be remembered as one of the few cyclists to have won all three GT.
Yeh but they had success in a lot of different types of events and their success was spread across a few riders.
Pains me to agree with you Marky, but yes. All of those have done well.
Julian Alaphillipe has been in breakaways and ridden hard tempo in support of his team.
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Missed the smiley did we? Piles playing up?
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It may be misty eyed sentimentality, but Jens for rider of the year. Put Millar to shame in the final year thing. Loads of trademark escapes and (as you will know if you follow him on Twitter) lots of extra non-race activity.
Valverde may have been consistent but I for one cannot get over the shameful shenanigans surrounding his Puerto ban. Does anyone think this unrepentant and cynical doper has really changed during his ban? Arguably he has become MORE successful since. How does that happen? Even the greatest stage racer of his generation couldn't manage that. He's just waiting for another positive IMHO.
And how quickly this forum forgets CHENG!?