Team Ratings & Team of the Tour

RichN95.

On several Tours I've given ratings to teams and people have liked it, so here we go again. I'm adding a nine man team of the Tour.

A Grade
SUNWEB- Sensational. Four stage wins. Green. Polka dots. They also won the Giro. Amazing.
SKY - They won. Again. They also won the team competition and a stage with Thomas. A true team effort
QUICK STEP - It was all about Kittel and he won five stages. Martin was a bonus

B Grade
CANNONDALE - Often the butt of jokes, a stage win and second place is beyond their wildest dreams
BORA - Sagan won a stage before he got kicked off unfairly. Bodnar provided a surprise win
DIRECT ENERGIE - Calmajane stage win and a couple of combativity awards is good for a wildcard team who left their best rider at home
AG2R - Clung on to a podium (maybe). Won a stage. They rode well as a team.
LOTTO JUMBO - Roglic won a stage. Edit: Upgraded to B after winning in Paris

C Grade
ORICA - They had they modest ambition of winning the White Jersey. The achieved it.
FDJ - Remember Demare won a stage. Probably not.
DIMENSION DATA - A Tour single handedly saved by Edvald Boasson Hagen
TREK - Mollema won a stage and Contador got a couple of nostalgic combativity awards
WANTY - Got three combativity awards, which is why they are here
ASTANA - Hard year. Got a stage win and a decent GC finish and a couple of days in yellow.

D Grade
BMC - So Caruso almost got in the top ten after Porte's crash. No stage win though
UAE - A couple of combativity awards and a top ten. But anonymous
LOTTO SOUDAL - Lots of blow, no show
FORTUNEO - Did the little that was expected of them

E Grade
MOVISTAR - A really good team having a stinker. Still Betancur looked like a cyclist
COFIDIS - Wither Bouhanni?

F Grade
BAHRAIN - Let's hope they don't treat their cyclists like they treat their journalists
KATUSHA - Money can't buy you love. And Kristoff's hair looks awful in that advert.


Team of the Tour
Leader - Froome (just ahead of Uran)
Sprinters -Kittel, Matthews
Attacker -Barguil
Climber - Landa
Domestiques - Kwiatkowski, Naesen, Vermote
Fighter - D.Martin

RichN95.

Feel free to disagree

RonB

Good call. AG2R must have been close to the A step following some decent tactics during the past weeks, and I hope Simon Geschke was close to joining your Team of the Tour.

wombly_knees

Would bump UAE up to C but just behind orica.

Also, just my opinion, but I don't think direct energie would've won a stage if they'd brought Coquard along.

andyp

wombly knees wrote:

Would bump UAE up to C but just behind orica.

Show your workings.

Meintjes has had a decent race, but has anyone else seen a UAE rider at the business end of a stage?

andyp

I'd give BMC an E, especially given their budget and roster. Van Avermaet showed up on one stage, the rest of the team have been anonymous and, as always, their tactics have caused a lot of head scratching. Take the Belles Filles stage, why did they ride all day, only to leave Porte alone on the final climb? Or Friday, where de Marchi closed down the initial breakaway because there was no BMC rider in it, the next (race winning) break went almost immediately but no one from BMC managed to be in it.

They are a collection of individuals, not a team.

andyp

I'm also prepared to make a case for Bora to get an A. They've lost their two leaders, but have still been present day after day and tried to get something out of this race. I think two stage wins is an amazing return given they lost their best rider on stage 4 and their second best rider on stage 9.

wombly_knees

andyp wrote:

wombly knees wrote:

Would bump UAE up to C but just behind orica.

Show your workings.

Meintjes has had a decent race, but has anyone else seen a UAE rider at the business end of a stage?

No different to Orica, then. Also, Ulissi and Atapuma have been second. That's better than Orica's support cast.

DeVlaeminck

Can't really takeexception to any of Rich's picks but I'd like Contador in there for animating at least a couple of stages and I guess it'd have to be as either attacker or fighter.

I also want Bardet in there - for me Bardet and for a while Aru were the riders that took the race to Froome and while Aru faded Bardet sustained some sort of challenge up until his collapse in the time trial. I suppose I could put Bardet in as leader but on balance I think Froome has to stay and I have to keep Barguil in so the unlucky riders are going to be Martin and Naesen.


So my team
Leader - Froome
Sprinters - Kittel/Matthews
Attacker - Contador
Climber - Barguil
Fighter - Bardet
Doms - Landa/Kwiatkowski/Vermote

w00dster

Yeah BMC were disappointing, but similar to Sky when Froome crashed in 2014.
After Porte crashed out, what would people have wanted BMC to do different? That was a team built around Porte. Maybe they could have switched to stage wins like Sky in 2017 Giro, sending Roche or Caruso up the road and De Marchi going for the win? Would the peloton have allowed that to happen? I've been disappointed in Roche, but I think that is partly because I had such high hopes for a Sky BMC show down.
Genuine question, be interesting to know what people think BMC could have done anything different after Porte crashed out.

andyp

wombly knees wrote:

andyp wrote:

wombly knees wrote:

Would bump UAE up to C but just behind orica.

Show your workings.

Meintjes has had a decent race, but has anyone else seen a UAE rider at the business end of a stage?

No different to Orica, then. Also, Ulissi and Atapuma have been second. That's better than Orica's support cast.

Orica have won one of the four classifications though, which is arguably equivalent to a stage win. I'd imagine a sponsor would be very happy with the exposure that brings.

I'd forgotten about Atapuma's ride on the Izoard, that might have snuck them on to a C minus.

ridgerider

When Growenwagan wins today, that should promote Jumbo to a B and relegate Direct Energie.

Remember Jumbo lost Hesink before he got into his stage winning stride in the race, so maybe they should be above Bora as well.

ridgerider

And not sure how to differentiate between grades D, E and F. Shouldn't they all just get a 'Fail'?

RichN95.

Ridgerider wrote:

And not sure how to differentiate between grades D, E and F. Shouldn't they all just get a 'Fail'?

A combination of effort made, luck and expectation.

above_the_cows

RichN95 wrote:

QUICK STEP - It was all about Kittel and he won five stages. Martin was a bonus

It was all Kittel though really wasn't it. Not a team effort.

BORA - Sagan won a stage before he got kicked off unfairly. Bodnar provided a surprise win.

Again only Bodnar and Sagan, not a team effort. They were anonymous for most of the race.

ORICA - They had they modest ambition of winning the White Jersey. The achieved it.

Apart from Yates they were completely anonymous. I couldn't tell you one other person riding on that team this Tour.

FORTUNEO - Did the little that was expected of them

Who are they?

COFIDIS - Wither Bouhanni?

They were at least more 'active' then Bora. Orica and this Fortuneo team that I simply cannot even remember.

The_Boy

List is fundamentally sound to me. I do think that barguil was far and away the best climber in the race tho.

Won a stage attacking out of the favorites' group, and another from a breakaway containing contador, quintana and landa. Plus his near miss was from a group of favorites after he'd spent the day out front.

Other than that he was consistently hanging with the big favorites throughout the mountains all race with the exception of the two stages he took a packet on in order to concentrate on stage hunting.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Derny of the tour: De Ghent

lettingthedaysgoby

Wanty have been my favourite of the tour, particularly in the earlier stages. It's great to see smaller teams getting exposure and taking it to the bigger stars. All 9 riders still in the race as well.

RonB

Above The Cows wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

QUICK STEP - It was all about Kittel and he won five stages. Martin was a bonus

FORTUNEO - Did the little that was expected of them

Who are they?

Brice Feillu 16th on GC. Always have a soft spot for the guy after seeing his Bretagne - Séché Environnment team's utter bewilderment at the culinary delights of West Yorkshire before the 2104 Grand Depart.

knedlicky

As The_Boy says, climber has to be Barguil.
Also think Ron8’s suggestion of Genchke and deVlaeminck’s suggestion of Contador both legitimate inclusions.

And any team should surely include a ‘rouleur’, non? Thus a place for De Gendt even though he didn’t pull it off this Tour.

The_Boy

RonB wrote:

before the 2104 Grand Depart.

Will this event be taking place in the same parallel universe which saw the 2014 Paris Olympics?

knedlicky

If you were to base the team grading on money earned so far, i.e. before the final handouts later today, then Lotto-Soudal (D-grade in the list here) deserve a lot more recognition – they are currently 5th top earners of the Tour, they have taken in more than any of the B-grade teams.

A bit similar for Katusha (F-grade here) - even if they’ve earned relatively little, it’s still more than Orica (C-grade) have managed.
(These are the two most noticeable ranking differences, comparing RichN95's assessments with team earnings up to last night)

I think Katusha are the only team riding with Sram, in case that explains anything (I hope not, as I do too).

RichN95.

knedlicky wrote:

As The_Boy says, climber has to be Barguil.

They were just labels I picked fairly randomly to illustrate picking a balanced team covering most aspects. It's not a hard and fast system.

RichN95.

knedlicky wrote:

If you were to base the team grading on money earned so far, i.e. before the final handouts later today, then Lotto-Soudal (D-grade in the list here) deserve a lot more recognition – they are currently 5th top earners of the Tour, they have taken in more than any of the B-grade teams.

A bit similar for Katusha (F-grade here) - even if they’ve earned relatively little, it’s still more than Orica (C-grade) have managed.
(These are the two most noticeable ranking differences, comparing RichN95's assessments with team earnings up to last night)

I think Katusha are the only team riding with Sram, in case that explains anything (I hope not, as I do too).

I'm assuming though that the GC and jersey prizes haven't been added in yet

No_Ta_Doctor

Upgrade for Lotto-Jumbo?

RichN95.

No tA Doctor wrote:

Upgrade for Lotto-Jumbo?

I've already done it

RonB

The_Boy wrote:

RonB wrote:

before the 2104 Grand Depart.

Will this event be taking place in the same parallel universe which saw the 2014 Paris Olympics?

No_Ta_Doctor

RichN95 wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Upgrade for Lotto-Jumbo?

I've already done it

:-D

bigmat

I don't get the Contador love. He was in the race as a team leader, a GC contender, and he failed miserably. He shouldn't get within a mile of a 'team of the race'.

Pross

As AtC said, QS weren't worth an A, a B would be generous. The days they tried to boss the finish for Kittel were his worst stages and even if they were there with Kittel as their main man surely Dan has enough GC history to have deserved some support?

RichN95.

Pross wrote:

As AtC said, QS weren't worth an A, a B would be generous. The days they tried to boss the finish for Kittel were his worst stages and even if they were there with Kittel as their main man surely Dan has enough GC history to have deserved some support?

Kittel won five stages. They came for stage wins. And they got five. One, two, three, four, five stages.