How is Movistar best team of the TdF?

Vierville

How is it that Movistar won best team? They approached the Tour with no discernible leader (or rather three leaders, none of which were confirmed as the actual leader), they seemed to have no team strategy and only got one stage win (Quintana on the monstrous 65km climb stage).

How is best team judged?

above_the_cows

By the overall time of all their riders. So Movistar got everyone round quicker than every other team, hence they win the team prize.

Whether they are actually a 'team' or ride as a 'team' is another question.

RichN95.

On each stage the times of the top three riders of each team are added together. Movistar, who care about the competition, always make sure they have riders in the break on days where they are likely to stick as well having riders amongst the GC groups.

m.r.m.

It's a pointless classification much like the climber's jersey (polka dot).

bobmcstuff

M.R.M. wrote:

It's a pointless classification much like the climber's jersey (polka dot).

I think it is way more pointless than the polka dots. At least the polka dot can lead to good competition.

m.r.m.

Definitely not arguing that!

Vierville

Thanks for educating me guys! I thought it was just a nebulous decision taken by a race jury. Makes much more sense that it is based on something tangible.

gsk82

Vierville wrote:

Thanks for educating me guys! I thought it was just a nebulous decision taken by a race jury. Makes much more sense that it is based on something tangible.

As rich said.

If you have a day with the break winning by 20 minutes and you have 2 riders in it, you're taking 40 minutes over for example sky on one stage alone.

PhilipPirrip

Vierville wrote:

Thanks for educating me guys! I thought it was just a nebulous decision taken by a race jury. Makes much more sense that it is based on something tangible.

Maybe it needs to be a nebulous decision based upon such parameters as attacking, pursuing and combativity within the teams rather than just a time combination.

Dan Martin won the combativity award for his aggressive attacking style rather than his winning so the same could be applied to the teams.

Pross

Why don’t they just add together the overall GC time of the 3 riders rather than each day’s top 3 (or ditch it altogether)?

cougie

I always thought it was based on GC but either way would work. Also their jerseys are quite nice.

DeadCalm

An A grade in Rich's 'Team Ratings & Team of the Tour' thread (which hopefully we'll have again this year) is far more prestigious than the official team competition.

RichN95.

DeadCalm wrote:

An A grade in Rich's 'Team Ratings & Team of the Tour' thread (which hopefully we'll have again this year) is far more prestigious than the official team competition.

I'll do it this evening. I'm busy at the moment.

No_Ta_Doctor

Pross wrote:

Why don’t they just add together the overall GC time of the 3 riders rather than each day’s top 3 (or ditch it altogether)?

Because they want teams to actually compete for it.

bobmcstuff

No tA Doctor wrote:

Pross wrote:

Why don’t they just add together the overall GC time of the 3 riders rather than each day’s top 3 (or ditch it altogether)?

Because they want teams to actually compete for it.

It's a stupid competition though - you could put 3 riders in a break of 20 that comes in 15 minutes up, have them come in 18th, 19th and 20th - which literally nobody cares about - and get an amazing position on the team rankings.

At that stage they have done nothing to animate the race, it's just a cycling equivalent of pushing numbers round on a spreadsheet to make your end of month results look better, even though they are still toilet.

Waste of time.

RichN95.

Bear in mind the winning team wins 50k. It's worth having a crack at.

lostboysaint

RichN95 wrote:

Bear in mind the winning team wins 50k. It's worth having a crack at.

But when you bear that in mind and then look at the overall prize money list you realise exactly how poor a tour they've had. Getting one of their three leaders on the podium would have doubled that. A few stage wins would have earned that.

Dorset_Boy

Maybe it should be based on stage placings rather than times.

bobmcstuff

RichN95 wrote:

Bear in mind the winning team wins 50k. It's worth having a crack at.

Isn't it p*ssing in the wind compared to their €14-16m budget though?

5th place rider on GC also gets €50k, you would have thought that should have been an easy target for Movistar...



(so Quintana managed €3,800, Landa €11,500)



If they're just after money, they could make a bit extra from the combativity classification:



They had the riders to be attacking every day.

gsk82

It's just something a like different to give teams without a high ranking gc rider something you do.