2019 Tour team grades & Team of the Tour

RichN95.

I've done this the last few years. So here it is again. Feel free to disagree.

A+
Jumbo Visma A new grade awarded to the best team. Excellent. Four stages early on, from four different sources. And still claimed a podium position. An emerging superpower.

A
Michelton Scott Four stage wins from breaks and they found out who the best Yates is. Matt White rivals Portal as the best DS in the business.
Ineos To paraphrase Gary Lineker - The Tour de France is a simple race. 22 teams chase each other for three weeks and Ineos/Sky always wins. One of the great sports dynasties.
Bora Normally a simple stage win and Green Jersey for Sagan would merit just a B, so routine is it. But Buchmann’s 4th elevates them
Deceuninck-QS Alaphilippe was the star of the Tour. His stage win was supplemented by Viviani’s
Lotto In it for stage wins. They got four. A big race from Ewan.

B
Groupama They had a stage win and were in contention for the next French winner. But the problem of Pinot going Noir in the third week raised its head again. Gaudu looked good.
Arkea A Top 10 with a rider in the French champion’s jersey. That’s big for them
Bahrain Teuns and Nibali won stages, but the Dennis saga almost pushed them down to a C

C
Movistar They won a stage and their beloved Team Classification. Three riders in the Top 10. Their tactics should be displayed in the Prado alongside Dali as surrealist art
Astana Despite his crash they kept Fuglsang into contention until he crashed again. Lutsenko was lively. They deserved more.
Wanty They’re a small team. They were punchy. They got a man in the top 20 (almost 2). Two combativity awards. Almost a B.
AG2R I’m not sure how Bardet ended up with the Polka Dot Jersey, but he did so that gets a C
EF Education Uran was 6th. We didn’t really notice him though.


D
Cofidis Two combativity awards. A man in the top 20 (just). Is that a success? Maybe. Stephane Rossetto is a one man breakaway machine
CCC They got a combativity award. I tend to forget they exist.
Trek Porte managed to finish. That’s a plus. Ciccone had a couple of days in yellow.


E
Sunweb They’ve had great Tours in recent years. This year we forgot they existed.
UAE Aru seems to be better, which is nice. Martin disappointed after avoiding week one pitfalls
Totale Energie They’ve got some decent riders, but were basically invisible. The worst of the wildcards.
Dimension Data Hopefully they got a lot of bikes to Africans, because 16th on GC and no better than fourth on a stage is poor for a World Tour team. Cavendish’s absence the biggest talking point.

F
Katusha ]No rider in the top 50 on GC. Only one Top 10 in stages (8th). Terrible. I’d almost invent a G grade for them.

Team of the Tour
Egan Bernal
Julian Alaphilippe
Caleb Ewan
Laurens De Plus
Dylan van Baarle
Simon Yates
Kasper Asgreen
Matteo Trentin

awavey

didnt Katusha get 5th place on the team time trial ?

RichN95.

awavey wrote:

didnt Katusha get 5th place on the team time trial ?

Maybe, I didn't really count that one.

Pross

I'd drop Arkea down a grade. A distant 10th place for a rider with the natural talent to do better isn't worth a B. Sunweb should be higher for Matthews' stage win and also 4th in the TTT. Lennard Kamna had a couple of good days in the mountains.

rick_chasey

So I think the podium is actually a good illustration of what matters more - individual GC talent vs excellent team.

I think, from the GC perspective Jumbo were better than Ineos, particularly after Luke Rowe left (though Jumbo also lost Martin who was good, but not as good).

With his team's help, Kruijswijk pretty much rode a perfect race. Won the TTT, right side of the split, never got caught up in a crash, never had a puncture to my knowledge and had the best consistent teammate in the mountains of any team. Yet all he could muster was third.

Ineos were strong (2nd in the TTT, right side of the cross winds) but Thomas and Bernal were often left alone in the uphill finales, but they were just stronger than Kruijswijk and so they were ahead.

Alpahilippe & Buchman even managed a top five with barely any help, save a bit from Mas.

ridgerider

Do you have to have finished the race to be in the Team of the Tour?

van Aert...

tailwindhome

Having given this a quick look I think you're being generous to Bahrain.

tailwindhome

What grade would you give the course?

RichN95.

TailWindHome wrote:

What grade would you give the course?

It was the best course for many years, but needed another 20km TT for me

hanshotfirst

Pross wrote:

I'd drop Arkea down a grade. A distant 10th place for a rider with the natural talent to do better isn't worth a B. Sunweb should be higher for Matthews' stage win and also 4th in the TTT. Lennard Kamna had a couple of good days in the mountains.

What? Matthews didn't win a stage did he?

lettingthedaysgoby

Pross wrote:

Sunweb should be higher for Matthews' stage win

Errrrrrrr

rick_chasey

TailWindHome wrote:

What grade would you give the course?

Mudslides were a massive bummer so hard to judge.

Pross

hanshotfirst wrote:

Pross wrote:

I'd drop Arkea down a grade. A distant 10th place for a rider with the natural talent to do better isn't worth a B. Sunweb should be higher for Matthews' stage win and also 4th in the TTT. Lennard Kamna had a couple of good days in the mountains.

What? Matthews didn't win a stage did he?

Ah, your right. He won the sprint behind De Gendt, Pinot and Alaphillippe. I picked up PTP points from him that day as most went for Sagan which threw me into thinking he'd won the stage. My memory for detail of races is terrible even after 2 weeks!

davidof

Pross wrote:

I'd drop Arkea down a grade. A distant 10th place for a rider with the natural talent to do better isn't worth a B. Sunweb should be higher for Matthews' stage win and also 4th in the TTT. Lennard Kamna had a couple of good days in the mountains.

I worked for Arkea - the sponsors, very pleasant people to work with. Might get the team kit if it is on sale this autumn.

blazing_saddles

CW have joined in with their scores on the team doors. A few contentious ones, maybe?

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/raci ... orm-433102

coopster_the_1st

RichN95 wrote:

I've done this the last few years. So here it is again. Feel free to disagree.

C
Astana Despite his crash they kept Fuglsang into contention until he crashed again. Lutsenko was lively. They deserved more.
EF Education Uran was 6th. We didn’t really notice him though.


D
Trek Porte managed to finish. That’s a plus. Ciccone had a couple of days in yellow.

Two days in yellow and Trek only warrant a D (yes Porte disappointed but that is now expected) when you award a C to EF for a 6th place finish and Astana who ended with nothing.

meursault

Coopster the 1st wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

I've done this the last few years. So here it is again. Feel free to disagree.

C
Astana Despite his crash they kept Fuglsang into contention until he crashed again. Lutsenko was lively. They deserved more.
EF Education Uran was 6th. We didn’t really notice him though.


D
Trek Porte managed to finish. That’s a plus. Ciccone had a couple of days in yellow.

Two days in yellow and Trek only warrant a D (yes Porte disappointed but that is now expected) when you award a C to EF for a 6th place finish and Astana who ended with nothing.

We hired Trek Domanes for Stelvio last week, and they were awful. I agree with OP.

richard_t._biscuit

Rick Chasey wrote:

...

Alpahilippe & Buchman even managed a top five with barely any help, save a bit from Mas.

Mühlberger was strong too, especially in the Alps.

Der Kaiser

Were Dimension Data at this years race?

Could've fooled me.

ridgerider

Der Kaiser wrote:

Were Dimension Data at this years race?

Could've fooled me.

Being a WT team they have to enter regardless of whether they want to, no?

blazing_saddles

Richard T. Biscuit wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

...

Alpahilippe & Buchman even managed a top five with barely any help, save a bit from Mas.

Mühlberger was strong too, especially in the Alps.

The least successful member of Bora's Austro-German climbing club, who are all pretty much of the same age. (25-27)
I thought he had a great final week: a bit of a breakthrough even.
Never seen him stick around in the very high mountains before.

mididoctors

Totale Energie gets an f from me. they couldn't even be bothered to get in the soft breaks.

why bother coming.

Der Kaiser

Ridgerider wrote:

Der Kaiser wrote:

Were Dimension Data at this years race?

Could've fooled me.

Being a WT team they have to enter regardless of whether they want to, no?

It was a bit of sarcasm.

In my opinion this group deserved more credit than Dimension Data.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/48873611

ShutupJens

Der Kaiser wrote:

Ridgerider wrote:

Der Kaiser wrote:

Were Dimension Data at this years race?

Could've fooled me.

Being a WT team they have to enter regardless of whether they want to, no?

It was a bit of sarcasm.

In my opinion this group deserved more credit than Dimension Data.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/48873611

DD didn't look like they wanted to be there did they?

Generous grades handed to Cofidis, Arkea Samsic definitely. Barguil would have been better off going for the breakaway approach but I guess sneaking into 10th (literally had to look up his finish position) will be very rewarding when it comes to UCI points

DeadCalm

RichN95 wrote:

Deceuninck-QS Alaphilippe was the star of the Tour. His stage win was supplemented by Viviani’s

Pedant point. Alaphilippe won two stages.

RichN95 wrote:

Team of the Tour
Egan Bernal
Julian Alaphilippe
Caleb Ewan
Laurens De Plus
Dylan van Baarle
Simon Yates
Kasper Asgreen
Matteo Trentin

I'd replace Trentin with Soler. He seemed as mystified as everyone else by Movistar's bizarre tactics but was immense pretty much every day in the mountains. I'd love to see him on a sane team.

RichN95.

DeadCalm wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Deceuninck-QS Alaphilippe was the star of the Tour. His stage win was supplemented by Viviani’s

Pedant point. Alaphilippe won two stages.

RichN95 wrote:

Team of the Tour
Egan Bernal
Julian Alaphilippe
Caleb Ewan
Laurens De Plus
Dylan van Baarle
Simon Yates
Kasper Asgreen
Matteo Trentin

I'd replace Trentin with Soler. He seemed as mystified as everyone else by Movistar's bizarre tactics but was immense pretty much every day in the mountains. I'd love to see him on a sane team.

Yeah, I'd noticed I'd forgotten that Alaphilippe had won the Time Trial, but I didn't bother to change it.

I considered both Amador and Soler, but plumped for Trentin as he was instrumental in getting Mitchelton into all those breaks, winning one himself.

mididoctors

DeadCalm wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Deceuninck-QS Alaphilippe was the star of the Tour. His stage win was supplemented by Viviani’s

Pedant point. Alaphilippe won two stages.

RichN95 wrote:

Team of the Tour
Egan Bernal
Julian Alaphilippe
Caleb Ewan
Laurens De Plus
Dylan van Baarle
Simon Yates
Kasper Asgreen
Matteo Trentin

I'd replace Trentin with Soler. He seemed as mystified as everyone else by Movistar's bizarre tactics but was immense pretty much every day in the mountains. I'd love to see him on a sane team.

Disagree with that .I want soler and movistar to carry on with the kamlksze tactics