Team and rider of the year

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Comments

  • Ag2R and Tony Martin.

    Both delivered consistently and when it mattered. You could only mark Tony down for losing the worlds to Brad I suppose.
  • markwb79
    markwb79 Posts: 937
    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



    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
    Scott Addict 2011
    Giant TCR 2012
  • Like the revival of the Frenchies after years of being at a disadvantage due to a none level playing field.

    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 merde, just stood in some dog sh1te!!!
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    Valverde and OPQS.
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • Paul 8v
    Paul 8v Posts: 5,458
    Valverde and OPQS.
    This definitely seems to be the main consensus
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    Paul 8v wrote:
    Valverde and OPQS.
    This definitely seems to be the main consensus

    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
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    Curious to see what ranking people put nibs.

    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.
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    RichN95 wrote:
    Right. I'm confused. Why all the love for OPQS? The only World Tour event they won was Paris-Roubaix, which isn't a lot for one of the big spenders.

    Yeh but they had success in a lot of different types of events and their success was spread across a few riders.
  • Markwb79 wrote:
    Stybar, Niki, Martin, Alaphillipe, Uran, Poels surprised me.

    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.
  • Interesting nobody put forward the winner of the giro, le tour or the world champs.
  • They did. Someone picked Kwiatowski.
  • lostboysaint
    lostboysaint Posts: 4,250
    Four posts and the two biggest wheelsuckers in the peloton are already nominated :)

    Six posts in and we've already got someone moaning.

    Missed the smiley did we? Piles playing up?
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  • Movistar and Tony Martin.
  • OPQS and Kwia
    "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'"

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  • mm1
    mm1 Posts: 1,063
    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.
  • Coach H
    Coach H Posts: 1,092
    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!?
    Coach H. (Dont ask me for training advice - 'It's not about the bike')