It's the end of another Tour de France and, although the GC might have been dormant for most of the three weeks, we still had some incredible individual stages. The wins of Steve Cummings in Mende, Joaquin Rodriguez on the Mur de Huy and Greg Van Avemaet in Rodez were three of the best. It's also been a year where many teams will be disappointed with their performances and some will be wondering what the exact point of turning up was.
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| Vuillermoz's victory set the trend for the French team. |
Halfway through the first week, with Bardet losing time on most stages, it looked likely to be a lean year for the French team. Then Vuillermoz wins on Mur-de-Bretagne and Romain Bardet added another stage in the final week and ended up finishing 9th overall to cap off a brilliant race for them.
Lotto Soudal - A+
Four stage wins and a brilliant GC ride by Tony Gallopin for two weeks mean that the Belgian team have by far won the battle of the lottery teams. Greipel came 1st in four of the five pure sprint stages and 2nd in the remaining stage. Gallopin was cultivating a surprise top 10 until he came unstuck in the Alps but it was still a brilliant race for the team.
Team Sky - A
It may seem a little harsh to rank Sky with an A rather than A+ however with just one stage win and a distant second place in the team competition cut them down. Froome dominated for much of the race but he was sometimes left isolated in the third week, still, it was a marvellous performance by the British team.
Etixx-Quick Step - A-
The fact that they did nothing for the 2nd and 3rd week shouldn't take anything away from their stunning opening week. Stage wins for Martin, Stybar and Cavendish and a top 10 for Rigoberto Uran and two days in yellow for Tony Martin meant that the Belgian squad had achieved their Tour aims. The Tour was a huge disappointment for Cavendish who was consistently left isolated in sprint finishes and looked a long way short of his earlier season form.
Movistar - A-
No stage wins and a lack of attacking intent from Nairo Quintana, until it was too late, means that A- is maybe a slightly inflated score for the Spanish team. However, a 2nd and 3rd overall and plenty of numbers in breaks towards the end of the race still makes this an excellent race for Movistar who probably over-delivered on pre-race expectations.
MTN-Qhubeka - A-
The expectations before the Tour were for a top 15 from Louis Meintjes and maybe a stage win from Boasson Hagen. Neither of those really performed but Daniel Teklehaimanot made their Tour a success in the opening week when he took the king of the mountains jersey. A very thick varnish was applied in the second week when Steve Cummings took his first stage win and very probably the best stage win of the entire race when he appeared from nowhere to beat Bardet and Pinot. "Just who is that behind because that looks like Cummings, it is, it's Steven Cummings".
Katusha - B+
If you took Joaquin Rodriguez out of the team then you would have a band of well paid riders traipsing round France. Luckily, they did have the Spaniard who took two stage wins and had a spell in the king of the mountains jersey. It wasn't all plain sailing though, Kristoff didn't turn up at all and Luca Paolini was kicked off the Tour after testing positive for cocaine.
BMC - B+
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| Rohan Dennis' victory was a highpoint in a turbulent Tour. |
Tinkoff-Saxo - B
A generally frustrating Tour for the Russian super team. The attempt at the Giro-Tour double was brave but as soon as Contador lined up on the start line of the Giro he was raising the white flag on his Tour assault. He will return next year for one last crack at yellow jersey success. Peter Sagan won the green jersey but only looked close to winning once in Rodez. Rafa Majka took the team's only stage success in the Pyrenees.
IAM Cycling - B
You might've expected IAM to do more in the breaks and less in the GC but instead they managed to be largely anonymous from breaks and sneak Mathias Frank into the top 10 with no media presence at all. They would probably have preferred a stage win but it was still a successful race for the small Swiss team.
FDJ.fr - B-
It started horribly with William Bonnet breaking his neck in the stage 3 crash and the opening week didn't get any better when Thibault Pinot consistently lost time until the final stage in the Pyrenees. The final week was a revelation though, Pinot was still in the race and seemingly attacking on every single stage, he saved his Tour with a stage win into Alpe d'Huez.
Team Giant Alpecin - B-
Before their Tour option A was Marcel Kittel, he never made it to Utrecht after a truly horrible season. That left option B as John Degenkolb. He nose dived in July which took them to option C, Warren Barguil. Barguil had a terrific opening week and managed to hold on in the Pyrenees but he suffered in the third week and ended up 14th overall, still a good result for a debut Tour. Their biggest surprise was German Simon Geschke who tried, unsuccessfully, to win from a break in the Pyrenees. He finally got lucky on the stage to Pra Loup and held off a bevy of more talented climbers to take the biggest win of his career and save Giant's Tour.
Lampre - Merida - B-
They will be question exactly what happened to big money signing Rui Costa at the Tour. The Portuguese rider had been building a good palmares this season but he started slowly at the Tour, got worse, then abandoned in the Pyrenees. Once Costa went it was obvious how weak the rest of the team were but Ruben Plaza saved their Tour by holding off a plummeting Peter Sagan to win in Gap.
Astana - C+
Their Tour started under a cloud when Lieuwe Westra failed the cortisol test which, by MPCC rules, should've kept him out of the Tour. Instead they started him anyway and got expelled from the MPCC. Then Nibali had a shocker through the Pyrenees losing continuous time until he came back strongly in the third week and took a stage win on La Toussuire. The Tour was a mess though with leaks springing up from the team and Nibali about his future.
LottoNL - Jumbo - C+
It's been a truly terrible year so far for the Dutch team and they weren't able to add to their 2 wins at the Tour. They also struggled to get into breaks or to look even remotely like they would take a stage win. The resurgence of Robert Gesink and his 6th place overall was welcome but frankly the sponsors will be wondering exactly what they're getting for their money.
Trek Factory Racing - C
It started well when Fabian Cancellara took the yellow jersey on stage 2 but he crashed on stage 3 and was out of the race that evening. Bob Jungels looked to be a good rider for the future as he infiltrated break after break in the final week and Bauke Mollema ghosted into the top 10. That was about it.
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| One of the only times Bora and Bretagne were visible. |
Bora - Argon 18 - C-
Nothing was expected from the low budget German team and, to be honest, they only slightly beat those expectations. Jan Barta kept getting into breaks in the first week then Emmanuel Buchmann took a surprise third in the stage to Cauterets - that was about it.
Team Europcar - C-
After Jean-Rene Bernaudeau had talked up Pierre Rolland's chances of overall success it was a horrific first week for the tiny French team. After two stages Rolland was 6.48 back and although he moved from 170th to 10th in GC it was still a disappointment. What was even more surprising was the lack of Tommy Voeckler in the race. Despite the fact that a sponsor has been found for next year this was likely to be the Martinique born riders final shot at the race that made him a household name in 2004, it was sad that he went out with such a whimper.
Cannondale Garmin - D+
Going to the Tour with one overall favourite and not getting anywhere in the GC is unlucky, going with two is foolish and going with three and still not getting anywhere makes you look very silly indeed. Talansky was the highest placed at 11th but he was more than 22 minutes down. He, Dan Martin and Ryder Hesjedal all got 2nd places on stages but when you throw that much talent at the proverbial wall you expect some of it to stick.
Orica - GreenEDGE - D+
They're ranked this lowly largely through no fault of their own. Their opening week crashes wiped out a third of the team and had the UCI busily searching their own rulebooks to see what would happen if they had to start the team time trial with fewer than 5 riders. In the second and third weeks there was a tacit understanding that only the Yates brothers could appear at the front of the race, they managed some top 10s between them. Credit goes to Michael Matthews who struggled through the whole race after an early crash and got a top 10 on the Champs Elysees.
Bretagne Seche Environnement - D
If you're at a cycling friendly pub you might be asked to name the 8 Tour de France finishers in the Sky team. A harder question might be this, name just one rider from Bretagne Seche who finished the Tour - you have 8 to go at. They were almost entirely invisible including in breaks. Eduardo Sepulveda, their main chance for success, was disqualified on the stage to Mende for taking a ride in the Ag2r team car. Unfortunately their inclusion in the Tour only serves to boost Jim Ochowicz's argument that there's too many teams in the Tour.
Cofidis - E
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| At the back, Cofidis' natural position. |
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