2003 TdF Team Review
Now that the race is done, let’s evaluate how each team did. We’ve got a clever 5-star system to divide the teams, Tete de la course, Pursuivants, Peloton, Autobus, and Abandon.
Team name (best rider, place, time back)
Tete de la course
US Postal (Armstrong, 1)
16 days in yellow, 2 stage wins. All 9 finished in the top102.
Another year, another win for Lance. This was the best team performance yet. They won the team time trial. Their pace work in the mountains was superb, their defense of Lance was excellent. Key moments–Beltran’s pace that dropped Ullrich on Alpe d’Huez, and Rubiera was johnny-on-the-spot when Lance crashed in stage 15. They finished all 9 riders and all but one were in the top 100.
Baker: Agreed. You just can’t say enough good things about the Posties. Pena got to spend some time in yellow. And Armstrong really relied heavily on his team this year, and they came through big-time. This one, more than any other, belongs to the team.
CSC (Hamilton, 4, +6:17)
3 stage wins.
Best team time, three different stage winners. Two riders in the top 10 and three in the top 15. They put on a show.
Baker: And they just missed out on the podium. They had the best Tour possible for a team without ever wearing any jersey.
Banesto (Mancebo, 10, +19:15)
18 days in white, 2 stage wins
Two different riders won stages. Two riders wore the white jersey, and Menchov won it by 40 minutes. They were second in team time, and they had two riders in the top 11. This is their “B” team. Excellent young riders.
Baker: Banesto hasn’t had a Tour like this since Indurain was still riding. Just an unbelievable job.
Pursuivants
FDJeux (Fritsch, 78, +2:26:58)
13 days in green, 5 in dots, 3 in yellow, 2 in white, 2 stage wins
OK, they suck bad in GC and in team time (21st, almost 7 hours back). But they won the green jersey, a stage, and the prologue. They held each jersey for at least one day. Great teamwork from McGee & DaCruz.
Baker: Put them in tete le course. They had every single jersey, won the green, and go home with a remarkable 25 daily awards, the best of any team. Yes, they got crushed in the GC, but they dominated the first week before fading, and still won the green.
Euskaltel (Zubeldia, 5, +6:51)
1 stage win
This year they went all out. Only one stage win, but three riders in the top 20, including 2 in the top 6. They were third in team time. All they do is climb, but they’re as good as anyone else.
Baker: How did they not win the King of the Mountains? It’s a personal crusade now to change the scoring on that award, as Virenque was not the most feared man in the mountains, Mayo was.
QuickStep (Virenque, 16, +25:31)
14 days in dots, 1 in yellow, 2 stage wins
Two stage wins and the King of the Mountains. Plus they had great work from Paolo Bettini.
Baker: And kept the yellow jersey warm for Lance for a day. They did what they set out to do, which was win Virenque the dots.
Telekom (Vinokourov, 3, +4:14)
1 stage win
Vinokourov was simply brilliant in this race. He was on the offensive early & often & he even led out Zabel in sprints. Despite Zabel’s waning skills, he was still third in the race for the green jersey. Nardello and Aldag put themselves in breakaways. A solid team effort and some hardware too.
Baker: Without real heavy hitters, they were in competition for almost every award. They controlled the peleton, and Vinokourov walks away named the race’s most aggressive rider. A good call. They need a new star, but the team is still awesome. Oh, and to toot my own horn, who predicted a podium finish for Vino?
Bianchi (Ullrich, 2, +1:01)
1 stage win
Ullrich is back, and is still the strongest man in the race, save one. The team was fifth in time, which is amazing considering this team didn’t exist one month before the Tour started. They put 3 finishers in the top 25.
Baker: They were short one super-domestique. With Beltran on the Bianchi, it’s a completely different Tour. Maybe even one with Ullrich in yellow. Ullrich lost, but confirmed his stature as one of the greats.
Peloton
Cofidis (Lelli, 15, +24:00)
1 stage win
They got one stage win and only one rider in the top 15. Yep, they are born to be the peloton.
Baker: Just missed out on two stages because of Millar’s chain pop. Hey, at least he finished this year.
Jean Delatour (31, Goubert, +1:05:38)
1 day in yellow, 1 in dots, 1 stage win
They got the final stage win from Jean Patrick Nazon. He also wore yellow for a day. They even had a rider wearing dots, albeit before they hit the mountains. That’s more than we expected from this team.
Baker: A nice, solid Tour from a French B-team. They did everything you could possibly expect. And Nazon was competitive for the green for two weeks.
Credit Agricole (Moreau, 8, +12:28)
0 awards
A solid ride by Moreau, but he was their only rider in the top 50. No stage wins, but Stuart O’Grady won the Centenary competition (best aggregate place on the stages finishing at the original six finishes in the 1903 TdF). Thor Hushovd was fourth in the green jersey competition.
Baker: Simply solid, as they settled into their first decent Tour. They’ve had a horrible one and a great one. O’Grady was a surprising no-show and Moreau reall impressed both of us. We even said nice things about him.
Fassa Bortolo (Basso, 7, +10:12)
1 day in green, 4 stages
A hard team to peg. They won four stages, all by Petacchi. He ran home to mama as he saw mountains. By the time they got to stage 10, six of their riders had abandoned. Still, Basso gave another good effort. They had a mix of greatness and crappiness. That lands them in the middle of the rankings.
Baker: I’d put them in Non-partent. Petacchi’s quit was shameful, and then the team just followed suit. At least wait until you’re out of green to drop out. A bizarre mixture of highs and lows.
AG2r (Botcharov, 24, +49:47)
1 day in white
They didn’t win a thing, but Astroloza was second in the race for the white jersey, and Flickenger wore it on one day. Surprisingly, they had three riders in the top 30 and five in the top 40. That isn’t easy to do. So, while they have nothing great, they were sort-of respectable.
Baker: AG2r raced like a poor man’s Telekom. Brilliant domestique performance, only with no one to ride for. Maybe next year.
Autobus
ONCE (Jaksche, 17, +27:22)
0 awards
When you put all your eggs in one basket, you’re taking a risk of losing everything. And so they did when Beloki crashed out. Still, they had two riders in the top 26, and let’s give them credit for a great team time trial.
Baker: I’m still willing to give them a peleton spot. They raced well, only to have a horrible crash. If Fassa deserves the peleton, so does ONCE.
Lotto (Brandt, 52, +1:50:33)
7 days in green
McEwen is great. The rest of the team might as well not be there. His greatness catapults them up to the Autobus.
Baker: Imagine if he had a team. We said this before the Tour, the less Lotto does for McEwen, the better. They just stink, but he’s great. He should call Telekom to replace Zabel.
Gerolsteiner (Totschnig, 12, +21:32)
0 awards
Totschnig put in a really great ride considering he had zero help from his team–another team that only finished 3 riders. Their most memorable moments are crashes–like the guy who ripped his shorts off when he crashed in the finishing strait. Uwe Peschel had great time trials, but fell twice in stage 19 and had to abandon with a broken rib. Hey, at least they tried hard!
Baker: Easily, the most boring team in the Tour. They might as well have not shown up. Though seeing a guy have his pants ripped off due to friction is pretty fun.
Broiches (Rous, 20, 30:14)
0 awards
Only two riders in the top 50. They attacked a lot, proving they have a pulse, but their attacks never amounted to anything. It’s too early to judge Sylvain Chavanel, but he may be the next over-hyped French star.
Baker: I like Rous, he’s shown he’s a top 20 caliber rider, but he really should think about becoming a big gun’s domestique. Chavanel did look decent.
Saeco (Ludewig, 38, +1:25:13)
1 stage win
Simoni got a stage win. He also finished 84th, over two and a half hours out...and we expected him in the top 10. Well, at least they don’t go home empty-handed.
Baker: The stage win keeps them from the abandon section, but barely. They just laid a horrendous egg.
Abandon
Rabobank (Niermann, 28, +1:00:32)
0 awards
Usually they are movers & shakers in the Tour, but when Leipheimer crashed out, they seemed to give up. No hardware. Only two riders in the top 90 places.
Baker: An even worse Tour than Saeco. The light just went out when Leipheimer crashed. Suprisingly, Boogerd rode a pretty good Tour. I wasn’t aware he still had any gas left in the tank.
Kelme (Llorente, 27, +57:00)
0 awards
How the mighty have fallen. They were a complete non-factor, except when they caused the crash in stage 1. Thanks!
Baker: What we’re saying is, the Tour would have been better without Kelme. Not a different team, no team whatsoever. Without Kelme, Hamilton rides healthy and Leipheimer makes the finish. They screwed up the race on the very first day. I’d rank them lower if I could.
Alessio (Dufaux, 21, +33:17)
0 awards
Was Alessio even in the race?
Baker: Do you realize DuFaux’s raced in 10 Tours? He even has 3 Top Ten finishes, twice finishing fourth. What I’m saying is, they don’t even have hope for the future.
Vini Caldirola (Zampieri, 87, +2:40:28)
0 awards
They only had one rider finish in the top 100. They were dead last on team time, over 8 hours behind CSC. Is this worse than Big Mat Auber?
Baker: The official site listed them as “CAL” instead of “VIN”. I only bring this up because I didn’t notice that until the last week of the Tour because they were such a non-factor.
Now that the race is done, let’s evaluate how each team did. We’ve got a clever 5-star system to divide the teams, Tete de la course, Pursuivants, Peloton, Autobus, and Abandon.
Team name (best rider, place, time back)
Tete de la course
US Postal (Armstrong, 1)
16 days in yellow, 2 stage wins. All 9 finished in the top102.
Another year, another win for Lance. This was the best team performance yet. They won the team time trial. Their pace work in the mountains was superb, their defense of Lance was excellent. Key moments–Beltran’s pace that dropped Ullrich on Alpe d’Huez, and Rubiera was johnny-on-the-spot when Lance crashed in stage 15. They finished all 9 riders and all but one were in the top 100.
Baker: Agreed. You just can’t say enough good things about the Posties. Pena got to spend some time in yellow. And Armstrong really relied heavily on his team this year, and they came through big-time. This one, more than any other, belongs to the team.
CSC (Hamilton, 4, +6:17)
3 stage wins.
Best team time, three different stage winners. Two riders in the top 10 and three in the top 15. They put on a show.
Baker: And they just missed out on the podium. They had the best Tour possible for a team without ever wearing any jersey.
Banesto (Mancebo, 10, +19:15)
18 days in white, 2 stage wins
Two different riders won stages. Two riders wore the white jersey, and Menchov won it by 40 minutes. They were second in team time, and they had two riders in the top 11. This is their “B” team. Excellent young riders.
Baker: Banesto hasn’t had a Tour like this since Indurain was still riding. Just an unbelievable job.
Pursuivants
FDJeux (Fritsch, 78, +2:26:58)
13 days in green, 5 in dots, 3 in yellow, 2 in white, 2 stage wins
OK, they suck bad in GC and in team time (21st, almost 7 hours back). But they won the green jersey, a stage, and the prologue. They held each jersey for at least one day. Great teamwork from McGee & DaCruz.
Baker: Put them in tete le course. They had every single jersey, won the green, and go home with a remarkable 25 daily awards, the best of any team. Yes, they got crushed in the GC, but they dominated the first week before fading, and still won the green.
Euskaltel (Zubeldia, 5, +6:51)
1 stage win
This year they went all out. Only one stage win, but three riders in the top 20, including 2 in the top 6. They were third in team time. All they do is climb, but they’re as good as anyone else.
Baker: How did they not win the King of the Mountains? It’s a personal crusade now to change the scoring on that award, as Virenque was not the most feared man in the mountains, Mayo was.
QuickStep (Virenque, 16, +25:31)
14 days in dots, 1 in yellow, 2 stage wins
Two stage wins and the King of the Mountains. Plus they had great work from Paolo Bettini.
Baker: And kept the yellow jersey warm for Lance for a day. They did what they set out to do, which was win Virenque the dots.
Telekom (Vinokourov, 3, +4:14)
1 stage win
Vinokourov was simply brilliant in this race. He was on the offensive early & often & he even led out Zabel in sprints. Despite Zabel’s waning skills, he was still third in the race for the green jersey. Nardello and Aldag put themselves in breakaways. A solid team effort and some hardware too.
Baker: Without real heavy hitters, they were in competition for almost every award. They controlled the peleton, and Vinokourov walks away named the race’s most aggressive rider. A good call. They need a new star, but the team is still awesome. Oh, and to toot my own horn, who predicted a podium finish for Vino?
Bianchi (Ullrich, 2, +1:01)
1 stage win
Ullrich is back, and is still the strongest man in the race, save one. The team was fifth in time, which is amazing considering this team didn’t exist one month before the Tour started. They put 3 finishers in the top 25.
Baker: They were short one super-domestique. With Beltran on the Bianchi, it’s a completely different Tour. Maybe even one with Ullrich in yellow. Ullrich lost, but confirmed his stature as one of the greats.
Peloton
Cofidis (Lelli, 15, +24:00)
1 stage win
They got one stage win and only one rider in the top 15. Yep, they are born to be the peloton.
Baker: Just missed out on two stages because of Millar’s chain pop. Hey, at least he finished this year.
Jean Delatour (31, Goubert, +1:05:38)
1 day in yellow, 1 in dots, 1 stage win
They got the final stage win from Jean Patrick Nazon. He also wore yellow for a day. They even had a rider wearing dots, albeit before they hit the mountains. That’s more than we expected from this team.
Baker: A nice, solid Tour from a French B-team. They did everything you could possibly expect. And Nazon was competitive for the green for two weeks.
Credit Agricole (Moreau, 8, +12:28)
0 awards
A solid ride by Moreau, but he was their only rider in the top 50. No stage wins, but Stuart O’Grady won the Centenary competition (best aggregate place on the stages finishing at the original six finishes in the 1903 TdF). Thor Hushovd was fourth in the green jersey competition.
Baker: Simply solid, as they settled into their first decent Tour. They’ve had a horrible one and a great one. O’Grady was a surprising no-show and Moreau reall impressed both of us. We even said nice things about him.
Fassa Bortolo (Basso, 7, +10:12)
1 day in green, 4 stages
A hard team to peg. They won four stages, all by Petacchi. He ran home to mama as he saw mountains. By the time they got to stage 10, six of their riders had abandoned. Still, Basso gave another good effort. They had a mix of greatness and crappiness. That lands them in the middle of the rankings.
Baker: I’d put them in Non-partent. Petacchi’s quit was shameful, and then the team just followed suit. At least wait until you’re out of green to drop out. A bizarre mixture of highs and lows.
AG2r (Botcharov, 24, +49:47)
1 day in white
They didn’t win a thing, but Astroloza was second in the race for the white jersey, and Flickenger wore it on one day. Surprisingly, they had three riders in the top 30 and five in the top 40. That isn’t easy to do. So, while they have nothing great, they were sort-of respectable.
Baker: AG2r raced like a poor man’s Telekom. Brilliant domestique performance, only with no one to ride for. Maybe next year.
Autobus
ONCE (Jaksche, 17, +27:22)
0 awards
When you put all your eggs in one basket, you’re taking a risk of losing everything. And so they did when Beloki crashed out. Still, they had two riders in the top 26, and let’s give them credit for a great team time trial.
Baker: I’m still willing to give them a peleton spot. They raced well, only to have a horrible crash. If Fassa deserves the peleton, so does ONCE.
Lotto (Brandt, 52, +1:50:33)
7 days in green
McEwen is great. The rest of the team might as well not be there. His greatness catapults them up to the Autobus.
Baker: Imagine if he had a team. We said this before the Tour, the less Lotto does for McEwen, the better. They just stink, but he’s great. He should call Telekom to replace Zabel.
Gerolsteiner (Totschnig, 12, +21:32)
0 awards
Totschnig put in a really great ride considering he had zero help from his team–another team that only finished 3 riders. Their most memorable moments are crashes–like the guy who ripped his shorts off when he crashed in the finishing strait. Uwe Peschel had great time trials, but fell twice in stage 19 and had to abandon with a broken rib. Hey, at least they tried hard!
Baker: Easily, the most boring team in the Tour. They might as well have not shown up. Though seeing a guy have his pants ripped off due to friction is pretty fun.
Broiches (Rous, 20, 30:14)
0 awards
Only two riders in the top 50. They attacked a lot, proving they have a pulse, but their attacks never amounted to anything. It’s too early to judge Sylvain Chavanel, but he may be the next over-hyped French star.
Baker: I like Rous, he’s shown he’s a top 20 caliber rider, but he really should think about becoming a big gun’s domestique. Chavanel did look decent.
Saeco (Ludewig, 38, +1:25:13)
1 stage win
Simoni got a stage win. He also finished 84th, over two and a half hours out...and we expected him in the top 10. Well, at least they don’t go home empty-handed.
Baker: The stage win keeps them from the abandon section, but barely. They just laid a horrendous egg.
Abandon
Rabobank (Niermann, 28, +1:00:32)
0 awards
Usually they are movers & shakers in the Tour, but when Leipheimer crashed out, they seemed to give up. No hardware. Only two riders in the top 90 places.
Baker: An even worse Tour than Saeco. The light just went out when Leipheimer crashed. Suprisingly, Boogerd rode a pretty good Tour. I wasn’t aware he still had any gas left in the tank.
Kelme (Llorente, 27, +57:00)
0 awards
How the mighty have fallen. They were a complete non-factor, except when they caused the crash in stage 1. Thanks!
Baker: What we’re saying is, the Tour would have been better without Kelme. Not a different team, no team whatsoever. Without Kelme, Hamilton rides healthy and Leipheimer makes the finish. They screwed up the race on the very first day. I’d rank them lower if I could.
Alessio (Dufaux, 21, +33:17)
0 awards
Was Alessio even in the race?
Baker: Do you realize DuFaux’s raced in 10 Tours? He even has 3 Top Ten finishes, twice finishing fourth. What I’m saying is, they don’t even have hope for the future.
Vini Caldirola (Zampieri, 87, +2:40:28)
0 awards
They only had one rider finish in the top 100. They were dead last on team time, over 8 hours behind CSC. Is this worse than Big Mat Auber?
Baker: The official site listed them as “CAL” instead of “VIN”. I only bring this up because I didn’t notice that until the last week of the Tour because they were such a non-factor.
posted by uberschuck at 12:59 AM
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