All-Stars Take Two
2005 TdF All-Star team.
GC Men: Lance Armstong (Discovery) & Ivan Basso (CSC)
I have to agree with Gioia. It’s such a no-brainer. Armstrong is the strongest cyclist in the world, and Basso was the only one who could compete with him.
Sprinters: Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) & Robbie McEwen (Lotto)
I have nothing to add, as we finish up the no-brainer picks. Hushovd was the living embodiment of our theory of going for those intermediate sprints. All of those little points do matter. And he was the very model of consistency. Boonen would have won had he not hurt himself in the Alps, and McEwen would have won had not his brain frozen up when he decided to head butt O’Grady. Still, Mcewen was awesome as usual.
Climbers: Mickael Rasmussen (Rabobank) & Oscar Pereiro (Phonak)
Rasmussen deserved the polka dot jersey. Unlike Virenque or Moreau, he attacked on big climbs and actually hung with the big boys on those critical climbs of the Tour. Rasmussen was always in that finishing group, fighting for the podium as well as the climbing points. And what to say about Pereiro? His downright insane tactical decision to attack every single climb won him a spot on my All-Star team. Sure, he burned out on some big ones, but he was there.
Time Trialist: Jan Ullrich (Telekom)
He made the podium by virtue of his excellent time trial. No one made more of an impact on the Tour, outside of Armstrong, on the time trial. Give credit to Ullrich.
Domestiques: Oscar Sevilla (Telekom) and George Hincapie (Discovery)
In a down year for Discovery. Hincapie came up huge. He was the only guy Lance could always count on, and he showed why he’s the only guy to ride for Armstrong on all seven of his Tour wins. As for Sevilla, I feel that I spent so much time criticizing Telekom, I really should be effusive in my praise. On a team of selfish riders, Sevilla played the loyal domestique, perhaps the hardest job anyone had in the Tour.
Most aggressive rider: Oscar Pereiro (Phonak)
Well, duh.
Best rider we never mentioned: Cadel Evans (Lotto)
Wow, you’re right, He had a very Georg Totschnig sort of Tour. He was always there, not good enough to make the podium, but strong enough to hang around with the leaders. I’m also not sure how much we mentioned Mancebo, who also had one hell of a Tour.
Iron man award: Iker Flores (Euskatel)
What’s up with this? Can’t we get someone to get their shorts torn off in a finishing crash? Without any one supreme act of toughness to symbolize this Tour, I give my Iron Man to the guy who finished in last, Iker Flores. He finished 4:20:24 behind Armstrong in 155th place, but he finished. There are 24 riders who started the race who can’t say that.
Best surprise: Totschnig winning a stage.
He’s a consistent top ten guy, but he’s never had a real moment in the spotlight. It was nice to see him get his moment.
Worst surprise: Baden Cooke.
FDJ’s not a powerhouse team, but they’ve turned in some pretty decent Tours recently. They’ve managed to make themselves into a nice peleton-worthy team. And Cooke was their real shot at a jersey. I’m not surprised he didn’t win the green, but finishing in 9th place, especially considering the quality leadouts he was getting in the first week, is inexcusable.
Best attack: Vino.
I’m just in awe of the guy. His attack on the Champs d’Elyses had no chance of working. Only it did. Telekom ended the Tour on a real high note.
Best tactic: Credit Agricole’s refusal to lift a damn finger to raise the pace in the final week.
Knowing the best way to defend Hushovd’s Green Jersey was to let other teams gobble up the points, C.A. just sat back on every attack in the final week and did nothing to reel in the attackers. Cofidis and Lotto just didn’t have the riders to control the peleton, so the breaks succeeded and Husovd wins the Green Jersey.
Worst tactic: Kloden & Ullrich chasing down Vinokourov’s attack in the mountains.
This was just a monumentally stupid move. I can’t even talk about it anymore, it was the dumbest tactical decision we’ve seen.
Most forgettable moment: Watching David Zabriskie crash his way out of the Tour.
It started on the Team Trial when he inexplicably crashed in the final few kilometers and just got worse from there. He went from the lead to a withdraw in a few days. It hurt to watch.
Most memorable moment: That final podium.
Seriously, Armstrong, Basso, Ullrich? It was like the Mt. Rushmore of cycling up there.
Team Review
Tete de la course
Discovery Channel. (Armstrong, 1st)
Yellow jersey, white jersey, 4 stage wins
Not as dominating as we’ve come to expect, but that’s picking nits. They absolutely dominated the Tour. Armstrong goes out with his seventh, and they alos picked up the White Jersey for Popovych.
Telekom (T-Mobile) (Ullrich, 3rd, +6:21)
Team champion, 3 stage wins.
I was incredibly critical of the team, but let’s be honest, they are still one of the three giants. Yes, they are dysfunctional, but they are also incredibly good. No one notices the power dynamics of Ag2R.
CSC (Basso, 2nd, +4:40)
1 stage win
The last of the three powers. They don’t bring home much hardware aside from a few days in yellow and Basso’s trip to the podium, but they were always driving the peleton along with Discovery. The three big teams were everywhere, this was their race.
Poursuviants
Credit Agricole (Moreau, +16:26)
Green jersey
I couldn’t quite put them with the Big Three, it didn’t feel right. They won the Green Jersey by simply sitting back and doing nothing, which let’s face it, is a pretty easy strategy to enact. Then again, it takes guts to do that, because if it doesn’t work, the second guessing would be unbelievable.
Rabobank (Rasmussen, 7th, +11:33)
Polka dot jersey, 2 stage wins.
Wow. Rabobank, King of the Mountains? They simply dominated the polka dots competition, with two riders keeping it warm for Rasmussen before he took the thing over. The race for dots was essentially over by the second weekend. Rasmussen of course was the power here, but Boogerd quietly had a pretty nice Tour as well. And come on, Erik Dekker won a stage.
Lotto (Evans, 8th, +11:55)
3 stage wins
Some great results with a fairly soggy team effort. As always, McEwen got virtually no help from his team, and their inability to reel in even one breakway in the final week cost McEwen his third points title. Well, and his own stupidity. Evans had a great Tour, which leads Lotto to a crossroads, when do they start supporting someone in the GC, which should be wide open next year?
Phonak (Landis, 9th, +12:44)
1 stage win
A team that is one step away from the elite. Pereiro was great, as was Landis. One bad day pretty much destroyed Botero’s Tour, but he was involved for awhile. More importantly, they seemed to be the only team the top three actually took any notice of.
Gerolsteiner (Leipheimer, 6th +11:21)
1 stage win
Totschnig said he didn’t have the form this year and was right, even though he got a well-deserved stage win. Leipheimer makes his case now as the Best Active American Cyclist.
Illes Balears (Banesto) (Mancebo, 4th +9:59)
1 stage win
Mancebo was terrific, quietly putting together a great race. Valverde looked like was going to have a great race, until team doctors forced him to retire. They didn’t win the White Jersey, which is sort of their calling card, but they look set up perfectly for the Veulta and then next year’s Tour.
Peloton
Cofidis (Vasseur, 44th +1:33:17)
1 stage win
A quietly innocuous Tour. Pretty much define peleton.
Liberty (Jaksche, 16th, +24:07)
1 stage win.
Signing Roberto Heras hasn’t exactly panned out. When Jaksche is your highest placed rider, you have to realize you aren’t in the running for anything, so a stage win is a nice consolation prize.
Autobus
Quickstep (Rogers, 41st, 1:24:32)
2 stage wins
Boonen crashed out, Rogers got crushed in the GC. Yup, Autobus it is. Boonen gets a pass on dropping out, as he actually did crash out of the race and it wasn’t a Petacchi-esque “I don’t want to ride in the mountains” kind of thing. I’m most disappointed in Rogers, who really should have managed more than 41st.
Fassa Bortolo (Bernucci, 62nd, +2:03:67)
1 stage win.
I missed Petacchi’s drop out. They were a complete non-factor, but the stage win keeps it from being a total waste of our time.
FDJ (Casar, 29th, +56:47)
They shouldn’t be back here. They’ve turned themselves into a fairly decent team, but they are having a crisis of leadership. Casar’s a domestique and everyone knows it. Find a GC man, I hear Vino’s available. Cooke should have been their sprinter, but he put in a miserable effort. The leadouts were there, and the team actually controlled the finishes, but there was no one to set up. Just a bizarre tactic.
Saunier Duval (Piepoli, 23rd, +36:20)
Every time I saw one of their jerseys. I thought it was the yellow at first. Seriously, ONCE used to have the decency not to wear yellow, so can you guys. Horner had a nice Tour, as did Piepoli. They aren’t good enough toactually win anything, but they probably met their rather modest standards.
Bouygues Telekom (Brochard, 28th, +55:29)
A mere step away from the Abandons. Not a good Tour, but they avoided total disaster.
Abandon
Euskaltel (Zubeldia, 15th, +23:43)
Re-read Gioia’s comments and realize that he is perhaps the biggest Euskatel fan out there. Really, their race was a total embarrassment. No one, and I mean no one, was worse.
Lampre (Mazzolini, 13th, +21:16)
A strange split between Mazzolini’s nice ride and, well, the rest of the team. Memo to the big teams: Mazzolini is available.
Liquigas (Garzelli, 32nd, 1:04:49)
You’re telling me Garzelli couldn’t even get within an hour of Lance? This isn’t Domina, they actually have a few decent riders. They have no business back here.
Domina Vacanze (Iglinskiy, 38th, +1:18:44)
They suck. And they turned in a performance in accordance to their abilities.
Ag2R (Astarloza, 27th + 54:03)
Astarloza had another decent Tour. Really, compare them to FDJ who were their equals about three seasons ago. FDJ’s moved forward but Ag2R is still stuck in neutral. There just isn’t a plan.
GC Men: Lance Armstong (Discovery) & Ivan Basso (CSC)
I have to agree with Gioia. It’s such a no-brainer. Armstrong is the strongest cyclist in the world, and Basso was the only one who could compete with him.
Sprinters: Thor Hushovd (Credit Agricole) & Robbie McEwen (Lotto)
I have nothing to add, as we finish up the no-brainer picks. Hushovd was the living embodiment of our theory of going for those intermediate sprints. All of those little points do matter. And he was the very model of consistency. Boonen would have won had he not hurt himself in the Alps, and McEwen would have won had not his brain frozen up when he decided to head butt O’Grady. Still, Mcewen was awesome as usual.
Climbers: Mickael Rasmussen (Rabobank) & Oscar Pereiro (Phonak)
Rasmussen deserved the polka dot jersey. Unlike Virenque or Moreau, he attacked on big climbs and actually hung with the big boys on those critical climbs of the Tour. Rasmussen was always in that finishing group, fighting for the podium as well as the climbing points. And what to say about Pereiro? His downright insane tactical decision to attack every single climb won him a spot on my All-Star team. Sure, he burned out on some big ones, but he was there.
Time Trialist: Jan Ullrich (Telekom)
He made the podium by virtue of his excellent time trial. No one made more of an impact on the Tour, outside of Armstrong, on the time trial. Give credit to Ullrich.
Domestiques: Oscar Sevilla (Telekom) and George Hincapie (Discovery)
In a down year for Discovery. Hincapie came up huge. He was the only guy Lance could always count on, and he showed why he’s the only guy to ride for Armstrong on all seven of his Tour wins. As for Sevilla, I feel that I spent so much time criticizing Telekom, I really should be effusive in my praise. On a team of selfish riders, Sevilla played the loyal domestique, perhaps the hardest job anyone had in the Tour.
Most aggressive rider: Oscar Pereiro (Phonak)
Well, duh.
Best rider we never mentioned: Cadel Evans (Lotto)
Wow, you’re right, He had a very Georg Totschnig sort of Tour. He was always there, not good enough to make the podium, but strong enough to hang around with the leaders. I’m also not sure how much we mentioned Mancebo, who also had one hell of a Tour.
Iron man award: Iker Flores (Euskatel)
What’s up with this? Can’t we get someone to get their shorts torn off in a finishing crash? Without any one supreme act of toughness to symbolize this Tour, I give my Iron Man to the guy who finished in last, Iker Flores. He finished 4:20:24 behind Armstrong in 155th place, but he finished. There are 24 riders who started the race who can’t say that.
Best surprise: Totschnig winning a stage.
He’s a consistent top ten guy, but he’s never had a real moment in the spotlight. It was nice to see him get his moment.
Worst surprise: Baden Cooke.
FDJ’s not a powerhouse team, but they’ve turned in some pretty decent Tours recently. They’ve managed to make themselves into a nice peleton-worthy team. And Cooke was their real shot at a jersey. I’m not surprised he didn’t win the green, but finishing in 9th place, especially considering the quality leadouts he was getting in the first week, is inexcusable.
Best attack: Vino.
I’m just in awe of the guy. His attack on the Champs d’Elyses had no chance of working. Only it did. Telekom ended the Tour on a real high note.
Best tactic: Credit Agricole’s refusal to lift a damn finger to raise the pace in the final week.
Knowing the best way to defend Hushovd’s Green Jersey was to let other teams gobble up the points, C.A. just sat back on every attack in the final week and did nothing to reel in the attackers. Cofidis and Lotto just didn’t have the riders to control the peleton, so the breaks succeeded and Husovd wins the Green Jersey.
Worst tactic: Kloden & Ullrich chasing down Vinokourov’s attack in the mountains.
This was just a monumentally stupid move. I can’t even talk about it anymore, it was the dumbest tactical decision we’ve seen.
Most forgettable moment: Watching David Zabriskie crash his way out of the Tour.
It started on the Team Trial when he inexplicably crashed in the final few kilometers and just got worse from there. He went from the lead to a withdraw in a few days. It hurt to watch.
Most memorable moment: That final podium.
Seriously, Armstrong, Basso, Ullrich? It was like the Mt. Rushmore of cycling up there.
Team Review
Tete de la course
Discovery Channel. (Armstrong, 1st)
Yellow jersey, white jersey, 4 stage wins
Not as dominating as we’ve come to expect, but that’s picking nits. They absolutely dominated the Tour. Armstrong goes out with his seventh, and they alos picked up the White Jersey for Popovych.
Telekom (T-Mobile) (Ullrich, 3rd, +6:21)
Team champion, 3 stage wins.
I was incredibly critical of the team, but let’s be honest, they are still one of the three giants. Yes, they are dysfunctional, but they are also incredibly good. No one notices the power dynamics of Ag2R.
CSC (Basso, 2nd, +4:40)
1 stage win
The last of the three powers. They don’t bring home much hardware aside from a few days in yellow and Basso’s trip to the podium, but they were always driving the peleton along with Discovery. The three big teams were everywhere, this was their race.
Poursuviants
Credit Agricole (Moreau, +16:26)
Green jersey
I couldn’t quite put them with the Big Three, it didn’t feel right. They won the Green Jersey by simply sitting back and doing nothing, which let’s face it, is a pretty easy strategy to enact. Then again, it takes guts to do that, because if it doesn’t work, the second guessing would be unbelievable.
Rabobank (Rasmussen, 7th, +11:33)
Polka dot jersey, 2 stage wins.
Wow. Rabobank, King of the Mountains? They simply dominated the polka dots competition, with two riders keeping it warm for Rasmussen before he took the thing over. The race for dots was essentially over by the second weekend. Rasmussen of course was the power here, but Boogerd quietly had a pretty nice Tour as well. And come on, Erik Dekker won a stage.
Lotto (Evans, 8th, +11:55)
3 stage wins
Some great results with a fairly soggy team effort. As always, McEwen got virtually no help from his team, and their inability to reel in even one breakway in the final week cost McEwen his third points title. Well, and his own stupidity. Evans had a great Tour, which leads Lotto to a crossroads, when do they start supporting someone in the GC, which should be wide open next year?
Phonak (Landis, 9th, +12:44)
1 stage win
A team that is one step away from the elite. Pereiro was great, as was Landis. One bad day pretty much destroyed Botero’s Tour, but he was involved for awhile. More importantly, they seemed to be the only team the top three actually took any notice of.
Gerolsteiner (Leipheimer, 6th +11:21)
1 stage win
Totschnig said he didn’t have the form this year and was right, even though he got a well-deserved stage win. Leipheimer makes his case now as the Best Active American Cyclist.
Illes Balears (Banesto) (Mancebo, 4th +9:59)
1 stage win
Mancebo was terrific, quietly putting together a great race. Valverde looked like was going to have a great race, until team doctors forced him to retire. They didn’t win the White Jersey, which is sort of their calling card, but they look set up perfectly for the Veulta and then next year’s Tour.
Peloton
Cofidis (Vasseur, 44th +1:33:17)
1 stage win
A quietly innocuous Tour. Pretty much define peleton.
Liberty (Jaksche, 16th, +24:07)
1 stage win.
Signing Roberto Heras hasn’t exactly panned out. When Jaksche is your highest placed rider, you have to realize you aren’t in the running for anything, so a stage win is a nice consolation prize.
Autobus
Quickstep (Rogers, 41st, 1:24:32)
2 stage wins
Boonen crashed out, Rogers got crushed in the GC. Yup, Autobus it is. Boonen gets a pass on dropping out, as he actually did crash out of the race and it wasn’t a Petacchi-esque “I don’t want to ride in the mountains” kind of thing. I’m most disappointed in Rogers, who really should have managed more than 41st.
Fassa Bortolo (Bernucci, 62nd, +2:03:67)
1 stage win.
I missed Petacchi’s drop out. They were a complete non-factor, but the stage win keeps it from being a total waste of our time.
FDJ (Casar, 29th, +56:47)
They shouldn’t be back here. They’ve turned themselves into a fairly decent team, but they are having a crisis of leadership. Casar’s a domestique and everyone knows it. Find a GC man, I hear Vino’s available. Cooke should have been their sprinter, but he put in a miserable effort. The leadouts were there, and the team actually controlled the finishes, but there was no one to set up. Just a bizarre tactic.
Saunier Duval (Piepoli, 23rd, +36:20)
Every time I saw one of their jerseys. I thought it was the yellow at first. Seriously, ONCE used to have the decency not to wear yellow, so can you guys. Horner had a nice Tour, as did Piepoli. They aren’t good enough toactually win anything, but they probably met their rather modest standards.
Bouygues Telekom (Brochard, 28th, +55:29)
A mere step away from the Abandons. Not a good Tour, but they avoided total disaster.
Abandon
Euskaltel (Zubeldia, 15th, +23:43)
Re-read Gioia’s comments and realize that he is perhaps the biggest Euskatel fan out there. Really, their race was a total embarrassment. No one, and I mean no one, was worse.
Lampre (Mazzolini, 13th, +21:16)
A strange split between Mazzolini’s nice ride and, well, the rest of the team. Memo to the big teams: Mazzolini is available.
Liquigas (Garzelli, 32nd, 1:04:49)
You’re telling me Garzelli couldn’t even get within an hour of Lance? This isn’t Domina, they actually have a few decent riders. They have no business back here.
Domina Vacanze (Iglinskiy, 38th, +1:18:44)
They suck. And they turned in a performance in accordance to their abilities.
Ag2R (Astarloza, 27th + 54:03)
Astarloza had another decent Tour. Really, compare them to FDJ who were their equals about three seasons ago. FDJ’s moved forward but Ag2R is still stuck in neutral. There just isn’t a plan.
posted by Poseur at 4:42 PM
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