Team review

I was hoping to team up with Stephen for a joint team review, but he seems to have forsaken the internet, so I'll just post my own evaluation. As usual, each team (except Astana and Cofidis, since they didn't finish) gets classified on the 5-star scale. The tiers are cleverly named Tete de la course, Poursuivants, Peloton, Autobus, and Abandon to mimic what happens to the field on a mountain stage. The name in parentheses is the best finisher of the team.

1. Tete de la course

Discovery Channel (Contador, 1^st overall). Won yellow jersey, white jersey, team competition, 2 stages; 4 days in yellow jersey, 19 days in white jersey; two men on podium, three in top 8; 2^nd & 3^rd in KoM.

That’s an embarrassment of riches. Disco pummeled the rest of the teams.

Quick Step (Garate, 21, +38:16). Won green jersey, 4 stages; 18 days in green.
They showed up for Boonen to win green. Mission accomplished. Steegmans’ and Vasseur’s stage wins are icing on the cake. Garate had a decent finish to show that they have one rider capable of climbing.

Barloworld (Soler, 11^th, +16:51). Won KoM, 2 stages; 5 days in dots; 2^nd in green jersey, 2nd in white jersey.
Barloworld has set the standard for wild card teams. Granted, it was all the work of 2 guys, but they maximized their potential. They’ve earned another bid for 2008.

2. Poursuivants

CSC (Sastre, 4^th +7:08). Won 2 stages, 7 days in yellow, 1 day in green.
They had all sorts of problems (Zabriskie was hurt and ineffective before being eliminated; O’Grady crashed out; Cancellara laid an egg in the two long time trials), yet still managed a really good result. Great teams do well even when they struggle.

Lotto (Evans, 2 +0:23). Won 1 stage and wore green for 1 day.
Obviously, the loss of McEwen hurt their results, but Evans, finishing only 23 seconds off the lead, is the posterboy for poursuivants. Next year Lotto should put climbing domestiques on the team to support Evans. He's their future, not Robbie McEwen.

Rabobank (Boogerd, 12^th +21:15). All of their awards are tainted because of Rasmussen, however, they did win 2 stages, wear yellow 9 days, wear dots for 8 days. Since he was removed by the team without being officially disqualified, those awards are retained. Rabobank is an enigma in terms of classifying.

3. Peloton

Euskaltel (Zubeldia, 5 +8:17). Most aggressive rider (Txurruka).
I mention the most aggressive rider not because it is meaningful, but to point out that they actually did earn some prize money. Euskaltel had their best Tour in years, placing 2 riders in the top 9 overall (Zubeldia & Astarloza). Txurruka was 3^rd in the young rider competition and actually got to wear the white jersey into Paris since Contador and Soler had to wear other shirts. This was a great improvement. Next year win something, guys.

Banesto (aka Cassie d’Epargne) (Valverde, 6^th +11:37). Winnings: none. 2^nd in team standings.
Valverde was 6^th, Pereiro was 10^th, Arroyo was 13^th, and Karpets was 14^th, Gutierrez was 22^nd. That’s an awfully talented team that came away with nothing.

Telekom (Kirchen, 7 +12:18). 1 stage win, 1 day in yellow, 2 days in white.
With Rogers crashing out and Sinkewitz testing positive for steroids, this could have been a disaster. Thanks to one great day by Gerdemann and top 10 finish by Kirchen, they salvage a decent Tour.

Lampre (Valjavec, 19 +37:08). 2 stage wins
Until stage 17, it looked bad for Lampre. Napolitano was eliminated for being too slow in the mountains, and they inexplicably spent time driving the peloton on practically every stage in the first 2 weeks with nothing obvious to gain beyond face time. Then Bennati won 2 of the final 4 stages. Lots of teams would be envious of that.

Milram (Knees, 47 +1:53:23). 3^rd in points, one day in green jersey.
I’m having a hard time justifying a spot for Milram in the Peloton versus the Autobus. As a team they were horrible; they were only 18 seconds away from being dead last in team time. However, they were in contention for the second biggest price—old man Zabel was only 24 points behind Boonen. Without Zabel, they'd be in the Abandon category for sure.

Credit Agricole (Fofonov, 26^rd +56:23). 1 stage win.
They are almost as difficult to classify as Milram. They did get a stage win, but on the other hand, Hushovd was a distant 4^th in the green jersey. However, the team was much stronger—they had 3 men finish in the top 33. Respectable, superior to Milram…Peloton it is.

4. Autobus

Liquigas (Beltran, 18^th +34:14) 1 stage win.
Pozzato got the stage win, but other than that, when did you ever notice Liquigas? Beltran finished well, at 18^th overall, I only remember seeing him a couple times as soon as the mountain domestiques cracked him.

FDJ (Lovqvist, 64^th +2:22:50). 1 stage win.
Sandy Casar got the stage win and Sebastian Chavanel was 5^th in the green jersey competition. On the other hand, this team must be allergic to mountains. They were dead last in the team competition and their highest placed rider was over 2 hours out.

Saunier (Mayo, 16^th +27:09). 2 days in dots.
OK, if we remove Mayo because of his EPO test, their best rider is Jose Cobo, 20^th place +37:14. Cobo and David Millar were at least active in the race, and that keeps them out of the bottom tier.

5. Abandon

Agritubel (Nevado, 39^th +1:36:33).
I watched the whole race and had no idea that any Agritubel rider did anything noteworthy.

AG2r (Goubert, 27^th +1:06:30)
They had a terrible tour. Moreau showed one good day in the mountains and then disappeared off the face of the earth (actually, he finished 37^th). In addition to lacking a rider within an hour of the yellow jersey, they didn’t have anyone in the top 10 for any other jersey.

Gerolsteiner (Kohl, 31^st +1:13:27).
There were a couple times that the cameras caught Kohl & Fothen getting dropped just as the peloton reached the mountains. That’s pretty crummy as an accomplishment.

Bogus Telekom (Florencio, 46^th +1:52:19).
Laurent Lefevre gets a pat on the back for his effort, but I’ve run out of good things to say about the team.