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.

TdF All Star Team (version 2)

Usually when I pick my TdF All-Star team I use this formula: 2 GC riders, 2 climbers, 2 sprinters, 1 time trial specialist, and 2 domestiques. There is usually a little problem with the GC riders in that they are also the best climbers and/or time trialists. I’m going to deviate from the mold slightly. Also, the expulsions in the 2007 Tour have thrown in a wrinkle. OK, the departure of Cofidis had no effect on any awards. Astana was headed for glory before they were shown the door, as was Rasmussen. Excluding Astana makes sense since they weren’t around for half the race. I’m going to look over Rasmussen, but I won’t argue (much) with Stephen if he includes him.

Enough talk…here is the vaunted list of venerable TdF studs.

Bert Contador, Cadel Evans, and Levi Leipheimer are no-brainers. Part of the reason I’m not classifying these guys by position is that I can’t say Leipheimer was the better time trialist or that Evans was the better climber. They were both awesome at both. Just look at it this way—these 3 were separated by 31 seconds and the 4^th place man was 7 minutes behind. They were separated only slightly among themselves, but by a huge margin vs. the rest of the field.

Tom Boonen and Robbie Hunter are my sprinters, which is also pretty obvious. Boonen was the best sprinter by a lot. Although Zabel was very close to Hunter on points, Hunter got a stage win, so that’s the difference.

Mauricio Soler fits the profile of the pure climber and gets a spot on the All-Star team. Winning the KoM isn’t an automatic ticket, but this guy earned it. He didn’t disappear on the final climb or on the day after a big ride like some other phony climbers who have won this jersey in the past. He would have won even if Rasmussen had remained in the race.

Domestiques: Yaroslav Popovych was the best domestique in the race. His pacesetting separated the elite from the pretenders, and he did it repeatedly. Instead of punching out, he held on for a high finish day after day to propel Discovery in the team competition. Perhaps his key moment was in the Alps when, seemingly spent after a long breakaway, he was caught by Contador and then pointed to his back wheel. He paced Contador as he rode away from…Evans and Leipheimer, et al. Michael Boogerd earned a spot on the All-Star team in his service to Rasmussen. Setting the pace in the mountains was supposed to be his job, but he essentially pulled a double shift since Denis Menchov was worthless. My last spot goes to Gert Steegmans. Gert accidentally won Stage 2 as he lead out Boonen. Beyond that, Steegmans was ALWAYS Boonen’s number one man in the lead out. I was tempted to put Fabian Cancellara on the team because his first week was so great, but he doesn’t make the cut because his time trial in Albi was terrible. He finished 107^th in Albi and only 12^th in the final time trial.

Other awards:

Best moment: Like I said before, the 15-20 minutes in the final time trial between Leipheimer’s second time check and the time Contador crossed the finish line was riveting. The Tour was up in the air for the top 3 guys. At every moment I wondered if Leipheimer could maintain his pace (he did), if Evans was losing too much (he didn’t), or if Contador was getting faster at the end (he was).

Worst moment: One week ago I was sure it was Vino’s blood doping, but we sunk to a new low with the expulsion of Rasmussen. On the day he practically clinched the victory he got yanked for violating team rules. He’s never tested positive for dope, and the only public evidence against him is heresy. Oddly, the Tour and the doping police beat themselves up, saying they were failures. Maybe that was to obscure the fact that they had been railroading Rasmussen since the Tour started.

Iron man award: None. Nobody endured an extraordinary injury. Well, it could have been Vinokourov, but, you know. However, I will salute Stuart O’Grady, who, after crashing out with 5 broken ribs, a broken collar bone, and broken vertebrae, said, “Sign me up for the Vuelta.”

Best Surprise: Well, clearly Contador is, and then Soler. To avoid repetition, I’ll mention Linus Gerdemann. He got a stage win and wore the yellow jersey for a day. Surprisingly, he rode a good final time trial, so he’s got the endurance to make it through 3 weeks of Tour. As far as the most surprising team: obviously Barloworld.

Most disappointing:
Individual—Chris Moreau. He was a no-show. He couldn’t even muster a couple good days, much less a good tour.
Team—Banesto had 4 men in the top 15, so it’s not right to call them disappointing, but they did it anonymously. Really, I only remember seeing them as they were getting dropped by all the riders who were trying to make things happen. These guys were super talented, but it looked like they were watching the race.

Best tactical move: Discovery placed Popovych in the breakaway on Stage 9, setting up Contador. The worst tactical move was Michal Rogers’ decision to go on a long breakaway on the first mountain stage. The gutsiest move was Carlos Sastre’s desperate all day attack on stage 16. It didn’t work in terms of getting on the podium, but it did help him hold off Valverde, Popovych, and Kirchen (hence, I praise him and criticize Rogers).

Steve's All-Star Team

The team rundown and Jason's awards are coming, but here is my All-Star team of this year's Tour:

GC: Alberto Contador, DSC
GC: Cadel Evans, LOT

Really, who else? These were the two strongest riders on the Tour and they battled back and forth throughout. You can't say enough good things about either of them.

Time Trialist: Levi Leipheimer, DSC
Time Trialist: Fabian Cancellara, CSC

OK, Evans probably deserves to be in this group but I've already put him up in the GC. Leipheimer put forth one of the all-time great time trials in Stage 19, and almost stole this race from everybody. Cancellara gets a mention for winning the prologue and making the first week special. Seems like ages ago.

Climber: Juan Soler, BAR

Even if Rasmussen had not been ejected from the race, Soler still would have won the polka dot jersey. There is absolutely no taint on his win. He was the biggest pleasant surprise of this Tour. We both dismissed Barloworld, and they were real players.

Sprinter: Tom Boonen, QSP
Sprinter: Erik Zabel, MIL

Boonen fianlly gets his green jersey, and he did it with relative ease. He had comfortable lead throughout and just never let anyone off the mat. And can you believe Zabel is still a competitive sprinter? He didn't actually win anything, but he was in on everything, and that was pretty amazing.

Domestique: Yaroslav Popovych, DSC
Domestique: Micheal Boogerd, RAB
Domestique: Andreas Kloden, AST

Popovych is obvious. He was a beast for three weeks. The other two are here for doing the heavy lifting for a guy who was kicked out of the Tour. I don't think this minimizes or diminishes their efforts. Boogerd was the most outspoken in his bitterness towards his team captain, but he decided to ride into Paris and take his 11th place finish. He's not usually a great climber, but he did a great job sticking around on the big stages.

Kloden is now the most unfortunate figure in cycling. He gave up his goal of winning the Tour to help Vino win. It took the team a few days to figure out that Vino didn't have it this year and decide to ride for Kloden, but not after Kloden sacrificed time to help out Vino. And then, when Astana finally decides to ride for Kloden, the whole team gets booted for Vino's positive test. No rider sacrificed more for his captain than Kloden. He might have even given up a yellow jersey.

Stage 20 Thoughts

I'm watching the final stage hit the Champs d'Elyses right now. Discovery is leading their man, Alberto Contador, and breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Neither of us wrote about yesterday's time trial, which may be the greatest time trial ever. Leipheimer had the ride of his life, and at the end of the day, the top three riders were separated by 31 seconds. Leipheimer missed out on making this a one-two Disco finish by the length of a 10 second penalty in the early days of the Tour.

That's when it struck me that this has been both the best and the worst Tour ever. The doping scandals are out of control, and it is all anyone can talk about. Vino's B-sample just came up positive, yet another reminder of the Tour we have had. On the other hand, this has been the most exciting racing I can ever remember. This was a wide open race almost the whole way through, and the last day came down to a terrific battle on the ITT. The climbing stages were equally as exciting as the biggest contender seemed to change on an almost daily basis.

It's a shame that this Tour will be remembered as the Doping Tour because the race itself was great. Vive la Tour!