BEST and WORST team performance in 2011 tour

[maxmartin]

My thought

Best: Garmin

Worst: Liquigas and quickstep

 

[jsem94]

Worst: Saur Sojasun

Best: Europcar

 

[maxmartin]

Europcar indeed is a big surprise, hard to imagine this team facing dissolving last year and lots of top riders left the team. So majority of this team are young riders???

Worst: Saur Sojasun

Best: Europcar

 

[Oreknan]

Best: Leopard, probably 2 guys in final podium and was near to win the mountain clasiffication
Worst: saur, ag2r, katusha. difficult to say

 

[El Pistolero]

Best: Omega-Pharma-Lotto
Worst: Katusha

 

[roundabout]

Europcar indeed is a big surprise, hard to imagine this team facing dissolving last year and lots of top riders left the team. So majority of this team are young riders???

I think all riders from Europcar Tour team rode for Bbox last year so it's a change in name only.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Saur haven't been so bad. Coppel's now up to 14th, though admittedly against a much weaker field than we'd been expecting, thanks to crashes.

Katyusha have probably had the worst race. The only thing they've done that's even worth mentioning is have a rider test positive.

Well, actually Radioshack have had the worst race, since they came with 4 GC contenders and left with 0, but that's the worst race as in terrible luck, not just being poor.

 

[ansimi]

Best - Europcar (easy choice for me)
Worst - Katusha (tougher choice but other teams that were terrible had less talent and/or more injuries and no doping positives)

 

[masking_agent]

best - europcar - they helped TV stay in yellow
worst - saxobank - lack of climbing support for Contador

 

[LargusMeans]

Best Team: Eurocar by a mile. White Jersey. Stage Win. 10 days in yellow. Turned themselves inside out.

Worst Team: Saxobank. Other then CAS and a few seconds of Hernandez where was this team? Bla bla bla, Ritchie Porte, major lieutenant for Contador. Don't think I saw him the whole tour. Team was weak in TTT and let down Bertie completely over the 3 weeks. Truly think that AC would have been better off with Astana this race.
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)
2 Jesus Hernandez Blazquez (Spa)
3 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa)
4 Benjamin Noval Gonzalez (Spa)
5 Richie Porte (Aus)
6 Chris Anker Sørensen (Den)
7 Nicki Sörensen (Den)
8 Matteo Tosatto (Ita)
9 Brian Vandborg (Den)

Wow, how many of those names do you remember hearing this last month? Tosatto and Vandborg. LOL.

 

[Ragerod]

Best
Europcar - Multiple days in yellow, stage win & possible white jersey winners.
OPL - 3 different stage winners & have worn the yellow, green and polka dot jerseys.
Team Thor - Impressive defence of yellow & two stage wins.

Notable mention to Team Sky & HTC.

I don't care about the worst team performance.

 

[K-0tic]

Best: Europcar for sure, way above their expectations, smile for them.

Worst: Hard to pick between Radioshack,Quickstep and Katusha.

 

[Kvinto]

best: Omega Pharma - Lotto: 3 stage victories by the 3 different riders and I'm so sorry VDB got injured
worst: Katusha: total failure and one suspension

 

[Ibanez]

Best: Europcar.
Worst: Katusha.

No way can Saur be the worst team, they have at least been very visible in the breakaways and that's as much as they could have expected. Can't say Geox would have done much more

 

[Mambo95]

Best: Garmin - Four stages, a week in yellow, a GC top ten and the team competition
Worst: Katusha - have they done anything other than fail a dope test?

 

[jsem94]

Best: Europcar.
Worst: Katusha.

No way can Saur be the worst team, they have at least been very visible in the breakaways and that's as much as they could have expected. Can't say Geox would have done much more

True. Menchov would've hit the tarmac so bad on stage 1

 

[Zaschrona]

Best: 1. Garmin, 2. Europcar 3. Leopard
Worst: 1. Katusha, 2. Quick Step, 3. Astana

 

[cycladianpirate]

Best: Garmin

To put it into perspective, I almost forgive them that Thor nonsense at the presentation (and that's saying something)....

 

[Christian]

FDJ was really great too, unfortunately they didn't get a stage win but they tried every day

 

[mastersracer]

worst: BMC - team pulling on stages that were meaningless, disappearing when it mattered, and leaving Evans to chase the important breaks.

 

[SirLes]

At this stage Europecar for exceeding all expectation closely followed by Garmin Cervelo who did as well as they could have possibly hoped for. If they win another stage then I might put them ahead of Europecar.

If Cadel wins then BMC are contenders as well.

Katusha have been horrible despite a big budget. One gets the feeling it's not a happy place to be. Radioshack have also had a nightmare of epic proportions given their expectations.

 

[Thomsena]

Best: Garmin, Europcar
Worst: Saxo Bank, Radioshack

 

[Anonymous]

1st Europcar, by a way for me, several days in yellow, stage win, and a few days in white
2nd Garmin Yellow and two stage wins for Thor
3rd Sky, controversial maybe but two stage wins and two riders in white for multiple days despite losing their leader is a vast improvement on last year

The worst
Katusha - are they even riding the Tour
One does wonder if this team with loads of money, poor management and no ranking points rumoured to be offering Highroad a way out is them.
Radioshack - hit by crashes and injuried but even then the likes of Leipheimer seem determined to replay lances fiasco last year

But, If leopard do not win the tour, with two strong riders, and Contador injured, I think they can be considered the worst. Cancellara winning the time trial will be little consolation. Coupled with the complete mess up in the classics, they are making Sky's debut season look like a roaring success.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Best is easy, it has to be Europcar: Cheap turbo diesels and super charged sports models for easy rent.

For the title of worst, the competition is far stiffer: Saur, Katusha, Q Step etc.

But, when one factors in team expectation and factors out luck, one squad is head and shoulders above the rest, for winner of this less than coveted award.

Last year's team classification winners, this years team collapsification award: Team Radio Shack. (I still like their kit, though)

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Let's wait, shall we? It's Garmin and Europcar right now, but wins from Martin and Cavendish over the weekend, and you'd say HTC.