Best and worst teams in 2012 Tour

[cineteq]

RSNT? They're leading the team GC so they must be good.

 

[Kwibus]

For personal reasons I have to add Saxo on the worst teams list. They gave me so much misery with CAS. That guy just looks so ugly on the bike. Hands down the second ugliest thing I've seen on my TV screen, only second to Tora Berger on skis. And of course he's in every break in the mountains and I'm forced to watch him ride for hours.

Nothing to add really.

edit: Had a better pic, but it didn't work since it had sh*t in the link

 

[woodenswan]

Europcar! an amazing Tour they're having

Lotto pretty solid as well

Lampre has done sod all

 

[greenedge better then some]

katusha ag2r have done well oh wait they are in the tour? ... ag2r seems to be the poor relation of fdj in the past 2 tours,

greenedge have had alot of top 10s in the first week so no fail imo just a so-so tour
sky has been a let down thought they could of went 1,2,3,4

 

[Cimber]

Are you Danish, by any chance?

Saxo have been okay, they've sure been in some breakaways, but when push comes to shove none of these guys can really make a mark on the race. Chris Anker is the personification of Saxo sans Contador: he tries really hard, but he's just not good enough.

Oh but I didnt claim they are the best team at all. they arent. But they sure isnt the worst either. Somewhere in the midfield. Considering their material they have dont fine. Had expected less of them to be perfectly honest. I had expected them to be among the worst teams, which I why they surprised me positively.

CAS have been close a few times, but Europcar must give him nightmares. First Rolland and then Voeckler

 

[Kwibus]

Oh but I didnt claim they are the best team at all. they arent. But they sure isnt the worst either. Somewhere in the midfield. Considering their material they have dont fine. Had expected less of them to be perfectly honest. I had expected them to be among the worst teams, which I why they surprised me positively.

CAS have been close a few times, but Europcar must give him nightmares. First Rolland and then Voeckler

I agree. Regarding Saxo's lineup they did fine.
They did everything they could really and that was attack and see if it would earn them something.
Still they had one of the weakest teams, but atleast they tried everything to make this TdF a good TdF for them and imo they can be satisfied despite having nothing.

 

[Martin]

Nothing to add really.

edit: Had a better pic, but it didn't work since it had sh*t in the link

LOL

 

[SafeBet]

Best were Sky and Europcar. Liquigas failed to support Nibali as contender (not saying this would have changed much anyway).

Worst was Argos.

 

[burning]

Best:
Sky
Europcar
Liquigas-Team Sagan
Honorable Mention:Lotto

Worst:
Argos
Cofidis
Saur-Sojasun
Lampre

And the worst of all is Greenedge. (Compared to expectations, I thought they would get 1 stage with Goss and 1 with Gerrans or Albasini

 

[Warhawk]

Separated into tiers. Tended to take expectations into account, especially toward the bottom.

Groupe Zzzzzzzz:
1. Sky

Groupe Good Show Chaps:
2. Europcar
3. Liquigas
4. Lotto
5. FDJ

Groupe Could-Have-Been-Worse-I-Guess:
6. BMC
7. RSNT

Groupe At-Least-We-Can-Prove-We-Were-In-The-Race:
8. Astana
9. Movistar
10. Rabo
11. Garmin
12. Saxo
13. AG2R

Groupe Count-The-Names-We-Got-Mentioned-On-One-Hand:
14. Euskaltel
15. Katusha
16. OPQS

Groupe Tripped-Over-The-Low-Bar:
17. Argos
18. Saur

Groupe Faceplant:
19. Cofidis
20. Vacansoleil
21. Lampre
22. Greenedge

 

[burning]

Separated into tiers. Tended to take expectations into account, especially toward the bottom.

Groupe Zzzzzzzz:
1. Sky

Groupe Good Show Chaps:
2. Europcar
3. Liquigas
4. Lotto
5. FDJ

Groupe Could-Have-Been-Worse-I-Guess:
6. BMC
7. RSNT

Groupe At-Least-We-Can-Prove-We-Were-In-The-Race:
8. Astana
9. Movistar
10. Rabo
11. Garmin
12. Saxo
13. AG2R

Groupe Count-The-Names-We-Got-Mentioned-On-One-Hand:
14. Euskaltel
15. Katusha
16. OPQS

Groupe Tripped-Over-The-Low-Bar:
17. Argos
18. Saur

Groupe Faceplant:
19. Cofidis
20. Vacansoleil
21. Lampre
22. Greenedge

This is quite accurate in my opinion

Still, poor Euskaltel, they got screwed badly

 

[Warhawk]

This is quite accurate in my opinion

Still, poor Euskaltel, they got screwed badly

True. They ended up in that groupe because they at least tried. Vacansoleil kinda gave up, except for the regular Hoogerland-goes-in-break-and-drops-at-the-base-of-the-first-climb thing they seemed to be doing. And, obviously, Rabo and Garmin were even higher because they salvaged a stage win and were really gunning for stage wins after they both kinda lost plans A, B, and C in the first week.

 

[jencredible]

Given the number of TT kilometers and the kind of squad they can bring to bear I'd have to say OPQS were pretty damned disappointing.

 

[BoxCoppi]

Given the number of TT kilometers and the kind of squad they can bring to bear I'd have to say OPQS were pretty damned disappointing.

Well.. Do remember that Martin got a flat in both TTs and a broken hand. Chav did quite well in my opinion until he got sick. At least he continously attacked

 

[T-Rav.]

Given the number of TT kilometers and the kind of squad they can bring to bear I'd have to say OPQS were pretty damned disappointing.

Agreed. This was a team that had dominated all spring. But some seriously bad luck...Chavanel getting sick, Martin getting hurt (again this year), Levi breaking his leg earlier in the year, etc. For them this has basically been a lost Tour.

 

[Gloin22]

Agreed. This was a team that had dominated all spring. But some seriously bad luck...Chavanel getting sick, Martin getting hurt (again this year), Levi breaking his leg earlier in the year, etc. For them this has basically been a lost Tour.

Velits and Weert were very much disappoitning duo from OPQS - stayed healthy but couldn't produce anything meaningful.

 

[El Pistolero]

Because those are the guys you expect to win stages.

 

[Gloin22]

Because those are the guys you expect to win stages.

Obviously not It's not like Chavanel was expected to win any stage too...

But if you look at Last year Velits had a very strong finish to tour and could have got good place in GC this year too 3rd at Aple Huez last year ?

Weert also could have got good GC - which he didn't ...

 

[El Pistolero]

What a bunch of nonsense. Chava was very close to a couple of stage wins and he'd be a good bet for one before the Tour.

De Weert and Velits are bad examples. They're not the guys you rely on for success.

QS didn't send their best riders to the Tour because they were more interested in the Olympics. The only good cyclists they did send had bad luck.

 

[Gloin22]

What a bunch of nonsense. Chava was very close to a couple of stage wins and he'd be a good bet for one before the Tour.

De Weert and Velits are bad examples. They're not the guys you rely on for success.

QS didn't send their best riders to the Tour because they were more interested in the Olympics. The only good cyclists they did send had bad luck.

Very close is not close enough. And he was never 'very close'. Tell me, where he was very close ? LL Sanchez was very close today. Chava was never in such position.

Like who ? Boonen ? I don't think he would get any sprints results anyway. Ciolek ? He didn't record one decent result in Poland....

Terpstra ? Agreed, could have shown something.

That's it in my opinion for riders who could get good results in GT.

They sent all their GC riders here - 2 rode with no bad luck and didn't do anything. Levi was good at Cali and 3rd in Suiise and that showed he recovered from accident - he wasn't good enough at Tour - don't see the part with luck. Tony indeed had bad luck.

 

[gustienordic]

Separated into tiers. Tended to take expectations into account, especially toward the bottom.

Groupe Zzzzzzzz:
1. Sky

Groupe Good Show Chaps:
2. Europcar
3. Liquigas
4. Lotto
5. FDJ

Groupe Could-Have-Been-Worse-I-Guess:
6. BMC
7. RSNT

Groupe At-Least-We-Can-Prove-We-Were-In-The-Race:
8. Astana
9. Movistar
10. Rabo
11. Garmin
12. Saxo
13. AG2R

Groupe Count-The-Names-We-Got-Mentioned-On-One-Hand:
14. Euskaltel
15. Katusha
16. OPQS

Groupe Tripped-Over-The-Low-Bar:
17. Argos
18. Saur

Groupe Faceplant:
19. Cofidis
20. Vacansoleil
21. Lampre
22. Greenedge

All the bolded teams had absolutely terrible luck. Especially Rabo... and LLS still one a stage. I'd say they are doing pretty good for only having 4 riders...

 

[orangerider]

Katusha - all their eggs in one basket with Menchov and he failed miserably with no excuse of accidents or illness either - just plain mediocre rider.

 

[Warhawk]

All the bolded teams had absolutely terrible luck. Especially Rabo... and LLS still one a stage. I'd say they are doing pretty good for only having 4 riders...

I know, and they're roughly in the order of how well they managed to make the most of their rotten luck.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Best:

Europcar, Sky.

Honourable mention:

Liquigas, FDJ

Worst (teams with no excuses for poor form):

Lampre, Cofidis.

Teams that have to do a helluva lot better next time:

Greenedge, Katusha.

 

[Old&slow]

Best

1. Sky - Likely they will have 6 wins by the end of the Tour along with 1st and second.
2. Liquigas - 3 stage wins, Green jersey and 3rd overall.
3. Eurocar 3 stages wins and Polka.
4. Lotto - 3 stages wins
5. Radio - 1 stage win, Yellow for 7 days, 4 in top 20, team competition winner and likely 2 in top 10. Quite good for a team in dissaray with no legitimate pre tour contender.

Worst
1. I really would like to put Garmin here as they helped ruin a lot of this Tour with all the crashes they have caused and are the primary reason today was only the second full sprint where top sprinters were not excluded by crashes. Bur Millar seems to have saved their Tour so I will go with Euskatel as they were almost invisible this Tour.
2. Garmin I don't care if they won a stage because the Peleton was to lazy to chase they ruined a good part of the Tour with the crashes they caused. The Sprint stages are by far the most exciting part of the Tour. We have to suffer through boring mountain stages to see sprint stages and because of Garmin we have not seen much for sprints this year.
3. Close third would be Saur and VCD,and Omega. Like Eus Saur and VCD (outside of Van Hummel) were invisible. Omega had a very bad Tour for all the talent they had on their team.
6+ Pick any of the 11 teams not listed above that did not win a stage.