Most Disappointing Team of the Tour

[Old School]

Astana was mad weak. I mean, all they did was pull like a freight train the mountains, win a stage...win the yellow jersey.

I mean, they weren't gonna be nothing w/o the guys who left from last year.

Oh, wait...my bad.

 

[La Pandera]

3,2,1 until RS haters pop up...jk

i havent seen milram doin anything this tour,ciolek is pproly overhyped as a sprinter

but i think you are bit unfair to rabo...2 top 10 is great succes

The word "disappointing" implies that one had expectations of success. Milram had none of those. Ciolek isn't an elite sprinter and Gerdemann is as overrated as they come. He's not a grand tour contender and he can barely compete in the weeklong stage races unless the elite are there primarily for training. He's a classic "tweener". Decent at a couple of things but not exceptional at anything.

The Shack has to be the monumental disappointment of the Tour. Arriving with the strongest grand tour team and to have only one rider finish in the top ten of the gc when so much more was expected regardless of Armstrong's intimacy with the pavement. Leipheimer and Kloden produced zilch.

Leipheimer couldn't even come top 20 in the ITT, an event that many thought that he tanked the Tourmalet stage for because they thought that he felt he had a chance of winning the ITT.

Armstrong at no time exhibited the ability to climb with the top tier gc contenders even before his crashes. Him then commencing to soft-pedal for all but the one stage that he got in a break, especially after saying that he would be riding for Leipheimer was a slap in the face to his teammates, not that I believed for a second that he really would do as he said.

Paulinho's stage win has to be the highlight, regardless of their winning the team classification. With the lineup they had (Armstrong, Leipheimer, Kloden) and the parameters of the team classification competition, if they didn't win that would have been even more of a failure.

Team Sky would be my runner up because of their complete inability to adapt on the fly to Wiggins' failure. They had no plan b and seemed at a loss of what to do with Wiggins continually off the back on every mountain.

 

[hatcher]

Lots.

Cervelo. Hushovd and Sastre were both disappointing. Credit to Hushovd for the win on the cobbles, and for his battling performances in the mountains, but as a team they disappointed.

Liquigas were. Or more realistically, Kreuziger was. Basso was never gonna do anything after the Giro.

For Sky, Wiggins was obviously disappointing, but I don't think you can say Boasson Hagen was. He had a couple of 3rds, a 4th, and two or three other top 10 finishes; it's silly to suggest he should be winning sprints against Cav at this point, and even sillier to suggest he should be hanging in on the mountains. Bit unlucky with Gerrans.

Milram? Again tough to say Ciolek should be winning against Cav. Didn't really expect anyone for GC.

For Radio Shack only Horner really delivered. Saved a little by Paulinho's win. Similarly, Rodriguez stage win aside, Katusha were a little underwhelming.

Garmin got some good performances from surprising places, but no stage wins has to be a disappointment.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Liquigas was hugely disappointing, while Garmin was a combination of bad luck and lack of results. Team Sky isn't disappointing because no one should have expected anything from them in the first place. But in my opinion, the biggest let down of the tour was Cofidis. Usually a decent french team, I practically forgot they were in this tour. I can't even remember seeing any of their riders. At the very least the French teams should be extremely aggressive. I bet their missing Sylvain Chavanel right now.

 

[scribe]

Sky by a mile. Huge budget, great expectations and nothing to show for it.

Murdoch pretty effectively derailed Armstrong. He brought lots of attention to the professional cycling this summer and then stunk it up with Sky.

 

[TopCarbon]

team Sky.......what a turkey

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Funny, even the team classification win is a bit of a fluke. I mean Radioshack and Caisse are up there because of there breakaways in the third week. If you distract the time they'd been behind Rabobank.

 

[luckyboy]

Was thinking about this before.

Either Liquigas or Sky. Just realised I barely saw Cofidis though.

 

[blaxland]

Was thinking about this before.

Either Liquigas or Sky. Just realised I barely saw Cofidis though.

Completely agree with luckyboy on these three selections....Sky=Wiggins=Failed
Liquigas=Basso=Failed
Cofidis=B/away stage wins=Failed

 

[Ferminal]

Liquigas and Milram are the biggest let downs, the others are kind of expected.

 

[Gcraenen]

Radioshack wasn't the worst team, but they sure were dissapointing. I never did have high expectations of Sky, otherwise they may have been ahead in this poll.

 

[WonderLance]

Sky + Radiohack.

Two teams with good rosters and big budgets. Talking the talk but walking like a buch of weekend warriors in ill-fitting shoes.

 

[offbyone]

I think that clearly Wiggins would win the most disappointing rider competition. When you then consider that Sky made winning the TdF their main goal and then, "bought" wiggins in a ridiculous maneuver from garmin and built the team around him to accomplish this, they definitely take the cake.

Although I will say this, Wiggo gets a lot of credit in my book for being so candid about his fall from grace.

 

[ExRower]

Team Sky. Too much hype, and nothing to show for it.

 

[scribe]

The absolute absence of teamskyfans and acf94, is a pretty big indictment of sky and bmc.

 

[53 x 11]

Sky + RadioHack = All show, no go.

Stacked rosters, big money, big mouths.

 

[Jericho]

I voted for Cofidis, although not sure I expected that much from them. But in a pro-French tour, they did strike out.

Footon-Servetto - no expectations, so tough to disappont
Liquigas - they underachieved, but I figured Basso was too fried from the Giro anf Kruezinger still was top 10. Less than I would have expected, but not terrible
Milram - not great, and Ciolek hasn't look too good. Did get one second.
Rabobank - don't get this, I thought their tour went just fine
Team Sky - Wiggins crapped the bed, but Hagen saves it from being worst for me.

 

[Pedaaldanser]

Liquigas, they were invisible. I had expected more from them.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Team Sky definetly. They were shocking! They need to learn how to do leadouts!

 

[auscyclefan94]

BMC also didn't win a stage.... But since noone but ACF expected them to even show signs of life and they did wear yellow for a day and took their responsibilities that day I decided to leave them out of the short-list... But like I said, there is an other option.

BMC had a few good results across the stages.

Milram, hands down.
Sky were saved by Geraint Thomas's first week performance........just.

Yes but nobody expected Milram to do much and Ciolek was up there in a few sprints.

I do think Sky and RSH were dissapointing but everybody was expecting RSH to go badly and then when they do perform badly you still say they under performed. You can't have it both ways.

 

[M Sport]

How about Radioshack or Garmin?.

Nope. I'm on the record as not liking Pharmstrong that much but I'm honest enough to say that Radioshack was one of the better teams.

Sky was pretty dismal. Along with Cofidis, Footon, etc.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Gerdemann is as overrated as they come. He's not a grand tour contender and he can barely compete in the weeklong stage races unless the elite are there primarily for training. He's a classic "tweener". Decent at a couple of things but not exceptional at anything.

I think you're a bit unfair. When it comes to completely pointless and doomed attacks with 3-5km out when the leadout trains are in full swing, nobody on this earth can touch Linus. Not even Vino, cos at least Vino thinks to attack on tricky run-ins and at a distance he might be able to hold on for.

 

[Sørensen]

Man Utd. They normally never finish outside the top 3

 

[craig1985]

Man Utd. They normally never finish outside the top 3

OT, but I love your sig. I'm stealing it for use on another forum I visit.

 

[mowie133]

Cofidis by a mile!!! they are just makeing up the numbers at the tour,time to cut them lose,