Season in Review. Your thoughts?

[Boleyn]

My choices would be:


Who was the big surprise? Cadel winning the World's. Johnny Hoogerland.

Who was the big dissapointment? CE, DM, and CS in the TdF. Di Luca. Twitter.

Dissapointing and Best team? Worst - Fuji-Servetto. Best - Columbia-HTC.

Favourite victory for the year? Tommy Voeckler's TdF stage win. Moncoutie's Vuelta Stage win. Spartacus World's TT win.

What are you looking forward to during 2010? Great Racing with all the youngsters breaking through.

 

[blaxland]

I will start off...

Surprise - To go left field, i think Johny Hoogerland has been quite impressive and even when he has looked out of it he gets back on the front and attacks.

Dissapointment - Lance Armstrong, he hasn't matured at all and goes with petty little fights like incidents such as Simeoni's, bassons' and Halgand's

Worst team for the year - AG2R, they have a lot of quality riders but seem to fail to deliver. Originally going to give it to Lotto but since August they have been superb.

Best all round team for the year - Saxo bank, even though their Vuelta was dissapointing, they can win/place in any type of race and they are always a major player of any race.

Favourite victory - Evans at the Worlds, gutsy, panache and well fought out. great race as well. Only race other than PR that they show live in Aus.

Looking forward to in 2010 - Armstrong/Contador battle at the tour and to see guys like menchov, sastre and evans to be back at the tour. I'm also hoping gesink has a another shot at the tour. He's a talent.

suprise;menchov winning giro
disapointment;valverde still riding races and not receiving a 2 year ban
worst team of the year;definantley fuji(what results have they got this year)
best team of the year;tied saxo bank(good results)skil/shimano(love watching them race)
favourite victory;world championships(finally cadel shuts up his critics)
looking forward to in 2010;going to the world road race in melbourne(hopefully albi davis will win)

 

[Moondance]

suprise;menchov winning giro
disapointment;valverde still riding races and not receiving a 2 year ban
worst team of the year;definantley fuji(what results have they got this year)
best team of the year;tied saxo bank(good results)skil/shimano(love watching them race)
favourite victory;world championships(finally cadel shuts up his critics)
looking forward to in 2010;going to the world road race in melbourne(hopefully albi davis will win)

The two Vueltas he won hadn't convinced you that he could win a grand tour?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Rather than follow the set criteria, my overall opinion of the season was that 2009 was disappointing.
Obviously, there were some highlights, but the Grand Tours were lifeless and none of the early season semi's produced anything unexpected.
Paris-Nice was obviously a "classic" stage race, more akin to old style Tours.

For all the fatigue and top riders heading for the beach, the final month of the season actually produced some of the best racing.

 

[craig1985]

Rather than follow the set criteria, my overall opinion of the season was that 2009 was disappointing.
Obviously, there were some highlights, but the Grand Tours were lifeless and none of the early season semi's produced anything unexpected.
Paris-Nice was obviously a "classic" stage race, more akin to old style Tours.

For all the fatigue and top riders heading for the beach, the final month of the season actually produced some of the best racing.

Oh come on, you have to be happy that Luis Leon Sanchez won Paris-Nice and a stage at the Tour. Well going by your avatar, I assume you are a fan of him.

 

[Tugboat]

The two Vueltas he won hadn't convinced you that he could win a grand tour?

It was still a surprise that he beat a doped to the gills Di Luca!

 

[sully67]

Year in review.

Big suprise:BOOM... Now thats talent.
Disapointment: The Bore De France. All hype, none of the excitement of The Giro or even the Vuelta.Conservative racing with either Astana or Columbia squelching attacks.
Best Team: Gotta give it to Columbia even though Cavendish winning almost every bunch sprint gets boring.
Favorite Victory goes to Simon Gerrans for a gutsy grinding hilltop finish in Vuelta.Another star of the future.
Looking forward to ]NO RACE RADIOS IN 2010 Please for the sake of saving racing from these dark days of predictability.STICK TO YOUR GUNS U.C.I!!!

 

[issoisso]

Favorite Victory goes to Simon Gerrans for a gutsy grinding hilltop finish in Vuelta

Eh? I....don't remember Gerrans winning any hilltop finishes at the Vuelta.

Either way, if he's going to be a star, he'd better hurry, considering he's turning 30 very very soon

 

[luckyboy]

The two Vueltas he won hadn't convinced you that he could win a grand tour?

One of those was only because a fellow doper got caught

 

[aarnold517]

i don't think fuji can be considered a disappointment. they lost their top two riders (ricco and piepoli) and did not get in to a ton of races because of those two. everyone expected them to be terrible and they were. milram, on the other hand, had high expectations coming in, signed gerdemann and ciolek from columbia and brought in all of those riders from milram such as wegmann and the fothen brothers, and none of their riders delivered like they were expected...that's why i think they were the ultimate disappointment, because they had much higher expectations, yet did not do much better

 

[Ferminal]

Eh? I....don't remember Gerrans winning any hilltop finishes at the Vuelta.

Either way, if he's going to be a star, he'd better hurry, considering he's turning 30 very very soon

Maybe he meant the Giro?

 

[luckyboy]

i don't think fuji can be considered a disappointment. they lost their top two riders (ricco and piepoli) and did not get in to a ton of races because of those two.

How many races did they actually go under the 'Scott - American Beef' name? I always wondered why 'American Beef' spent such a small amount of time sponsoring (y'know, with no follow up interest)

 

[Mellow Velo]

Oh come on, you have to be happy that Luis Leon Sanchez won Paris-Nice and a stage at the Tour. Well going by your avatar, I assume you are a fan of him.

If you go back and read my original post, I have highlighted what I said about Paris-Nice.
In my book, that's top praise.
LL Sanchez? I like his style. Took the avatar from P-N. (obviously, the MJ)
I like his style of riding. One of the few who can decend with the other Mr Sanchez.
Am I a fan? No. I try to avoid worshipping individual riders or teams, as I've seen how it can effect objectivity!

 

[van nelle]

Who was the big dissapointment?
*the TDF
*The "undesired comebacks" and the LA/Bruyneel nonsense
*Sastre in the TDF-setting aside his fantastic performance in the Giro
*Roman Kreuziger-perhaps too much expectations around him
__________________

Kreuziger one of the biggest dissapointments of 2009 season? This on really forced me to register here!

The guy is 23 (actually was 22 for half of the season). He won GC on Romandie, was 2 on San Sebastian, 3 on Tour de Suisse GC, he said he wants to be in first 10 on TdF and was 9. Than fantastic work for Basso on Vuelta (this was BIG suprise for me, complete sacrifice - real pro approach) + if Philip Deignan wasn't such a boy scout he could have a stage too Than if that is dissapointment for 22/23 year old than what would be success?? This type of expectations is one of the reasons why there is so much dopers in cycling. I thing RK really is doing excelent job, step by step approach, he sets REALISTICAL goals for himself and than fulfill them, not jo-joing in form which is quite an achievement for such a young lad. I thing in fact Kreuziger is the biggest GC talent apart from Andy, which he proved many times by results. I'm sure he will win big one day.

BTW - What about Velits brothers in Columbia next year, they can suprise few i thing.

 

[ak-zaaf]

Kreuziger one of the biggest dissapointments of 2009 season? This on really forced me to register here!

The guy is 23 (actually was 22 for half of the season). He won GC on Romandie, was 2 on San Sebastian, 3 on Tour de Suisse GC, he said he wants to be in first 10 on TdF and was 9. Than fantastic work for Basso on Vuelta (this was BIG suprise for me, complete sacrifice - real pro approach) + if Philip Deignan wasn't such a boy scout he could have a stage too Than if that is dissapointment for 22/23 year old than what would be success?? This type of expectations is one of the reasons why there is so much dopers in cycling. I thing RK really is doing excelent job, step by step approach, he sets REALISTICAL goals for himself and than fulfill them, not jo-joing in form which is quite an achievement for such a young lad. I thing in fact Kreuziger is the biggest GC talent apart from Andy, which he proved many times by results. I'm sure he will win big one day.

BTW - What about Velits brothers in Columbia next year, they can suprise few i thing.

Thank you for that.

 

[Oldman]

As all the big races are coming to an end i thought i would start a thread reviewing the season.

Who was the big surprise? Evans at world's. Good finish

Who was the big dissapointment? Armstrong's drama queen persona vs. Boonen's self destructive antics

Dissapointing and Best team? Rabo/disappointing, Columbia

Favourite victory for the year? Tyler Farrar over Petachi

What are you looking forward to during 2010?

Marc Madiot admitting French racing is just as infected as other countries'

 

[issoisso]

Another disappointment: Urán's anonymous season. Not one decent result. Not one.