Weakest team to win tour in modern times?

[coinneach]

OK, I know the tour is not yet over, but I'm trying to remember a weaker team with the yellow jersey than Sky.
Apart from Froome & Porte (and that is a big apart), they are terrible.

Was Cadel's team weaker when he won?
Or Pantani's??

Comments welcome!

 

[icefire]

OK, I know the tour is not yet over, but I'm trying to remember a weaker team with the yellow jersey than Sky.
Apart from Froome & Porte (and that is a big apart), they are terrible.

Was Cadel's team weaker when he won?
Or Pantani's??

Comments welcome!

ADR 1989. Their leader only met them at breakfast and dinner. Wait... 1989 was another era

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Caisse d'Epargne 2006 or Phonak 2006, depending on your point of view.

 

[Vino's Mum]

ADR 1989. Their leader only met them at breakfast and dinner. Wait... 1989 was another era

Gets my vote. Only Johan Museeuw and maybe a couple more made it to Paris, and Greg was on his own every day by the third week in the Alps.

 

[Panda Claws]

BMC 2011 was pretty weak in the mountains, but did a good TTT.

 

[The Hitch]

This team really isn't that weak. They had 1 surprising very bad stage but Porte is still 1 of the 3 or 4 best climbers in the race, kennaugh also amazing. Ebh and Thomas was crashes not the team being bad.

bmc 2011 I think was way worse.

 

[Koba80]

Did Cuddles have a team the year he won?

 

[Netserk]

2011 & 2006 was worse.

 

[roundabout]

CEI team strength didn't really matter in "hindsight".

Should Porte go missing Froome is in trouble.

 

[SafeBet]

2006 by a pretty wide margin.

 

[Bobby G]

Contador in '09? It was all for Armstrong and let Contador do what he wants at Astana that year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

He still benefited from a free ride from them.

Compare that 2009 Astana team that crushed everything in its wake (and gave him a headstart thanks to the TTT) to the 2006 teams that duked it out:

Phonak:
Floyd Landis
Bert Grabsch
Robbie Hunter
Nicolas Jalabert
Martin Perdiguero
Axel Merckx
Koos Moerenhout
Alexandre Moos
Victor Hugo Peña

...they let Pereiro's break go with just over a week to go because they didn't want to defend the jersey for 10 days, which compared to this Sky team defending for probably two weeks (they've done what Phonak were too weak to do already) is pretty weak.

Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears
Alejandro Valverde (crashed out of the race on stage 3)
David Arroyo
Florent Brard
Isaac Gálvez DEP
Txente García
Vladimir Karpets
Óscar Pereiro
Nicolas Portal
Xabier Zandio

By the time they acquired the maillot jaune, Gálvez had also left the race, and they were unable to prevent Floyd on his own taking minutes.

 

[robow7]

I once heard Lemond say that he won the Tour once because of his team, once without a team and once in spite of his team so I'll take either of the last two.

 

[RiccoDinko]

2007, Rabobank Team Management The Weakest. Long Live the Chicken.

 

[auscyclefan94]

BMC easily if you look at it from a climbing perspective.

 

[coinneach]

Surely the difference with all those weak year teams 89, 98, 06 & 11 was that none of them tried to defend the jersey for 2 weeks!

 

[FignonLeGrand]

CSC in 2008. The whole team spent all their energy stroking the Schlecks lovely hair and then Sastre had to do one on his own and save the day.

 

[Billie]

CSC in 2008. The whole team spent all their energy stroking the Schlecks lovely hair and then Sastre had to do one on his own and save the day.

Cancellara and Gustov totally killed the field over Croix-de-Fer that day while Andy countered all attacks behind Sastre

 

[Vino's Mum]

I once heard Lemond say that he won the Tour once because of his team, once without a team and once in spite of his team so I'll take either of the last two.

Excellent.

The last of those is 86 La Vie Claire, of course. Greg, Andy Hampsten and Steve Bauer, versus The Badger, Jef Bernard and the rest, save for the two Swiss in the middle, naturally enough.

Despite everything, they came 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th on GC. Imagine the tears on here if that was Froome, Wiggins, Porte, Kennaugh, and Thomas!

 

[TheBean]

Should Porte go missing Froome is in trouble.

It didn't pan out that way earlier in this Tour.

Even if Froome were to have all of his team mates perform below expectation forthe remainder of the Tour, I think he is strong enough to follow wheels in the flats and outclimb everyone.

He could just follow Quintana around and, as Quintana will have support to lock up the white jersey and would then pace Froome up the slopes, Froome would still win it all with a comfortable margin.

The only thing that can hurt Froome's chances is Froome, himself. A crash, forgetting toeat or drink, gettng sick, or ****ing positive are the only ways he could lose it.

As for team strength, Sky looked good on Ventoux, shelling all but a handful or riders before Porte even took to the lead. Sky looked good in the crosswinds, as well, limiting the loss to a minute to the combined efforts of Saxo and Omega withBelkin pitching in a little bit.

Perhaps the weakest team ever was Festina in '98. They were so terrible that all of them DNF'd AND some other teams withdrew from the race, as well. When a team sucks so bad that other teams decide to quit, that is truly aweful!

 

[Ruby United]

OK, I know the tour is not yet over, but I'm trying to remember a weaker team with the yellow jersey than Sky.
Apart from Froome & Porte (and that is a big apart), they are terrible.

Was Cadel's team weaker when he won?
Or Pantani's??

Comments welcome!

I couldn't disagree more. Maybe they are not as strong as they were expected to be, but they are way stronger than Evans '11, Contador 10, Contador '9...

Also Kennaugh has been very strong and they were better than any other team on the 2 summit finishes.

 

[coinneach]

Excellent.

The last of those is 86 La Vie Claire, of course. Greg, Andy Hampsten and Steve Bauer, versus The Badger, Jef Bernard and the rest, save for the two Swiss in the middle, naturally enough.

Despite everything, they came 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th on GC. Imagine the tears on here if that was Froome, Wiggins, Porte, Kennaugh, and Thomas!

Brilliant! That sort of perspective it totally missing from much of the discussion here.

All I'd add is, if there was one jersey you wouldn't swop for yellow, it'd be La Vie Claire: then and now

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Mentioning Contador '09 is a joke. That Astana team was stacked to the gills. That there was internal dissension does not mean that he did not get to benefit from that super-strong team. After all, they still controlled the race, it's just they were hoping to use it to benefit Armstrong, not Contador. He still got to get the benefit of the TTT, he still got the guys doing the donkey work on the front with Ag2r for the 2nd week, controlling the race completely. And he didn't exactly attack in places he wouldn't have attacked if he had the team completely behind him either.

Maybe psychologically, the team was a problem for him, but in terms of direct contributions on the road, Astana '09 for Contador was one of the strongest teams to win the Tour in modern times.

 

[StyrbjornSterki]

ADR 1989. Their leader only met them at breakfast and dinner. Wait... 1989 was another era

No on believed Lemond capable of a comeback so no established team would give him a ride. He pieced together a no-name 'budget' team with spent bubblegum and sticking plasters.

The first three of Lemond's teammates abandoned on the 10° stage, leaving him down 1/3° of his squad with half of the tour yet to come. The fourth abandonment was on the 12° stage and the final stalwart abandoned after the 18°.

Lemond's three teammates who managed to survive until Paris came 91° (down 2+ hours), 106° and 123° in GC.


And Fignon contends he lost because of a saddle sore.

 

[murali]

No on believed Lemond capable of a comeback so no established team would give him a ride. He pieced together a no-name 'budget' team with spent bubblegum and sticking plasters.

The first three abandonments came on the 10° stage, leaving him down 1/3° of his squad with half the tour yet to come. The fourth abandonment was on the 12° stage and the final stalwart abandoned after the 18°.

Lemond's three teammates who managed to survive until Paris came 91°, 106° and 123° in GC.


And Fignon contends he lost because of a saddle sore.

Thank you. I didn't even know to ride a cycle when this happened. But, this looks pathetic.

Thanks to that team, Sky wont get the award for the worst team to win MJ.