Cycling season ended quietly last Saturday with the Giro di Lombardia (I refuse to call it by its new name when they changed it a week before the race, maybe next year). Over the next couple of weeks, I will be reviewing the season, starting today with the best teams, counted down from 5 to 1
5 Garmin-Cervelo – No dominating riders, but this team was the story of the first week of the Tour de France. They finally got a TdF stage win in the team time trial, taking the yellow jersey for Thor Hushovd. After that, they got an individual stage win for Tyler Farrar. Then they went on a rampage, getting Hushovd two individual stage wins and winning the team competition. As we will see with other teams though, one huge race doesn't make a Best Team contender and Garmin cashed in with a shock win by Johan Vansummeren at Paris-Roubaix by deploying incredible team tactics with Vansummeren up the road and protected leader Thor Hushovd marking defending champ Fabian Cnacellara. Also, they managed a day in the pink leader jersey of the Giro d'Italia with David Millar and a stage win by Millar there as well along with a highly successful season from Daniel Martin (edit: who won a stage of the Vuelta instead of no wins).
4 Saxo Bank Sungard – Based on two results, but they were both huge results. Most important was Alberto Contador's dominating victory at the Giro d'Italia. He was amazing there (but maybe should have tried to conserve a bit more energy given his struggles at the Tour de France where he finished 5th). In addition, Nick Nuyens shocked the cycling world by winning the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) after being invisible for much of the day. Making it even better for director Bjarne Riis is that Nuyens display kept former Saxo Bank star Fabian Cancellara from defending his title for his new team.
3 BMC – Struggled for much of the year, especially early, but BMC made it count when it mattered in the biggest race of the season. Cadel Evans finally won the Tour de France with a display of gritty, grinding riding after his team kept him away from the pratfalls that other contenders such as Bradley Wiggins, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Alberto Contador had. Combine that with Greg Van Avermaet's late season run to victory at Paris-Tours and you get a successful season.
2 HTC-High Road – This disbanding team had its usual strong season. Led by Mark Cavendish and his 13 wins including 7 Grand Tour stages and the World Championship Road Race, HTC continued to raack up wins all over the world. In addition to Cavendish, Matt Goss won a monument (Milan-San Remo) and Tony Martin won Paris-Nice and the World Championship Time Trial. Only the lack of high placements in the Grand Tours held this team back from the top slot.
1 Omega Pharma-Lotto – They had Philippe Gilbert. Philippe Gilbert is the best classics rider in the world. In addition to his crazy Ardennes sweep, he won a stage of the Tour de France and wore all three jerseys available to him. That alone doesn't make a team of the year though. There needs to be more than one rider. This team had it. Andre Greipel won a stage of the Tour de France as well and took seven wins on the season. Jelle Vanendert also took a Tour de France stage and made a credible attempt at the King of the Mountains, finishing second. The team recovered well from GC contender Jurgen Van Den Broeck's crash at the Tour to still be successful. Van Den Broeck recovered and finished 8th at the Vuelta a Espana despite not being 100%. Just a great year for this team as they depart the cycling scene, at least in their current form.
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