1 Saxo Bank
2 Columbia-HTC
3 Astana
4 Garmin-Slipstream
5 Liquigas

Mines Astana – solid performance throughout, did (almost) exactly what it said on the tin….

That's a tough one. Astana winning the TdF was almost a predictable as Ferrari winning the F1 title with Schumacher behind the wheel. That's not to say they weren't awesome to watch though.

I think Columbia-HTC were incredible, they clearly worked very well as a team for Cavendish and to still have the power to lead out the Sprint in the way they did in Paris was pretty special.

As for the others, they had their moments but I'd give the nod to Columbia-HTC I reckon.

Colombia were awesome – riding with total control in an unstoppable train of 9. Fair enough, they were mostly exclusively riding to deliver Cav, but it was beautiful to watch.

Astana would have been more impressive without the in-fighting. Having four potential GC riders is always going to be tricky.

Garmin is a cool team rendered near unwatchable by a repulsive strip.

Best all-round team got to be Saxo Bank though.

Garmin. Great performance, great kit.

Sorry, what does GC stand for?

General Classification

Astana have to win for having so many riders at the top of GC but also completly imposing their will on the race.

Columbia slighly behind for Cav's results and similar imposition of will but in a slightly easier arena.

I was seriously impressed with Skil-Shimano – a small team but gave it a great shot at doing things rather than just being anonymous and just happy to be there like many of the French teams seemed to be.

Astana in fighting? Did you see any or just read about it? I reckon they were the best team for the GC, though it need at least 4 of them. on the other hand there was on 2 schlecks so Saxo Bank need major credit(ho ho). Wonder what it is those guy are on. Felt sorry for Wiggins on his own mostly, needs a more support team to win a tour Garmin could have been better.
Coloumbia truly great team, well drilled but just the side show to the main event.

HTC Columbia for me. They seemed to put the hammer down and sacrifice themselves for Cav more than other teams did.

Did you see any or just read about it? I

I think AC's comments at the top of Ventoux made it pretty clear. Not just journalists looking for stories

“My conscience is very clear because in the end I have run two races, one on the bike and one at the team hotel,” he said on Spanish broadcaster TVE after Saturday’s ride.

Besides, you only had to watch LA's handshake with AC with a studied effort to avoid eye contact on the podium to see that all is far from well between them

mt – Are you seriously doubting that all was not sweetness and light within Astana? Jeepers – it has been written all over LA's face since Arcalis, before even.

Having the two biggest guns in the sport (the best rider, plus the most respected/experienced/determined rider) was not really a smart move. Armstrong's sway and determination are such that he could have created a split in the team. Massive credit to LA for his achievement, but it was risky.

Just in case there was still any doubt, have a look at Lance's Twitter!

lancearmstrong RT @axelmerckx: A champion is also measured on how much he respect his teammates and opponents. You can win a race on your own not a gra … 19 minutes ago
Previous Tweets
hey pistolero, there is no "i" in "team". what did i say in March? Lots to learn. Restated. 29 minutes ago
Seeing these comments from AC. If I were him I'd drop this drivel and start thanking his team. w/o them, he doesn't win. 30 minutes ago

I don't think LA has been the model team mate throughout this years tour, so a case of Pot and Kettle if you ask me.

would have been much funnier as:
hey pistolero, there is no "i" in "team", but there is a "u" in "cun*".

🙂

Saxobank- tho the boss is a cheat!
Look at Berts comments about LA on Velonews for those that think Astana are even worthy of the name 'team', it was Bert/Paulinho vs the rest

I still think teams are over-rated at the TdF. Sure you need strong TTers for the TTT (which Garmin had), but when it comes to the crunch in the hills, it is more often than not every man for himself. Not convinced team tactics played that big a part there.

One good example from long ago was Lemond in 1989 – he had a rubbish team and was isolated every time the road went up, but still managed to win.

That's for the GC contenders – I'm sure Cav wouldn't have won so much without his team – he would still have won some, just not as many (not convinced he'd lose that many coming off the wheel of another sprinter following his own train, just that some of the breaks might not have been chased down).

There is a big miss here!
AG2R…
They managed to keep Nocentini in yellow for a week!!
For sure it would have been impossible if Astana had wanted it earlier btu they managed to prevent any breakaways reaching critical point (including the ever so close finish for Hincapie)

For a team that had nothing to really go for they surely got the most media time!!

Astana don't deserve to be classed as top team as they won through Contador's brilliance, even though he ignored internal 'agreements' made with Bruyneel.

Columbia for me as #1. They didn't have a GC rider but managed to put Cav in the perfect position every day there was a realistic chance of the win. Slight **** up with the blocking of Hushovd but that was perhaps a little unlucky…

Contador possibly could have won with no team around him (ignoring the TTT) but there would have been a lot more risk involved and you can guarantee that it would have been much closer. The team plays a huge role in the TdF (or pro road racing generally) – you don't really understand it if you think it doesn't.

you don't really understand it if you think it doesn't
or just watch the itv4 highlights…

Another shout for Ag2r here. Although if i was there Director i'd be asking them where that level of performance has been the rest of the season. Euskatel showed pretty well this year too.

A few teams might as well not have bothered. Quick step (although they probably did enough in the classics to keep the sponsors happy), Rabobank until Ventoux saved their tour. Lampre, Silence Lotto, Milram hardly set the world alight

Didn't Garmin succeed every time they tried, apart from the barrier thing? That's pretty damn impressive. No-one else looked close.

glenp – just wanted to know why you thought Astana were not working as a team. When out on the road they worked well together most of the time and much better than some of the other teams. Have friend working on the TdF, he was giving us race gossip that was pretty bad regarding threats to AC (spike his drink, tip him of the road etc) but like the press just speculation cause those involved are not being specific. Considering what the atmosphere, real or perceved must have been like I reckon Bruneel ran a pretty good team. Do you remember the Carrera team work of 87 with Roche? Giro and the TdF.

They were working as a team, just that most of them didn't seem to include the best rider in the race as being No 1 in their team! Luckily AC didn't really need them anyway. Bruneel did a great job of maximising publicity for himself, LA, Astana, the TdF and cycling in general – he did a poor job in terms of backing the strongest rider and building the team to work for him.

Obviously IT people would say that Astana was a model team because that kind of chaotic existence is what they're used to. 😛
However for teams that pulled together you'd have to go for Saxo Bank/ Columbia HTC/ AG2R/ Garmin Slipstream/ … – well actually when you look at it it'd be all of them except for Astana.

Where's Cotador going to end up then? Maybe if the Schleck bros are on the way to Armstrong/RadioShack then he would fit in quite well at Saxo Bank? Very good team.