2009 Final Pro Team Ranking

ursula — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:30:34 -0000

Year's done but we still need to do some final reckoning before we start predicting next year and this post is a first stab at how the teams did. If you want, you can look at the Cycling Quotient team rankings, or the UCI rankings but here I am using the VDS rankings. Why? Because of the three rankings systems our house VDS rankings focus more on the races that we as a group pay attention to than the others. Don't get me wrong. Those other rankings are good too. But here's where I think those other rankings systems fall short:

- The UCI rankings don't use enough races. For instance of they only use three races from the spring cobbles season: Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem, and Paris-Roubaix. Overall they only rate 24 races. That's just not enough. We as a group are interested in more.

- Cycling quotient uses too many races. Take the Jayco Herald Sun Tour. Or the Azerbaijan Tour. Or the Tour of Milad du Nour-all of which can earn a rider CQ points but are races that we just don't follow much if at all. I like that CQ looks at all of these races; it gives one a sense of what's happening in the regional circuits if one is into that sort of thing. But we tend to stay on the World Tour level here.

Of the two, the CQ rankings is closer to VDS than the UCI is and when you get to the table on the jump I'll have a column for them so you can contrast it to VDS. And do I have a Table for you! Last year in the final rankings we had 37 teams scoring at least 10 points in one VDS race or another. Bah! That's just nuthin'! This year: 62 teams-and that's not counting those fake national teams at the Rund um Koln. It's the Mother Of All Tables that's awaiting you on the jump.To protect your eyes a tad, I've put the Table at the end of the post because it's so freaking long. Before the post I have a little blurb on each of the main teams-a first cut at evaluating of the main teams before Chris delves deeper in posts over the winter. Follow along!

So im my commentaries I've divided up the teams into Groups. You'll get the idea.

Group One: The Saxo Group

1. Columbia-9653 points. Last year 6642 points, 2nd place

2. Saxo Bank-8640. Last year 9050, 1st place.

First, why do I call it the Saxo Group? Because prior to this year, Saxo/CSC were alone at the top. Pretty simple. This year Columbia joined them in the rarefied, just under10,000 points earned group.

Let's start with these two teams together because these two teams have goals that I am not sure that the rest of the teams have. Elite pro cycling is a complicated affair what with how different the races vary so much plus often there's a couple good races going on at once. What's a team to do? Honestly most teams quail under this higher math (yes, math is required) and what they do is try to get really good at one or a couple types of races. We'll see this more in the next group. Both of these teams are different: they strive to be relevant in almost every race they participate in. True, every team has holes in their lineup and these two are no exception. Saxo is a poor sprinting team and Columbia is not Grand Tour GC threat. Both teams suffer if a key rider or two get injured like Saxo had happen for this year's cobbles season and Columbia had with Kirchen's injury messing with their GC and Ardennes chances. But other than that these two teams are just more complete in vision than any other team. They can do the math.

Not that they don't go about their visions in very different ways. Columbia just dominates the sprints. You ever read that if California was independent, it would be the 9th largest economy in the world? Well, between Cavendish (1688 points), Greipel (1055), Henderson (280), Renshaw (91), and Eisel (245) they scored 3359 points, more than all but 12 other teams. This is the core of the team and my guess is that Bob Stapleton will at all costs protect this core. They put so much focus on getting their lead-out train right that they just blow away the other teams.

But it's not just Cavendish and his lead-out. Columbia likes its sprints so much that they look to give all their sprinters some love. Take Greg Henderson as an example, a decent but grade C sprinter. Probably on most teams he'd make a good lead-out for their #1 sprinter and at times the Kiwi did just that. But even though he was their 3rd or 4th best sprinter on the team he was put in a couple of races where he was not only the main sprinter for the team but he was matched against other similar sprinters so he had a decent chance to win. And since Columbia's lead-out is so good being equal with other teams' sprinters means that Columbia probably wins. And win he did: at Murcia, Catalunya, and the Vuelta a Espana.

As Henderson went, so did the rest of the team. Last year even though they finished well behind Saxo, Columbia bascially equaled their number of riders who scored VDS points. This year they did the same-23 of them scored. But, wait! There's more! 17 of them scored over 100 points-and only two of those scored lower than 200. That means that almost every rider was a serious factor to win in at least a couple of races. That's amazing. Those weren't fluke points that Columbia riders were getting. Stapleton basically took Saxo's strength in numbers strategy and trumped it. Since the team did poorly in the Grand Tours GC races and still had most of the riders scoring is just remarkable.

Columbia is filled with guys like Henderson. But what about next year? We all know that there's a big turnover in personnel this winter. To put VDS numbers to it, they lose 3431 points worth of riders-and you can easily make the case that the riders they are losing are more valuable than that: EBH (1201), Burghardt (545), Lovkvist (961), Kirchen (162, Hincapie (222), Possoni (24), and Barry (36) all leave. True, they are taking in 1072 points worth of riders in Peter Velits (330) (and his brother Martin who didn't score), Bak (427) and Goss (240) both from Saxo, and Roulston (75). Still they lose a healthy quarter of their points from this year, a couple of leaders in Kirchen and Boss Hog, and so one of the big story lines next year will be if Columbia can stay dominant, and can they rebuild their GC chances now that Kirchen is gone. Speaking of Kirchen, he had just an awful season, first getting injured then never getting back to his pre-injury form. Still I was a little surprised that Columbia didn't keep him. Maybe they think his injury won't ever allow him to get all the way back?

My guess? They slip a little. They look to have all sorts of young talent in the wings but usually that talent takes a year to get fully integrate. So I think they slip away some from Saxo and score um somewhere in the 7000-8000 range.

Saxo's main strength is in the hilly classics, the Tour de France and if everyone is healthy, the cobbles. As you can see in the the heading above Saxo was the dominant team last year, 2408 points ahead of a distant 2nd place Columbia team so you can say that this was a down year for them. Two reasons for this I think: 1) they are in the midst of a transition where they are letting go of some of their older riders (Sastre last year, Kroon this, soon O'Grady, Jens! and Niki Sorenson) and the new kids are not yet fully taking their place. But this transition is going quite well with A. Schleck (1467), Fuglsang (490), CA Sorenson (217), and Breschel (870): as it's sometimes said, this team is reloading, not rebuilding. 2) Their rash of injuries during cobbles season, especially to Cancellara and O'Grady, Plus Frank's injuries probably cost them, oh maybe 1000 points?

This offseason looks to be quiet for Saxo. They lost none of their core riders really with Kroon, 34 next year, the biggest loss, while adding a few promising young 'uns. Unless the injury bug hits them again I see this team breaking 9000 points again and if things break their way, 10,000 points. The Empire Strikes Back.

Group Two: The Vision Thing Group

3. Rabobank-6575. Last year 5014 points, 5th place.

4. Astana-6119. Last year 6212 points, 3rd place.

5. Cervello-6030. New team.

6. Liquigas-5761. Last year 4697 points, 6th place.

Just below the top two teams we have this cloud of four kinda equal outfits. My guess is that as we do VDS year after year we will see a grouping of four-seven big teams, decisively below the top. What distinguishes this group is their Vision of what they might accomplish isn't quite as broad as the Saxo group. They don't quite have the math skills to deal with all those races. What happens then is the teams do two things: 1) They specialize in a certain one or two types of races, 2) they are more dependent on their stars and they get less out of races that their stars don;t race. In other words a racer like Greg Henderson, being supported and scoring in smaller races is less likely to happen for these teams as they don't have that vision to put enough focus on those smaller events. 3) Although they race in other races their strategies make them rarely truly competitive. All of this means that their VDS ceilings fall below The Saxo Group: more like 7500 in a great year and more likely in the 5500-6500 range. (Remember we added races this year to the VDS calendar so for all teams if they are just treading water they should have a few hundred more points this year.) With each team below I'll illustrate these points.

Each team has its own bugaboos that keep them out of the penthouse. Take Rabobank, who had quite a good year, a definite improvement on 2008 where they scored just 5014. Look at their roster. I'll wait. Now tell me that this team can't go toe to toe with Cervelo, Saxo, and Quickstep on the cobbles. But if they weren't chasing down their own break like in Het Nieuwsblad, then they were in futile pursuit of the decisive break in any number of races. If they could get it together brain-wise they could jump up to the Columbia-Saxo penthouse but I'm sure not betting on it. But years of results have shown that they can't get it together.

Now look at a rider who came through for them big-time: Denis Menchov. The Russian had a nearly perfect spring. He and his team had a good start, winning Murcia (while Columbia was winning sprints and the time trial). He followed that up by a 5th place against Astana's A-team-also a good result. A decent pre-Giro effort (i.e. not too much) at Romandie preceded his win at the Giro. It all came together for Denis this spring and the part of his team was equally focused on attaining a Giro win. Pre-season they correctly sized up the competition and put their big GC effort in that race.

At the same time, Rabo's other races just didn't pan out. Their cobbles team with new hire Nick Nuyens, wasn't clicking even though they had a great opening with Saxo's injuries. The aging Oscarito being hurt was no help either. So in sum their spring was a partial success for one of the best teams in the Pro Tour. Most teams below them would have killed to trade places (including LPR he he) but the total result was placing them in this group here, below the Saxo Group. The rest of their year was much the same: some successes but not enough. Could they jump up into the Saxo group next year? I doubt it. They have elite riders but they can't ever put it all together. I'd like for them to prove me wrong though.

Then there's Cervelo who do have their cobbles act together with Hushovd and Haussler, plus they can compete for points jerseys at Grand Tours, but they just aren't putting enough effort into GC and Ardennes racing. This winter they are losing Simon Gerrans and not really replacing him leaving Carlos Sastre old (he'll be 35 next year) and isolated. This is a great team but not at all well rounded and I wonder about their long-term prospects. Right now Cervelo's stock is high-everyone's buying it-but you don't get rich following what everyone else does, right? Next year on the cobbles, Saxo should be back with its strength in numbers thing, Rabobank won't be quite as bad, Columbia should be a bit stronger, and Sky looks loaded for cobbles success. There's only so many points available.

Liquigas is pretty much a permanent denizen of this Vision Group. Loads of talent. They could have scored more if Benna had not been hurt, but one wonders now if all his injuries are cutting down on his top-end speed. In many ways they are much like the next team I'll talk about (Astana) in that their efforts seem concentrated on sorting out their GC guys: Basso, Kreuziger, Nibali, and Jennifer Grey. But they do have talent beyond those four in guys like Quinziato, Sabatini, and the like but those guys never did pan out like they should have. This team has the talent to do more than GC racing. There's a fair amount of turnover this winter among their support riders and maybe that will help, but I can't help but contrast them with Columbia whose support riders win races and earn points and that has to do with management.

Then there's Astana. (We don't know where Bert will be next year but for this essay I'll say he stays put with the Khazaks.) My first impulse is to say that they actually had a downer of a year in 09 and a strict looking at the numbers says that as they scored fewer points with more races. Bert was Bert but the stress of the team probably had a lot to do with him not attempting the Vuelta and so there is one chunk of lost points. Then you had Levi who went from 1500+ points in '08 to 603 this year. And no, Lance didn't make up the slack, scoring only 568 very publicized points. Kloden had a decent year but then you look at the rest of the team and all that talent they have and you think they should have scored a lot more than they did. Brajkovic scored on 402 aimless points. (Why wasn't he at the Vuelta?) Horner was hurt most of the time, and you got the talented combo of Zubeldia-Vaitkus-Bazayev-Paulinho-Navarro-Popovych-Rast who combined only snagged 407 points and that's just a criminal misuse of talent. Iglinsky got 345 points but this team was way underused particularly during cobbles season. Again, it's the vision thing and Bruyneel and Demol don't have it beyond the Grand Tours. (Reading between the lines here tells you that I don't think too much of Team Radio Shack's chances in general and riders like Gert Steegmans in particular.)

Then there's Vino and next year. Did you notice that Vino had quite a good end of season campaign? 485 points in just a handful of races. You know what I hope for Vino next year? That he compete at Flanders. Crazy, right? But I see how Devo can win back-to-back titles there and I ask myself, why not Vino? If they get a decent DS, one who knows about cobbles racing then they can do a Quickstep strategy. What? The way I see Quickstep at Flanders is that they use a two pronged approach. The first prong is lead by Boonen and Chavanel with all the other riders but one supporting them. This is the type of thing that teams like Cervelo, Rabobank, Saxo, Columbia, and all the rest try to compete with and strategize against. Quickstep is obviously very good at this type of cobbles strategy; other teams must react to what they are doing here.

via img.nytstore.com

Which lays every other team open to the second prong: Devo. Devolder at Flanders is unique. He doesn't do anything tricky; he just does his race. Like a Juan Marichal #1 fastball that you know is coming at you while his left foot is above his head, you first notice Devo about 60km out from the finish at Flanders. From there he gains speed, more and more, covering any futile break. Soon her starts making the famous, but way too small for Devo, steep little climbs look like speed boosts while everyone struggles and by the time there are 20km to go, the race is all over and like Juan regularly beating the Dodgers back in the day, Devo is using the peloton as his favorite drum.

So who is the one guy in the peloton most like Devo? Vino of course. I say that a savvy DS could organize a competitive cobbles team from the rest of Astana (Bazayev, Iglinsky, etc.) and use them to cover breaks, Pozzato-like, while prepping Vino to shoot out from 50km. Anyway, back to 2009.

Group Three: The Detention Group

7. *Lotto-5428. Last year 3910, 8th place.

8. Quickstep-5273. Last year 4610, 7th place

9. Caisse d'Epargne-5237. Last year 5649, 4th place.

Here's the next group of teams. These guys should be in the group above but didn't have a good year and slipped a fair amount. Actually that isn't strictly true. First we have *Lotto and they always seem to be here. Second you have some Pro Tour teams that fall even further like Lampre. But you get the idea. These guys should be made to stay late, like they have to keep racing into December in Norway, until they get their numbers higher. That'll show 'em.

From the top, we have the newly renamed OmegaPharma Lotto. Great name, huh? Yes, OmegaPharma is one word with the P capitalized. I so hope they merge with the Footons. As we know they had a GREAT end to their season, which basically made up for their godawful first three-quarters of the season to land them right where they always land: about 6th-10th place in the Team Standings, firmly entrenched in this third tier of teams. Yep, all that good vibrations in October meant that they are now still treading water as opposed to actually drowning. And as Cosmo states that end of season mojo is a bit deceptive. Basically this is a yteam of Gilbert, Evans, Hoste, and Van Avermaet, all of whom are required to make heroic single winning moves unsupported by teammates much in order to win. No, I do not think Evans is teaching the team that teamwork is fun. Cadel and Phil respect each other, yes, and can make a good October team, but the rest of the year everyone is on their own and cadel is losing that rainbow jersey, guaranteed, next year.

Since they aren't adding any one of note, nor losing anyone better than Van Summeren their hopes for next year are a) Gilbert and can he continue his hot streak, and b) Evans and can he avoid the dreaded Rainbow jersey curse. Right, picking Evans of all people to break that curse. Nah. My prediction? The breaks even out so they wind up with around 5000-5500 points. Seriously, this is a poorly built team, relying on individual brilliance to overcome strategic and tactical idiocy. There's only so many races that Evans and Gilbert and Hoste can just ride away from the field.

Yeah I'm being a Debbie Downer on *Lotto. But that's why this group is the detention Group. All three teams should be better but aren't. They should be higher, up with the Rabobanks, but things either didn't quite work out for them or their management screwed up. Take you pick. I'll bet you can guess what I think.

Take Caisse d'Epargne first. Four riders did well for them this year: Valverde of course winning the Vuelta. J-Rod did his normal great backup work. Lulu shined brightly in the early stage races while Rui Costa won his first stage race in Dunkerque. Beyond those four though was a sea of blahness. Uran did not take a step forward as he should have, Arroyo and Moreno were so-so, Kiryienka was mainly observed helping Valverde and JJ Rojas seems to be struggling to become a grade C sprinter. There wasn't any particular set of races that C d'E did poorly in (besides the cobbles which they seem allergic to). It was more of a general malaise; no real brilliance from almost all of the team.

But saying general malaise is a cop out. Team management did little to put their riders into positions to win races. They have this precocious talent in Uran, only a tad less talented than Hagen, and they do squat with him, to a large degree because Uran's skill set overlaps enough with Valverde's and this team can't handle more than one big talent. Again, just look at how Hagen was handled compared to Uran; look at their races. Was Uran every really protected and supported? Nope. All I can think is Unzue is no longer capable of handling more than one good rider at a time. Please, please, please, don't let Contador end up here.

Quickstep earned their low ranking for them differently. After a great cobbles and early stage race campaign (Chavanel 2nd at Paris-Nice, remember?) they went into an even deeper coma than normal. Boonen, Devo, Davis, Chavanel, Pineau, the BCS man Seeldrayers: almost nothing once June hit. This was even worse than usual for the Team of March and April. Yeah, Boonen's nose was a distraction again but somehow they got to get more out of their riders than Chavanel being competitive at Eneco.

So what's the prognosis for C d'E and QS? The big thing for both of them would be to land Contador. For Quickstep to land Bert it would probably mean easily getting back into the second group of teams above and possibly a breakthrough to parity with Saxo and Columbia. Contador (and Zubeldia, Navarro, Hernandez, and Noval) would finally make them a season long team-if the DS's of Quickstep don't mess it up. Big IF there. The other things with Quickstep is Boonen's mid-life career change (crisis)? to becoming a Spartacus. Can he do it? I give him a fair shot though I don't think he'll ever have Tony's chrono chops. Still this will create a ripple effect at Quickstep if Boonen moves decisively away from bunch sprinting. Davis especially and Weylandt will get more freedom to take over the #1 sprinter chair. Could be interesting. But we are hearing rumors of Davis already being fed up and looking to fly the coop and there was briefly a Devo to Astana rumor too. (Devo and Vino at Flanders? Be still my heart!!!!) I would be very carful if I were Bert going to Quickie. I would demand my pick of a DS doing my races besides my four teammates.

Now Caisse d'Epargne. Obviously I am down on them, despite Valverde's Vuelta win. Honestly, even if valverde managed to not get suspended (unlikely IMO) C d'E seems to have grown arthritic in their strategies. They just aren't inspiring. If Valverde gets suspended and Contador doesn't join them (along with J-Rod leaving for Katusha and Moreno to *Lotto) this team could quickly become one of the worst Pro Tour teams next year. Getting Bruseghin and Moreau as your two big pick-ups is not exactly inspiring. (Soler is intriguing but I can't see him becoming a serious GC threat. And if the Lulu dope rumors come true this team is toast.) With the company C d'E ending its sponsorship after next year (right)? one can see this team disbanding.

But that's the worst case scenario. The best case is Valverde gets a Get Our Of Jail Free card, Bert joins the team anyway and the Bert-Al-Lulu team dominates stage races for the next few years while Uran and Costa grow up. I think we'll get a good idea soon (by the end of the year) how the next couple of years will play out for them.

Group Four: The Kids

10. Garmin-4075. Last year 1535 points. 16th place.

11. Katusha-3490 New team.

Wow. At first glance these two are a weird pair. Garmin is Mr. Clean while Katusha had a nasty bout with dope, including a huge overreaction to same. Garmin's budget is modest while Katusha's budget is, well, is there a limit there? I dunno! American and Russian. But I think there's a lot in common here. Both just finished their first Pro Tour year and as the numbers say they had decent success. But neither is satisfied with their success to date either and they know that in the long run they must move up the pecking order to survive.

Garmin had a very very good year, a big jump from the previous Pro Conti incarnation. Last year they had just 1535 points so you can see that they improved. The Wenatchee Wonder blossomed. Wiggins did something like blossoming too. Daniel Martin flexed his potential. Millar, Zabriskie, Vandevelde, Hesjedal, and Maaskant all had their moments and at the same time we can imagine more out of each of them.

But where to go from here? Here's the tricky part. This year was a definite step forward but they can't remain here. They need to continue to improve to survive. It seems to me that there are two ways from them to grow and they look to be taking both paths. The first is to continue to develop their riders. Guys like Farrar, Wiggins, Maaskant, and Hesjedal still haven't hit their ceiling and there has to be some careful fine tuning to be done including having deeper teams for some of the races such as the cobbles and smaller stage races. So staying pat is a good first step for these guys. If that happens then they move uop to the detention group almost by default.

The other path is to get Bert. If Bert is to leave Astana IMHO I think he should go to Garmin. It's a much safer bet than Quickstep (and their lack of ability in Grand Tours) and Caisse d'Epargne (with their serious lack of mojo). Again that's my hunch and it sure is the hope of Vaughters. Getting Bert would propel this team into at least the Vision Group-if not all the way to the top.

Katusha. Boy we've seen a bunch of negative comments on Podium Cafe about this team. Much of it was deserved what with Colom and Pfannberger getting busted and the management's draconian solution to the doping problem. But step back a bit. This was a brand new team this year and my guess is that if we look at new teams with big budgets over the last 20 years we would see that Katusha probably did better than most. Yeah they suffer in comparison to Cervelo but I think Cervelo was close to perfect in their first year. I also think that long term Katusha will come out ahead of Cervelo. Adding J-Rod and Kirchen to Ivanov and Karpets will make for a very good Ardennes and short stage racing team. Besides Ivanov having a breakthrough season, Pozzato had a typically fine year. Plus they are adding a few kids which to me shows that they are not just looking to overpay for veterans. If they continue to grow a little each year (and they are under less pressure to grow than Garmin is) they could well make the group above them, the Lotto group, next year. Like Garmin, the key for Katusha is steady growth-unless they bid for Bert.

Group Four: the Wigans

12. Euskaltel-3375

13. Lampre--2580

14. Milram-2201

15. Francaise des Jeux-1920

16. Vacansoleil-1910

17. SDA-1766

18. AG2R-1645

Now we are at the dividing line between Division 1 and 2. I wonder.. What would Pro cycling be with Pro/reg? That could liven things up a bit.

Back to reality. Each team here has their little dramas to deal with and if all goes well (and probably all won't go well) they could get up into the group above or even the group above that. Probably not though. Let's say something here about each:

First Euskaltel, the best truly regional team. Basically this team has one star, Sam San and he had his second best year of his career. There's little reason to doubt that he can repeat it as the schedule he had this year (avoiding the Tour) was the same schedule he had in his other two big years. The rest of the team? Ah. here is the reason why a team with 3375 points is in this Group. Astarloza gave this team 500+ points before he got busted so this team really is now Samu and the 20-odd Slow Guys. Where are the points gonna come from? Maybe one of the kids will develop...

Lampre could be thought of as being in flux. Ballan is gone. So is Bruseghin. Tiralongo and Santambrogio too. Gasparotto is rumored out. In come Petacchi along with four other LPR's, plus possibly a couple Serramenti's. But do you get the idea that they are on a treadmill? Good. They are.

It's odd though. Italy is supposedly this hotbed of Cycling yet they have only one Big Team. Liquigas. Then there's Lampre, nominally Pro Tour, and several other Pro Conti's. I would think there would be at least 2 Big Teams, maybe Three. Spain, also a core country, also has just one Big Team, though I can understand that the greater regional emphasis in Spain makes for a bunch of little teams. Still doesn't it seem like the Big Money in the sport is increasingly from outside Italy, Spain, and France? I know I am not the first person to bring up this issue but it might be good to take some time this winter and think together about the implications, cause it don't take a weatherman to know which what the wind blows-even if we don't like it, reactionaries that we sometimes are.

Milram OTOH made a nice modest jump this year from a truly pathetic 1125 points from a year ago to 2201 today. Hey-they'll take it; its a little more than just treading water. There's potential here too but not so much that they can be competitive in any race they fancy. Losing the Velits brothers though is a blow.

Vacansoleil is the second best Pro Conti team after Cervelo. It was also their first year in existence and they should be quite satisfied, especially with how they finished the season. Bet they can't wait till March 1st if for no other reason than the "Fins to the left, fins to the right!" will leave them alone. Yes, Jimmy Buffet can pertain to all situations. Hoogerland, Bozic, etc.: the cobbles await!

Francaise des jeux is the best French team. They have a bunch of veterans who've long since reached their ceiling and another year like this one is what they have in store.

Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni? There I wrote out the name. Satisfied? Okay-I like Jackson Rodriguez, and his side kick Jose Serpa. I expected Francesco Ginanni to do better. Maybe next year.

AG2zzzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm sorry. I've tried three times now to write something about this team but I keep falling asleep. They had a worse year this year that last, although Nocentini had another solid year capped off with several days in yellow. It seems like they should be better...

19. Cofidis-1553

20. Acqua & Sapone-1520

21. Bbox-1290

22. Fuji Servetto-1190

23.LPR-830

24. Xacobeo Galicia-760

Sub-Wigan here. Most of these teams were dominated by one rider.

- A&S had Garzelli (970) though also Paolini (375) and the kid Masciarelli (175).

- LPR without Killer had Petacchi (824)

- Xacobeo Galicia had Zeke Mosquera (510).

- Fuji, the worst Pro Tour team, had Cobo (430) plus De La Fuente (250). We aren't too sure how Fuji though we know they have a weird name. They've already had four or five names in the past year already.

- Cofidis is to me the interesting name here even if they are no longer Pro Tour. Between Taaramae, El Fares, Moinard, and Minard, I like these kids. Hopefully their loss of Pro Tour status won't hurt them much. Frankly, why do they even want it?

Okay I only have 40 of the teams in the table below. When I have more time, I'll try to patch the rest of the hoi polloi in.

2009 Final Rankings	Points	2008 Final Rankings	Points	2009 CQ Rankings	Points
1. Columbia	9653	1. CSC-Saxo	9050	1. Columbia	12820
2. Saxo Bank	8640	2. Columbia	6642	2. Saxo Bank	12240
3. Rabobank	6575	3. Astana	6212	3. Rabobank	9690
4. Astana	6119	4. Caisse d'Epargne	5649	4. Caisse d'Epargne	8760
5. Cervelo	6030	5. Rabobank	5014	5. Quickstep	8675
6. Liquigas	5761	6. Liquigas	4697	6. Astana	8086
7. Silence Lotto	5428	7. Quickstep	4601	7. Cervelo	7825
8. Quickstep	5273	8. Silence Lotto	3910	8. Silence Lotto	7814
9. Caisse d'Epargne	5237	9. Lampre	3820	9. Liquigas	7755
10. Garmin	4075	10. Gerolsteiner	2946	10. Katusha	6794
11. Katusha	3520	11. Cofidis	2571	11. Garmin	6768
12. Euskaltel	3375	12. Euskaltel	2304	12. FdJ	5782
13. Lampre	2580	13. AG2R	2111	13. Lampre	5546
14. Milram	2201	14. Credit Agricole	1862	14. Vacansoleil	5118
15. FdJ	1920	15. FdJ	1730	15. Euskaltel	4959
16. Vacansoleil	1910	16. Garmin	1535	16. SDA	4741
17. SDA	1766	17. Scott American Beef	1300	17. AG2R	4695
18. AG2R	1645	18. CSF	1300	18. Cofidis	4631
19. Cofidis	1553	19. Bweeg!	1295	19. Milram	4572
20. Acqua & Sapone	1520	20. Barloworld	1234	20. Agritubel	4270
21. Bbox	1290	21. Milram	1125	21. Bbox	4063
22. Fuji Servetto	1190	22. Xacobeo Galicia	1234	22. LPR	3281
23. LPR	830	23. LPR	780	23. Fuji Servetto	3051
24. Xacobeo Galicia	760	24. Tinkoff	585	24. ISD	3032
25. Skil Shimano	665	25. Mitsubishi	540	25. Skil Shimano	2792
26. Agritubel	605	26. SDA	425	26. Acqua & Sapone	2650
27. Landbouwkrediet-Coinago	370	27. Landbouwkrediet-Coinago	340	27. Topsport Vlaanderen	2221
28. ISD	359	28. Collstrop	285	28. Liberty Seguros	2119
29. Contentpolis-Ampo	310	29. Agritubel	285	29. Barloworld	1927
30. Liberty Seguros	285	30. Acqua & Sapone	280	30. Ceramica Flaminia	1786
31. Andalucia CajaSur	260	31. Skil Shimano	220	31. Xacobeo Galicia	1718
32. Bissell	250	32. Symmetrics	200	32. CSF	1650
33. Ridesport Racing.	190	33. Volksbank	60	33. Besson Chaussures	1563
34. Jean-Christophe Peraud	180	34. Ceramica Flaminia	60	34. Carmiooro A-Style	1486
35. CSF	150	35. Vlad Gusev	60	35. Landbouwkrediet-Coinago	1425
36. Team Nutrixxion-Sparkasse	125	36. Preti Mangimi	15	36. Contentpolis-Ampo	1395
37. (tie) Lokomotiv*	100	37. Andalusia-CajaSur	10	37. Andalucia-CajaSur	1375
37. (tie) Madeinox-Boavista	100	38.-----	10	38. PSK Whirlpool-Author	1359
37. (tie) Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team	100	39. -----	10	39. Centri della Calzatura	1262
37. (tie) Dmitriy Fofonov	100	40. -----	10	40. Miche-Silver Cross	1240

Assessing Andy Schleck's Year.

ursula — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:29:51 -0000

More than just saying Fantastic.

Per CN and Twitter comes word that Andy Schelck has called it a year and is not racing Lombardia, a race that he's had some success in the past, placing 4th in '07 but not riding last year. So what can we say about his year? Lots as it turns out:

- Overall this was his most successful year as befits a rider who's just 24. Better years should be ahead of him. To put some numbers to that, he scored at CQ 1242 points. Last year he only earned 699 and in '07, 812. So you can say he took a big step towards fulfilling the promise that he's shown the last couple of years.

VDS-wise, he made a similar leap, going from 800 points last year to 1467 today, good enough to be the 6th best rider in '09. (Probably though a couple other riders will pass him with the October races.) If you want him for your VDS team next year prepare to pay a lot because he's now one of the top riders.

- His highlights were, in order, his 2nd at the Tour, 1st at Liege-Bastohgne-Liege, and 2nd at Fleche Wallonne. Add in his 10th at Amstel Gold and he had a very strong Ardennes campaign. (Which makes me whistful about his declining to race Lombardia.)

So where can he go from here? Can he take another step? Were there any lowlights? Below the jump I take a detailed look at his '09 campaign.

1. Tour of California, 32nd overall. 1st race of the year and so was a tune-up race. Did not threaten on any stage.

2. Monte Paschi Eroica- 8th. As the main Saxo threat he and his team were beaten decisively by Columbia (winner Lovkvist, 4th place Boss Hog) and Milram (2nd Wegmann, 5th Gerdemann, 7th Peter Velits). The next best Saxo rider was Breschel in 19th, failing to make the final selection.

3. Tirreno Adriatico- DNF. Andy made it through the flat stages and the ITT but failed to start the decisive mountain stage.

4. Milan-San Remo- 128th in a race he never expected to contend for the win.

5. Criterium International- 46th overall at the Jens! Invitational.

6. GP Big Mig- 28th. Was not in the final selection up the hilltop finish.

7. Pais Vasco- 38th overall. Did not seriously contest any stage.

Okay. Stop here for a second as this marks the end of his early season campaign, right before the Ardennes. So far we see Andy just tooling around, not really in the hunt for any of these races other than Eroica. This differs a bit from his GC peers who tend to take at least one or several of the early races seriously and try for the win. Even brother Frank placed 2nd at Paris-Nice and won the last stage in California. Contador is the most active GC type early but Evans, Cunego, Leipheimer, Menchov, Basso, Nibali, DiLuca, Kloden, Valverde, Gesink, even Samu all announced their intentions by having at least one high placing in a competitive stage race and several of them battled through injuries to do so.

I presume this different approach was designed by Riis, probably with Andy's age a big consideration. Okay let's go on.

----------------------------------------------------

8. Amstel Gold- 10th

9. Fleche Wallonne- 2nd or 1st. Has Tin Tin been disqualified? CQ still has Rebellin winning the race so I am confused.

10. Liege-Bastogne-Liege- 1st.

A sublime Ardennes campaign, the best of any rider this year. One can imagine Andy winning all three in a year. So if Riis' strategy was to have Andy lie low pre-Ardenees then score big, it certainly worked. To look further you can see how seriously Saxo took the Ardennes classics as their team was the best in each race. And Andy was the tip of the Saxo spear so to speak.

------------------------------------------------------

Now comes the Tour build-up:

11. Tour of Luxembourg- 11th overall. He did win stage 2. His brother won the whole thing.

12. Tour de Suisse- 24th overall on that weirdly flat course tailor made for Andy's teammate.

13. Tour de France- 2nd overall, 2nd up Verbier, 3rd Le Grand-Bornand, and 3rd up Ventoux.

The Tour was obviously his biggest goal of the year and even if he didn't win it has to be classified as a big success. His LBL win announced his presence to the world of cycling; his Tour 2nd announced it to the world.

--------------------------------------------------------

14. San Sebastian- DNF (crash)

15. Vuelta a Espana- DNF stage 8.

16. Worlds RR- DNF

Meh. The crash messed things up but still there just never seemed like he had much juice for the end of this season. He (and his team outside of Cancellara) were (are) kinda aimless post-Tour. Of course a big Tour campaign does that to many riders.

OVERALL- Two big peaks in the Ardennes and Tour with nothing else to speak of. Established himself as one of the top handful of riders of all types.

Will this be a trend for Andy or will he branch out to other races? Was Riis holding him back some still because of age? Will he go back to the Giro or Vuelta in a serious way in the near future? How about the one week stage races? The kid has so much talent-should he stay with the same program or broaden it? To me I look at his March and think he could do better there without sacrificing his April or July. We'll see.

Vuelta KOM Race: Who's Gonna Win?

ursula — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:10:01 -0000

Got a quickie poll for you below on the KOM race. But first, I'm finding this little three week race delightful. Real competition for all the jerseys. New blood in all the competitions. Just feels refreshing to me. Hope it does to you as well.

To give some perspective on the KOM race, here are the top three of the last few editions with the points they earned with the GC winner bolded:

2008: 1. Moncoutie (149 points), 2. Kern (106), 3. Contador (99)

2007: 1. Menchov (90), 2. Van Goolen (78), 3. Sastre (69)

2006: 1. Martinez (129), 2. Caucchioli (117), 3. Valverde (98)

2005: 1. Rodriguez (200), 2. Jiminez (166), 3. Menchov (72)*

* Of course this was the race where Heras was disqualified after the fact. He would have come in 3rd in the KOM.

So after that you should be asking me for an estimate of how many points will it take to win the KOM this year. My answer to you is: I haven't the faintest! Actually that's not true; I expect the winner this year to need more than 110. That's conservative.

Here are the (so far) main contenders this year.

1A. David De la Fuente (64 points so far)

1B. David Moncoutie (60 points)

Two evenly matched climby guys who have histories of gunning for KOM shirts. Moncoutie of course won this jersey last year. De La Fuente hasn't won a KOM jersey in a Grand Tour yet but it's just a matter of time. I don't think of either of these guys as the best climbers in the race-GC guys like Evans or Gesink or Basso are-but they don't have the GC distraction to bother them so unless they are in an accident they should be in this race to the end. Expect Moncoutie to call De La Fuente's points from today by being in tomorrow's break.

Other non-GC guys:

2A. Peter Weening (48)

2B. Julian Sanchez (37)

If these guys or any others (Hoogerland, Ramirez, Cesar Velasco) are serious they should do some attacking tomorrow as the stage is made for a break.

3A, B. Cadel Evans and Bobo Gesink ( tied at 22)

3C. Alejandro Valverde (20)

These are the other KOM contenders and as you see above, the GC winner has won the KOM once in the last 4 times. I'm guessing that the three mountain stages just after this upcoming rest day will say a lot as to which (if any) GC contenders might be serious about the KOM as well. Note: Damiano Cunego (30 points) is also in this-but seriously is he gonna stay in the Vuelta to the end?

Poll

The winner of the KOM competition is...

David De La Fuente

20 votes

David Moncoutie

23 votes

Bobo Gesink

6 votes

Cadel Evans

1 votes

Alejandro Valverde

0 votes

Peter Weening

3 votes

Damino Cunego

0 votes

Someone else

0 votes

53 votes | Poll has closed

SB Nation User Blog: ursula

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Who was THE most disappointing rider of 2009?

Most Improved Rider of the Year: Nominations are open!

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Assessing Andy Schleck's Year.

Vuelta Stage 19 Ávila - La Granja.....LIVE Thread Number.... TWO

Vuelta Stage 12 LIVE Third Thread

Vuelta KOM Race: Who's Gonna Win?

The winner of the KOM competition is...

David De La Fuente

David Moncoutie

Bobo Gesink

Cadel Evans

Alejandro Valverde

Peter Weening

Damino Cunego

Someone else

Vuelta Stage 8 Los Montañas! .......LIVE PART 2