The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Winners of the Tour de France: Part 2

Another difficult day awaits the peloton in Stage 17 of la Vuelta a Espana. (AFP PHOTO/ JOSE JORDAN).
Roar Guru
2nd August, 2015
1

To wrap up coverage of the 2015 Tour de France, let’s take a look at Part 2 of my series focussing on the top achievers of this year’s race.

AG2R La Mondiale
AG2R have consistently been the best French team for a long while now. Their consistency in the big races is very good, and they always produce attacking racing.

This year’s Tour was one where there was the potential for Romain Bardet to finish high in General Classification, after a top performance at last year’s race, while also finishing well at the recent Criterium du Dauphine.

They also had last year’s second place getter Jean-Christophe Peraud in the team, but his form leading into the race was questionable; many people therefore came to the assumption that he would not repeat his achievements of last year’s race.

However, when it came to the first mountain stage of the Tour to La-Pierre-Saint-Martin, both Peraud (affected by crashes) and Bardet faltered. Unfortunately for Peraud, his Tour continued to go downhill from there, but for Bardet he managed to salvage a stage win on Stage 18.

Bardet’s attacking style has been thrilling crowds all season, and his ability on the descent is up there with the likes of Peter Sagan and Vincenzo Nibali. Due to his endeavours in the breakaways on this Tour, he was able to salvage a top 10 in the GC, a very respectable result in its own right, but even better considering the circumstances.

Another Frenchmen to announce himself to the home crowd this tour was Aleixs Vuillmeroz. The 27 year old is having a very solid season, with a top 10 performance at Fleche Wallonne. He showed that he has a liking for the Mur de Huy on Stage 3, finishing on the podium behind both Rodriguez and Froome.

Stage 8 though up the Mur de Bretagne showed that he is a genuine hilly classics rider of the future, with a stunning late attack to move away from the peloton to win the stage comfortably behind a fast finishing Dan Martin.

Advertisement

Even if AG2R get knocked down, they have a quality group of riders that they can still salvage results. Can you really say the same thing for any of the other French teams?

Joaquim Rodriguez
As with Romain Bardet, Joaquim Rodriguez was looking at riding General Classification until Stage 10 to La-Pierre-Saint-Martin, during which he lost a considerable amount of time, and reassessed his Tour objectives. This turned out to be a masterstroke, as he ultimately ended up being in contention for stage wins and the King of the Mountains jersey.

Before this however, he was able to triumph up the Mur de Huy on Stage 3, a climb in which he has dominated at Fleche Wallonne in the past. His punchy attack was too much for Chris Froome and the rest of the competitors.

After the disappointment of Stage 10, Rodriguez found himself in the breakaway on Stage 12 and dominated the rain soaked stage, attacking in the early slopes of the final climb of the Plateau de Beille to register his second stage win in the Tour, and also announce himself as a potential Polka Dot jersey winner.

However, it looked like he spent a lot of his energy in the first two weeks, and thus was not able to make a real fight for that jersey, finishing fifth in the competition.

MTN Qhubecka
The story of the Tour has to be MTN-Qhubecka, and their amazing rise to the top of the biggest bike race in the world. The first registered African team in the Tour’s history attacked the race from day one, and consistently got their distinctive jersey off the front for the whole world to see. Though, that was not good enough for the team.

If you compare a team like Cofidis to MTN – both lower level teams that need the publicity – Cofidis get a rider in the break most days, and that is that, MTN on the other hand attacked the race, and got the ultimate rewards in both publicity and performance.

Advertisement

It started on Stage 6 to Le Havre, where Daniel Teklehaminot found himself in the break, and won all three mountain sprints on the day to get himself in the King of the Mountains jersey, the first African to do so. This did not stop him from going in the break on the very next stage to consolidate his lead in that competition.

We then saw in the Pyrenees the consistent performances of Serge Pauwles (fourth on Stage 11), and Louis Meintjes (fifth on Stage 12, including crashing on a tricky descent), who looked for stage wins.

On Stage 14 though, the team got the ultimate reward for their attacking riding, with Steve Cummings surprising both Bardet and Pinot with a great attack in the last kilometre through a technical set of bends to claim a wonderful win following a very steep final climb.

While other teams were passengers in this race, MTN attempted to attack it, and in doing so, won the hearts of many cycling fans. Let’s hope this is the start of something very special for such a brilliant organisation.

Robert Gesink
This man has had to come through some extraordinary battles over his career to still be racing at the top level.

In September of 2011, he suffered a crash in training where he broke his leg in four places, and had an operation which left screws and pins in his body. He was able to come back to the sport and finished the 2012 Vuelta in sixth.

After discovering in early 2014 that he had heart problems, he sacrificed his tilt at the Tour to race the Vuelta. He was in sixth position at the back end of the Tour, but left on Stage 18 due to his wife having complications in pregnancy.

Advertisement

What does this all mean? For me, it means that a sixth place result in this year’s tour was an amazing achievement, finishing only a minute behind the fifth placed Contador, and two behind fourth place Nibali.

Here is hoping that the talented Dutchman has no more problems in his career, because at the age of 29, there is still room for improvement for him. A top 5 in a Grand Tour is a a genuine possibility in the future.

Is there anyone else who succeeded in this year’s race? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

close