INEOS Grenadier
A team that came with a goal, to win the Tour. The initial plan was that but there were lots of obstacles and most were just too big to overcome. The team came in with Egan Bernal who in my eye seemed to be overtrained, his back pain was an issue in the Dauphiné and it got him to abandon the race, he looked to be building up for the third week very well but the Grand Colombier exposed his issue. Richard Carapaz wasn't set to take on this race as he wasn't in the best of form and then he also crashed several times, he did well to alongside Kwiatkowski take stage 18 in brilliant form and almost won the KOM jersey but there was someone stronger than him. Pavel Sivakov also could've taken a role on the GC race but had a crash-marked debut in the Tour.
Rating: 4/10
Team Jumbo-Visma
As Ineos the bees also came with the goal of winning the race, and throughout 19 days Roglic looked like the most consolidated, consistent and powerful rider that just seemed right and good enough to take home the Tour. He did it all perfect, and Jumbo also did it all perfect with Roglic taking a win and Wout van Aert two more, but they were always together, Roglic was never in distress or alone and never cracked under pressure... until the time-trial, where most were sure he'd thrive it's actually where he lost the race, in a bad day, he didn't completely crack but his less good ride combined with a massive performance by Pogacar took down the dream. They all still raced and did everything perfect nonetheless, coming out without the win is a tough take but I can't say they've made a mistake in this race.
Rating: 9/10
Bora - Hansgrohe
It was a tough race for the German team. Coming in they already had a lot of problems with Buchmann, Muhlberger and Schachmann coming in with recent injuries. However, they still raced on, Muhlberger was the only of those who abandoned through exhaustion, and Postleberger due to a badly times wasp bite, from the moment Buchmann's GC expectations faded he disapeared from the race and Sagan's green jersey became the main goal. He fought, and fought and fought, so despite not winning the jersey for the first time I still have big respect for his race because it wasn't for lack of trying, he and his team made several stages more exciting than expected as they looked to put Bennett into stress, they raced well and still had Lennard Kamna taking a strong win home. The climbing block including Grossschartner was completely off, but the offensive racing put them in a good place for me.
Rating: 5/10
AG2R La Mondiale
AG2R came in with Romain Bardet and as I suspected he attempted the overall. A suiting route, stages close to home in familiar roads and brilliant form, as he said "form of his life", subjectively I was cheering him on so much and he was doing a brilliant race until in stage 13 he crashed, had a concussion and had to abandon the race. A tough hit for the French, Pierre Latour wasn't even of a help to the team but Nans Peters' win in the Pyrinees saved the team, although Benoit Cosnefroy had a lot of display in the KOM jersey but when it came to the big mountains he couldn't hold it on.
Rating: 6/10
Deceuninck - Quickstep
Deceuninck started the race off well with Julian Alaphilippe taking a win and yellow in Nice. Although he faded in the overall contention early on I feel he could've done more, his over-agressive style of racing not only didn't pay off but had him pay in the latter part of the race, but still he had a good moment of shine. The team's real show was in the flat and hilly stages, Sam Bennett took a stage win in the middle of the race and another great one in Champs-Elysees but most importantly he managed to take green home, an incredible achievement, his team did perfectly throughout the three weeks to stop the advancements of Peter Sagan and when it had to be Sam himself he managed to counter-attack Sagan always. He held tight and had the power to gain points in the sprint, the team did brilliantly and although I know they had the potential for more, I can't give them less than a 10 for the amazing collective race they did.
Rating: 10/10
Groupama - FDJ
Groupama came with a team focused around Thibaut Pinot and his expectations to win the Tour. A reasonable goal, unfortunately on the first day a nasty crash quickly took him out. He still survived but cracked when the Pyrinees came, which left his team the same way as Ineos who had then a team of stage-hunters, who tried but didn't come out of the race with a win with Gaudu also abandoning, Molard not showing his legs, Madouas struggling with the level and Reichenbach wasn't far off a win but couldn't take the big step.
Rating: 2/10
Bahrain - Mclaren
Bahrain also came with a team focused around Mikel Landa, a strong leader who's consistent and he did good. Was it a perfect race? No, he lost important time in the crosswinds stage but if you see the final overall it didn't make any difference, Landa was always consistent and strong in the mountains and Bahrain was one of the few teams who made the collective effort to attack the race. He took 4th on the overall which honestly is a good result, Damiano Caruso also had a very good race and finished 10th, Pello Bilbao did a good job as a domestique and Bahrain were a constant presence in the positioning side throughout the race. Sonny Colbrelli is the only disapointing rider in the squad, otherwise a very good race.
Rating: 8/10
EF Pro Cycling
EF came with a three-pronged approach to the overall and a team focused on the job. Dani Martinez crashed off contention still in Nice, Sergio Higuita struggled and then eventually crashed out in the final week aswell. Rigoberto Uran, he entered the race really well, strong and consistent and I thought he was a genuine podium favourite in the last rest day, but unlike his normal performances he faded in the final crucial stages. In the end he still finished 8th which isn't at all a bad result and Daniel Martinez took a stage win in Pas de Peyrol. From Bettiol and Carthy I expected more, but in such a strong field it isn't easy to net wins.
Rating: 6/10
Team Arkéa Samsic
Arkea was a team that really motivated me throughout the race. A Pro Continental squad, their resources weren't so big and support to give Quintana, but they still came with a team fully focused in him. Connor Swift did well helping him in the flat stages and Barguil was there in the mountains well with Quintana, he looked sharp in the Pyrinees but the crash in stage 13 was a tough sight. It clearly took a toll on him, I think he had another crash during the race, he clearly struggled from there on and eventually fell out of contention. They did a good race but luck wasn't on their side and they ended up with no result. Not really easy to give out their rating as they did race well, but I think a 3 would be fair.
Rating: 3/10
Movistar Team
Movistar comes in to the Tour every year pretty much as a laughing stock don't they! This year their team is much inferior to their normal level yet they focused on the Tour heavily even though the startlist was quite strong. And the truth? Movistar did a brilliant race, firstly they were in the podium again in Paris for winning the team's classification, secondly they have put Enric Mas in the Top5, the Spaniard confirmed his promise of a world-class stage-racer if any evidence was still needed, Mas raced a strong and consistent race and in the final week he really came in strong, Valverde also had a good and consistent race, he was set to finish on the Top10 but his final time-trial was a bad performance that eventually had him finish 12th. Still the team was very present in brekaways and performances from several riders were a big up with Verona finishing 19th, Soler/Erviti/Oliveira also rode strong.
Rating: 9/10
Trek - Segafredo
Trek did such a strange race, a race of two faces. They didn't look at all connected until the crosswind stage where Porte said the team had a big talk. Until there you had Pedersen/Stuyven/Theuns chasing sprint wins which to be fair they were quite close, Toms Skujins looking for breakaways and Elissonde struggling to support Porte and Mollema. After the crosswind disaster Mollema crashed out, the team clearly changed and was focused on Porte as Pedersen was constantly around him, Elissonde had a very good finish to the race climbing very well, and Porte damn! He finally got to the podium, an incredible result that I admit I found impossible to achieve already, but again proved wrong and happy about it.
Rating: 7/10
CCC Team
CCC came with a clear goal of winning stages, it was simple, a hard task in the Tour but a simple goal. No debating wether they'd target GC or sprints, although Trentin did, he did a good consistent race into 3rd place in the green jersey. Greg van Avermaet didn't feature much in the race despite having a strong podium place in the first week, Zakarin crashed out and Hirt came into form very late, and De Marchi never showed his best legs throughout the race.
Rating: 4/10
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
Cofidis came with a strong team with Guillaume Martin fighting for a strong overall, he's one of the few that avoided big mishaps but he seems to have peaked too early. To be honest it didn't work out bad, his podium in the Dauphiné was a brilliant result but it did cost him here as he finished just outside the Top10. Wasn't a bad race but he was too strong too early. On the other side Elia Viviani didn't manage to turn his season around with a win, he had a solid sprint in a stage, but so did Laporte and Consonni who equalled or bettered his result, Herrada wasn't far from a win and Edet also rode well but they just aren't the level of many of the other teams, but not a bad race though.
Rating: 5/10
UAE - Team Emirates
Emirates, what to say of Emirates... It's really actually hard to rate their race, because my god they have taken the win Pogacar really did take the race by the horns and stole the Tour in the final time-trial. A brilliant performance in only his second Grand Tour, he was the strongest racer it would seem, just that collectively the team didn't do him justice at all. David de la Cruz recovered from an early crash to help him well in the final week, and Kristoff did win a stage and wear yellow, but Aru and Formolo were useless in the race as they barely had any support before abandoning, and the team couldn't help him when Pogacar lost time in the crosswinds. In the end I think it doesn't matter much since he won, he himself with lift up the racing although I understand different numbers from you.
Rating: 8/10
Astana Pro Team
Astana were one of the other teams who brought a full squad around their leader. Miguel Angel Lopez built up slowly towards the Tour and peaked at the right time. In the Pyrinees he didn't ride very well, but he avoided mishaps (expect the post hit on stage 1) and was always well positioned, his team was actually the best in the crosswinds in my opinion, and in the climbs Ion Izagirre rode very well, unfortunately abandoned before the final week, still Lutsenko took a win in Mont Aigoual and Lopez on Col de la Loze. He entered the time-trial in the podium but slipped down to 6th, a poor ending to a great race, the team still deserves a big note though as both they and Lopez did very well throughout the race (if only it weren't for the time-trial...).
Rating: 8/10
Lotto Soudal
Lotto came in with a purely stage hunting team led by Caleb Ewan, although he didn't repeat the massive success of last year absolutely no other factor is more important than the fact that he took two stages home. The team's lost several riders along the way and Thomas de Gendt looked distant from his best at the race, but the wins they've gotten it's fair to say they've fullfiled their expectations.
Rating: 7/10
Mitchelton-Scott
Mitchelton came stating ambitions of stage-hunting, with Adam Yates not targeting the overall which soon enough still in Nice got dismantled. He did, Yates wore yellow which was a special moment for the team and Yates had a successful GC tilt despite a couple of hard days he's finished the race in 9th place. The rest of the team did a solid job specially Luka Mezgec who twice finished runner-up, it wasn't a very successful race for the team but they were always on the cameras so I really can't bring them down.
Rating: 6/10
Israel Start-Up Nation
Well their rating would never be very low because expectations weren't high for the Israeli team. Dan Martin and Ben Hermans came with target of getting a stage win, Martin was strong in the last week but didn't make it there, whilst Greipel and Hofstetter hovered the Top10 they couldn't really succeed, they had Neilands and Pollit who could've rode stronger but I'm not disapointed at their race. Still, nothing to take from the race so the "rating would never be low" has to be forgotten.
Rating: 2/10
Team Total Direct Energie
Fabien Grellier wore the KOM jersey for a day in the beggining and Turgis had 1 Top10 place during the race. That's it, that day in the polka dots is really everything the team's offered during the race, whilst Sicard was a nice surprise he looked in good form he didn't capitalize on it, Bonifazio and Calmejane who were expected to be competitive didn't manage to do it.
Rating: 2/10
NTT Pro Cycling
NTT came with a team focused on the sprints a lot, Nizzolo was coming in great form and had a strong leadout to help him out. He had a 3rd place but stomach issues marked his short race. Gogl rode strong, Boasson Hagen finished runner-up in a stage he was close to the win, the team ended up coming out of the Tour with nothing but I can't say they were invisible they actually were quite active despite finishing the race only with 5 riders.
Rating: 3/10
Team Sunweb
Like in 2017 they were the team that performed over expected. The team hadn't had an easy year and were criticized for not bringing Michael Matthews who looked in good form. Well, I can't say I was expecting the success they had but I had a feeling the lack of pressure from not having Matthews could help, and damn did it help. Cees Bol didn't get a win but was very close and Pedersen/Arndt/Nieuwenhuis did really well as a leadout, Roche was strong in breakaways and the massive success that was firstly Soren Kragh Andersen who took two stage wins and Marc Hirschi who was the revelation of the race, taking a dominant win and oh so close to an almost 100Km solo win in the Pyrinees. The team did really good without the pressure like Barguil/Matthews in 2017, got 3 wins and were close to some more, spotless performance, not only the results but their mindset as they were resting between stages unlike most of the stage hunters.
Rating: 10/10
B&B Hotels - Vital Concept p/b KTM
They finally got invited to the Tour and they made it work perfectly. Unfortunately they didn't get a win from the race, but they were very active, Bryan Coquard was always present in the intermediate sprints and finished 4th in the fight for green, whilst Pierre Rolland was a constant presence in the mountain breakaways, had unlucky in Grand Colombier where he could've won and finished runner-up in Sarran. Barthe was always an agressive racer with a lot of time in front, the team deserved their wildcard and proved it was completely worth it.
Rating: 8/10
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