AG2R Citroen – C
Ben O’Connor’s injury and subsequent withdrawal severely hampered the French team’s ambitions. Benoît Cosnefroy, Oliver Naesen and Aurélien Paret-Peintre were complete non-factors despite being skilled riders. Bob Jungels stage victory saved the Tour for the French team. So many teams performed below expectations this Tour that a stage win is enough to secure AG2R a positive grade.
Alpecin Fenix – A
Mathieu Van Der Poel was clearly tired from the Giro so it was up to Jasper Philipsen to save the Tour for Alpecin. And boy, did he do it! He won two stages, including the one on the Champs Elysees. The young Belgian was clearly the best pure sprinter in this Tour.
Astana – C
The Kazakh team came here with the intent to take Lutsenko to the top-10 and accomplished it. Other than that they were completely anonymous. They were never even close to winning a stage. A top-10 for a team that isn’t the powerhouse it was 10 years ago makes for a good Tour de France.
Bahrain Victorious – E
Matej Mohoric was one of the biggest disappointments of this Tour. The best this team did was a 3rd place on stage 10 through Luis Leon Sanchez. Dylan Teuns also tried (unsuccessfully) to win a stage on a couple of occasions. Very, very meager from a team like Bahrain.
B&B Hotels – KTM – D
Unlike the two previous years, the French wildcard team was a disappointment this season. Leaders Franck Bonnamour and Pierre Rolland were non-factors. Showing up in a few breakaways and a few top-10s by Luca Mozzato is not enough for a positive evaluation of this year’s Tour for B&B. Mozzato’s four top-10s in bunch sprints is impressive for the future, though.
Bora Hansgrohe – C
Bora’s team requires a better outcome than this. Aleksandr Vlasov, as an individual, was valiant in the way he achieved a top-5 finish, but his team didn’t accomplish much outside of that.
Cofidis – D+
Ultimately they failed at what is their eternal goal: winning a stage. They also narrowly missed out on the mountains’ jersey. They wore it for a long time and animated the race so their Tour wasn’t a total failure.
EF Education EasyPost – C
A stage win and a few days in the polka dots for Magnus Cort, and a 13th place by Neilson Powless are certainly a positive haul for the American team. Rigoberto Uran and Ruben Guerreiro, for different reasons, ended up not being able to contribute to the team’s overall success.
Groupama FDJ – C+
A 4th place by a Frenchman representing a French team is always important. David Gaudu gets his first top-10 in a Grand Tour. Valentin Madouas finished in 11th place, another positive sign for the promising French talent. Such a good team missed a stage win but made up for it in other ways.
Ineos Grenadiers – A
Coming into the Tour I’m sure the British team would gladly accept a podium in Paris. After putting most of their eggs in the Giro and letting the basket fall on the floor, Geraint Thomas just saved Ineos’ Tour. A 3rd place for the former Tour winner, a stage victory by Thomas Pidcock and the overall teams’ classification is, in my opinion, way more than the team thought they could get. Ineos is the richest team in the peloton but money doesn’t ride bikes. Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are so much better than anybody else that unless one of them is representing your team you have no chance to fight for yellow. A 3rd place and a stage win is realistically the best they could have achieved.
Intermarché Wanty Gobert Matériaux – C
Same as Astana. I’m sure they would have liked to have taken Alexander Kristoff to a stage win but an 8th place through Louis Meintjes (the third 8th place of his career in the Tour) ends up constitutes a positive Tour.
Israel Premier Tech – A
Two stage wins (the first and second ever for the Israeli team in the Tour) are a dream haul for the team. Simon Clarke won the “Paris-Roubaix stage” and Hugo Houle won in spectacular fashion in Foix. Chris Froome also displayed his best form in years before being forced to abandon due to covid-19. Everything went as well as it could have for the team.
Jumbo Visma – Winners
The yellow, green and polka-dot jerseys plus 6 stage wins. Total domination from the Dutch team. I must say though, I’m tired of all the talk that Van Aert is the face of this edition of the Tour. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There is no scenario in which the yellow jersey isn’t the face of the Tour. Especially when he won with such authority. Epic Jonas Vingegaard!
Lotto Soudal – F
A team built around Caleb Ewan can boom or bust. If he wins it’s a success. If not, the entire team is hamstrung to fight for other goals. The Australian sprinter wasn’t even close to winning anything. The team was a complete non-factor because of that.
Movistar – E
Enric Mas was fighting for the top-10 when he was forced to abandon the race a few days ago. The only positive aspect of the team’s participation was young American Matteo Jorgenson’s displays in the mountains.
Quick Step Alpha Vinyl Team – B-
The stupidity of not bringing Mark Cavendish to give him a chance to break the stage win record with Quick Step’s kit on will never not astound me. With that being said, two stage wins is a positive haul for most teams. Quick Step has achieved more in recent years but their team realistically couldn’t get much more.
Team Arkéa Samsic – B-
Much like Astana, Arkéa put Nairo Quintana in the top-10 (6th) and didn’t do anything else. A top-10 for Arkéa, through Quintana, is incredibly valuable though and makes for a very successful Tour for this wildcard team. A stage win keeps eluding them but a 6th overall is enough to secure them their best Tour ever.
Team BikeExchange Jayco – A
Same as Israel. Two stage wins is a dream outcome for the Australian team. I was always a fan of Dylan Groenewegen’s signing at the beginning of the year and the Dutch sprinter proved this month that it was a good move. Michael Matthews sensational victory over Alberto Bettiol in Mende was the cherry on top.
TotalEnergies – F
A French team. Beneficiary of a wildcard. With Peter Sagan in their ranks. Did absolutely nothing to justify the invitation. Which is nothing new.
Team DSM – C
Same as Intermarché and Astana. A 7th place by Romain Bardet is all the team got from the Tour. I would say this a positive outcome for the Dutch team despite the disappointments of Alberto Dainese and John Degenkolb.
Trek Segafredo – C
Same as AG2R. I think it would be legitimate to expect more looking at Trek’s collection of riders, but a stage victory is enough to save their Tour de France.
UAE Team Emirates – C
Nobody can say that Pogacar’s performance during the past three weeks was negative. I don’t think Jumbo Visma was significantly better than UAE either. Pogacar made a mistake on the Col du Granon and it was there that he lost the Tour. Vingegaard was perfect on every stage. Jumbo Visma or UAE didn’t really matter, in my opinion. Switch their teams and Vingegaard would still have won. Pogacar made a mistake and spent the rest of the Tour trying to make up for it. He couldn’t do it because his opponent was godlike. His relentless pursuit of the yellow jersey and 3 stage wins have to be considered a positive for himself and the team. With all that being said, I don’t think the best rider in the world is ever happy about finishing 2nd.