SunSwingsLow

For American sponsored teams.

BMC - Wins the Yellow with Cadel and a stage win with Cadel
Garmin - Wins Team competition plus 4 stages
HTC - 6 stage wins plus the Green Jersey

11 stages and 3 of the 5 top spots

I dont think i could have ever imagined US teams doing this well across the board.

Paul01

Certainly the most entertaining.

Kind of Blued

Not to start an argument, but I don't get the point of saying it was a good year for American cycling just because the winningest teams have an office based in the US with Americans shuffling their papers. They might train here occasionally? What else?

HTC did well because of a British guy, and Australian guy, and a Slovakian guy. Their American GC guy did horribly.

Garmin did well mostly because of a Norweigan guy. An American guy finished in 9th, and another won a stage.

Radioshack's American hopefuls crashed and did poorly.

BMC has an Australian guy that won. I think most of his teammates were not American.

What's the point?

I'm all for American cycling, but a team based in the U.S. doesn't make them an "American team".

dstrong 

Does too.

DXchulo

Not the biggest Lance fan, but I would say having an American guy on an American team win the whole thing is better than what happened this year.

I don't even think of HTC and BMC as American teams, really.

Kind of Blued

Even if every rider was Chinese?

ahsposo 

No.

1989 was much better.

EDIT: I didn't read the OPs post except the title before this post.

I don't really care about national teams except at the Olympics. I think some one has pointed out most teams are deeply multi-national. There is a trend (Team Katusha for example) towards nationalism on a team.

SunSwingsLow

yeah, even if every rider was chinese.

If they are sponsored by an American company that makes it an American team.

Caretaker

Was it the best TdF ever?

The OP has a rather nationalistic take on what makes a good TdF. Applying the same criteria 1987 would for me have been the best ever.

This years race was a vintage Tour de France. 2011 will go down as one of the great years.

ahsposo 

Oh. I just saw the OP was thinking "American" teams.

7-11 had some of the most dramatic wins or near wins but mainly in other events.

Then they changed sponsors to Motorola and brought radio tactics to the races.

USPS with Lance in control is legend in the TdF.

Google Andy Hampsten Gavia.

Here's what Wikipedia has on his career.



This guy brought HTFU to America.

Caretaker

The Thread should have read.

Was This the Best TdF Ever, for America?

After all this is ABF isn't it?

SunSwingsLow

Did you read the very first sentence?
Or are you having a hissy fit because the title didnt say it?

ahsposo 

It was a ******** lousy title and Caretaker has a BIG point.

THE TITLE is pretty simple. His first sentence is regrettable.

Northwestrider

Isn't Garmin a Taiwanese company? It's hard to know these days. In any case I'm not interested very much in National teams, even in the Olympics.

roadlover404

It was pretty damn good. I loved watching Tyler Farrar come in for the win on July fourth.
For Americans as well as everybody else I think it was a good tour.

Cat4Lifer

Not even close.
'86, '87,'89, '90, '91, '93, '98, '03,'07, were far better, IMO

gpsblake

I think it was a good tour but I'm not a fan of time trials being at the end of the tour. But the racing was good, drama with Voeckler holding on the yellow, Andy's breakaway and Cadel's bringing back 2 minutes.. And Contador's last stands. And watching Cavendish's team set up final sprints were a thing of perfection, especially when all 9 riders were lined up. The first week of the tour was a bit of a mess though with the crashes. I think what also made this one of the better one's is no doping scandals and I hope the doping stuff is behind us for the most part.

gpsblake

Nope. Garmin is located in Kansas. And their product support is out of Kansas also, not to India or China. They are a good company to do business with.

ahsposo 

No. You must be thinking about Trek.

Not even in the track cycling events? That's too bad. That's some fun stuff.

ahsposo 

So let me ask this?

Is this wonderful Tour for "American" teams gonna do us any good out on the roads? You think Johnny Lunchpail driving his pickup truck is gonna treat a cyclist with any greater courtesy when he comes up from behind? You think Suzy Selfcenter is gonna stop texting while "operating" her GMC Destroyer because she see's a potential Tour winner up the road from her?

Caretaker

Your first sentence is "Was this the best TdF ever?". The second sentence and I can tell it's a seperate sentence because it begins with a capital letter, reads "For American sponsored teams".

Hissy fit?
Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with the term but no, I'm not having any kind of fit?

DXchulo

No, but I don't see anybody claiming that to be the case. I take it that the OP was simply proud of the USA for having a good Tour. The thread title was a little misleading, but the first post is pretty clear.

Keith99

Which is beaten by having Americans finishing first and 4th. A result made even more impressive since the first American rider in the TDF was just 5 years earlier.

https://support.atlasdev.com/Issue_V...IssueNbr=82333

Nah, I think overall 1986 was better. The U.S. had just as many riders and far better overall results.

Keith99

Bolding mine.

So is it that you don't like the way the TDF has been run since WW II or do you thnik there is a significant difference between haveing a TT on the third from last stage as opposed to the next to last? I do not know of any post WW II TDF without a TT in one of the last 3 stages.

ahsposo 

We Americans need some pride right now. Heck, like some wag I heard saying "If the national financial mess gets any worse we might have to move in with Canada for a while."

I guess that some of us care about the "nationality" stuff and some of us don't. I tend to not care because generally this is a very mixed sport as far as sources of talent and equipment go. BMC is Swiss is it not? Cadel Evans is Aussie. I didn't feel a lot of patriotic emotion listening to the Australian National Anthem.

Track cycling is probably much "purer" as to national teams.