There is only ever one winner overall in Grand Tours, but the beauty of a three-week race is that it does provide ample opportunities for victory on the way to the final stage. Some teams go to races like the Giro d’Italia targeting the general classification, while others will hunt for stage wins from opportunistic breakaways or flat bunch sprints. Either way, no teams want to come away with nothing at all.
This year’s Giro was plagued with bad weather, shortened stages, crashes and Covid-19, but there were still some teams that came out on top with impressive performances and others who will need to go back to the drawing board and rethink ahead of the rest of the season. Taking into account individual stage results and overall finishing positions as well as general entertainment factor, we rate the performances of each team across the three weeks of racing around Italy.
Soudal – Quick-Step – 6/10
It all started off so well for the Belgian team with Remco Evenepoel’s storming opening time trial where he won by 22 seconds ahead of Filippo Ganna. Back then, it seemed like this was Evenepoel’s Giro to lose, he looked to be leaps and bounds ahead of his competitors. As the first week continued though, cracks did start to appear in Soudal – Quick-Step’s line-up. For example, Evenepoel was isolated without any teammates on the second category Colle Molella climb on stage four, raising questions over how the team would support him in the high mountains. These were questions that were never answered, however, after Evenepoel left the race with Covid-19 ahead of the first rest day.
The same day he tested positive for the illness, Evenepoel did actually win the second time trial of the race on stage nine. Still beating the rest of the field with Covid? That surely deserves a couple of points on its own. However, Evenepoel leaving the race was the start of a series of unfortunate events for Soudal – Quick-Step as one by one their riders were taken out with Covid-19. In the end, just two, Ilan van Wilder and Pieter Serry, finished the race for the Belgium squad – we can only imagine the quiet of the team bus. Van Wilder finished a respectable 12th on general classification, an impressive result for a young rider, so he gets a couple of points for that. Overall, this Giro was a case of what could have been for Soudal – Quick-Step, before Covid came and spoiled their fun.
AG2R Citroën Team – 7/10
The Paret-Peintre brothers on AG2R…