Tour de France 2017 Winners and Losers—Part 2

Winners

• Team Sky and Chris Froome—Froome has won his fourth Tour de France.  One more and he will rank with the greats: Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, and Anquetil, each who have won five Tours.  Team Sky also was also the best team, and Mikel Landa missed the podium by one second.  Team Sky is often criticized for riding a boring race, but they do ride a very smart race.
• Quickstep, Dan Martin, and Marcel Kittel—Martin finished sixth overall and rode a great race.  He was always aggressive.  Kittel won five stages and leading the green jersey competition, when he crashed in Stage 17 and abandoned.  It's too bad he didn't make it to Paris.  He would have been my pick to win on the Champs Elysées.
• Subweb, Michael Matthews, and Warren Barguil—Matthews won two stages and the points jersey.  Even if Kittel had made it to Paris, Matthews still might have won the points jersey.  Barguil won the polka dot jersey (mountains classification) and two stages.  He also finished second on another stage (lost by a centimeter).  Barguil was also award for being the most combative rider in the Tour, although many feel that award should have gone to Thomas De Gendt.
• Cannondale-Drapac—Rigoberto Uran finishes second.  Nathan Brown and Taylor Phinney also collected a couple of polka dot jerseys early in the Tour.  Uran's win should be a big help in the sponsorship hunt.  Cannondale-Drapac's annual budget is $15 million compared to Sky's $40 million.
• AG2R La Mondiale—Roman Bardet hangs on to third place by one second.  AG2R rode an aggressive race.  Bardet is a classy rider, and no one descends down a mountain better.
• Simon Yates (Orica-Scott) for the best young rider.
• Trek-Segafredo—Bauke Mollema won a stage and Contador never gave up.
• Other teams who one at least one stage—Maciej Bodnar and Bora-Hansgrohe (Stage 20), Edvald Boasson Hagan and Dimension Data (Stage 19), Primož Roglic  and Lotto NL Jumbo (Stage 17), CALMEJANE, Lilian Calmejane and Direct Energy (Stage 8), Fabio Aru* and Astana (Stage 5), Arnaud Demare* and FDJ (Stage 4), Peter Sagan* and Bora-Hansgrohe (Stage 3).
• Everyone who made it to Paris and Dylan Groenewegen (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) on the Champs Elysées.

Losers

• The Race Officials—Where do I begin?  Peter Sagan should have been penalized for the crash in Stage 4 but not eliminated from the Tour.  On the other hand, Bouhani, who is French, punched another rider in Stage 10 and only received a slap on the wrist.  Three riders took illegal feeds on Stage 12: Bennett, Uran, and Bardet.  Bennett and Uran were each penalized 20 seconds, but Bardet was not.  Bardet is French.  The penalties were eventually reversed.  Thomas De Gendt rode off the front in breaks for over 1000 km of the Tour.  The public chose him as the most combative rider.  The race jury chose Barguil.  Barguil is French.
• Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish—They collided in Stage 4 during the final sprint.  It looks as if Sagan rode Cavendish into the barriers.  Sagan was thrown out of the Tour and Cavendish broke his scapula.
• Astana and Fabio Aru—Aru won the jersey and then lost it and dropped to 5th overall.  Astana is a team that is led by an unrepentant doper (Vinokurov).
• BMC and Richie Porte—Porte, one of my favorites, continued is string of grand tour bad luck with a spectacular crash on the descent of Mont du Chat.  Fortunately, his injuries were much less severe than first appeared.  BMC had nothing else to show for the Tour.
• Americans—Other than the polka dot jerseys very early in the race, the three Americans in 2017 Tour de France were little more than pack filler.
• Movistar—Valverde crashed in Stage 1 and Quintana was never a factor in the race.  It will take another Merckx to do a Giro-Tour double.
• Nacer Bouhani for punching another rider in Stage 10.  This is not his first offense.  Bouhani needs to take an anger management class before being allowed to ride again.
• Arnaud Demare for taking three of his teammates with him when he didn't make the time cut in Stage 8.
• Those teams that did not win a stage, get a jersey, or get a top 10 placing—Movistar, BMC, Katusha Alpecin, Lotto Soudal, Cofidis, Bahrain-Merida, Wanty-Groupe Gobert, and Fortuneo.