Team of the Week: Week 1

Hey! I'm gonna try something this year. After each week I pledge to write a post of the best riders of the previous week with various commentary as you'll see. I'll select 9 riders in memory of when in Grand Tours teams could have 9 riders, hopefully of the Fellowship kind and not Nazgul. I'll not if a rider has won this coveted award before and see where this gets us at the end of the year. You can argue with my selections of course. Here we goooooooo....

Races of the week

We're talking Abu Dhabi Tour, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, Classic Sud Ardeche, and Royal Bernard Drome Classic.

Team of the week

Alejandro Valverde- won Abu Dhabi Tour and the last stage up to Jabel Hafeet.
Miguel Angel Lopez- Superman easily distanced all but Valverde on Jabel Hafeet and my guess is that if the mountain were harder he would have won solo.
Michel Valgren- won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad with smarts and strength.
Dylan Groenewegen- won KBK with a truly dominant sprint over Demare, Colbrelli, etc.
Lilian Calmejane- Tarzan gets a spot on the team by winning Drome Classic. He was also 3rd at Clas de l'Ardeche.
Romain Bardet- wins Classic de l'Ardeche + 8th at Drome.
Elia Viviani- wins a stage + points competition at Abu Dhabi vs some serious sprinting talent.
Lukasz Wisniowski- 2nd @ Omlopp, 8th @ KBK. Who is Sky's leader on the cobbles again? Why did QS let this guy go? Always with the questions.
Sonny Cobblerelli gets the last spot with his 8th @ Omloop followed by 3rd @ KBK

Team of the week: Astana. Put on a clinic at Omloop + Superman's climb in the desert snags the ultra coveted team of the week honors.

The Movistar award for cobbles excellence: Quickstep.

Do they understand tactics? Like at all? Lotto Soudal

Honorable mentions:

1. Sep for his attack up the Muur: a thing of beauty. Pity the finishing like was further down the road.

2. Kristoff and Bauhaus for winning Abu Dhabi sprinter stages

3. Demare for looking strong but not winning on the cobbles.

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