We are but one short month from the end of the 2010's! What better excuse is there than to look back and think about and to discuss the best moments of the last decade. Here's a few ideas to generate some chat as the days get colder and darker for the majority of us:
Best Rider: Philippe Gilbert
World Champion. The Ardennes Triple. Paris-Roubaix and Lombardia. San Sebastian. Strade Bianche. And much more. Over the past 10 years i think he's been the best rider, capable of winning any and every level of race for the duration, ticking off every major achievement bar MSR, where even then he's been on the podium. Contenders: Peter Sagan, Alejandro Valverde, Chris Froome, Alberto Contador
Best Team: Team Sky/Ineos
Y'all may not like them, but no team in history has put such a stranglehold on Stage Racing, and i doubt any team will be able to do so again. Every Grand Tour won, multiple Stage Races, Monuments and Classics. Done everything they set out to achieve, and more, quicker than they hoped. Contenders: Quick Step, Highroad
Best Race (Multiple Years): Giro d'Italia
By 'multiple years' i mean the most consistently best race, not the single best one-off race. And the Giro for the last decade leads the way. 5 Editions won by less than one minute. Multiple times we've seen old school, all day, mountain raids to define the race. Actioned packed days after days after days. It's never once been boring! Contenders: Paris-Roubaix, MSR
Best Race (One Off): 2011 Tour, Stage 18
Andy Schleck attacking everyone on a long range move up the Galibier was memorable and epic, but to see Voeckler push so deep and hard to hold Yellow for just one more day against the all the odds was a magical moment. We just had no idea if he'd make it in time and we all cheered when he did. Contenders: More than i can count.... i really want to see some opinions on this one
Best F*ck Up: Lance Armstrong
It was in the last 10 years we finally got Lance! Not so much a f*ck up, just we got actual admission of guilt for one of the biggest scandals in the sports history. Satisfying, dramatic and one of biggest highlights of the past decade. Contenders: Spain at the 2013 Worlds, Quick Step at the 2015 Omloop
What are your highlights of the past decade of cycling? What other catagories can we discuss?
Best Rider - Peter Sagan
He monopolized the Maillot Vert, won back-to-back-to-back world championships, won numerous classic races - a resume riders can only dream of. For me Sagan epitomizes the 2010's
Best team - Quick Step (and their various guises)
IMO this team has been more consistent than any other top team over the past decade. Sure, we have the Sky/Ineos superteam loaded with talent to bore us from the Tour, but IMO Quick Step was competitive every year of this decade.
Best F*ck Up (except for Lance) - Nibali's sticky bottle blunder
Sure, Lance stained his reputation beyond repair, but he was already retired, so I'm going with Nibali's infamous "sticky bottle" case from La Vuelta which was broadcasted for the whole world to see
Nice debate setting I'll add I'll talk about only one BIGGEST not the contenders, hard to choose always but that's the way to go!
Best Rider: Peter Sagan
Gilbert, alright fair enough, but SAGAN?! 7 points jerseys (would be 8 if it wasn't for the DSQ for sure), 12 wins, 4 in Vuelta, 17 Suisse, 17 California, 7 Tirreno, 4 BinckBank, 3 Pologne, 2 TDU, 2 Paris-Nice and more in stage races. Dude has won Flandres solo, he's won Roubaix, he's been WC 3 different times in a row all in different circumstances with 2015 being one of the best wins of the decade. Won GW 3 times, has won Quebec/Montreal/E3, has a dozen more classics and stage-race wins.
He's even won GC at WT level, has Pologne and California to his name. For a series of years he's been THE wheel to mark in the cobbles and pretty much everywhere, his strenght became his weakness as the whole peloton refused to work with him and still he won tons of races, won freaking Flandres solo against everyone! And my god if we are to talk of 2nd, 3rd places I could be here all night.
And above all he has the personality, the charisma, he is someone that everyone wants to work with, someone who not only races like few he has the whole package for a team he's a Rockstar
Best Team: Quickstep/Deceuninck
INEOS was the best in GT's and I'd give it to them in that field, but if we take a look at the whole season it's so unfair not to name the Belgians. Since 2012 they've got 470 wins, this number is unreal and (maybe?) the best streak of wins in cycling history it averages 59 wins per season and they aren't cheap wins. There are 8 monuments, 8 WC titles/40 NC's over several disciplines, 66 GT stage wins, etc etc etc
No arguing they are THE best at what they do, they rack up wins like Armstrong racked up EPO and they still do to this day, taking the cobbles, the Ardennes, crushing the GT's with scary strong and impossible to beat leadouts that have had riders like Boonen, Cavendish, Trentin, Gaviria, Kittel, Viviani... and the amount of dispersity between their wins, almost half the team gets to raise their arms every year, they got a teenager winning at WT and stagiaires taking pro wins, Alaphillipe winning every type of race there is. Memories and memories, winning GT's can only take you up to a certain level and that one doesn't match this one.
Best Race (Multiple Years): Giro d'Italia
This one had to be it right? Sadly I can't talk about the 2010 Giro as I didn't watch cycling besides the Tour at the time, but I've seen it all on YT and damn what I missed.. true cycling right there, 2012 Giro was amazing, the snow in Tre Cime di Lavaredo in 2013, the snowstorm on the Stelvio 2014, the Contador/Astana battle of 2015 full of raids and drama, the 2016 where Kruijswijk my hero was about to win it until the cycling gods played him a trick and Nibali went on from disapointing into murdering the race in the final two days, the 2017 Quintana/Nibali vs Dumpoulin where Dumoulin won in Oropo, loss in the base of the Stelvio but monstered the Alps and took it, Froome's impossible solo raid and Yates dying in Finestre, MOVISTAR DOMINATING IN 2019 (!!)... So many great memories, remains the biggest race of all in my book no questions asked.
Best Race (One Off): Paris-Roubaix 2017
The full-on breakaway madness, Quickstep attacking in the crosswinds Cancellara before Arenberg meaning it was raced hard, then in the end a group of 4 riders all of them deserving that huge win all dying staying up on their bikes, all evenly matched and constantly attacking each other on and off the cobbles, they caught Hayman who cracked, then came back to them, I remember seeing the final kilometers and enjoying as no-one could make the difference but all were willing to die trying, Boonen resurged and had the final moment of his career feeling to win it and make history, and Hayman to win the most important race in the calendar after injury and the most unlikely and unexpected of race scenarios. Hayman attacked and it seemed like it was it but he was caught by Boonen and it felt like that was his last bullet but incredibly he won in the sprint, AMAZING race and that is what modern cycling has of best to showcase for the books.
(Andy in Galibier maybe second, it was my first ever Tour watching everything and I fondly remember it with the biggest of nostalgias )
Best F*ck Up: IS HE RUNNING
Armstrong is the obvious one, but well he (barely) didn't even race in this decade. So to choose someone active from modern times. This is hard to think, FDJ's drama and shitting the Maglia Ciclamino for Démare in the Giro this year popped to mind, your 2 examples are very good ones. This got me thinking in the moments of insanity and maybe Froome running in Ventoux was the single most INSANE moment in cycling I've ever seen. I remember sitting on my couch and thinking "this can't really be happening" and well I can't describe it, that is chaos in it's most pure definition
Might do mine another time, but just want to agree with YJ on the best one-off race: what a crazy, amazing, epic Roubaix that was in 2016
Also this makes me think it might be time for a new edition of the monument/GT elimination games since it's been 3-4 years since the last one, to find the best of the decade?
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Best Rider: Peter Sagan
Both who voted for him before me told enough
Best Team: Team Sky/Ineos
The consistency over the decade is impressive, tough competition with QS, but for the belgians is missing a single GT in whole 10 years (just 2 podiums in 30 GT) and the lack of monument's win between PR 14' and RVV 17.
How QS won in other classics Sky/Ineos won in week-long stage races.
10 GTs and 2 monuments are enough for british team.
Best Race (Multiple Years): Vuelta a España
How the riders get crazy on the finals climbs of Vuelta stages, I don't see in any other race, and Vuelta 2015 was one of the best GT I ever seen, but also 2012 and 2016 were great ones
Best Race (One Off): Paris-Roubaix 2016
This was the race that probably left me breathless more than any other.
Worth mention to stage 9 at Vuelta 15, with thrilling finale, but the importance of the stage in middle GT wasn't so high.
Best F*ck Up: 2017 Tour bottles chaos
Uran, G.Bennet and Pauwels relegated for breaking rules by accepting bottles from the side of the road in the final 10km.
"Oh! The cameras caught also Bardet taking one, and moreover he won the stage, let's forgive everything about them all." Tour rules...
Had hoped this might get a bit more interest and discussion, so.... *cough*bump*cough*
@Yellow Jersey - Wouldn't call that Ventoux Stage a f*ck up, more a What The Hell... so:
Best What The Hell?: 2013 Milan - San Remo
The weather! The chaos! Ciolek! Contenders: Ventoux 2016, a myriad of weather moments eg: any time Tim Wellans went long in the Rain
Also I need to change one... Best F*ck Up: Stage 9, 2011 Tour de France
So Lance was a major f*ck up, but let's be honest that was in the 00's. So what is the actual f*ck up, the car ploughing into Juan Anontio Flecha, who in turn launches Jonny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence. Of all the vehicle related messes we've seen in the last decade, this tops the lot! Pure idiocy right through from the car, and an instant legend in the Dutchman. As if you needed further reminding the 2011 Tour de France was on the best races of all time...
Best Rider: Gilbert beats Froome. 4/5 monuments and his Ardennes Quadriple narrowly defeats Froome 7 GT wins. I'd probably put Boonen or Cancellara 3rd, even in their late years they were amazing.
Best Team: I'll give tihs one to Sky then, especially their TDF series were amazing. Quick Step misses an Il Lombardia win to take the win here. 3rd place for ... Topsport Vlaanderen. Couldn't tihnk of anyone else that deserves is, but this is a Dev team done right!
Best Race: 2016 Roubaix, no question about it. Still hate this race so much to this very day.
Best Fuck Up: A few come to mind here, WC in Norway without cameras, Crashobank, Valverde & Purito but I'll go for Quick Step vs. Stannard.
Best Rider: Vincenzo Nibali needs a spot
Besides Sagan, Cavendish, Valverde, Gilbert and Froome, I would like to nominate the shark.
Won all 3 GTs
Won monuments
Allrounder to the finest
Best Team: Astana
Sure Quickstep and SKY has been dominant the past 5-7 years but looking on a 10 years scale, Astana has managed to stay at the very top all the time. Both developing stars (Aru, Fuglsang, Landa) and signing ones (Contador, Vino, Nibali).
Best Race (Multiple Years): Strade Bianche So hard to implement something new in an oldfashion sport. Strade Bianche did, and its enjoyable every year. I nominate this as it was a risk, but a well done one. Takes cycling to a new level.
Best Race (One Off): TDF 2010
Conta / Schleck battle - 0,39 seconds
Lance comeback with his own team (i might be starstruck ) but i remember this edition very well
Best F*ck Up: Hoogerland Car incident at the TDF Edited by Champ_Armstrong on 09-12-2019 13:05
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg){kind=small}
I'll add I'll talk about only one BIGGEST not the contenders, hard to choose always but that's the way to go!
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