Best Ever Team : Best Ever Manager

I go for Roger Legeay in the 80's/90's. I liked how he took on Lemond after his 8 second win on the Champs Elysee, and he also seems to pick up a few good riders along the way. He's had Chris Boardman, Robert Millar, Stuart O'Grady and now he's got Bradley Wiggins.

Now its Bjarne Riis. I often go and look at the teams website at www.team-csc.com/ny_index.asp. I really like his ethos, its rather inspiring to see how it all gels together. I hope he goes a long way in the business, because with his attitude he deserves to.

I had this thing against Riis from the 1996 TDF, but now I sort of appreciate how he speaks, from what I've read and interviews I've seen with him.

I don't think much of Saiz because I dislike his tactics in the grand tours. It seems like his idea is to burn out his riders by the end of the first week.

He was still a rider at the time... but I also think well of what Riis did in the 1998 TDF. His talks with Leblanc might have really saved the race.

Seeing Patrick Lefevre and his Mapei team dominating the classics in the 90's was pretty amazing haven't been alive to see most of the others.

I have to disagree with you there, even though the team i am going to nominate as the best ever hardly won anything. They took us back into the heyday of the Tour de France and cycling generally.

That team would be Team Bianchi. Led by Jan Ullrich, it nearly won the TdF and came close to winning two rounds of the world cup. The celeste coloured jerseys looked awesome on the front of the pack and once again Bianchi took its rightful place right at the front of the peloton.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Giz
I have to disagree with you there, even though the team i am going to nominate as the best ever hardly won anything. They took us back into the heyday of the Tour de France and cycling generally.

That team would be Team Bianchi. Led by Jan Ullrich, it nearly won the TdF and came close to winning two rounds of the world cup. The celeste coloured jerseys looked awesome on the front of the pack and once again Bianchi took its rightful place right at the front of the peloton.

Got to agree with you in respect of their jerseys - great to see the Bianchi name being displayed - following the tradition of Coppi, Gimondi etc.

As regards them being a good team (in 2003), I'm afraid I wouldn't count them as being up there with the great teams though !

Hinault, Fignon, Lemond = Cyril Guimard

Not sure if he was a coach or a director but I remember hearing this name growing up and the Tour victories his riders pulled off. Not sure if he worked with Fignon, but he did with Hinault and Lemond

Maybe you have a point when you say they didn't win much, they came close, don't forget the hype around the team at the TdF when Ullrich won the time trial. The excitement that has been created around this team was magical and it is a great shame that Ullrich left and the team did not continue in 2004.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by limerickman
A question for the Forum – which team do you consider to be the best cycling team, ever, in the professional peleton ?
And who do you think has been the best manager in cycling ?

Here are some suggestions :

ONCE 1990’s : this team contained Jalabert and Zulle and it managed to win both one day races, grand tours in it’s heyday.
A very good all round team : they had climbers, sprinters, roleurs.
1995 was probably it’s greatest year – when it dominated the one day classics and it did well in the TDF and Jalabert won the Vuelta.
Jalabert was also crowned World Champion as well.

Panasonic-Raleigh 1980’s : Again a very strong team, excellent TTT side.
P-R made the TTT event in the TDF their own.
This team contained Phil Anderson and Jan Riis and it also managed to capture the TDF.

Merckx Molteni Team :
The Cannibals praetorian guard ensured that Merckx was able to control his races with an iron grip.
This team steamrolled it’s way around all the major races.
Merckx and Co’s stranglehold was awesome.

Mapei 1990’s :
Museeuw, Ballerini and Tafi made the opposition work during the world cup years of the
1990’s.
The near monopoly of wins at Paris-Roubaix is unique.

Best Managers :

Patrick Lefevre : Mapei : commanded his charges with an iron grip.
Johann Bryneel : USPS : started his managerial career at the top.
Manolo Saiz : enforced his tough personality on to a disperate group of riders with different expectations but always managed to get the best out of them.
Giancarlo Ferretti : the most successful manager of all time.

For what it's worth : my selection is ONCE and my manager is
Manolo Saiz.

This might make a good one or two poll questions.

I think you make a good case for 1990s ONCE, but the Merckx team is also very strong. On Mapei, I am not so into these allegations, but there have been some very serious doping allegations about that team PR.

Sainz is a good manager. He understands tactics, recruits good unkowns (nozal for instance), and he also test equiptment like no one else does. At the same time, however, he occasionally has two many chiefs and too little indians. Remember the 2002 tour when both beloki and IGG were in great postion. Nonetheless, the ONCE team did nothing with this strong situation. They simply were not going to beat Armstrong straight up and the should have tried to somehow combine, but they didn't. Second, Sainz went nuts in the Vuelta last year and got himself kicked out. I don't know if Nozal would have won if Sainz had been there, but getting kicked out in that situation was damaging to the team.

I think Johan deserves a lot of creidt. The postal team has always defended Lance with unprecendented precision and the team has been flooded with talent. Boogerd, Armstrong, Hamilton, Heras. I mean 3 of the top 7 or so tour challengers were on his team. Johan also did a brilliant job in last years Vuelta by splitting the feild with heavy crosswinds. It was clearly planned and it showed incredible knowledge of the course. The move basically eliminated some people from the race. I know that he doesn't have the complete list of wins like others, but he just doesn't make mistakes

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by lazysegall
This might make a good one or two poll questions.

I think you make a good case for 1990s ONCE, but the Merckx team is also very strong. On Mapei, I am not so into these allegations, but there have been some very serious doping allegations about that team PR.

Sainz is a good manager. He understands tactics, recruits good unkowns (nozal for instance), and he also test equiptment like no one else does. At the same time, however, he occasionally has two many chiefs and too little indians. Remember the 2002 tour when both beloki and IGG were in great postion. Nonetheless, the ONCE team did nothing with this strong situation. They simply were not going to beat Armstrong straight up and the should have tried to somehow combine, but they didn't. Second, Sainz went nuts in the Vuelta last year and got himself kicked out. I don't know if Nozal would have won if Sainz had been there, but getting kicked out in that situation was damaging to the team.

I think Johan deserves a lot of creidt. The postal team has always defended Lance with unprecendented precision and the team has been flooded with talent. Boogerd, Armstrong, Hamilton, Heras. I mean 3 of the top 7 or so tour challengers were on his team. Johan also did a brilliant job in last years Vuelta by splitting the feild with heavy crosswinds. It was clearly planned and it showed incredible knowledge of the course. The move basically eliminated some people from the race. I know that he doesn't have the complete list of wins like others, but he just doesn't make mistakes

Putting your head on the block - do you have a nomination for greatest manager/team ? (it doesn't have to be from the selection that I initially listed)

Quote: "Manolo Saiz : enforced his tough personality on to a disperate group of riders with different expectations but always managed to get the best out of them."

I disagree, I don't even think he is anyway near the top of the best managers. I think his team tactics were poor and I don't think he got the best out of his riders at all.
Sure he had one of the best teams in the world, but it was not because of him he had some of the worlds best riders.
With a better manager the team would have been much better.
I clear that he have never been a rider himself like for example Riis and Bruyneel (who Rode for Saiz).
Saiz reminds me more of a dictator than a manager.
The only reason why ONCE did so well was because they were one of the riches div. 1 teams so they could by the best riders and hops Saiz wouldn't ruin too much.

I would say Bjarne Riis is the best manager and maybe Giancarlo Ferretti and Patrick Lefevre, but not Saiz.