Bart Wellens at the Giro del Capo
When the South African race began, noone talked about cyclocross star Bart Wellens as a potential winner. He went with the breakaway on Stage 2 on a stage ending on a cobbled hill. The break stayed away and he won the stage. A fastpaced Stage 3 saw him take over the race lead and despite pressure from Mazzanti he was 5th in Stage 4 and did well in the time trial to set up the final stage with a slender 3 second lead. He would win the final stage, sprinting to victory.
Designa Kokken
Pre-season they were tipped for 17th and a disappointing season, but they soon proved that wrong. In the first stage Down Under they were the best in the sprint, D'Amore taking 2nd. Reihs crashed out of overall victory there, but a final stage victory in Qatar saw Traksel win the overall and take the continental tour. A strong season followed and winning the final 2 races, Herbiers and Japan Cup, saw them steal the final promotion spot away from Agritubel
Frank Schleck at the Tour de France
Crommy set up a poll as the Tour de France began asking who everyone thought would win. Di Luca, Valverde, Evans and Rasmuseen were tipped but not until Schleck won his first stage did someone other than me vote Schleck. He took the race lead and with Accumalux's awesome TTT destroying Di Luca, Schleck was also the most consistent in the mountains and took overall victory with pride.
Cyril Dessel
Addy predicted big things but after a poor 2007, we all disagreed. But Cyril Dessel stole the show with 11th overall in the ProTour thanks to 6th in Paris-Nice, 3rd in Tour de Suisse, 4th in Tour de France, 2nd in Deutschland Tour and 5th in Poland aswell as a stage in Switzerland and consecutive stage wins at Le Tour.
Aleksandr Pluchkin at the Tour de l'Avenir
After a disappointing season up to then, the Moldovan shone unbelievably, with a couple of early 2nd places on stages putting him in a podium position right until the final day, where he couldnt quite follow the stronger climbers and lost out on the podium, finishing 4th Overall.
Also nominated: Vinokourov dominating the Vuelta, Boonen winning the ProTour, Wegmann almost single handedly promoting Tinkoff, Edvald Boasson Hagen
Edited by SportingNonsense on 19-02-2008 22:43
