With the princely sprint of André Greipel on the Champs Elysées, the Tour 2015 closed with the second triumph of Briton Chris Froome. Only Alejandro Valverde, third, entered the four aces (Froome, Quintana, Nibali and Contador) who were given as favorites for the final victory. The battle is over, that's it report cards of the protagonists of the 102nd edition of the most important stage race in the world.
Chris Froome: 10. Whoever wins the Tour deserves top marks but this year the Briton triumphed without doing the Martian of 2013. One of his tremendous shakes in the first Pyrenean stage was enough for him to put the competition in line, masking a condition well in the last week not at the top enough to suffer the late attacks of Quintana as it had never happened before. In any case, over the course of the 21 stages, he proved to be the strongest man in the Tour also thanks to the support of a team, Team Sky, compact and quality. After retiring last year, he thus repeats the success of 2013, this time beating even more fierce competition.
Nairo Quintana: 7,5. The Colombian is the strongest grimpeur around but gives up attacking Froome in the Pyrenees hoping to settle the match in his favor in the Alps. He manages to detach Froome both at Toussuire and on Alpe d'Huez but that's not enough. In the end he doesn't win the yellow jersey but neither a stage victory nor the polka dot jersey of the climbers finished in Froome. Like two years ago, he has to settle for second place 1'12” behind the British and another white jersey for best young rider. Dalla, however, has the age and therefore all the time to win the Tour and win the Giro again.
Alejandro Valverde: 8. At the age of 35, in his eighth participation in the Grande Boucle he ran his best Tour, finishing third and climbing on the podium for the first time. Help Quintana without losing sight of his standings, the champion from Murcia, who at the beginning of the Tour was not among the big favorites, does better than two of the fantastic four on the eve, namely Nibali and Contador. Never a day of failure as often happened in previous editions, which is why the Spanish of Movistar deserves at least half a vote more than Quintana himself.
Vincent Nibali: 7. He runs the first two weeks of the Tour suffering even on simple tears so as to anger Alexander Vinokourov, the team manager of his team, Astana. Then the Shark returns to the Alps, who won the Tour last year. With the extraordinary ride that began on the Croix de Fer and triumphantly concluded solo on top of the Toussuire, he reevaluates a Tour that otherwise would have been a half-disaster. Only bad luck, in the form of a puncture at the foot of the Alpe d'Huez, made his dream of a podium vanish. Fourth in the Tour, ahead of Contador, the Italian champion will try to make up for it by aiming for the Vuelta.
Alberto Contador: 5,5. It's a pity to give a purebred champion like the Pistolero an inadequacy, but in this Tour the winner of the Giro has done little or nothing to try to win it by hitting the historic double. It is said of him that when his legs aren't there, he puts his heart into it but the hardships of the Giro obviously made themselves felt more than necessary. Often detached in moments when the race caught fire, only on Glandon Contador attempted an offensive action but it lasted too little to affect.
Thibaut Pinot: 6. He was the man on whom the hopes of the French who have not won the Tour since 1985 were pinned: stubbornness, class and a lot of heart are there but the start of the Tour between distractions and injuries was a failure. Out of the standings he sought at least one stage victory. After a thousand attempts, he manages to catch her in the most fascinating arrival of this Tour de France on Alpe d'Huez, the fourth Frenchman to arrive first on the mythical mountain after Hinault, Riblon and Rolland.
Romain Bardet: 6,5. The best of the French, ninth at 16 minutes from Froome. Half a vote more than Pinot not only for this but also because in addition to hitting the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne stage with a courageous solo escape, the young transalpine from Ag2r was often in the heat of the race earning the prize “super combative” of the Tour, after losing the polka dot jersey by a few points. If he continues like this, he will certainly be a protagonist of the next Tours on a par with Pinot and Barguil, another growing French rooster.
Joaquim Rodriguez: 6. As he won on the Mur d'Huy and at Plateau de Beille, he deserves a much higher grade. But Purito inexplicably got lost along the way in the first two Pyrenean stages, ending up at the rear of the standings. But on good days he is one of the great riders who glorify cycling.
André Greipel: 10. Like Froome because he, the German Gorilla, didn't come to win the Tour but the stages. And with the splendid sprint on the Elysian Fields he brought his victories to four in this Tour. It was the best he could do and he did it with surprising authority, annihilating sprint rivals such as Kristoff, Cavendish, Degenkolb, Cocquard. How to say the best of the sprinters currently in business. With the haul made, the German rises to 10 victories in the Tours played.
Peter Sagan: 8. Some may turn up their noses at this fine mark for someone who obtained his last victory in the Tour in Albi in 2013. But those who have followed Sagan every day at the Tour understand why: the Slovakian rider finished 11 times on 21 stages in the top five, accumulating five second places, finishing twice third, three times fourth, once fifth. In the final sprint in Paris he finished seventh but for the fourth time in a row he conquered the green jersey as leader of the points classification, outdistancing Greipel himself and catching up in the history of the Tour with another great sprinter like Sean Kelly. Being only 25 years old, there is plenty of time for Sagan to undermine and surpass the record for green jerseys – no less than six – held by the German Erik Zabel.
