End of season ratings: How did each men's WorldTour team perform in 2020?

Ag2r La Mondiale 3 / 10

Only Movistar and Cofidis had a lower win tally than Ag2r’s total of five this season, and the French team didn’t have much to shout about beyond Nans Peters’ win at the Tour de France and Benoít Cosnefroy’s emergence as a Classics contender. An overhaul heading into next season, which sees star man Romain Bardet among those departing to be replaced by the likes of Greg van Avermaet and Bob Jungels, feels timely.

Astana 6 / 10

Neither Miguel Ángel López, Jakob Fuglsang or Alexander Vlasov’s GS bids went quite as well as hoped, but a steady stream of victories throughout the season was reasonable compensation. The veteran Fuglsang was again relied upon to deliver their best result, victory at Il Lombardia, but the form of youngsters like Vlasov and Alex Aranburu indicates a talented new generation is coming through at the team.

Bahrain-McLaren 4 / 10

This was a reasonable but unspectacular season for Bahrain-McLaren, exemplified by their GC placings at the Grand Tours: fourth for Mikel Landa at the Tour, fifth for Pello Bilbao at the Giro and sixth for Wout Poels at the Vuelta. They might have expected more following the arrival of former Team Sky guru Rod Ellingworth, however, and an underwhelming total of nine wins was not enough to persuade co-sponsors McLaren to renew for another year.

Bora-Hansgrohe 7 / 10

Star man Peter Sagan might not have been his usual indomitable self, but the team still racked up 21 wins, albeit generally not of the top-tier calibre that the Slovak usually delivers. Sprinter Pascal Ackermann was their most prolific rider, and although there was no GC challenge at any Grand Tours like Emmanuel Buchmann at last year’s Tour de France, while Max Schachmann did manage to win Paris-Nice before lockdown.

CCC Team 2 / 10

CCC’s time in pro-cycling ended with more of a whimper than a bang. They desperately needed Greg van Avermaet to roll back the years and recapture his past glories, but the 35-year-old was consistent rather than spectacular and was injured for the cobbled classics in the autumn, while the rest of the squad were short on quality.

Cofidis 2 / 10

Say what you like about Nacer Bouhanni’s temperament, but you can always rely on him to land a handful of victories every year. His replacement at Cofidis, Elia Viviani, had expected to be an upgrade, but instead failed to settle in his new surroundings and did not manage a single win all year. The team looked lost as a result, managing just a couple of low-profile wins between them, with Guillaume Martin left to pick up the slack with his impressive climbing displays.

Deceuninck - Quick-Step 9 / 10

For a ninth consecutive season Deceuninck - Quick-Step topped the win table, still managing to notch forty despite the truncated calendar. They might have had even more were it not for the horrific crashes that brought and early end to the seasons of the on-fire Remco Evenepoel and Fabio Jakobsen, but in their absence the likes of sprinter Sam Bennett and Julian Alaphilippe kept delivering success, with the latter becoming World Champion in September.

EF Pro Cycling 7 / 10

The regeneration of EF Pro Cycling continues, as they managed to match last year’s total of seventeen wins despite the shorter season. Many of those wins came in big races, too, including Dani Martinez’s overall victory at Critérium du Dauphiné as well as at all three of the Grand Tours — most notably at the Vuelta, where revelation Hugh Carthy won on the Angliru en route to a podium finish.

Groupama-FDJ 7 / 10

The immediate return of racing post-lockdown began with much promise, as Arnaud Démare won prolifically through August and Thibaut Pinot placed second at Criterium du Dauphine. An injury curtailed Pinot’s Tour de France hopes, but Démare continued his purple patch into the Giro d’Italia where he claimed a sensational four-stage haul, increasing his season total to fourteen — higher than any other rider this season.

Ineos Grenadiers 6 / 10

Ineos Grenadiers did win a Grand Tour this season, but it was neither in the race nor with the rider that was expected. Whereas Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas were deemed too out of form for selection for the Tour de France, and Egan Bernal’s title defence fell apart due to back problems, young Londoner Tao Geoghegan Hart came from nowhere to win the Giro d’Italia. That Giro was the undeniable highlight of the team’s otherwise relatively lacklustre season, with time trial world champion Filippo Ganna also announcing himself as another new star with a remarkable haul of four stage wins.

Israel Start-Up Nation 3 / 10

This was a difficult first season competing in the World Tour for Israel Start-Up Nation, who struggled to make the jump to the highest level. Only when Dan Martin came into some form towards the end of the season, when he won a stage and finished fourth overall at the Vuelta a España, did the team begin to look less out of depth, but Alex Dowsett’s stage victory at the Giro d’Italia was also a major breakthrough for the team.

Jumbo-Visma 9 / 10

Victory for Primož Roglič over Richard Carapaz at the Vuelta was the surest sign yet that Jumbo-Visma have usurped Ineos Grenadiers as the best Grand Tour team in the world, a performance that proved they were capable of finishing the job off having earlier bossed the Tour de France only to lose yellow on the penultimate stage. On top of that, the Dutch squad also achieved great success in the Classics, with Roglič winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Wout van Aert the double of Milan-San Remo and Strade Bianche.

Lotto-Soudal 5 / 10

Caleb Ewan again starred at the Tour de France with two stage wins, but are they becoming a little too dependent on the Australian sprinter for success? The rest of the squad didn’t enjoy much high-profile success beyond Tim Wellens’ two-stage haul at the Vuelta, and marquee new signing Philippe Gilbert missed most of the Classics with a persistent knee injury.

Mitchelton-Scott 5 / 10

The Yates twins were their usual explosive selves in stage races, with Simon winning Tirreno-Adriatico and Adam, in what feels like an eternity ago, triumphing at the UAE Tour just before lockdown.

Both subsequently looked well set for the team’s major goals of the season, the Grand Tours, but whereas Adam can be reasonably happy with ninth overall at the Tour, Simon was unfortunate to catch Covid at the Giro d’Italia.

Movistar 2 / 10

With Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa and Richard Carapaz all having left, and Alejandro Valverde at long last showing signs of age, this was always going to be a challenging season for Movistar. The whole team managed just two wins all year, and though they continued to approach Grand Tours like heavyweight contenders, Enric Mas’ fifth-place finishes at the Tour and Vuelta fell short of what the team is used to.

NTT Pro Cycling 4 / 10

A much-needed new talisman for the team emerged in Italian Giacomo Nizzolo, who won sprints at Paris-Nice and the Tour Down Under as well as landing Italian and European titles, and was sorely missed when an injury at the Tour de France forced him to miss the rest of the season. The team’s future remains uncertain, but hopefully a gutsy showing at the Giro d’Italia, which included a stage win for Ben O’Conor, will help persuade somebody to invest.

Sunweb 8 / 10

As 2020 was the season of youth, and no team boasted as promising an array of bright new talent as Sunweb. 22-year-old Marc Hirschi caused a stir at the Tour de France with his attacking racing before going on to win Flèche-Wallonne and silver at the Worlds; 24-year-old Jai Hindley was the best of the team’s unexpectedly strong Giro d’Italia line-up, finishing second overall; and the comparatively ancient 26-year-old Søren Kragh Andersen won four WorldTour races, including twice at the Tour de France.

Trek-Segafredo 6 / 10

There were contrasting fortunes for Trek-Segafredo’s two veteran GC riders, as Richie Porte followed victory at the Tour Down Under with a long-awaited first ever Grand Tour podium finish at the Tour de France, whereas Vincenzo Nibali was vanquished by a younger generation at the Giro. The classics were a more unqualified success, as Mads Pedersen and Jasper Stuyven teamed up for the former to win Gent-Wevelgem and the latter Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

UAE Team Emirates 9 / 10

Other teams might have looked better-equipped to take on Ineos Grenadiers at the Tour de France, but ultimately it was the individual brilliance of Tadej Pogačar that saw UAE Emirates end the British team’s five-year stranglehold over the yellow jersey.

>>> Primož Roglič beats Tadej Pogačar in UCI rider competition, as Anna van der Breggen tops women’s standings  

Their success extended beyond the Slovenian superstar, too. Fernando Gaviria managed six victories despite the misfortune of contracting Covid not once but twice, Diego Ulissi picked up a couple of stages at the Giro d’Italia, and Jasper Philipsen established himself as a new force in sprinting. They all contributed to a total of over thirty wins that was, even in a shortened season, the highest in the team’s history, and bettered only by Deceuninck - Quick-Step.