Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank 2012 Season in Review

The season for Saxo Bank begun in Argentina at the Tour de San Luis with Alberto Contador winning two stages. These stage wins would later be annulled as the CAS ruling was handed down in February which stripped Contador of his 2010 Tour de France and 2011 Giro d’Italia. He also lost his contract with the team and was given a further six month suspension leaving him unable to race until August. With Richie Porte leaving for Sky at the end of 2011 there was no direct internal replacement for Contador as a GC rider and as a result the approach for the season was one day races and stage wins. With Contador given a contract to rejoin the team in June he targeted the Vuelta de España for a late season win. There were several coming and goings in the off season with Baden Cooke, Gustav Larsson and Laurent Didier joining Porte in trying their luck at news teams. On the incoming list were Sérgio Paulinho, Karsten Kroon and Jonathan Cantwell with Cantwell the only rider to win a race. The Tour Méditerranéen was the sight of the first win with victory in the team classification, the first of three for the season. Cantwell won his two races of the year at the Tour de Taiwan where he won Stage 3 and 7. As well as his wins, his season highlight was a debut Tour appearance.

At the Volta a Catalunya Chris Anker Sørensen won the mountains classification for a rare highlight for the Dane. Mads Christensen also won a mountains classification but did so at the Tour of the Basque Country for his only his only individual podium appearance for the season. Juan José Haedo won the Grand Prix de Denain for a race road win and not another classification victory. The Argentinean sprinter had a sparse list of victories in 2012 with the GP win the only time he crossed the finish line first.

At the Tour de France Chris Anker Sørensen rode aggressively to win the super-combativity award. Although C. Sørensen wasn’t awarded a combativity award at the conclusion of nay stage he still won the award. Another highlight in the Tour was Michael Mørkøv being the first rider of the 2012 Tour to wear the maillot pois. Although he lost the jersey to Chris Froome, Mørkøv was again on the podium as a two time recipient of the combativity award. Nicki Sørensen also was awarded the combativity award but that would be the best it got for the team with no GC challenger and J.J. Haedo well behind the top sprinters of Sagan, Cavendish, Greipel and Goss.

After the Tour it would only be a matter of weeks before Contador was back in the saddle mixing it with the peloton. Before he made his comeback the team recorded a few more victories to ease the pressure on their leader. At Paris-Corrèze there were more classification victories with Christopher Juul-Jensen the fastest young rider in the race to go with the team victory. The next week David Narvarro won Stage 3 of the Tour L’Ain for the only individual victory of the season for a rider who has been a key domestique for Contador but will now chase personal glory at Cofidis in 2013. In France there was the third and final team classification victory which marked the last result before the return of Contador.

Contador made his return at Eneco Tour finishing fourth overall. The doping ban had clearly affected his racing form and a tilt at the Vuelta overall looked fanciful with only days till the race started after his return in Holland. Contador had tried to shake Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriquez on the climbs and put some time into his rivals. He admitted he didn’t have the legs to do so after his long break and seemed more likely to succeed in taking stage wins than the overall. With Rodriguez having seen Contador’s attacks and matched his every move, the Katusha rider was looking good for his debut Grand Tour win after losing the Giro in May. On Stage 17 which was a rather innocuous hilly affair, Contador attacked while Rodriguez was preoccupied in the peloton and stayed away till the finish. He took the stage win and the leaders jersey and it now only a formality till he was awarded his second Spanish Grand Tour title. To go with his overall, Alberto also won the combativity award to make it two Grand Tour combativité awards in the year.

The success of the Vuelta saved the season for Saxo Bank as the team was ranked a very lowly 17th in the team World Tour rankings. Contador had 290 points to his name at the end of the season but the second highest ranked rider only had 30 points leaving the team in a perilous position when the UCI was awarding the licenses for the 2013 season. The team was helped by the exclusion of Katusha which ensured their place in the World Tour once again but there will need to be much better performances at this level next season. Contador won his first one day race at Milano-Torino and Nicki Sørensen won a second Italian race in a fortnight as he took out the Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli.

The last two wins of the season were both won by Polish riders with the young rider classification at the Tour of Beijing won Rafał Majka and the Japan Cup Cycle Road Race Criterium was taken out by Jaroslaw Marycz. The two late season victories were a good ending to 2012 but for a team of Saxo’s calibre they need to be winning far more races and animate the Grand Tours and one day classics more often.

Top Five Results 

Milano-Torino Alberto Contador 

Vuelta de España Alberto Contador 

Tour de l'Ain Stage 3 Daniel Navarro 

Grand Prix de Denain Juan José Haedo

Vuelta de España Overall Alberto Contador 

Vuelta de España Stage 17 Alberto Contador  

Breakthrough Riders: Jonathan Cantwell proved himself to be handy signing with his early season wins and Grand Tour debut. Cantwell will be given more opportunities in 2013 with Asian Tour races possibly again on the schedule and a chance to add to his palmares. Michael Mørkøv had a breakout Tour with his stint on the polka dots and combative award. Although he didn’t cross any finish lines first he showed in his endeavours to protect the mountain classification lead that he is a fighter and will be challenging for wins in 2013. 

Disappointing Riders: Nick Nuyens won the 2011 Tour of Flanders in a surprise victory but for a rider injury who has consistently won one day races this was the cherry on top. A persistent knee injury ruined his 2012 season with a totally anonymous season. He joins Garmin in 2013 hoping to reignite his career after two seasons with the Saxo team but only one in which he competed at full strength. Sérgio Paulinho and Karsten Kroon looked like adding several wins when they joined the team but neither recorded a victory as an individual or in the team classification successes.

2013? With the lowly World Tour points tally and need for Contador to save the team, Bjarne Riis has added several GC men to the team in 2013 who also bring important points across. Nicholas Roche, Roman Kreuziger and Michael Rogers all join and will be important super domestiques for Contador but will also be given their own opportunities for stage race success. Their roles will depend on the schedule that Contador decides upon and a full season of the Spaniard after his six month suspension may prove to be beneficial as a prolonged break and allow his to take two Grand Tours in a season again.

All the riders on the team will be aware they need to win more and at win at bigger races as well. The addition of Daniele Bennati should provide some stage wins and with a decent lead out train they could rack up some early season wins. How the team gels over the off season will inform the early season team choices but by the Tour Saxo could be fielding a very formidable team with Contador, Rogers, Roche, Kreuziger and Bennati. Saxo look like improving drastically from 2012 but then again, that’s not an exactly hard feat to achieve.