EuroPeloton Cycling Awards 2008: Best Team, CSC

Patrolling the front of the race for team leader Cancellara at Tirreno-Adriatico

With strong results from the beginning of 2008 until the end, Bjarne Riis' CSC-Saxo Bank team is EuroPeloton's pick for best team of 2008. The team won all types of races in 2008, and showed that they were the best throughout the year. Bjarne Riis continues to field one of the most competitive squads in all of cycling, and his eye for talent elicits results year in and year out.

CSC started off the year with solid results, with Fabian Cancellara taking a top 5 and Juan Jose Haedo a stage win at the Tour of California in February. One month later, Cancellara was at it again, as he won the Italian classic Monte Paschi Eroica. Meanwhile, his teammate Jens Voigt took the overall at Criterium International in France. Cancellara held his form for a few more weeks in March after his Eroica win, and took the overall win at Tirreno-Adriatico before netting his biggest win of the year at the Italian monument Milan-San Remo. Cancellara then finished second at Paris-Roubaix, closing out a successful spring classics season for CSC. Another strong result from the spring was Kurt Asle-Arvesen's win at the semi-classic E3 Prijs Vlaanderen. Finally, Matti Breschel capped off an amazing early season with a big win at the Philadelphia International Championship in June.

When the grand tours rolled around, it was Jens again, this time at the Giro, where he won stage 6. With Carlos Sastre, the two Schlecks and Cancellara at the Tour de France in July, CSC stamped their authority on the race and took the overall win behind masterful riding from Sastre. Kurt Asle-Arvesen also added a stage win at the Tour. At the Vuelta, Carlos Sastre rode valiently for a third place finish overall, and Breschel took top honors on stage 21, setting the stage for an electric ride at the world championships in Varese, Italy a month later.

In the late summer and fall the wins just kept on coming. Jens Voigt pitched in again in winning the Tour of Poland, and Cancellara was at it again in the time trial discipline, winning Gold at the Olympics in Beijing. He also managed a respectable 3rd in the road race on a course not suited to his style. Then, at the world championships in Varese, Matti Breschel took on three of Italy's best one day riders and finished third on the road, a breakthrough performance that put the cycling world on alert that Breschel is one of the sport's brightest young talents.

CSC has long worked as a cohesive unit to achieve the results that they do each year. But in 2008, everything seemed to come together for the Danish team, especially at the Tour. Bjarne Riis, as he does each year, will look to build on the success of 2008. With all of the victories that they achieved though, it was be tough for CSC to top 2008's performance.