Blazin' Saddles: The best riders and teams of the 2016 cycling season

In terms of gift-giving it's almost been as prolific as the 12 Days of Christmas – and what this end of season series of blogs has lacked in turtle doves and French hens, it's made up in two-wheeled trivia, belligerent bluster and controversial views (Nibali and Quintana underachievers? Bah humbug!).

Our armchair critic Felix Lowe first looked at the unluckiest riders of the year before dredging up the biggest shocks of 2016. A sideways glance at the surprise packages, unsung heroes and stunning breakthroughs of the year was topped by the aforementioned curmudgeonly left-field peep at the underachievers and must-do-betters of the year.

Two weeks ago – when the world was still very much in the dark about Fluimucil and the fact that Shane Sutton owned a suit – Felix turned his thoughts to the high-profile transfers and retirements of the year. He then shifted away from specific riders to focus more on the defining moments – the magical, the morose, the cataclysmic, the catastrophic – that shaped the season.

Now, it's time for Felix to reveal his five best riders and teams of the season.

Slovak sensation Sagan was a showman throughout the season, winning as regularly as Barcelona while growing his hair longer, wavier and Greasier in the process. It's funny how such a follicular furbelow can be feted so much when adorning Sagan's bonce – and yet Tylar Farrar was so roundly lambasted for effectively sporting the exact same mane (albeit in a ruddier hue). It must be the difference between being a consistent winner and an occasional also-ran.

If you were Peter Sagan's girlfriend would you take him home to meet your parents? Probably not. He'd do all manner of inappropriate things – from pinching posteriors to dancing in leather to suggesting, should marriage ever be on the cards, that the ceremony involve a fur overcoat, dry ice and a unicycle.

But if you were a team owner or directeur sportif, would you fancy fielding Sagan in pretty much any race, over any terrain? Yes. Whether outsprinting Mark Cavendish for a to picking up a fifth consecutive green tunic in the Tour (after a maiden maillot jaune), Sagan excited, enthralled and entertained. Now that he's won his first Monument we can expect the flood gates to open.

Sagan's only major shortcoming was perhaps reflected in the fact that his big Belgian rival won the Olympic road race that he deemed too hilly for himself to enter, let alone win. Early victories in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Tirreno-Adriatico made Van Avermaet a serious contender for the spring classics, only for an impromptu team get-together / high-speed crash in the Ronde van Vlaanderen to take the wind from his sails.

But van Avermaet bounced back, winning a hilly stage in the Massif Central to lead the Tour de France for the first time in his career, then capping it with that Olympic gold in Rio. Strong performances in Canada – where he was denied by Sagan in Quebec before winning in Montreal – kept up the Belgian's winning spread.

Sure, his podium topping was not as frequent as Sagan's but it was the 31-year-old's strongest season yet. And not many people get to prance around on a golden bike for the next four years.

The only Grand Tour winner on this list, Froome showed other aspects of his armoury over the course of a stellar season marred only by the Fancy Bear leaks that exposed Sky's apparent abuse of the TUE system.

Although he tanked in Romandie, Froome won both the Herald Sun Tour and the Dauphiné before securing his third Tour de France victory by riding faster uphill, downhill and in the crosswinds than his rivals. And if hugging the top tube perilously on the Peyresourde wasn't enough, he went and topped it by running up Mont Ventoux in an unprecedented scene that proved perhaps the defining moment of 2017.

While Vincenzo Nibali flattered to deceive in his Giro victory and Nairo Quintana won the Vuelta after stuttering in the Tour, Froome was a major factor in both France and Spain, missing out on an elusive red jersey for a third time only after an uncharacteristic lapse in concentration during the explosive short stage to Formigal.

Bronze wasn't the colour he was targeting, but picking up a time trial medal in Rio added gloss to an otherwise solid season as Froome edges ever closer to the five-Tour club. And to think that he has achieved all this despite a riding style that makes him resemble a praying mantis taking a dump on a coat hanger.

The least regular winner on this list so far is perhaps, understandably, the most controversial inclusion. But watching Dutchman Dumoulin is so much more than judging him on his current results because the rangy Lurch lookalike is in possession of one of the most exciting engines since the days of Miguel Indurain.

If last year we got the first glimpse of Dumoulin the Grand Tour contender – when the Giant-Alpecin rider came within half a stage of winning the Vuelta – then this year saw the 26-year-old build on his progress and further hone his skills. And the great thing is that he's in no hurry. Dumoulin is ambitious without wanting to do it all overnight; he's playing the long game and developing intriguingly piecemeal, and it's a joy to watch.

Any doubts following three successive second places in time trials were dispelled when Dumoulin – albeit just – held off the threat from Primoz Roglic to win the Giro's opening time trial in his native Netherlands. If he claimed he was not riding for GC then his performances suggested otherwise, Dumoulin regaining the pink jersey after the first uphill finish.

Illness and saddle sores saw Dumoulin crack on the strade bianche and underachieve in the first ITT before he was forced out of his debut Giro. But victories in the Tour – in apocalyptic conditions in Andorra and in the first time trial – once again reflected Dumoulin's ability to succeed in the mountains and against the clock: two skills needed for any Grand Tour winner.

A nasty, unnecessary crash ended his Tour two days from Paris and meant the favourite for Rio time trial gold had to settle for silver, and although he struggled in the heat in Qatar, Dumoulin did enough in 2016 to suggest that he will be one of the sport's driving forces over the next five years.

In a year that the smiling Colombian sacrificed individual wins for consistency in the Grand Tours, Chaves showed his true potential with podium finishes in both the Giro and Vuelta. But of the three riders who also finished on a Grand Tour podium twice in 2016, Chaves stands out as arguably the most impressive. After all, we all expected Messrs Froome and Quintana to be competing for the major spoils – but not many of us saw Chaves playing such a large role.

Just one day away from becoming the second Colombian in three years to win the Giro, Chaves built on his success to leapfrog above Alberto Contador to take the final place on the Vuelta podium. , the final Monument of the season, showed that in Chaves, Orica have a rider capable of competing for spoils in both major stage races and classics – very much in the explosive mould of Alejandro Valverde before him, but with more hair and smiles.

While Chaves won just the three times this season – a stage in the Giro, the Giro dell'Emilia and Il Lombardia – he laid down clear foundations for the year to come. Five Grand Tours into his career and he's already on a par with – if not slightly ahead of – Froome at this stage in his own career. Watch this space.

Special mention must also go to Mark Cavendish (31, Dimension Data) who proved that there's life in the old Manx dog yet, rewarding his South African team for their bold recruitment by snaring four Tour stages and drawing level with Bernard Hinault in the all-time stage win table. An Olympic silver medal filled a hole in his trophy cabinet but will he still have regrets at following the wrong wheel in Doha?

Adam and Simon Yates (both 24, Orica-BikeExchange) had brilliant breakthrough seasons: the former taking the Tour's white jersey en route to finishing fourth, the latter finishing sixth in the Vuelta while becoming the first of the Yateses to win a Grand Tour stage.

And finally, he may have disappointed in the Tour, but Nairo Quintana (26, Movistar) won Catalunya, Romandie and the Route de Sud before recovering to third in Paris and winning in Madrid. If only "bad" seasons could be as good as these...

Long gone are the days when GreenEdge were a one man band all pulling for Simon Gerrans. This year they not only won two Monuments through Mat Hayman (Paris-Roubaix) and Esteban Chaves (Il Lombardia) they boasted an unprecedented wealth in Grand Tour options with Chaves finishing second in the Giro and third in the Vuelta, and the Yates twins knocking on the door in both France and Spain.

Throw in the emergence of sprinter Magnus Cort Nielsen, the classics acumen of Jens Keukeleire, the sprinting prowess of Caleb Ewan and the domestique pizzazz of Damien Howsen, and Orica-Scott (as they will be henceforth called) clearly boast one of the most exciting and balanced squads in the WorldTour. In fact, they're so strong that they can even afford to show the door to a talent as undeniable as Michael Matthews.

It's clear to anyone watching their Backstage Pass social media videos that the Orica family is a great place to be. Meanwhile, the while the way in which Orica used team work to quite sumptuous effect in the Vuelta's stage to the Col d'Aubisque – with Simon Yates using a relay of team-mates to attack – was a joy to watch, outdone only one week later when the same team put on a scintillating show in the final mountain stage when Chaves attacked on the penultimate climb of the race before being picked up and paced by Howsen en route to rising to third. Pedalling poetry in motion.

Special mention: Despite finishing bottom of the WorldTour standings, Dimension Data were consistently good all year with Mark Cavendish starring in the Tour, Steve Cummings making "breakaway win" his raison d'etre, and Omar Fraile securing a second successive blue polka dot crown in the Vuelta.

Having announced they were to fold at the end of the season as early as May, IAM Cycling promptly went on to open up their accounts in each of the three Grand Tours through Roger Kluge, Jarlinson Pantano, Jonas Van Genechten and Mathias Frank.

Once again, Team Sky proved pretty dominant in the Tour – although they showed their shortcomings with a display of stunning tactical naivety and indolence in stage 15 of the Vuelta. Wout Poels' win in Liege-Bastogne-Liege finally gave Sir Dave Brailsford that elusive win in a Monument, although the Fluimucil debacle of recent weeks has really been a dampener, while questioning the cornerstone of the team's modus operandi.

Talking of stage 15 of the Vuelta, the Movistar-Tinkoff alliance that saw Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador singing from the same song sheet was responsible for the most exciting day's racing of the season – even if both teams, individually, fell short of expectations.