2014 Giro d'Italia, Stage 20: Maniago-Monte Zoncolan (167 Km)

[Pulpstar]

I enjoyed the Giro and though not a classic would give it 7.5 / 10.

Could have been a 9 without the Stelvio farce.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

When the better climber recoups all the losses from the better TT rider in 1 stage, all the other MTFs become superfluous.

The Zoncolan non-race today was the direct consequence of Vegni and co's idiocy on the Stelvio stage.

Hell, make it the whole race from that point on.

Good point... That day spoiled a lot. They (& UCI of course) should have manned up, say they did a mistake, and discount 2 mins for Nairo etc...
But politicans and functionaries never do that. Never.

 

[PirazziAttacksVino]

Exactly mate. It's hilarious. As though Quintana owes it to a few peons on this forum to put minutes into people everyday. Or that the challengers owe everyone equally to attack until they either get away or die on the side of the road trying.

It's the same after almost every race. Now they'll stand around congratulating each other on recognising that this Giro was in fact the worst ever and they said it would be back in 2010 because they know so much about cycling and how much it sucks.

I for one really enjoyed the race like I enjoy every race.

It's not about putting minutes into the others everyday. I didn't expect him to attack on Rif. Panarotta for instance. But today he could have gone for a win on Zoncolan. He was by far the strongest climber, it would have been the easiest chance of winning on Zoncolan he could have got.

It's all about mentality. The mentality of a champion. You can't become a legend just by being the strongest imo. What I'm saying is, Nibali winning on Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Maglia Rosa is something that will go down in the history of the Giro forever. Contador attacking, pulling Tiralongo to the line and letting him win will go down in the history of the Giro forever. Quintana sitting on Uran's wheel and outsprinting him for a minor place in the stage isn't something that we will remember 15 years from now.

 

[Unkown]

Mistake putting the MTT right before Zoncolan, either have an easier day between or make it a flat TT to make the GC more interesting. Still a good Giro, but nothing extra special.

 

[Arredondo]

It's not about putting minutes into the others everyday. I didn't expect him to attack on Rif. Panarotta for instance. But today he could have gone for a win on Zoncolan. He was by far the strongest climber, it would have been the easiest chance of winning on Zoncolan he could have got.

It's all about mentality. The mentality of a champion. You can't become a legend just by being the strongest imo. What I'm saying is, Nibali winning on Tre Cime di Lavaredo in the Maglia Rosa is something that will go down in the history of the Giro forever. Contador attacking, pulling Tiralongo to the line and letting him win will go down in the history of the Giro forever. Quintana sitting on Uran's wheel and outsprinting him for a minor place in the stage isn't something that we will remember 15 years from now.

I don't want to say Quintana doesn't have a mentality of a champion comparing to Nibali. In the end, the mentality of a champion is mostly based on victories of course.

 

[luckyboy]

The thing I find weirdest on the whole 'rating the Giri against one another' thing was that I was one of the people *defending* this edition as having been a good one (rather than talking about how much it sucked and we said so since 2010 as your rather sarcastic adjoin put it), and people are going overboard complaining because of one disappointing stage where expectations were perhaps too high from previous editions. I've enjoyed the Giro.

Was this Giro a good one? I can think of four good stages - Weening's win and then Oropa, Vittorio Veneto and Panarotta.
Martelltal was interesting, but a total mess, and the first two weeks were terrible. Even a bunch of the sprint stages were ruined by crashes. And the Irish stages were very disappointingly designed.

It will be better than the anaemic Tour (as ever) though for sure.

 

[Carols]

just heard that evans bridged the gap in the descent.

I doubt Contador was the best climber that year. He got dropped easily on Bola del Mundo, and partly profited from a strange stage and (rumoured) sickness from Purito

Agreed. He wasn't the best climber that year. He was the best tactician and wasn't afraid to Lose so rolled the dice and went Big. It paid off!

 

[Arredondo]

Was this Giro a good one? I can think of four good stages - Weening's win and then Oropa, Vittorio Veneto and Panarotta.
Martelltal was interesting, but a total mess, and the first two weeks were terrible. Even a bunch of the sprint stages were ruined by crashes. And the Irish stages were very disappointingly designed.

It will be better than the anaemic Tour (as ever) though for sure.

I quite liked the Tour last year. And i found the editions of 2010 and 2011 were entertaining. Why all the hate on the Tour?

 

[Lupi33]

I quite liked the Tour last year. And i found the editions of 2010 and 2011 were entertaining. Why all the hate on the Tour?

its too predictable and formulaic

 

[Arnout]

I quite liked the Tour last year. And i found the editions of 2010 and 2011 were entertaining. Why all the hate on the Tour?

Tour has same problem as this Giro. Either flat stage or mountain stage. I really don't understand the hate of directors towards medium mountain stages, these are usually the most interesting and entertaining.

 

[luckyboy]

Yeah what Lupi and Arnout said.

Tour is always worse than the Giro and in recent years I have found the Vuelta has been more entertaining than either.

 

[Jagartrott]

Tour this year has got a lumpy stage 2, a stage with cobbles and some medium mountain stages (in the Vosges). So it doesn't sound all that bad. This Giro had either flat stages, or (semi-)crazy mountain stages. It seemed designed by an uninspired 16-year old thinking that maxing out on mountains in the final week would produce good racing.

 

[roundabout]

I quite liked the Tour last year. And i found the editions of 2010 and 2011 were entertaining. Why all the hate on the Tour?

it's the hip thing

 

[Arredondo]

Yeah what Lupi and Arnout said.

Tour is always worse than the Giro and in recent years I have found the Vuelta has been more entertaining than either.

That's more because of the surprising developments in terms of GC (Cobo, Horner). Not in terms of parcours. I mostly read the Vuelta has such a ''horrible'' route.

But the last week of the Tour 2011, it's way better than any other race around. The Vuelta 2012 came close perhaps, but in the Vuelta i don't see attacks from 60 k (Galibier stage) or 100 k (Alpe d'Huez) out.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I quite liked the Tour last year. And i found the editions of 2010 and 2011 were entertaining. Why all the hate on the Tour?

The 2010 Tour was decent, but the 2011 Tour was a one week race.

A very good one week race, but a one week race nonetheless.

Yeah what Lupi and Arnout said.

Tour is always worse than the Giro and in recent years I have found the Vuelta has been more entertaining than either.

The Vuelta has gone for the youtube-cycling approach, however. The stage designs are frustrating for anybody expecting a big epic stage, since it's almost always all about the final climb, however given that the Vuelta typically only broadcasts the last 90 minutes or so of the stage there's less dead time when we're watching the péloton on a group ride. Generally however, with only a couple of exceptions, the last few Vueltas have seen GC action only within the last half an hour or so of the stage; few stages where minutes are won and lost means they can do more of that sort of finish, and have more stages where we get a few exciting minutes that are relevant to the action, rather than attempted epic stages and days-off-on-the-bike.

 

[Arredondo]

The 2010 Tour was decent, but the 2011 Tour was a one week race.

A very good one week race, but a one week race nonetheless.

True, but i rather see a really good one week race instead of a boring three one. The Giro 2012 was (however Purito almost won it) absolutely horrible. The Giro 2013 wasn't that much better.

I don't think this years Tour will be more predictable of boring than this year's Giro. So we could have already had 3 Tour's in a row which are more entertaining than the Giro (Tour 2012 into discussion)

 

[Glocknerkoenig]

I was reasonably entertained by this Giro.

Sad to see Evans really out the back on a number of stages. Hope he takes it in his stride and perhaps tries to pick up a few single weekers / classics next year before taking a well deserved rest or going to GE as a mentor role.

Quintana just too strong, definitely a worthy winner, although all the new up and comers were exciting and Uran definitely also coming of age. Good to see Rolland living up to his promise.

I wonder if a real age of colombians is upon us. Every day it seemed like colombians in the GC and colombians in the break. Will be interesting to see how they stack up against Froome / contadorable (that just autocorrected, and I think I'll leave it).

I think the last week was a bit over the top.. perhaps it wasn't so interesting once the first two spots were clearly decided, but there wasn't much for the non 50kg climbers or strategy, just a power to weight and recover fest. I guess that's what makes the Giro also great, but to me the zoncolan was a bit superfluous.

Servus from Kitzland.

 

[Mellow Velo]

The mighty Zoncolan, after a handful of visits, I'm beginning to find mighty tedious.
Attacking on those gradients is about as possible of riding away from the Sky tour train, except it's all played out in slow motion.

As for growing crowds of idiots that gather on these and other slopes for their fancy dress parties, I despair.
Surely, not a true cycling fans amongst them.

Lampre man: If at first you make a huge cock of yourself, do it again.

 

[willbick]

I think GTs would be a lot better if they just had 1 big MTF and a whole lot more medium mountain stages but I suppose thats not gonna happen as MTFs make much better 'TV theatre'. To the cycling fan though they are becoming increasingly tedious. There should be a whole lot more to a GT winner than just power/weight ratio

 

[The Hitch]

By recent Giro and recent GT standards, its been a good Giro.

 

[deValtos]

It's been ok, some good stages but equally some not so good ones.

Better than the past 2 editions of the Giro anyhows and the 2012 TDF, though the last few vueltas were better aswell as the 2013 TDF I think.

Average, average ...

 

[christopherrowe]

Y'know, assuming that Bouhanni goes well enough in the finale tomorrow to keep his Sprint jersey, it looks to me like Italians will be absent from the top of the podium in the GC, Mountains, Sprint, Young Riders, and Team competitions. Wonder when the last time that happened was, as it's been my impression that, unlike the Tour some years, the host countries of the Giro and the Vuelta usually do very well in their home Grand Tours.

 

[thehog]

I was reasonably entertained by this Giro.

Sad to see Evans really out the back on a number of stages. Hope he takes it in his stride and perhaps tries to pick up a few single weekers / classics next year before taking a well deserved rest or going to GE as a mentor role.

Quintana just too strong, definitely a worthy winner, although all the new up and comers were exciting and Uran definitely also coming of age. Good to see Rolland living up to his promise.

I wonder if a real age of colombians is upon us. Every day it seemed like colombians in the GC and colombians in the break. Will be interesting to see how they stack up against Froome / contadorable (that just autocorrected, and I think I'll leave it).

I think the last week was a bit over the top.. perhaps it wasn't so interesting once the first two spots were clearly decided, but there wasn't much for the non 50kg climbers or strategy, just a power to weight and recover fest. I guess that's what makes the Giro also great, but to me the zoncolan was a bit superfluous.

Servus from Kitzland.

The age of the Columbians was in the 80s. Herrera, Parra etc.

All were forgotten to non-climbers taking things.

 

[thehog]

The mighty Zoncolan, after a handful of visits, I'm beginning to find mighty tedious.
Attacking on those gradients is about as possible of riding away from the Sky tour train, except it's all played out in slow motion.

As for growing crowds of idiots that gather on these and other slopes for their fancy dress parties, I despair.
Surely, not a true cycling fans amongst them.

Lampre man: If at first you make a huge cock of yourself, do it again.

Agree. Super super steep climbs just becomes a slug fest. Attacks don't stick and it's just everyone trying to get pedal over pedal. Probably as much fun to so as it was to watch.

 

[jens_attacks]

so does anyone know what was in movistar brains at the beginning of zoncolan?40 kmph, dropped even nairo?!