I'm so over the Dutch GT starts now. We've had the 2009 Vuelta, the 2010 and 2015 Tours de France, the 2010 and 2016 Giri. More GTs have started in the Netherlands in the last eight years than in France (2008, 2011 and 2013 Tours) and as many have started there as have started in Italy (2008, 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015 Giri). The Belfast start (which was similarly terrible, although there they actively went out of their way to do nothing of interest with the stages, at least in Gelderland they have an excuse) leading to the acceptance of the third rest day is the bigger problem I think here, because if the race started on the Saturday, we'd get the ITT then one sprint stage and it's far less frustrating as fans than when the additional rest day for travel is included so the only stage likely to be of any relevance is on Friday, and then we have two featureless, characterless, dour flat stages on the weekend.
The Dutch have a great history in cycling, and sure, the fans come out and support it. And the Dutch racing at the GTs doesn't have to be terrible either (the 2010 Giro and 2015 Tour show this). But the way this Giro has been designed, it's been designed to create great photographs, and that's all. I accept that the GTs are businesses and therefore the highest bidder gets priority, but you know, there have been a LOT of these types of start lately, and fans are starting to get frustrated. The 2012 Giro start in Denmark was possibly the dirt worst, because not only did they serve up featureless flat stages (even by Danish standards as I'm aware in most of the country, like the Netherlands, you can't serve up a mini-Amstel Gold unless you go to a specific town) but they included dangerous run-ins, which the Dutch have seemingly learned from. But one of the reasons Zomegnan went crazy in 2011 and started throwing mountain stages all over the place (too many MTFs in many people's eyes, including myself) was simple: the audience figures in Italy for sprint stages are tiny compared to those for the intermediate and mountain stages. Placing two stages that aren't likely to produce anything but sprints at the weekend seems very counterproductive. Why not sprint-TT-sprint instead if we're going Friday to Sunday? But since Zomegnan was fired, the Giro has been the race that has gone from the one GT that was guaranteed to put on something GC-relevant on each weekend day (except sometimes the first Sunday, after the first TT) to the GT that has put two featureless flat stages on the first weekend two years out of three.
Also, the organizers then get to go "wheeee, Marcel Kittel is wearing the maglia rosa! He's a big star!" and then he can announce like in the 2014 Tour that he has no intention of even trying to defend the jersey. It angers me that organizers continually want to throw a bone to a rider like that.
I didn't tune in yesterday, and I doubt I'll tune in today. That shouldn't be the state of affairs at the freaking Giro d'Italia.
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