Having read comments above, this Giro was just fair to midland. Such was due to poor race design and lack of a charismatic rider in the lead or memorable duel between two Bigs fighting for pink, because, let's face it, the rivalry between Carapaz and Hindley was hardly inspiring. I mean neither racer exactly makes one get up off the sofa to shout at the tv screen.
The sooner RCI replaces Vegni as race coordinator the better for the Giro. The Hungarian start like the one in Israel a few years back just demonstrates a total lack of sensitivity toward larger issues a bike race shouldn't be involved with, let alone act as national promotion venue for in the name of expanding markets. But with Vegni at the helm this doesn't suprise me, as the guy is a blockhead.
Secondly the lack of longer TT to force the GC favorites to move earlier than the last few kms in the mountain stages resulted in the insipient racing we got uphill this Giro. Moreover, despite having been loaded with climbs the third week, the stage designs themselves were pretty aweful. Take, for example, the "montagna Pantani" stage with the Mortirolo-Santa Cristina-Aprica combo; why did they not go up the hard side of the Mortirolo and why was there no Stelvio previously as in the mythic 94 edition? And why were there just a couple of mountains over 2000 meters? The lack of the Stelvio has already been mentioned, but why no Gavia, no Finestre, no jaunt over the French border with Col d'Izoard, etc.? And bar the Fedaia and perhaps Blockhaus (on which, however, they don't do the final 5 k), the finishes of the mountain stages were on less decisive climbs or not at the mountain tops at all.
The first two weeks were also badly planned. Etna is a nice idea, but the climb itself so early in the race when the legs are fresh simply doesn't make much of a difference (unless you have a prime Contador charging up it). The only other real test was Blockhaus until week three. But there should have been another important GC stage or two in the Apennines between Abruzzo, Lazio, le Marche and Toscana.
True fortune did not help this Giro. the top GC riders were too evenly matched until the penultimate stage. And Almeida catching covid was a big loss. Yet had he not gotten sick, the race still lacked a 35-40 km time trial that would have given him terrain to put pressure on the pure climbers. It's true that the Giro isn't the Tour. Italy has always favored the climbers and for the tifosi riding the high mountains is the essence of cycling, but the shortage of time trial kms really took luster off this edition.
Even so there was no great rivalry or big champion to get excited about this year. Ironically it could be said that the GC riders were as uninspiring as the race design. I thus give it 4/10.