• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

2022 Giro d'Italia: Post race discussion & poll

Page 2 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Rate the Giro. Did you like it, were you enterained?

  • Yes, very!

    Votes: 14 14.0%
  • Not really!

    Votes: 50 50.0%
  • Eh...

    Votes: 36 36.0%

  • Total voters
    100
My scale goes from 0 to a million, I've just never had to use any other grade than 5. But that is not the same as a scale that doesn't rank. Absolutely not.

I rate it 5 out of 10.

Whatever scale or how you want to measure it or how you grade GTs, I dont care about at all.

To me the race was average. Hence me giving it a 5/10 and my reasons why. It had some good moments, and some bad ones.
 
it was bad but I knew going in that it would be bad because the route was a joke. Blockhaus was fine, Torino was fantastic and i really enjoyed Fedaia. i dont really see how it could've been better on this route, it's not like the GC guys really wasted any terrain except maybe the Kolovrat but after seeing that stage I don't think a move there would've worked anyway. the problem with that stage was that it was hyped as some big GC mountain stage when it wasn't because there were only like 4 other GC stages in the rest of the race.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
"But waiting for Jay Hindley at the finish was also an all pink Specialized Tarmac S-Works Sl-7 mounted on the fly by the mechanics of the Bora Hansgrohe team fitted with the new tires developed for the Alpinist CLX II and "Project Black" wheels. In addition to his Prevail II Vent helmet"

FT8xiyQWYAEvYvg
 
I guess the fact that the ending of the gc battle (if you can call it that) was exciting lets it rank a little higher than the worst of the worst gt's. I think close finishes are super overrated but I'd much rather have nothing happening and a close finish than nothing happening and a dominant victory. This makes this Giro really really bad, but not quite 2012/2016 TdF bad. Once again the best comparison to this race is the 2012 Giro which also had a pretty memorable finish to stage 20 but pretty much nothing before that. The only bright spots was the Torino stage. A few other stages like Blockhaus were okay but certainly not the sort of highlights one would expect in a gt.

While the route was horrendous and contributed largely to how bad this Giro was, I think the riders were a huge factor as well. We had 3 climbers which for 19 stages seemed to have the exact same level so they would all look at each other, the strongest of the 3 was also the best TT'er and for one reason or another the other two were extremely passive (Landani isn't real guys). All other interesting players DNF'd and aside from not finishing, the best TT'er of the field just wasn't strong enough to force the others into risky attacks.

That said, with a different route this still could have been very different. I just really really wished we had had a long flat TT and stage designs a little more thought through. The designs of stage 16 and 20 still hurts, as does the redesign of stage 12.

Overall 3/10
 
Good points:

-Landa finally freed and gets another podium
-Nibali getting 4th in his final Giro
-The Torino stage was a great racing
-Breakaway battles and racing for stage wins. Particularly on stages 4,7,8, 16, 18 and 19
-Fedaia
-Pozzovivo hung in for 8th overall
-Ghirmay winning stage in Le Marche for Eritrea
-Gullaume martin

Bad points:
-No great gc action or mythical battles.
-Too many transitional and boring stages
-No fight for Ciclamino or KOM
-Landa didn't won after all the mythology and his best chance to do so
-The fact that Landa will never got a better result than his breakout Giro in 2015.
-Bardet, Almida, Yates, Lopez, abandoned
-Remaining gc riders were all wheeelsuckers except Landa , who was still wheelsucking more than he used to do.
-Bad tactics by all the gc teams except wanty.
-Guillaume Martin didn't get top 10
-Buchmann got top 10
-Embarrassing route. Why they go to Valle daosta and Piemonte and not do any proper climbs?

Overall: It's a 3/10 , one of the worst Giri.
 
I guess the fact that the ending of the gc battle (if you can call it that) was exciting lets it rank a little higher than the worst of the worst gt's. I think close finishes are super overrated but I'd much rather have nothing happening and a close finish than nothing happening and a dominant victory. This makes this Giro really really bad, but not quite 2012/2016 TdF bad. Once again the best comparison to this race is the 2012 Giro which also had a pretty memorable finish to stage 20 but pretty much nothing before that. The only bright spots was the Torino stage. A few other stages like Blockhaus were okay but certainly not the sort of highlights one would expect in a gt.

While the route was horrendous and contributed largely to how bad this Giro was, I think the riders were a huge factor as well. We had 3 climbers which for 19 stages seemed to have the exact same level so they would all look at each other, the strongest of the 3 was also the best TT'er and for one reason or another the other two were extremely passive (Landani isn't real guys). All other interesting players DNF'd and aside from not finishing, the best TT'er of the field just wasn't strong enough to force the others into risky attacks.

That said, with a different route this still could have been very different. I just really really wished we had had a long flat TT and stage designs a little more thought through. The designs of stage 16 and 20 still hurts, as does the redesign of stage 12.

Overall 3/10
I just really really wished we had had a long flat TT and stage designs a little more thought through.
Nothing quite as exciting as watching 175 racers riding alone, right?! o_O
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kaptain Kool
My biggest complaint is with the coverage by the race directors as they really should be using permanent split screens when there are stage win battles and a GC group behind as far too often the camera forgot that the biggest thing about the race is the overall GG.
The hilly stages were excellent but the design of the high mountain stages largely did not lend themselves to adventurous tactics or risk/reward.

Losing Bardet and Yates plus later Almeida from the GC picture due to illness/crash damage/Covid respectively left the podium set I stone with half the final week still to run. The Girmay podium mishap robbed us of several more instalments of the thrilling rivalry with MVDP who more than played his part in animating the race.

Overall can’t give it more than 5 or 6 out of 10.
 
There were a few things, such as the "strength" of the DNF list, and certain stages that should have been decisive on paper but weren't (mostly Blockhaus) that aren't entirely down to the organizers control but much of it was down to a relatively poor route.

I thought a legitimate comparison was the 2020 tour prior to the final TT, which I thought was a very poor race that was only saved by a dramatic unexpected turnaround that nobody expected.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
It's still utterly confusing to me that they didn't start with an ITT to try to get Ganna in another pink jersey stint. We had like three straight years of the TDF going hard for a Jala stint to start the race off, come on guys.

I think the starting field was fine and the amount of DNFs can't really be put down entirely to the organizers. I do wish Demare would go to another team because having FDJ as a GC team is always fun.
 
I didn't watch that much. Usually tuned in shortly before the end and that was enough. The scenery was very nice. The winner has had a tough year and it's nice for him to win this. Somehow I would have liked Carapaz as a winner better, though, because I just have a thing for him. The tv pictures seemed abysmal, but the weather didn't take them out this time?
Not many great stories to follow, from my side, but not sure whether that's entirely on the Giro or also my not following so closely.
Would have liked Bardet to finish. :cry:
The Girmay story was crazy and a bit sad, but hey, he won a stage.
3 or 4.
 
We knew before today that Netserk's scale is 1-5, it's now confirmed by Netserk himself :p. And as Netserk knows, my scale is 8-8. I will therefore give this Giro an 8 and the "not really" vote. An 8 minus if you will for all the reasons already posted.

It felt like the '12 Giro, but the day-to-day action was rather good, starting with MVP in pink. Simon's ITT made it look like he was going to Berzin the bike race. The next day, Cav' pulls a sprint for the ages...Wow! It all started well.

Bravo Jai Hindley for a deserved win: you seized your opportunity, you won the Blockhaus stage, bravo! Bravo TDG for your podium in '12 and your stage win in '22! Bravo Demare! You're the only one of my chouchous standing. I don't think that I jinxed Nibali too much, but Bardet, Martin (who should have finished 7th), Almeida, yikes...

Shame on me for posting "Vamos Richard!" after stage 18 :cool:...at this rate, I will have no choice but to publicly cheer for Pog and Rog in July!

D@mn...I so wanted Vincenzo to win, Romain to podium, and Martin to finish 7th. Simon being The Great Simon for 21 days would have been a nightmare for Carapaz ans Hindley. I wished that Joao Almeida would hang on until the final ITT. For sure, this Giro will not win the best '22 GT award in our year-end polls...
 
Last edited:
3/10 by overall GT standards (and I was close to giving it a 2)
1/10 by Giro standards

The Torino stage was very good and separates it from the likes of the 2012 Tour, just about everything else I will have forgotten in a month and/or was a negative. I guess there were a few other positives - some good breakaway battles, Girmay's excellent debut, the occasional flash of the Nibali of old at his final Giro - but all in all it failed miserably at the key metrics: stage quality and GC action. That alone guarantees a poor rating and the whole thing having had zero field depth and no contest whatsoever for the minor classifications pushed it to the bottom of the barrel for me. Oh, and the abysmal coverage didn't help either.
 
Good points:
  • Fedaia (FEDAIAAAAAA!!!!!!!)
  • Torino stage
  • The cameramen focusing on where the actual action was and therefore not showing the GC

Bad points:
- Literally everything else.

Overall summary:
- Rating: Hepatitis/10

The race did not get the winner it deserved (that would have been Louis Meintjes)
The race was however won by the best rider in it, sadly he didn't do very much to prove that. However, he didn't need to.
 
Mar 17, 2022
12
30
1,580
Visit site
Since I voted "I was entertained", I feel like I need to explain myself here :).

This was my first Giro, which I watched pretty much through (due to personal circumstances) so I can only compare with the TDF, which I usually watch every year.

I found it refreshing, that there were actually three about equally powered teams competing for the GC and not just one (Sky/Ineos/Jumbo) train controlling everything - I have to say I am really sick of seeing Tony Martin in front for most of all race days (but that's over now at least). Also there was no single "alien" rider like Pogacar, which helped a lot.

In the TDF most of the breakaways are caught and then there is an "exciting" sprinter finish, which kind of negates the previous hours of watching. Not so in this Giro, where the breakaway had a good chance.
On each stage, it seemed like a level field with uncertain outcome (though kudos to the forum member, who predicted Hirt on the stage, where Hirt actually won).

The third week could have been better. But all in all the Giro had a lot of interesting stories, like will Cavendish get to TDF ? Will Ewan save Lotto with a stage win ? Girmay first win. MVDP breakaway and the search for pineapples. Can Nibali get a stage win in his last Giro ? The resurrection of Pozzovivo. De Gendt wins a stage! Lopez hangs on to the pink for longer than expected. Bora-Hansgrohe becomes a "major" team. The continuing rise of van der Schuerens Wanty Gobert - Intermarche team and so on.

People say the Giro was worse, because Almeida dropped out. But Almeida has got to be the most undynamic rider after Buchmann, who is so boring, his TT for seventh place overall wasn't even shown for one second (all other TOP-10 riders were shown). I didn't miss him.
People say the Giro was worse, because Bardet dropped out, but Romain Bardet of AG2R as "GC favorite" sounds just so strange to me. I have seen Bardet many times and he rarely wins. If he fails it isn't as dramatic as Pinot. So Bardet or no Bardet, doesn't really matter to me.

So for me the entertainment factor was just fine. It wasn't epic, but it was fine.
 
Nothing quite as exciting as watching 175 racers riding alone, right?! o_O
Yeah, more ITTs wouldn't add anything. The problem in the route was too many mountain stages where nothing nothing happens until the final climb. If you design a route in which a 90-rider peloton makes it to the penultimate climb, then of course nothing will happen there.

I voted "Not Really" but it was still better than the 2012 and 2017 Giros and on par with 2014. Also better than every Tour de France in the last decade+.

Edit to add: The GC field was fine. Obviously it didn't have Pogacar. And no Roglic, who isn't competitive with Pogacar and couldn't beat Carapaz when he tried in 2019. I see posters claim the GC list is diminished by abandons but IMHO none of those riders are better than the final GC here. Dumoulin? Hasn't been competitive in 4 years. Bardet? Never in contention to win a GT in his life. Sure, Yates won the Vuelta several years ago you can't claim the GC field is diminished by losing a rider who lost 20 minutes in the first mountain stage.
 
Last edited:
5/10. The Torino stage was tremendous. One of the best GT stages in modern times. The Fedaia stage was good. Everything else (GC wise) was mediocre or bad. RCS really needs to sharpen their race design for next year. A murito stage and at least two big medium mountain stages in the Apenninnes. And less focus on these Unipuerto stages in the mountain. One such stage the first week is okay and one in the last half of the race. But in the last half of the race all other mountain stages should be designed for more long range attacks.
 
I was entertained. Until Fedaia we didn't know who would win. Bora's tactics were great to watch. Kamna was crazy strong.

But then there is this .....
Carapaz was/is a shadow of himself

Some of your post I understand but not this? Other than cracking on Fedaia how can we know Carapaz was below Par? I think the fact Landa wasn't better than him should tell you he was going okay. Carapaz also finished 10th in the final TT which is pretty good for a climber. IMO Carapaz only had one bad day. Other than that he was as strong as ever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan

TRENDING THREADS