Best Giro of all time?

[Pantani_lives]

Having followed the Giro since the 90s I agree with 1998, although 1999 would have been a competitor without the anticlimax. Zülle dominated the first two weeks with strong time trials and good defence, but in the final week Pantani turned everything around with crazy attacks in the mountains. Since then I have always been hoping for someone who can tear it all apart with individual actions in the mountains. Basso and Contador have also been very dominant in their best years, but the level of excitement has never been as high as in the late nineties. Today it's all much more defensive and controlled by teams, with a lack of intuition and all-or-nothing attitude.

 

[railxmig]

I don't really have any interesting stories with Giro, but i'm alsohave a bit different standards. My nerves are not the best and i actually prefer to not have a close GC battle. Thankfully i didn't watch 2010 Giro as... i'm not very fond of Ivan Bassso. Mainly for his 2006 outings and being basically a robot. Judging by the results 2010 was very similar to 2006, but with Montepulciano and L'Aquila. I prefer races, where there are fine stages combined with relatively calm GC situation, as i then can enjoy cycling to the fullest. The earliest edition i personally watched was 2004 and thankfully i only watched a couple of 2005 stages (not the Finestre one) as i back then was and still am a big fan of "Trollo" Rujano. Just look at his ears...

I guess 1976 Giro was very interesting with Gimondi, de Muynck, Bertoglio and Moser battling it out to the end plus de Vlaeminck wanting to get punched in the nose. Also the 1978 edition with de Muynck defending a roughly 1 min lead for almost the entire race against Moser and Baronchelli. 1989's Fignon edition also seemed to be fine (1988 had this Gavia blizzard, so i'm DSQ it). The 2011's battle for 2nd between Nibali and Scarponi was also quite entertaining with Nibali yoyoing all over the place. The 2009 edition with Di Luca and Menchov plus 2008 with Di Luca, Ricco and Contador were just horrifying... I'm probably the only one on this statement, but for me if it comes to modern GIro and close GC battle 2008 and 2009 were probably the closest one.

 

[Echoes]

I don't know what wanting to get punched in the nose means. A lot has been said about Roger De Vlaeminck at the 1976 Tour of Italy but what is sure is that he had to retire following a crash in a sprint and couldn't be of any help for De Muynck anyway in the mountain. When home in Belgium, he could hardly stand on his feet but all De Muynck fans called him a Judas. At the start it was not so obvious that De Muynck could be a leader,even if he took the Tour of Romandy from De Vlaeminck, while De Vlaeminck could win many stages. At that time, winning GC did not matter so much. Winning stages could matter financially (though De Vlaeminck neglected most of his own flat stage wins, they were too easy). For example, a year later, the Flandria leader was Freddy Maertens at the expense of Michel Pollentier. At Flandria, they knew that the Tour of Italy was too heavy for Maertens to target GC. He could get a pack of stage wins, point classification, a top10 in GC but no way he could win the GC. Yet Pollentier was at his service until the Maertens crash at the Mugello circuit which released Pollentier from all obligation and eventually enabled him to win the GC. So likewise, De Muynck started the 1976 Tour of Italy at De Vlaeminck's service and agreed to.

 

[DNP-Old]

Giro d'Italia 2010 is the greatest grand tour in the history of mankind. Things got so heated and weird, that at one point Vino and Evans were participating in bunch sprints. Of course the famous Montalcino stage, the return of RoboBasso on Zoncolan, the infamous l'Aquila stage, 56 year old Garzelli crushing everyone on Plan de Corones. But my favorite has to be Aprica. Arroyo could all but touch the wheels of Basso, Scarponi and Nibali in the descent of Mortirolo, but those few inches proved too much, and Basso went on to win the Giro. We were a few centimeters away from David Arroyo, grand tour winner.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Giro d'Italia 2010 is the greatest grand tour in the history of mankind. Things got so heated and weird, that at one point Vino and Evans were participating in bunch sprints. Of course the famous Montalcino stage, the return of RoboBasso on Zoncolan, the infamous l'Aquila stage, 56 year old Garzelli crushing everyone on Plan de Corones. But my favorite has to be Aprica. Arroyo could all but touch the wheels of Basso, Scarponi and Nibali in the descent of Mortirolo, but those few inches proved too much, and Basso went on to win the Giro. We were a few centimeters away from David Arroyo, grand tour winner.

That breakaway stage with the huge group of riders in the rain was crazy. The most entertaining Giro in my memory. The 2011 Giro was too one sided to enjoy too much but Contador's last Giro win in 2015 was pretty good against Landa and Aru.