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Best Year for Grand Tours

So we all know about some of the goat GT, but when you combine all 3 of those from the same year, which in your opinion would be the best? And the worst for that matter too? And where does 2017 rank in all that?

As for me, I can't really speak on the years of Indurain or Pantani, I started following cycling for real in 2008 and even though I know the history, I can't compare Giro 1997 to Vuelta 2012, I just can't. But for me, this is how it looks

2013 - not sure what the general consensus on TDF 2013 is, but I loved it. That was the awesome route with Ventoux, beatiful Annecy ITT and ofc Alpe'd Huez as well as Annecy again on the final day. A lot of exciting stages, Froome's coming out party, same for Quintana, the last great TDF maybe?

Vuelta was crazy, you had the mountain stage on day 2 already, lol. And really, just an insane route, with Angliru, Andorra and so many other big mtf. Who honestly expected Horner to win? What a performance from him, and what a battle with Nibbles.

Giro was great as well, really enjoyable race despite Nibbles total dominance,

The worst would be 2012 for me. Giro had a great route with Stelvio, Pampeago and all that, but the race was pretty underwhelming. Tour from that year is an all time terrible one for me, just *** boring all the way through. Vuelta was fantastic, but I can't help myself but feel that this year was bad overall


So, what ya all think?
 
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Hmm 2015, I'd say.

The Giro was awesome. Alot of actions every day with Astana butchering the race; The mountains stages were so good that year...

The Tour was pretty good to. The crosswinds stage in Zeland, PSM massacre, the Mende drama, la Toussuire and Alpe d'Huez stage.

And the Vuelta was excellent, abeit not as entertaining as the Giro, but still a lot of fun with a lot of suspens until the last stage. The DUmoulin emergence was pretty mindblowing at the time.

Yep, definitively a good year in recent memories.
 
In my time as cycling fan (since 2009), it is probably 2010, although 2015 is not that far behind.

Giro in 2010 was by far the best GT I've seen. Montalcino, l'Aquila, Nibali at Grappa descent, Basso climbing Zoncolan, Arroyo descending Mortirolo and magnificent venue for the finish of the TT in the last day. More highlights than one can remember.

Very good Tour, specially compared to what has become the norm since. Contador-Schleck duel, with chaingate and trackstands on Tourmalet. Cancellara neutralising stage 2 when Schleck was in a position to lose minutes, and the next day taking advantage when Andy's rivals got stuck behind a crash. Armstrong becoming a laughing stock in his last ever Tour.

Vuelta was the worst of the 3 in that year and Anton crashing out when looking like the strongest and most exiciting rider to watch in the race considerably dampened the spirits. Still, the duel between Nibali and Mosquera was quite good. Specially the memorable inauguration of Bola del Mundo.

Overall, the greatness of the Giro more than made up for what the Vuelta lacked and the Tour too was above average.
 
Sep 12, 2017
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It's got to be 2011 for the recent years.
Contador show in the Giro
GC battle between Andy and Evans in the Tour (Galibier, Alpe d'Huez stages in particular)
ET's birth in the Vuelta, sprinting up lagos de covadonga
 
2011 was the first year in which I watched all three gt's, therefore I can only choose between the last 7 seasons. In that time span 2015 was in my opinion easily the best.
The giro back then was probably the best gt I've ever watched. I think it doesn't get enough praise because in retrospective the gc doesn't look close, since Contador had a huge lead after the ITT. But 1.) the gc was actually very close for the majority of the race and other than usually nowadays there was already a big battle in the first two weeks, in which something happened almost every day and 2.) Although the time difference between first and second was big after the TT there was still a lot going on. Contador could have lost the whole giro after his mechanical on stage 16 if Aru had been a bit stronger, stage 18 was incredible although Contador was never in danger and I really liked stage 20 as well since for a short time Contador really looked like he would crack completely.
The Tour was good as well. I can remember many better gt's, but imo in the time span of 2011-2017 only one other tour (2011) was better. The crosswind stage was great, the sky massacre in LPSM was incredible, and the big gc attacks in the Alps came far earlier than in the tours of the following years. Moreover it was the first time since 2011 that there really was a battle for the first place and I still think Quintana actually could have won if he had been a little bit more aggressive.
The Vuelta is a bit hard to rate since it was a very strange race. The first week was really great with the two Chaves wins on the first two uphill finishes, then the realization that Dumoulin could actually be a contender on the first real mtf and then to top it of Dumoulin's stage win in Cumbre del Sol which was one of the best mtf's I've watched in my life. The 2nd week also started good with the Andorra stage but after that it got a lot worse and the 3 mtf's in a row at the end of the week were pretty dull. However the 3rd week was great again. The TT was very exciting, Aru unsuccessfully trying to drop Dumoulin on the following day was great and then we got our grand final with the crucial attack already on the penultimate climb and Dumoulin almost catching Aru again on the descent.

Meanwhile 2012 was the worst season, without a doubt. The Vuelta was decent, although I think it sometimes gets overrated because of one great stage, while most other mountain stages were only okay, however the giro and the tour that year were absolute garbage.
 
Since the start of Sky's dominance the best year was 2015.

Giro was great thanks to the many attacks, especially in the final stages when the attacks were from so far out. As someone mentioned already the GC wasn't very close but when you look at the way Astana were racing in the final week, minutes could have been lost on any stage.

The Tour was fairly bad but clearly the best out of all the Tours since Sky took over. Contador lit up the race with his numerous long range attacks and I loved Nibali's stage win. Alpe d'Huez was enjoyable as well.

The Vuelta in 2015 was probably my favourite Vuelta. It was similar to that years Giro only the GC race was closer. I love seeing Grand Tours being decided in the final stage and what a stage it was. It also helps that Aru is one of my favourite riders :D


However I think the best year for Grand Tours was 2010. I thought all three GTs were very exciting and for me it was my favourite year ever, considering my top 3 riders of all time are Contador, Nibali and Basso :D
 
2015. probably. Insane Giro, very good Tour IMO, mediocre Vuelta. 2010 second, but the Tour was underwhelming (could be a lot better) and my favourite rider at the time, Antón, crashed out of the race in Spain. And it honestly wasn't a good race either way really.

2007 is also a good optin, but I don't remember anything from the Vuelta really. Must have been pretty dull. If I had watched the Giro in 2005, that would have taken the cake. The Tour was very good, same for the Vuelta, and from what I have seen from the Giro, that was also a very good race.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
Back to the "2011 Tour was good" myth. To quote Libertine Seguros: "The 2011 Tour was an exceptional Dauphine Libere"
Yeah, we've had that discussions many times before but sometimes an exceptional Dauphie Libere is better than a three week tour de france. In the case of the 2011 tour, this last week was so much better than anything we've seen in the tour since that edition, that I'd still argue it was a better tour than 2015. Especially since it's not like all stages before the Alps were bunch sprints. Most were rather disappointing, but still there were a few highlights like Voeckler fighting to keep yellow.
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
Red Rick said:
Back to the "2011 Tour was good" myth. To quote Libertine Seguros: "The 2011 Tour was an exceptional Dauphine Libere"
Yeah, we've had that discussions many times before but sometimes an exceptional Dauphie Libere is better than a three week tour de france. In the case of the 2011 tour, this last week was so much better than anything we've seen in the tour since that edition, that I'd still argue it was a better tour than 2015. Especially since it's not like all stages before the Alps were bunch sprints. Most were rather disappointing, but still there were a few highlights like Voeckler fighting to keep yellow.
2015 Tour GC battle

stage 2: Echelons. Is Contador gonna have to beat Froome?
stage 3. Lol no.
stage 10. ha. haha. hahahahaha
stage 17-18-19-20. Still waiting for Quintana to do what he needs to do..........

2015 Tour was bad.
 
2014 TDF was better than 2013 and 2015 imo. 2015 TDF was bad because Quintana did nothing on stage 17 and did nothing till the last 6 km of stage 19.
2012 and 2014 were very bad years. In 2012 Giro and TDF were awful and Vuelta wasn't that good except Fuente De. In 2014 Giro was awful except for Val Martello stage and the Tour was wasn't that good as well except for Arenberg stage. The Vuelta was truly awful.
 
Depends on your perspective. While Quintana was in no attacking mood, we had a good 1 first week a bunch of classics terrain for the hardmen. Then we had an absolutely awesome first MTF, the big 4 showdown which was super anticipated. The rest of the Pyrenees where admittedly a letdown, altho stage 11 wasn't all that bad. Then we had a few transitional stages through massif central including Mende and Rodez which both were well ridden stages. The Alps were raced super hard and we saw very selective racing on the penultimate climb on every stage. Not many sprinter stages were also a plus.

Yes, better than 2011, 12, 14, 16 and 17, only 13 beats that IMO which speak volumes of just how poor the Tour has been.
 

Singer01

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Which 3 'greatest hits' would you like to see the equivalent of, that you have actually seen previously, not some historic mystical beast?
1989 tour (obviously), 2011 Vuelta, 2015 Giro.
 
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Just for the freakin Grand Bornand stage and the once in a lifetime chance that Movistar let go in Bagneres de Bigorre, I cannot rate the 2013 Tour higher than the 2015 one.

2015 was good. The first week was great and really varied, and we had action in every mountain stage, even from far out in the last two one.

There wasn't any suspens for the win, but I take that every day over a war of attrition where no one dare to attack.

Singer01 said:
Which 3 'greatest hits' would you like to see the equivalent of, that you have actually seen previously, not some historic mystical beast?
1989 tour (obviously), 2011 Vuelta, 2015 Giro.

2010 Giro.

Why 2011 Vuelta ? It wasn't that great no ?
 
Sep 6, 2016
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Red Rick said:
Back to the "2011 Tour was good" myth. To quote Libertine Seguros: "The 2011 Tour was an exceptional Dauphine Libere"

Of the years I've watched, 2010>2015>>2008>>>2011>2017>2016>2014>2013>2012>2009
In 2011:
Gilbert and Evans won stages on punchy finishes
There was action from the gun in the alpe d'huez stage and of course Andy's great attack
Tour was in doubt until the final TT
Thor won two stages in the rainbow bands

That's significantly better than the Dauphine.
 
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I didn't watch them live but the 14 Tour and Vuelta were great. I know that Contador and Froome crashed but we got to see Nibali dominate like few others have in recent times and a crazy cobbles stage. The Vuelta was great. Admittedly I haven't seen much of the Giro and the cancellation of a mountain stage is a bummer. Sterrato and Nairo going nuclear week 3 would've been great.
 
Re:

Durden93 said:
I didn't watch them live but the 14 Tour and Vuelta were great. I know that Contador and Froome crashed but we got to see Nibali dominate like few others have in recent times and a crazy cobbles stage. The Vuelta was great. Admittedly I haven't seen much of the Giro and the cancellation of a mountain stage is a bummer. Sterrato and Nairo going nuclear week 3 would've been great.

They did not cancel a mountain stage that year. They tried to neutralise one but let certain riders ignore that and take four really undeserved minutes.

The stage cancellation was in 2013.
 
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from those years I watched:

1984: an epic Giro with Italian darling Francesco Moser finally taking the so desired victory in an epic (and not always fair) battle against Laurent Fignon. Fignon in revenge dominated Le Tour in great style and like a true champ ... Vuelta was neglegible though (someone named Eric Caritoux took the win)

2011: Contador had clearly no opponent of any means in the Giro and won it with a dominance rarely seen (even though he later was stripped of victory), Le Tour was epic with legendary moments (Andy Schleck, not someone I liked very much, but his ride up Galibier was one of the most magical moments in cycling I've seen, as well as Evans struggling in the same stage to limit time, and Thomas Voeckler's most disgraceful antics I've ever seen from a yellow jersey wearer) and Vuelta was hard fought as well (Wiggins struggling, the rise of the future star Chris Froome) unfortunately with a one-hit-wonder as a winner (even though he clearly deserved it) ...