Giro d'Italia 2013 - Final Thoughts

[Zvezdarac]

My final thought is that the strongest has won it and that he would have won it regardless of the cancelations.
But the cancelations are what's wrong with the Giro. This year they've been reasonable and organizers can't change the weather. But in previous years we've had some stages canceled because of organizers' bad safety assessments.
It's like one offer in the window, and something totally different in the shop. Someone would call it a hoax.

 

[RedheadDane]

I actually found the route change due to local elections on the last stage the most ridiculous.
It's one thing not to be able to control the weather, but surely they'd know when there was to be elections...

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

The organizers are at fault for the cancellations. Wanting to go over Galibier, Gavia and Stelvio in may is a huge gamble which de facto killed of the whole Giro. There are more than enough great - lower - mountains in Italy with very low weather risks. If they want to go over the real high mountain passes they should move the Giro to June.

Gave it a six, because of the good first week.

 

[Pippo_San]

The organizers are at fault for the cancellations. Wanting to go over Galibier, Gavia and Stelvio in may is a huge gamble which de facto killed of the whole Giro. There are more than enough great - lower - mountains in Italy with very low weather risks. If they want to go over the real high mountain passes they should move the Giro to June.

Gave it a six, because of the good first week.

Now this is something I really tend to agree to. It almost look like that when designing a GT they always go for the same **** everytime, with the worst example of this being of course Le Tour (what with Ventoux, Alpe D'Huez, Peyresourde, and so on).

In Italy there's plenty of possible choices actually. Take for example the Giro Del Trentino. There they are really trying to be inventive, what with Sega di Ala, Punta Veleno, climbs that goes no more than 1200 mt.

Mind you everyone loves Gavia, 3 Cime di Lavaredo, Giau, Pordoi, Fedaia and whatever, but it only adds to the feeling that cycling is always anchored to its past and doesn't really seem like to evolve.

 

[SafeBet]

I actually found the route change due to local elections on the last stage the most ridiculous.
It's one thing not to be able to control the weather, but surely they'd know when there was to be elections...

Lol you don't know Italy

 

[Netserk]

Lol you don't know Italy

I remember the same thing happened to the last ITT in '11

 

[RedheadDane]

I remember the same thing happened to the last ITT in '11

Actually think I've heard rather frequent mentions of the Italian Planning Abilities Or lack of same...

Next they'll probably forget they were supposed to have a race...

 

[IndianCyclist]

Giro 2012?

I mean Thomas De Gendt ended third. THIRD FFS (forgetting in the meanwhile it was won by a certain Hesjedal, who'll never podium a GT again...)

Unpredictable You also remember how he ended third which is why he will probably never achieve podium in a GT again.

 

[zlev11]

i give it a 7/10. probably the best first 12 days of a GT in a long time. probably would've been a high 9/10 if none of the mountains got cancelled. it's really kinda depressing that we really didn't get to see any high multiple mountain stages.

 

[Stibolino]

5/10... amazing first week until the florence stage (especially the Pescara stage was one of the most interesting stages in Grand Tours in the last years), but then the race went boring due to the lack (shape) of wiggins and hesjedal, the weather that modified the mountain stages a lot, and a dominant Nibali.

The Stage to Tre Cime was a nice one, the RCS should consider more often to let stages end there, especially with one or two mountains before

 

[jsem94]

6/10 seems just about right.

A few points:
- The mouth-watering stages turned out to be pretty bleak, cancelled mountains etc. However, a lot of stages that on paper didn't look to be so interesting turned out to be, which was a plus.

-The racing was controlled by Astana from start to finish though, and Wiggins' downfall was pathetic. There was no real GC fight, Nibali bossed this from start to finish.

-The only real fight was for the white jersey, and what a future the both of them have - especially Betancur. He showed his class with some great attacks in the Ardennes, he's got a future.

-On the subject of Betancur again. The current crop of Colombians racing in Europe is nothing short of spectacular. I really hope Quintana continues this trend at the Tour.

-Samu showed some brief hope in the MTT, but then cracked on the final climb. I really hope he has something left in those legs in some future GT.

-Cav earned some major respect by riding out this GT and grabbing the points jersey. This was hell for Cav and every single opportunity for a stage win he had, he pretty much took.

-The weather. Even though it ruined some stages, it made for an epic Tre Cime di Lavaredo. That was brutal.

 

[Angliru]

it's normal to follow all the races and like only le tour i guess

To paraphrase you: "Not if you're a true fan of cycling".

 

[42x16ss]

What? How could any cycling fan only like the Tour? That's like a star wars fan only liking The Empire Strikes Back

More like "The Phantom Menace".

 

[SafeBet]

Actually think I've heard rather frequent mentions of the Italian Planning Abilities Or lack of same...

Next they'll probably forget they were supposed to have a race...

I'll tell you this.
There are at least 7 cities or towns hosting the start or the finish in a stage this year who had local elections planned for last weekend.

Try and guess why.

 

[PasqualeMendoza]

I gave it a 3.

Everything was set for it to be a classic. The parcours was excellent, and things seemed poised for a titanic GC battle between Nibbles and Wiggo. Sadly, the abysmal showing by Wiggins meant we had two weeks (if not longer) of knowing the overall winner, and then the real tasty stages were ruined by the weather.

Nibali and Cavendish were faultless, but the race badly needed challengers for them.

 

[Cookster15]

I gave it a 6. The weather was by far the biggest disappointment this Giro.

Question: Ignoring what the organisers might say, is it feasible to switch the timing of the Giro and Vuelta?

Moving the Giro to June makes it too close to the Tour. How was the weather in the Spanish Mountains at the time the Giro was held? Or is the weather in the Italian Alps in September just as prone to cold and snow as in May?

Or maybe as all 3 GTs have been around for the best part of a century now, the weather we saw in 2013 is unavoidable every once in a while and fans just need to understand and accept that as a risk the race will be affected?

 

[The Hitch]

I gave it a 6. The weather was by far the biggest disappointment this Giro.

Question: Ignoring what the organisers might say, is it feasible to switch the timing of the Giro and Vuelta?

Moving the Giro to June makes it too close to the Tour. How was the weather in the Spanish Mountains at the time the Giro was held? Or is the weather in the Italian Alps in September just as prone to cold and snow as in May?

Or maybe as all 3 GTs have been around for the best part of a century now, the weather we saw in 2013 is unavoidable every once in a while and fans just need to understand and accept that as a risk the race will be affected?

The Vuelta doesn't go as high into the mountains as the Giro. But usually the Vuelta uses Asturias and the North for its main mountain base (though the whole country is mountainous there are more fans there as I understand) and the North doesn't have particularly hot weather like the rest of the country.

Also apparently it was snowing even in Bola del Mundo last week

Anyway you cant change the giro to August. Its been May too damn long.

 

[icefire]

I gave it a 6. The weather was by far the biggest disappointment this Giro.

Question: Ignoring what the organisers might say, is it feasible to switch the timing of the Giro and Vuelta?

Moving the Giro to June makes it too close to the Tour. How was the weather in the Spanish Mountains at the time the Giro was held? Or is the weather in the Italian Alps in September just as prone to cold and snow as in May?

Or maybe as all 3 GTs have been around for the best part of a century now, the weather we saw in 2013 is unavoidable every once in a while and fans just need to understand and accept that as a risk the race will be affected?

To the bolded question, this year the weather has been cold. There was fresh snow in Navacerrada and highs of -5C for a couple of days during the second week of the giro. Mountains in the north were not much better.

April-May is rain season in the mountains. Back when the Vuelta was raced in the spring live broadcast of mountain stages was often disrupted by the bad weather. And I recall stages cancelled or modified by snow as well.

 

[jens_attacks]

having the tour in july as the last grand tour would be incredibly depressing. so please no. let them how they are. the weather won't be as bad next year i'm sure