Giro d'Italia 2013 - Final Thoughts

[Eshnar]

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

you guess wrong.

 

[airstream]

you guess wrong.

it's in no way worse than being a giro enthusiast who likes to bash the Tour every once in a while

 

[Eshnar]

it's in no way worse than being a giro enthusiast who likes to bash the Tour every once in a while

worse or better I don't know. But it is not normal.

 

[forkboy84]

So overall in terms of excitment, not a great Giro, but still a good one. Plenty of attacking and trying to break away in multiple stages throughout. GC battle and mountains a disappointment, but good to see Nibali come out to play and attack in the mountains we did have. I give it a 6.

Hard to disagree with that. The weather put paid to any excitement in the GC contest (not to take anything away from Nibali, even with every stage run as originally planned he would have won handedly in that form), but there were still good moments along the way. I enjoyed it, but there's obvious disappointment with the big mountain stages being lost to snow.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Tough luck. Weather ruined a race that started overwhelmingly good. Despite force majeure I'm going to be harsh and give it 3.

 

[The Principal Sheep]

For sure last couple of weeks couldn't deliver what we had hoped for but still some exciting racing took place, great to see Movistar targeting stage wins and great individual riding performances from so many of the riders, Congrats to all and look forward to next year.

 

[whittashau]

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

No, it's really not. It's like having a vast musical knowledge and yet only being able to enjoy pop music. It just makes no sense.

 

[Pentacycle]

It doesn't feel like a complete waste of time, so a 5 seems appropriate IMO.

What I liked:

- Paolini's showing in the first week, very impressive in winning his first ever Giro stage and defending his Maglia Rosa
- Sky eventually choosing Uran's side even before the Wiggins DNF
- Navardauskas is a beast, as is Visconti
- Great battles for Red and White jersey
- Concerning the Maglia Bianca, Betancur is one hell of a rider, Majka too on a slightly lower level(Aru and Kelderman showed promise as well, both ofc have just made their GT debuts)
- Niemiec is more than just a domestique
- Cavendish 'beating' the GC men for the Maglia Rossa
- Nibali showing what it takes to win a Giro

What I didn't like:

- Uncontrollable sprints, with inevitable crashes
- Wiggins turning out to be a joke in bad weather; too fragile and no guts
- Hesjedal getting dropped on a 4th cat hill
- Evans not being the contender(and Nibali's rival) everyone hoped he'd be
- Scarponi and Sanchez(like Evans) still show flashes of brilliance, but they weren't very credible podium contenders like many hoped
- GC effectively being decided before the first rest day, which many already pointed out by that time
- Nibali giving away a stage
- Betancur not winning a single stage
- Bad weather, and the subsequent cancellations

 

[hfer07]

wiggins had better numbers

(copyrights by "the hog")

 

[Carols]

I gave it a 7.

The first 8 stages were great, the middle week was disappointing because of the loss of mountains but it still contained plenty of great racing action. The final week also lost some glamor due to rerouted stages but there was still great racing just not for GC, the weather made stage 20 epic!

It's a shame Nibali got the jersey so early as the most attacking rider in the race went into defense mode. If all you care about is GC then I guess it was kind of boring, but I enjoyed most stages.

All in all it was good

 

[gustienordic]

I gave it a 7.

The first 8 stages were great, the middle week was disappointing because of the loss of mountains but it still contained plenty of great racing action. The final week also lost some glamor due to rerouted stages but there was still great racing just not for GC, the weather made stage 20 epic!

It's a shame Nibali got the jersey so early as the most attacking rider in the race went into defense mode. If all you care about is GC then I guess it was kind of boring, but I enjoyed most stages.

All in all it was good

The white jersey competition was certainly much more exciting than usual... and the highlighters made the race good as usual.

 

[RedheadDane]

No ratings from me... don't like putting numbers on things!

I'm definitely gonna remember it for the crazy weather!



Now I got PGB (Post Giro Blues)...

 

[Leadbelly]

The Giro has been rescued a bit by the penultimate stage - it was pretty epic and the imagery from the final climb will stay in the memory. I think that's been a problem maybe from this Giro that there haven't been that many memories that you could say that about. Maybe Wiggo descending like Bambi on ice would be one. Whereas last year, although the GC battle was derided, there were memories of Rabottini winning his stage, Tiralongo collapsed on the ground, Barta hyper-ventilating, the bunny hop over Cav's head and of course TDG and the Stelvio.

Also I think the past couple of week's racing has almost put me off Stefano Pirazzi a bit (heresy I know). I always used to like his mad attacks off the front of the peloton, but his inability to work with any of his breakaway companions is starting to grate a bit. Being KotM focused is a bit of an excuse and he's been successful in that regard, but it almost seemed like he threw away two possible stage wins - the one Belkov won when he seemed more interested in having some personal battle with Chalapud and again with Visconti's win on the Galibier he just let Visconti ride away after he declined to come through.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

A very depressing edition. The most depressive one. If the things so like they do with the Giro, soon I'll like only the Tour. Though, probably, that's already the case.

Suggesting it was a bad, or dull, or unspectacular edition I see no problem with, but saying it was more depressing than 2011's is, I think, a step too far. The 2011 Giro is by FAR the most depressing GT of recent times.

 

[Eshnar]

Suggesting it was a bad, or dull, or unspectacular edition I see no problem with, but saying it was more depressing than 2011's is, I think, a step too far. The 2011 Giro is by FAR the most depressing GT of recent times.

maybe you meant 2012?

 

[Leonardus]

A Giro that started really good with a lot of exciting racing and the promise of a great GC battle but the horrible weather conditions ruined the best stages and eliminated the main contenders except for Nibali.
Still, a lot of stages offered some good racing and excitement and the weather made MTF's like Galibier and Tre Cime truly epic to watch.
All in all a good GT but it could have been really great.

 

[burning]

maybe you meant 2012?

Or he meant 2009 Tour

 

[Netserk]

I think WW-108 made the '11 one quite depressing

 

[Libertine Seguros]

maybe you meant 2012?

No, I meant 2011. Hence why I said to airstream that I'd accept the comment on this one being worse or more dull than other Giri, but the choice of "most depressing" means we need to take other things into account. The 2012 Giro, 2012 Tour, 2007 Vuelta and especially the 2009 Tour were far worse bike races, but the 2011 Giro was the most depressing to follow.

 

[Eshnar]

No, I meant 2011. Hence why I said to airstream that I'd accept the comment on this one being worse or more dull than other Giri, but the choice of "most depressing" means we need to take other things into account. The 2012 Giro, 2012 Tour, 2007 Vuelta and especially the 2009 Tour were far worse bike races, but the 2011 Giro was the most depressing to follow.

Why? ....

 

[burning]

Why? ....

Removal of Crostis and death of WW were really depressing, but Tour 2009 invented a new level of depressing racing imo

 

[Progsprach]

Well, the first week was very good for a first week like 8/10, the second one was still decent like 5/10, the third one was diappointing except for Stage 20 (4/10). So it's betwen 5 and 6/10 but the last few GTs weren't so good in total so I'll be nice and give a 6.

 

[airstream]

Suggesting it was a bad, or dull, or unspectacular edition I see no problem with, but saying it was more depressing than 2011's is, I think, a step too far. The 2011 Giro is by FAR the most depressing GT of recent times.

The Giro 2011, if we take away Contador figuratively speaking, always presented different mountain scenarios: dead Scarponi, strong Nibali, then other way round, exceptional Gadret, very strong Rujano during first 2 weeks, resurection of Purito in the third week, etc. The 2013 Giro is an absolute peak of mountain monotony. The race gave minimum of thoughts for food. The only question we might wonder whether Nibali stepped in Froome and Contador level. Everyone have its point. I think no. In general there wasn't any stage that might anchor in fans' consciousness in terms of beauty and unpredictability of fight. Pure popcorn without any aftertaste. Torment of Tantalus. I'm very glad it finished.

 

[Eshnar]

ok I didn't think of WW tbh.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why? ....

The others were just bad bike races. Races where the sport has to deal with death are always depressing, maybe not depressing for the spectacle or whatever (as there were some great stages in the race), but certainly from a human point of view.