Giro review!

[auscyclefan94]

Moment of the giro...
Best stage win of the giro...
Dissapointment of the giro
surprise of the giro...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Moment of the Giro: there are LOTS of these, but at present David Arroyo making nearly 2 minutes on a descent to honour the maglia rosa has to be one of the top ones.

Best stage win of the Giro: Evans' strade bianche win. That was an epic, monstrous stage, and to see the rainbow jersey streaming out of the mud was a great visual. I'm not an Evans fan, as you know, and I thought he was in the wrong place being on the front and that somebody would steal the win from him, but he was just too strong.

Disappointment of the Giro: The way the route put a lot of people like Pozzovivo out of the reckoning before they ever had a chance to show what they had. Of riders, probably Garzelli.

Surprise of the Giro: This pretty much has to be Porte, right? I mean, sure Arroyo did an amazing job but Arroyo is a known quantity with two top 10s in the past. Stortoni was pretty impressive too, with his 2nd to Terminillo, and also Sarmiento, who was regularly up there, including in the Strade Bianche, without ever really managing top results. I expect good things from him.

 

[issoisso]

Moment: Arroyo coming within 39 seconds of Basso at the end of the descent. Oh what could've happened if he'd made contact

Stage Win: Stage 4. Who says breaks on flat stages only win if the pack lets them? A break being caught by a peloton in full sprint is just epic.

Biggest Disappointment: Colnago-CSF. Pathetic.

Surprise of the Giro: Richie Porte's climbing.

 

[ElChingon]

Is one good/best?

 

[luckyboy]

Moment: Arroyo's descent. Monier's win was nice too.

Stage win: You mean stage 5 Isso? Either that (Pineau's win) or Basso on the Zoncolan.

Disappointment: Don't remember having seen Moncoutie at all. Again, agreeing with Isso - Colnago-CSF were largely invisible. Hoped Karpets might be higher overall too. Pozzato pipping Voeckler to the line on stage 12. Three weeks isn't long enough

Surprise: Porte hanging in there. Not really sure what else.

 

[hfer07]

Moment of the giro: Stage 11:Lucera - L'Aquila=first time in my life I've ever seen a breakaway of 54 riders succeeding & the GT contenders unable to get them back-apart from that, there are many great moments to choose from....
Best stage win of the giro: NO question in my mind: Stage 8 to Montalcino--A GT having a Spring Classic with all the drama, the weather, the pain-just Epic.
Dissapointment of the giro: Sastre
surprise of the giro:Richie Porte has a bright future & John Gadret (Fra) AG2R really impressed me in the climbs...

 

[Anonymous]

moment.. the whole of the strade bianchi stage
stage win.. evans on the above, great riding, pains me to say it
dissapointment.. simoni not getting climb on the coppi
surprise.. porte of course, but also just how competative vino was

 

[Ferminal]

No one moment stands out for me... There were dozens of "moments" in Holland. The peloton split fiasco. Grappa + Descent, Zoncolan, Mortirolo + Descent. Vino and Evans feeling invulnerable deciding to go for a sprint out of the bunch. I'm going for Zoncolan because the moment Basso lost Evans it was a big "he's back" moment.

There were half a dozen EPIC!!! stages which would be hard to separate otherwise, but the Saturday over the Strade Bianchi was something else and will be in a lot of people's memories for a long time.

Disappointment - Robbie McEwen, sad to see a champion so non-existant (although obviously not unexpected).

Surprise - Garzelli, Plan de Corones. Didn't see it coming and he absolutely smashed the field. Others were Pinotti getting a top10, Porte holding on and Goss outperforming ***.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

moment-I really enjoyed Simoni's final attack on the Gavia

stage win-Garzelli on the Plan de Corones

Dissapointment-I was really hoping for a big performance from Domenico Pozzovivo, and maybe more from Vlad Karpets and Carlos Sastre

Surprise-John Gadret looked really good on the climbs

 

[dgodave]

Moment of the giro... Finish at Montalcino when riders dissapeared into narrow old streets.
.
Best stage win of the giro... Montalcino, again.
.
Dissapointment of the giro...The really lame basilicas en route to Brescia: just white windowless undecorated boxes.
.
surprise of the giro... Simoni's pink tie. There's nothing I expected less.
.

 

[Sydney Sider]

Moment of the Giro- Vino being Vino in the first week

Stage Win - Evans win on the Strade Bianchi

Disappointment- the lack of coverage here in OZ.

Surprise - The Aussies claiming three Jerseys and three stage wins

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Moment of the giro... Arroyo's descent of the Mortirolo, although Basso dropping everyone on Zoncolan was nice too.
Best stage win of the giro... Evans in the Montecalcino stage, that such a great stage as well
Dissapointment of the giro - CSF Colnago, Uran, Ochoa, Serpa
surprise of the giro...Porte, not having a collapse day really suprised me, Kruijswijk, never expected him up there

 

[Inner Peace]

Moment of the giro...
Best stage win of the giro...
Dissapointment of the giro
surprise of the giro...

Moment:
- When Basso decided to finally get out of the saddle and drop Evans on the Zoncolan - that was where he first told us he was here to win - a real turning point of the entire race i think.

Stage win:
- I'll give you Evans' stage. A real man's stage win and a great effort to sprint from the front ahead of quality riders like Cunego and Vino

Disappointment:
- Sastre not racing enough before the Giro and being 2% behind the favourites. Ironically, he's now in better shape for the Tour as that was an epic 23 day training block.

Surprise:
- No joke, Basso! I did not rate him as a top 2 performer and he really did his best to prove me wrong. He climbed like a monster against a top of form Evans, Scarponi and Vino


I voted 9/10 for the ranking because it didn't come down to the final TT to decide the race - I love it when the final TT determines the winner!

 

[craig1985]

Moment of the giro - Arroyo's descent
Best stage win of the giro - The straide bianchi one
Dissapointment of the giro - Footon, were they even at the race?
surprise of the giro - Matt Lloyd winning the KOM

 

[L'arriviste]

Moment:
Strade Bianche. Inspired route mapping, honest victory (i.e. not because of crashes). Mad breakaway. You couldn't make it up.

Stage win:
Evans on the Strade Bianche again for me. Global warming is killing the opportunities for winning cycling glory when covered in filth.

Disappointment:
Sastre (but with crashes and only three races in his legs, it's not surprising - better luck at the Tour let's hope) and the last couple of days were a bit of an anticlimax (in any other edition of any other race they would probably have been highlights ) Tacky trophy girls with too much maquillage, sometimes duff coverage (lack of split times, info and a bit too much time spent on Italians) and bloody Skoda Yetis on the streets of Barcelona.

Surprise:
Garzelli and Vino fading away. Scarponi's final day time trial performance. I coughed my beer up when I saw him go through the checkpoint at the top of the hill.

Conclusion:
As you can see from the paltry negatives, I thought this was a fine edition of the Giro. Epic, even. Hope the Tour comes close, but it probably won't. Roll on those cobbles!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Dissapointment of the giro - CSF Colnago, Uran, Ochoa, Serpa

To be fair to Urán, after his GC aims were quashed by the crashes on stage 3, he went through the process of losing the time so that he'd be allowed to get in the breaks and maybe go for the KOM in week 3; he was the last domestique for any team to be left with Scarponi, Vino, Evans and co on the stage to L'Aquila, and by the time he got to the point of being ready to go on the attack, his teammate was in the maglia rosa, so he was killing himself for Arroyo. He carried Arroyo over Monte Grappa, then Jeannesson had that job on Zoncolán. Urán then came 7th in the stage to Kronplatz, and was the last domestique Arroyo had left on the Mortirolo too. He sacrificed his own intentions for Arroyo and I think he did a pretty sterling job as a week 3 super-domestique considering he's still only 23.

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

Moment of the giro- The stage over the Strade Bianchi. Seeing guys like Evans, Vino etc coming over the line caked in mud. Classic day.

Best stage win of the giro-Jerome Pineau's win when the bunch messed up the chase. Then again, I'd rather the Japanese lad Yukiya Arashiro had won it given he was the main reason they stayed away.

Dissapointment of the giro- Basso (a doper) winning. Vino coming 6th and my hopes that someone would push him off a mountain didn't happen.

surprise of the giro- Richie Porte. Gone from a nobody to best young rider and 7th on GC. I hope it's not too good to be true and he's been a naughty boy.

 

[badboyberty]

Moment of the giro... all of Stage Seven
Best stage win of the giro... Garzelli on the Plan de Corones TT
Dissapointment of the giro... Wigans, I don't like rider's who "tune up" at the Giro by riding piano for the duration.
surprise of the giro... Cuddles winning the Points jersey.

 

[sublimit]

Moment- The mass breakaway on stage 11. With Cervelo, Sky, working on the front together and pulling it clear. Petrov grabs the win but the Idiot Eurosport commentator Harmon calls the wrong winner again.

Stage win- Evans on Strade Bianchi. Should be proud of himself for that one.

Disappointment- Chris Sutton, maybe he was doing plenty of water carrying and doing a great domestique job but i was thinking he would get up there a bit more.

Surprise. - Larson winning the final ITT. Never saw anything of him and then he turns up on a track pursuit bike and wins.

 

[RedZone]

Moment of the Giro: Evans finally losing the wheel of Basso on the Zoncolan, because it was the moment this enthralling Giro was won.

Stage Win: Ill go with the crowd and say Evans on the Strade Bianche, such an epic stage.

Dissapointment of the Giro: The penultimate Stage, stage 20, looked to be so epic that anything could happen. Instead, nothing really happened and it was an anticlimactic ending to a wonderful race.

Suprise: I guess a combination of the three minor jersies. The no namer Porte winning the young riders. Lloyd pretty much winning the climbers jersey uncontested and Evans winning the sprint jersey.

 

[Willy_Voet]

Moment of the giro...
Best stage win of the giro...
Disappointment of the giro
surprise of the giro...

Moment: Could also go in the stage win below, but the last 5 minutes of Arashiro/Pineau breakaway.

Stage win: Muddy Evans

Disappointment: BMC

Surprise: Basso back on top. (for that matter Vino and Scarponi)

 

[richo36]

Moment of the giro: I hate to say it as an evans fan but Evans losing Basso wheel on the Zoncolan. It was the moment the Giro was decided. I remember standing up in shock wen it happened, one of the best rides ive ever seen. Well done basso.

Stage of the giro: Evans win on the Strade Bianchi. Epic!!! the stage was crazy.

Dissapointment of the Giro: Greipel. Huge let down. I know he eventually got a stage win but far out how did he blow some of the early stages that had his name all over it???? And not to mention the position he was in.

Surprise: Porte. Wow. big future!

 

[Archibald]

Best Moment: So many... Arroyo descent to make that stage exciting again (til the 5 muffed it)...

Best Stage win: the Strade Bianchi - nuff said.

Biggest Dissapointment: Personally: Evans running out of steam and losing all chance of the result going down to the wire.
Overall: Greipel - really would have liked to see him n Farrar go head to head properly

Biggest Surprise: Richie Porte - proved that he wasn't just "lucky" in his placing (unlike Sastre) from that breakaway

 

[jaylew]

Moment: Stage 11 split. Without that, Liqui takes the Maglia Rosa early and much of the excitement of the last week is lost.

Stage Win: Cadel's.

Disappointment: Basso winning. Never been a fan.

Surprises: Porte, Kiserlovski, Basso winning, Rabo having 4 guys in top 25.

 

[Zoncolan]

Moment: stage 11 break.
Stage win: Evans' Montalcino.
Dissapointment: Sastre never hitting his best form.
Surprise: Porte, only learned of him at Romandie.