Grand Tour Elimination Game ( 2010s )

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perico

perico

Mar 11, 2009
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Forever The Best said:
Would have probably lost many minutes at Passage du Gois given Lance's amazing luck.
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Yeah Pantani would’ve abandoned on stage 2. He always sat on the back end of the peloton. He could have finished 2nd in 2000 had he not gone all postal (pun kind of intended) on the stage to Morzine. He was climbing much stronger than Ullrich. More likely 3rd with the last TT, but 2nd was a possibility. As guilty as he was of clinic issues, it was criminal the way he was ostracized compared to the rest of the peloton knowing what we know now. He was demonized.
 
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gregrowlerson

gregrowlerson

Aug 6, 2010
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perico said:
Yeah Pantani would’ve abandoned on stage 2. He always sat on the back end of the peloton. He could have finished 2nd in 2000 had he not gone all postal (pun kind of intended) on the stage to Morzine. He was climbing much stronger than Ullrich. More likely 3rd with the last TT, but 2nd was a possibility. As guilty as he was of clinic issues, it was criminal the way he was ostracized compared to the rest of the peloton knowing what we know now. He was demonized.
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I was thinking Pantani was way behind Ullrich (even lost almost 2 minutes to him on Hautacam), but no, you are right, after taking serious time on Courchevel he was in podium contention. And then came Morzine. Back in the days when riders didn't necessarily ride as protectively of their top ten position :D
 
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perico

perico

Mar 11, 2009
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gregrowlerson said:
I was thinking Pantani was way behind Ullrich (even lost almost 2 minutes to him on Hautacam), but no, you are right, after taking serious time on Courchevel he was in podium contention. And then came Morzine. Back in the days when riders didn't necessarily ride as protectively of their top ten position :D
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Pantani was absolutely flying at that Tour. He went head to head with Armstrong and after Hautacam it was a draw. He was the only rider until 2002 to put Armstrong under real pressure.
 
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kingjr

Sep 9, 2012
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perico said:
Yeah Pantani would’ve abandoned on stage 2. He always sat on the back end of the peloton. He could have finished 2nd in 2000 had he not gone all postal (pun kind of intended) on the stage to Morzine. He was climbing much stronger than Ullrich. More likely 3rd with the last TT, but 2nd was a possibility. As guilty as he was of clinic issues, it was criminal the way he was ostracized compared to the rest of the peloton knowing what we know now. He was demonized.
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Pity the move to Bianchi and Ullrich never materialized in 2003. The Tour was still great without him, just imagine what it would have been like with him.
 
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perico

perico

Mar 11, 2009
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kingjr said:
Pity the move to Bianchi and Ullrich never materialized in 2003. The Tour was still great without him, just imagine what it would have been like with him.
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I was talking about 1999-2002, but yes Ullrich in 2003 was a monster.
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
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Wow, people really hate Wiggins. The 2012 Tour sucked, no doubt about it, but it was boring by design. Far less of a letdown than the 2012 Giro because we actually had reason to have expectations of the 2012 Giro. Also, the stage to Porrentruy which Pinot won was one of the finest stage designs Prudhomme has ever greenlit. What is it with him and including one awesome stage design in his absolute dirt worst races? The 2009 Tour had that stage to Le Grand-Bornand which was outright great, hard climbing from the get-go, consolidation in the middle, almost no real flat and then a double-kicker of a final pair of climbs which were steep from the very bottom and then had a descent finish... buried among three weeks of some of the worst stage designs for modern cycling ever seen.

Heal: 2016 Vuelta
Hurt: 2018 Tour
 
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Devil's Elbow

Devil's Elbow

Sep 20, 2017
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I'm not judging by expectations but by actual racing and tension, and then there are 4 Tours that were even worse than the 2012 Giro imo.
 
S

skidmark

Mar 13, 2009
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I don't think the 2012 Tour is the worst absolute GT of the 2010s, but for symbolic value it was the worst. It ended a period of 2006-2011 of wildly unpredictable Tours (sometimes more WTF clinic reasons than actual race entertainment of course, but even the runaway of 2009 had Lance getting trounced), and started the current run of (2019 aside) tensionless Tours of tempo riding and Sky throwing money at the strongest riders to bring them into their train. It was spoken of as a design for Wiggins to win, and indeed he did, and ushered in the 'Sky turning non-factors in GC into Tour winners' trend. So, in broad strokes:

Heal: 2010 Giro
Hurt: 2012 Tour
 
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gregrowlerson

gregrowlerson

Aug 6, 2010
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perico said:
Pantani was absolutely flying at that Tour. He went head to head with Armstrong and after Hautacam it was a draw. He was the only rider until 2002 to put Armstrong under real pressure.
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I disagree with that. Armstrong was under no pressure from Pantani after he lost almost SIX minutes on Hautacam. Armstrong was under more pressure from Ullrich in 2001 when he attacked on Perysourde (though still pretty much had him covered).
 
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