Greatest year in the last decade.

[The Hitch]

From 2004- 2013. What was the best year in cycling.

To take into account
1- GT'S (how good were the gts that year. Was there a legendary edition of one, or all 3 above average?)
2- Monuments (how good were the monuments. Were there some great battles, editions?) Also take worlds into account and olympics if its there.
3- Other races. Some great week long races or one day classics? Good second tier races?
4 - Memorable moments- Were there legendary moments eg Flandis, memorable battles eg Contador Rasmussen.

Will probably be skewed to earlier years due to the fact that racing has become less exciting over the decade.

 

[podunavac]

Froom 2004- 2013. What was the best year in cycling.

To take into account
1- GT'S (how good were the gts that year. Was there a legendary edition of one, or all 3 above average?)
2- Monuments (how good were the monuments. Were there some great battles, editions?)
3- Other races. Some great week long races or one day classics? Good second tier races?
4 - Memorable moments- Were there legendary moments eg Flandis, memorable battles eg Contador Rasmussen.

Not hard to presume your favorite year.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Good luck.

Anyway I was quite impressed with Sella's effort in the Giro, what year was it again? 2009 or 2008. Can't remember.

 

[The Hitch]

Good luck.

Anyway I was quite impressed with Sella's effort in the Giro, what year was it again? 2009 or 2008. Can't remember.

2008. But would that alone make 2008 the best year for you?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sella's Giro was phenomenally ridiculous entertainment. That said, I kind of favour 2010. The Tour was the weakest GT not by being the most boring, but by being the least exciting; the Vuelta had Eze's final hurrah, the Giro was the best GT in years and hasn't even come close to being beaten since, and David Arroyo nearly won it; Lombardia was won in horrific conditions, Freire won Sanremo, the last truly great win of my favourite sprinter (honourable mention to Djamolidine of course), Liège was a really good race; although Horner won it País Vasco was a brilliant race with double Aia (although it took me three years to get over Txurruka's crash on the descent that took away a first career win), Purito's emergence, Paris-Nice was a really strong race with Valverde, LuLu and Rodríguez challenging Contador, Sagan's emergence from obscurity but not yet having made himself thoroughly unlikable, Tondó's amazing solo win on the Col de Vence, Spilak's emergence in Romandie with the final stage over Ovronnaz with Valverde, Antón and Menchov (!) animating things; the downfall of Armstrong as a competitive racer, Igor Antón looking like the next superclimber, Fränk Schleck won a stage race GC in the ITT (!!!!!!), Carlos Sastre somehow podiumed a one-day race (and raced his last as a relevance), Samu podiumed (albeit in retrospect) the Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico was won and lost on bonus seconds on the final ceremonial flat stage, and the Worlds were way better than they had any right to be.

 

[woodenswan]

2010 as well

that bonus seconds situation made that Tirreno a great edition indeed
loved that Flecha/Boonen/Cancellara lead group in Harelbeke
Boonen and Cancellara on the Kapelmuur
Cancellara riding away from everybody in Roubaix
Evans winning La Fleche Wallone. doggystyle
and that Giro, oh my! that was a terrific race! Zoncolan was great, and then Basso/Nibali/Scarponi just rode away.. a lot of drama that year

 

[The Hitch]

Sella's Giro was phenomenally ridiculous entertainment. That said, I kind of favour 2010. The Tour was the weakest GT not by being the most boring, but by being the least exciting; the Vuelta had Eze's final hurrah, the Giro was the best GT in years and hasn't even come close to being beaten since, and David Arroyo nearly won it; Lombardia was won in horrific conditions, Freire won Sanremo, the last truly great win of my favourite sprinter (honourable mention to Djamolidine of course), Liège was a really good race; although Horner won it País Vasco was a brilliant race with double Aia (although it took me three years to get over Txurruka's crash on the descent that took away a first career win), Purito's emergence, Paris-Nice was a really strong race with Valverde, LuLu and Rodríguez challenging Contador, Sagan's emergence from obscurity but not yet having made himself thoroughly unlikable, Tondó's amazing solo win on the Col de Vence, Spilak's emergence in Romandie with the final stage over Ovronnaz with Valverde, Antón and Menchov (!) animating things; the downfall of Armstrong as a competitive racer, Igor Antón looking like the next superclimber, Fränk Schleck won a stage race GC in the ITT (!!!!!!), Carlos Sastre somehow podiumed a one-day race (and raced his last as a relevance), Samu podiumed (albeit in retrospect) the Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico was won and lost on bonus seconds on the final ceremonial flat stage, and the Worlds were way better than they had any right to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVVyxDkxezg - greatest cycling vid ever.

Totally agree. I think Vuelta was average and TDF was below average but the greatness of the Giro more than made up for that. Monuments I think Flanders and Liege were superb, PR not the most entertaining last hour but still special to watch.
And I forgot how great the other wt stage races were.

Didn't see Catalunya or TDU (though heard WIllinga stage was good) and thought Eneco was average but other than that all the other wt races were top

Romandie a great edition for once.
Suisse great - forum went nuts on the Gesink stage and again when Gesink somehow lost it.
Dauphine, solid edition, Brajko taking it to Contador.
PN - very good edition.
Pais Vasco - legend edition. Every single stage was good. Valverde was on the podium I think of all but 1 stage. Horner getting a big race for once and doing it by a handful of seconds in the tt.
Poland - very good edition
and of course
Tirreno - fantastic edition, down to 1 second.

Add in above average worlds, some very good cobbles races- E3, Omloop, legendary kbk, the emergence of Narito in Lav, and a great worlds, and it was an amazing year

 

[zlev11]

the answer is probably 2010, but i'm going to say 2011. the insanely hard Giro route, Voeckler at the Tour, and friggin' Cobo winning the Vuelta made the GT's pretty much perfect to me.

Paris-Nice wasn't great, but Tirreno was awesome. Gilbert doing the treble was great, Flanders was decent with a strange winner, and Paris-Roubaix was incredibly fun with another weird winner.

i also highly enjoyed the Dauphine that year, and the first half of Suisse was awesome with Soler winning a stage and Cunego's awesome ride on the next one, and a pretty good summit finish later on in the week. unfortunately that race got kinda ruined when Leipheimer won.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Catalunya was an ok edition. There was a really good stage early on where Purito, Tondó and Pereiro attacked 50k from the finish on the Coll de la Trapa, Pereiro got dropped but Purito and Tondó, two Catalans of course, went all the way to the finish; Tondó took the stage and Purito the jersey which he kept. The race tailed off after that as the gap the two had was quite significant on GC. LuLu went solo gaining time a couple of times, especially on the Montjuïc stage, but Катюша kept him on a leash. TDU was the best ever edition of it. The shock win for Manuel Cardoso, Valverde and Evans sprinting for everything, and the star studded break of Evans, Luísle, Don Alejandro and some unknown Slovak kid interloping in the Willunga stage... oh and back in Europe, André Greipel won a punchy finish in sleet in the Algarve, him and Roelandts putting a few seconds into Samuel Sánchez. Such a weird finish.

Oh yea, and Castilla y León had that glorious Morredero stage where Antón, Contador and Mosquera were away, Soler bridged across to them in glorious style, then they all traded attacks and did a number on Contador until Antón got away. That was a superb finish.

 

[The Hitch]

the answer is probably 2010, but i'm going to say 2011. the insanely hard Giro route, Voeckler at the Tour, and friggin' Cobo winning the Vuelta made the GT's pretty much perfect to me.

Paris-Nice wasn't great, but Tirreno was awesome. Gilbert doing the treble was great, Flanders was decent with a strange winner, and Paris-Roubaix was incredibly fun with another weird winner.

2011 was strong, even though the GT's didn't stand out, because all gt's and monuments were above average.

I don't know if there is another year where this was the case. Not a single one of the big 8 was a disapointment - though worlds certainly was.

Monument wise in particular it was very strong.

MSR- super edition. Expected sprint, but everything falls to pieces on La Manie, groups on the road, attacks on Cipressa, and Poggio, small group finish. Robo Scarponi rides to the greatest 6th place in cycling history.

RVV- Super edition. Canc attacks 50 k out, Chav sticks with him, most insane crack on Kapplemur, loses a minute advantage in about 200m, group of 12 over the top, attacks etc.

PR - Good edition.

LBL - good edition

Lombardia - Nibali and Gilbert forming a small group on Madonna (or was it Sormano even) and then Nibali trying a 50k solo. Getting caught but then Vergano very exciting with people dropping quickly, even Gilbert dropped, and then wtf - Oliver Zaugg flying away from Purito et al at the top
Course wasn't as predictable yet.

i also highly enjoyed the Dauphine that year, and the first half of Suisse was awesome with Soler winning a stage and Cunego's awesome ride on the next one, and a pretty good summit finish later on in the week. unfortunately that race got kinda ruined when Leipheimer won

I would say something else ruined Suisse. But Leipheimer winning like that, don't know if you watched it on the forum or not, was the greatest moment in forum history.

Here are the posts from 16.26 (when it looked like Cunego would still win) and 16.27 (when the clock showed Leipheimer had won by 4 seconds) on that day.

vai damiano!!!!!

cammon cunego is just a lovable character imo

Pleeeaase Cunego hold on.. Please!

Cunego gonna do it!!!!

allez allez!

Cmon cunego!

Leipheimer wins the Tour de Suisse

Not gonna do it

Bottle takes it

****...............

NO **** **** **** ****KKKKK LEVI **** :<

(srry mods )

aerd,xbgtf
~ºhmb~Zªlhbgçp.jkÇO
XÇ-´KB Lº-

FVCK

damn it. to hell.

Lololol levi wins

Arrrghhhhhhh

Damn. Bottle wins it.

NOOOOOOOOoOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Grrrr

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!

AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! :

That leeching in stage kruijswijk won it for him

god damnit **** leipheimer

**** **** ****!

goddamnnnnnnn whyyyy, life isnt fair.

**** **** ****

Arghgjhjxhjxhkjshkjha

Shucks.

This is the unhappiest day of my life.

**** this. T[edited by mod]

edited by mod

 

[Kwibus]

Sella's Giro was phenomenally ridiculous entertainment. That said, I kind of favour 2010. The Tour was the weakest GT not by being the most boring, but by being the least exciting; the Vuelta had Eze's final hurrah, the Giro was the best GT in years and hasn't even come close to being beaten since, and David Arroyo nearly won it; Lombardia was won in horrific conditions, Freire won Sanremo, the last truly great win of my favourite sprinter (honourable mention to Djamolidine of course), Liège was a really good race; although Horner won it País Vasco was a brilliant race with double Aia (although it took me three years to get over Txurruka's crash on the descent that took away a first career win), Purito's emergence, Paris-Nice was a really strong race with Valverde, LuLu and Rodríguez challenging Contador, Sagan's emergence from obscurity but not yet having made himself thoroughly unlikable, Tondó's amazing solo win on the Col de Vence, Spilak's emergence in Romandie with the final stage over Ovronnaz with Valverde, Antón and Menchov (!) animating things; the downfall of Armstrong as a competitive racer, Igor Antón looking like the next superclimber, Fränk Schleck won a stage race GC in the ITT (!!!!!!), Carlos Sastre somehow podiumed a one-day race (and raced his last as a relevance), Samu podiumed (albeit in retrospect) the Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico was won and lost on bonus seconds on the final ceremonial flat stage, and the Worlds were way better than they had any right to be.

I have no right to vote on this poll, because 2010 was the year I became a true cycling addict. Before that I followed cycling on the sideline.
It was a good year to start though. Thanks for bringing back those memories

 

[Kwibus]

I would say something else ruined Suisse. But Leipheimer winning like that, don't know if you watched it on the forum or not, was the greatest moment in forum history.

Here are the posts from 16.26 (when it looked like Cunego would still win) and 16.27 (when the clock showed Leipheimer had won by 4 seconds) on that day.

Hahaha! The memories! That was fun indeed.

 

[IndianCyclist]

2012 for me. The TDF was boring but it is not the only GT. Giro was excellent and Vuelta was epic.
San Remo with Gerrans winning was very good.
Boonen cobbled double was good but missing Cance.
Iglinsky's win in Liege was good.
Vino's gold in his last race was memorable
Gilbert delivered in the worlds.
The world's TTT.

 

[The Hitch]

2012 for me. Giro was excellent

 

[Granville57]

From 2004- 2013. What was the best year in cycling.

2010.

For the very same reasons I posted in your 2010 highlights thread at the time.

While I could've easily chosen ten from just the Giro alone, here are a few others that stood out. Too hard to rate them so I put them in chronological order.

10. Battenkill -- Making FLandis laugh on one of the harder climbs of the day. No one else was in the lead group was in a smiling or laughing mood at that particular moment.

9. Battenkill -- Watching Caleb Fairly cross the line, covered in mud, to take the win.

8. Three Days of de Panne -- Millar wins the overall.

7. Tour of The Basque Country -- Final TT, Horner wins and takes the overall.

6. Roubaix -- Fabian's "escape"
The Belgian announcers break into English ("...we have a problem!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7xjsPqHg3o

5. Cadel clawing his way to victory up the Mur de Huy at La Flèche Wallonne.

4. Giro -- Stage 9, the peloton surfs the road
http://www.universalsports.com/vide...7050.html#riders+make+waves+during+stage+giro
(Link no longer seems active )

3. Opening TTT of the Vuelta a España...under the lights!

2. Thor in the Rainbow Jersey.

1. Two words: Katie Compton

 

[Jspear]

It is hard for me to pick a best year based on these criteria. I've never been happy with the outcome of the classics, a gt, and several key stage races all in one year. I have favorite classic wins, gt wins, and stage race wins, all from different years. So....If I had to pick a year it would probably be 2009.

Cav won Milan
Contador won the Tour
Cav dominated the sprints at the Tour(Last stage of the 2009 tour is one of my favorite sprints)
The Vuelta was a pretty good watch as well
Fabian won the TT at the Worlds

 

[Tournesol]

2010

Really an epic year for the same reasons as others have posted before.

Particular moments I remember were Cancellara just riding away at Roubaix and slaughtering the field in one of the most dominant modern era cycling performances probably ever seen.

The commentator on Eurosport saying after Gilbert's brutal attack on the San Fermo della Battaglia climb to drop Scarponi at Lombardia "Does Gilbert have a problem with his back wheel,he's pointing at something,no,no,he's actually pointing at the no.1 on his bike and he's right,he really is number one!" A terrific performance by Gilbert to retain Lombardia in atrocious conditions.

Contador's duel with Andy Schleck at the Tour,not the most amazing Tour but chaingate stage and the resultant fallout gave it an edge.

And last but not least,THAT Giro,wouldnt know where to start or finish but suffice to say the best GT I have ever seen.

2010 was a great year.

 

[karlboss]

It is hard for me to pick a best year based on these criteria. I've never been happy with the outcome of the classics, a gt, and several key stage races all in one year. I have favorite classic wins, gt wins, and stage race wins, all from different years. So....If I had to pick a year it would probably be 2009.

Cav won Milan
Contador won the Tour
Cav dominated the sprints at the Tour(Last stage of the 2009 tour is one of my favorite sprints)
The Vuelta was a pretty good watch as well
Fabian won the TT at the Worlds

I think to be a fan of 2009 you need to be a fan of dominant performances, HTC, Astana, Contador and Cav were all untouchable. Some other notables, Evans wins interesting worlds, Menchov wins the Giro on one of the best TT courses I can remember, Schleck attacking to win LBL. Contador losing Paris Nice, Roubaix was a solid edition, La Ronde not so much. Tour de Suisse won by Cancellara, while HTC take 6 of 9 stages with 5 different riders.

Edit: For reference my favourite sprint was stage 2 of that Tour, Cav was awesome. I'm not really a fan, but hats off to a perfect leadout and sprint.

 

[ingsve]

The best year was obviously 2012. The year of Lance Armstrongs long awaited demise.

 

[Netserk]

2010 and 2011 were both great years (Especially compared to 2012, which without the Boonen show, would be the worst year ever).

However I voted for 2007. So much panache _O_

 

[Eshnar]

Don't remember much of 2005 besides the awesome Giro (maybe even better than 2010) and the image of Basso going full *** on the way to Pla D'Adet, so I had to vote 2010, that was my other obvious candidate.

 

[Lupi33]

got it right 2010

loved the spring classics and Giro that year

 

[Pantani_lives]

2010 also wins for me.

The cobblestone classics were dominated by an impressive Cancellara. Freire won another MS and Hushovd became world champion. The GTs were won by Basso, Contador and Nibali.

 

[Carols]

This is a difficult assignment almost every year has some great memories. Leaning towards 2010; Basso, Contador, Nibali's first top step, Fabu's Ronde and PR Plus, Plus. Hard to beat but other years are tugging for my vote! Mind not made up yet

 

[Red Rick]

2007 got me hooked to cycling, so I had to vote that, but 2010 was the best in terms of racing. 2011 had too many casualties