il giro 2011 vs le tour 2011

[PedalCastro]

Le Tour this year, Weylandt's death spoiled the Giro for me like I said at the time

 

[Spaniard]

Both Giro and Tour has been great, excluding the overall which was boring in he Giro.

 

[simoni]

Most races of the year have a massive "what if" attached to it because there are so few races where anyone who is anyone is always there, in form and going for the win.

The giro, vuelta, dauphine, liege, amstel etc. etc are all great events but I'd say its only really TDF, Flanders and Roubaix where your get nearly all the biggest names in that speciality of the sport in top form and racing to win.

The Giro is like Ghent-Wevelgem to the TDF's Roubaix.

For that reason the Tour will always outrank the Giro for me. Thats not to say that e.g. the Giro in 2010 wasn't a great race that I enjoyed immensely (and the Strada Bianchistage was the best bit of sport, any sport, I've watched for years) but without Contador being there there's always that nagging doubt.

When it comes down to it, I want to see the best in the world racing each other when they're at their best and the TDF gets closer to that than the Giro ever will.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

I agree with nearly every post on the thread, but they are each highlights about each. The only conclusion is that they were too different to really compare them. The Tour's star power will always give it a head start on the Giro, and similarly, the Giro always has more interesting routes blah blah blah.

They're both grand tours, but they're one of three distinct races for a reason; they cannot and should not offer the same thing.

 

[movingtarget]

This year I thought the TDF was superior. Contador's dominance over the Giro, a long way from the end, took a lot of interest out of it for me. I think Zomegnan overreached himself with the Crostis stage which rightly was omitted but I actually think that that in conjunction with the tragic death of a rider on a stage that was not different to many other stages, cost Zomegnan his job. Kudos for him though in trying to keep the Giro interesting and there is no doubt that the Giro has made up ground on the TDF as far as spectacle and relevance for the real cycling fans is concerned.

A below his best Contador competing against riders struggling to win their first grand tour still made interesting viewing in the TDF along with Voeckler's ability to hang onto the yellow jersey. For me, the last five or so days of the TDF were better than most of the Giro but in 2010 the Giro was much superior.