Is this the worst season for stage racing in modern history?

[Devil's Elbow]

Yeah, yeah, heat of the moment of all that, but hear me out:

- Giro: Evenepoel and TGH abandon when arguably the race favourites, leaving us with a battle between Roglic, Thomas and Almeida who manage about 15 minutes of vaguely aggressive racing between them in the span of three weeks. Throw in the worst mountain stage of all time at Gran Sasso and the ridiculous cancellation of Grand Saint-Bernard and it's not a surprise that most of the forum considered it the worst edition of the century.

- Tour: fantastic first six days, followed by a retrospectively mediocre block before the TT and Loze combined for a massive anticlimax and a historically-massive winning margin.

- Vuelta: a first week that descended into farce with the blind TTT and the double neutralisation, before Evenepoel collapsed early on the first mountain stage and Jumbo swooped in to immediately seal the GC and put themselves well on track to sweep the podium.

Jumbo breaking all records in terms of domination on top of that doesn't help either, of course.

But this thread is not just about the GTs, because the one-week WT stage races have also been disappointing.

- UAE Tour: it was the UAE Tour, enough said.

- Paris-Nice: incredibly one-sided victory for Pogacar. Also had a stage cancelled, albeit for good reason.

- Tirreno: probably the tamest I've ever seen it raced, the headwind on the MTF did not help but the rest of the race was subpar too.

- Catalunya: this one was actually good

- Itzulia: nothing happened for the first five stages and then one Vingegaard attack decided it all. Worst edition I can remember and it's not close.

- Romandie: one MTF's worth of action

- Dauphiné: Vingegaard had already sealed the win before the first mountain showed up, doesn't get more one-sided than that

- Suisse: good racing, but Mäder's death will forever be the thing associated with this edition

- Pologne: it didn't have a (near-)fatal crash so I guess it was above average by Polish standards. Still an awful race though.

- Renewi: terrible route and the last stage got neutralised because the organisers don't understand route design

All in all, there have been only two weeks of WT stage racing that I have reason to look back on fondly, which is ridiculous. Moreover, this season has had the worst Giro, Itzulia and Tirreno in a long, long time, in addition to the most dominant team ever by a wide margin, so it hasn't just been garden-variety underwhelming. All I have to say is - thank god for Ronde and especially the WCRR giving us all-time great editions, because good grief did this season need it.

 

[Netserk]

Giro was crap, but the Tour was the second best in a long time. While I don't expect anything from the rest of the Vuelta, it has been above average so far.

 

[Netserk]

2012 was worse. Like clearly worse.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Giro was crap, but the Tour was the second best in a long time. While I don't expect anything from the rest of the Vuelta, it has been above average so far.

Don't think the Vuelta has been above average. I usually expect more: 4 sprint stages with no action, rain/dark TTT, Barcelona and stage 9 cancellation. Xorret Catí was what you could expect, Arinsal was worse than expected, but stage 6 and today was good for sure.

I'd give a 5/10 at best for now for this race.

 

[Netserk]

Don't think the Vuelta has been above average. I usually expect more: 4 sprint stages with no action, rain/dark TTT, Barcelona and stage 9 cancellation. Xorret Catí was what you could expect, Arinsal was worse than expected, but stage 6 and today was good for sure.

I'd give a 5/10 at best for now for this race.

Hmm, maybe you're right. But stage 6 and today have been quite good. Also the ITT.

 

[pastronef]

2012 was worse. Like clearly worse.

the Giro was great

 

[proffate]

isn't stage racing always 99% boredom?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

2012 was worse. Like clearly worse.

The Giro was marginally less bad than this year's. The Tour was somewhat worse (as in, by one Javalambre stage) than this Vuelta. The Vuelta was clearly better than this year's Tour.

As for one-week stage races, Paris-Nice, Tirreno, Itzulia, Pologne, Eneco/Renewi all had better/less bad editions, Dauphiné was equally horrific, and the UAE Tour didn't exist yet, so only Catalunya, Romandie and Suisse were better this year.

Yes, 2012 was a bad year too, but overall still a bit better, IMO.

 

[Netserk]

The Vuelta was clearly better than this year's Tour.

Which do you think was the second best stage of that Vuelta?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Which do you think was the second best stage of that Vuelta?

The lack of a second-best stage comparable with either Pyrenees stage in this Tour is IMO easily compensated by the far more satisfying way in which the GC battle was settled.

 

[Netserk]

The lack of a second-best stage comparable with either Pyrenees stage in this Tour is IMO easily compensated by the far more satisfying way in which the GC battle was settled.

Before the broadcast?

 

[Red Rick]

I love how I was a heretic for trashtalking the 2023 Tour when it was happening but now Jumbo beat a depleted field in the Vuelta and it's suddenly trash.

 

[Squire]

Tour of Guangxi will save the year.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Before the broadcast?

If we're using that logic, then this year's Vuelta should also get knocked down because we missed half the action on the best stage. So that cancels each other out.

Also, the truly decisive moment was Rodriguez getting dropped by Valverde, and unless my memory has gone completely hazy that was during the broadcast.

 

[Red Lobster]

I think the Tour of Britain singlehandedly pushes this into "yes" territory.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This year has been pretty bad, but 2012 was demonstrably worse. From a series of neutered parcours in ASO-organised races that made it stupendously easy for Sky to control from early on, which they of course did, to the most negatively raced Giro in living memory, it was an absolute shocker start to finish. Add in Catalunya's queen stage - and the only challenging one - being almost entirely annulled enabling Michael Albasini to win the race with little challenge, Gabrovski's comedy show in Turkey...

 

[Valv.Piti]

I very much enjoyed Paris-Nice, Catalunya and Tour de Suisse. Vasco and Dauphine was aight I guess, we saw the best GT rider go hard on a couple of stages. T-A was really the only bad race IMO. Tour de Romandie, well, I think that race pretty much always suck tbh and I rarely really watch that closely or pay that much attention to that one.

Giro incredibly bad. Tour was very good.

Too early for this Vuelta. We have seen some very good mountain stages, but the rest has been bad. Still a way to go.

So no: And not even close at all.

 

[Andy schleck]

One of the best seasons for stage racing. What are you talking about?! Cycling is in one of best moments ever. Exciting and talented riders that attack from far. It's been very entertaining. Do you want to comeback to sky train with poels, thomas, porte as a domestiques neutralizing everybody until the last km?! Of course not.

 

[zlev11]

everything has been pretty much what you'd expect (given the routes) except for the Giro, which in retrospect was probably 100% because everyone was afraid of the final MTT.

 

[Parker]

One of the best seasons for stage racing. What are you talking about?! Cycling is in one of best moments ever. Exciting and talented riders that attack from far. It's been very entertaining. Do you want to comeback to sky train with poels, thomas, porte as a domestiques neutralizing everybody until the last km?! Of course not.

But that didn't actually happen. That's something you have told yourself.

In reality Sky won solo in the Yellow Jeresy on Vetoux and Alpe d'Huez. Froome won by attacking downhill. He attacked into a crosswind. Bernal won because he attacked in 2019. Froome did the boldest ride of the century at the 2018 Giro. Duels between Froome and Contador.

But Roglic relying on bonus seconds and TTs is thrilling. OK. When has he ever attacked from far out?

The Sky train, boring trope comes from two Tours.
2012 where there was over 100km of timetrialling and few big mountains. It was Prudhoome's experiment with a rouleur's Tour. Sky rode it as is asked.

2017 Froome soft pedalled that one as a plan to do the Tour-Vuelta double. And ultimately the 'Froome Slam'

 

[zlev11]

2017 Froome soft pedalled that one as a plan to do the Tour-Vuelta double. And ultimately the 'Froome Slam'

the Froome slam is what, win all 3 GT's in a row with a fun little doping positive in between?

also, is this you? https://twitter.com/ukcyclingexpert

 

[Libertine Seguros]

But that didn't actually happen. That's something you have told yourself.

In reality Sky won solo in the Yellow Jeresy on Vetoux and Alpe d'Huez. Froome won by attacking downhill. He attacked into a crosswind. Bernal won because he attacked in 2019. Froome did the boldest ride of the century at the 2018 Giro. Duels between Froome and Contador.

But Roglic relying on bonus seconds and TTs is thrilling. OK. When has he ever attacked from far out?

The Sky train, boring trope comes from two Tours.
2012 where there was over 100km of timetrialling and few big mountains. It was Prudhoome's experiment with a rouleur's Tour. Sky rode it as is asked.

2017 Froome soft pedalled that one as a plan to do the Tour-Vuelta double. And ultimately the 'Froome Slam'

It wasn't about the one Tour in 2012, it was about half a season of very poor TT-heavy ASO races where Sky got into the lead early and then strangled the race from then on in. The Tour that year was just the culmination of it.

 

[Miss Violet Smith]

I've enjoyed the one-week races more than the GTs this year; not sure if that's a reflection on the GTs or me. The classics are my favourite races anyway.

Enjoyed a great deal of individual performances, continue to be a bit stunned by the organisation of some of the races, but perhaps justified and more understandable for those on location.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

But that didn't actually happen. That's something you have told yourself.

In reality Sky won solo in the Yellow Jeresy on Vetoux and Alpe d'Huez. Froome won by attacking downhill. He attacked into a crosswind. Bernal won because he attacked in 2019. Froome did the boldest ride of the century at the 2018 Giro. Duels between Froome and Contador.

But Roglic relying on bonus seconds and TTs is thrilling. OK. When has he ever attacked from far out?

The Sky train, boring trope comes from two Tours.
2012 where there was over 100km of timetrialling and few big mountains. It was Prudhoome's experiment with a rouleur's Tour. Sky rode it as is asked.

2017 Froome soft pedalled that one as a plan to do the Tour-Vuelta double. And ultimately the 'Froome Slam'

Trainspotters never had it so good

 

[Devil's Elbow]

One of the best seasons for stage racing. What are you talking about?! Cycling is in one of best moments ever. Exciting and talented riders that attack from far. It's been very entertaining. Do you want to comeback to sky train with poels, thomas, porte as a domestiques neutralizing everybody until the last km?! Of course not.

The Tour is demonstrably much, much better now than it was in the Sky era, true. But, for the rest of the year, we didn't have many races ruined by the Sky train. The Vueltas Froome targeted were always decent at worst and the Giro he won was excellent. That leaves the one-week stage races, and while those definitely did sometimes get strangled by Sky, at other times they were very much beatable which regularly led to good racing. Now I do think we've had a fair bit of bad luck this season (Vingegaard not being in form at Paris-Nice, lots of one-week races only having one of the big 4, all the abandons at the Giro, Pogacar having the biggest collapse of his career at the Tour, Vingegaard suddenly racing the Vuelta making Jumbo really overpowered combined with everyone not on Jumbo collapsing/having injury issues) so I see no reason to expect this to become the norm, but that same bad luck - combined with Jumbo's extreme strength, which will likely be an issue in seasons to come too - has very much hurt this season.