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Ranking this year's GTs

Page 3 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Rank 'em

  • TGBM!!!

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I voted Giro>Vuelta>Tour

Giro=Brutal parcours and I never tire of watching an on form Alberto ride his bike.

Vuelta=interesting parcours, final few days a bit lacking but the riders made up for it. The return to the Basque country was emotionally involving and the GC fight was pretty incredible.

Tour=more interesting parcours in the first week then normal, but race marred by crash outs of so many contenders. Entire race salvaged from boring by the final week of action.
 
Nov 11, 2010
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I'm gonna go with the Giro being the best GT of this season. The whole mountainous aspect made it something spectacular for me. Even though I knew that Contador was going to win it as soon as it was known he was going to do it, it was still fun to see the others fight it out for any other position other than first. Also, it showed me something I was waiting a while to see. A showdown between Jose Rujano and Alberto Contador in the mountains.

The Tour is usually my favorite GT, but I hate it when crashes take out a majority of the heavy hitters, or some of my favorite riders. Although I didn't think Cadel was going to win it, I was very much happy for him when he did.

The Vuelta for some reason didn't catch my attention this year. I did watch some stages but wasn't really into it as I am with other races. The one thing that I did like was that a complete outside won it in the end. I don't think anybody, or many thought Cobo was going to wind up the winner. That was the case for me. You'd expect for Menchov to do it. But that's what made it somewhat fascinating for me. But still not fascinating enough to get me as psyched as I was for the Giro and the Tour.
 
Jan 15, 2011
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Vuelta>Tour>Giro for me. I'm normally a huge Giro fan, but this years was ruined for me with a heartbreaking reason. The tour was rather exciting, especially as I'm a huge fan of Cuddles, Thor, Voeckler, and Rolland, but inability to watch the race or follow it with anything more than race results every few days (vacation with bad internet :mad: ) lowered its charm. The Vuelta was a high point for me, as I love completely unexpected underdogs finishing first and second. :) Also, I was able to watch almost every stage live thanks to its timing, so was very happy with that.
 
Thorn Cycling said:
Vuelta>Tour>Giro for me. I'm normally a huge Giro fan, but this years was ruined for me with a heartbreaking reason. The tour was rather exciting, especially as I'm a huge fan of Cuddles, Thor, Voeckler, and Rolland, but inability to watch the race or follow it with anything more than race results every few days (vacation with bad internet :mad: ) lowered its charm. The Vuelta was a high point for me, as I love completely unexpected underdogs finishing first and second. :) Also, I was able to watch almost every stage live thanks to its timing, so was very happy with that.

I agree with your order. What everyone has pointed as the highlight to the Giro (the route) is not unique to this years edition. It was fantastic, but just a squeak behind the others. The Tour was good, with the gutsy last week, but an odd start.

For me this Vuelta exemplified the attrition and "survival of the fittest" that should represent every GC competition. While this is obviously true of the other GT's, it was exaggerated in the Vuelta. The favorites cracked one by one, and were overtaken in dramatic fashion, on a bigger scale than the Giro or Tour
 
Giro > Tour > Vuelta imho (but they are close)

Giro: Okay, AC destroyed everyone, but at least we saw an awesome stage (15) and some other good stages (5,8,9,11,14,20).
Tour: One good stage (18 and maybe 20), one great (but not awesome, 19) and had a very close GC, which is a good thing but doesn't justifiy 17 stages of boredom and crashes.
Vuelta: Very close GC, some good stage but a badly designed route that spoiled the last week.
 
Jun 1, 2010
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Tour - Giro - Vuelta. Tour was awesome, best one in years. Galibier and Alpe were great stages, and even the regular Cav sprint wins couldn't prevent me from really enjoying the Tour. The Giro is the Giro, as always filled with action and excitement even if there is a clear favourite. Though I will remember WW more than any of the actual racing, it's definitely a GT to remember. Finally the Vuelta, this year's edition was great. Good rides by people we didn't expect, interesting parcours, very exciting overall.

All three were great, but I Vuelta was just slightly weaker than the other two, perhaps also because I was away for a few days during the tougher stages. Tour edges Giro because of the excitement for first place, which the Giro lacked since pretty much day one.
 
Tour > Giro > Vuelta.

Tour:
+ GC excitement, an uncharacteristically entertaining first week, Contador showing signs of humanity, hardest raced GT of the year
- absolutely nothing decisive happening on GC until the final weekend, boring Pyrenees stages

Giro:
+ beautiful course, best stage of the year (to Gardecchia), Contador on top of his game is a sight to behold
- course was so hard that it kind of neutralized the race, Contador on top of his game ruins the excitement

Vuelta:
+ GC excitement, if anyone predicted this podium he's a multi millionaire by now, hopefully Nibali is a bit less overrated after this
- all mountain stages except Angliru ruined by headwind and too low gradients, like last year a serious lack of star quality in the top-10
 
ok, i voted for TGBM mainly because i thought everyone on this forum was taking the mickey out of him for his name, which is quite frankly awesome.

but that dude can ride.

On to my favourite GT though and although i am incredibly biased to cadel i still have to say the tour. I have watched every stage live right to the end for the last three years and this year he finally did it. Still cant believe he did it.. but i digress...

Anyway i did enjoy the tour a heck of a lot for cuddles win over contador on stage 4 (iirc) and the way BMC kept cuddles out of harms way which i think is overlooked by a lot of people, but having said that i was extrememly disappointed the way in which a few of his potential contendors were knocked out. I do think he still would of beaten them given the way he rode after andy when nooone else would help. Seeing that effort was definitely the highlight for me. Actually, that attack by andy was simply epic while two stage later contador attack was also awesome to watch. Then came the TT and my housemate couldnt stop laughing at me for she knew i liked cycling but didnt think i was the type of person to shout at TV encouraging Cadel. Yell for Cadel i did. big time.

for the giro it was a beautiful parcours and i think we can all agree contador when on form is brilliant to say the least and the way he was riding made everyone else look silly. As has been mentioned here many times over also the way the peleton and the organisors handled the tragedy was upstanding.

but the vuelta, hmmm, the stage where froome went then cobo came back then froome went again for the stage win was pretty cool, but to me those guys arent up to teh same quality as cadel and certainly not contador so yeah, it was good, but not as good as the other two.

So, Tour > Giro > Vuelta.
 
Nov 30, 2010
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I voted Tour > Vuelta >>> Giro.

Each had their good and bad.

The Tour was marred by crashes early on which unluckily took out a raft of GT contenders and potential stage winners. A team consisting of the first 9 to crash out would probably have been considered the strongest team in the race.
The intervention by motor vehicles was unacceptable and the Pyrenees stages were uneventful.

However as a whole the Tour was the most dramatic with a wide variety of challenges which led to a worthy winner easily beating a guy who isn't a great TTer and can't descend. All the jerseys were being contested right to the end.

The Vuelta was kept interesting by virtue of small time gaps on each stage. There was a wide variety of different types of finish and of climbs.

The downside was the final week which was pretty irrelevant to the GC even with such small time gaps, it just needed a long, tough queen stage. There were also too many stages that consisted of little more than one MTF.

The Giro I didn't think much of at all. Its position in the calendar gives it a huge advantage when it comes to maintaining interest and yet this year I had lost most of mine by the end of week 2. A succession of similar climbs and types of finish led to predictable and uninteresting racing. All three GTs had too many MTFs and not enough descending or TT KMs, the Giro being by far the worst offender.

The stage of the Giro that will stick in the mind was stage 4, a wonderful and moving tribute to a fallen comrade.
 
May 8, 2009
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A GT where half the contenders are out due to accidents in the first week is a catastrophically bad GT. Vuelta the best for me this year, exciting till the end. The Giro was gorgeous, but probably too hard for encouraging someone to fight Contador back in his own terrain.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Tour > Giro > Vuelta

Tour: An exciting race from start to finish with a great battle from 1st to 3rd all the way to Paris. (A guy with the name Cadel won which was pretty good) Race score: 8/10

Giro: A boring race with an amzing parcours which was somewhat negated by Contador and because the parcours were simply just too hard. Still quite beautiful Race score: 6.5/10

Vuelta: On time it was the closest race but that was because of the boring racing, boring parcours, with the big boys all out of contention. zzzzz. Race score: 3.5/10
 
Jun 16, 2009
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The people who voted the last two options of the poll have won the prize of Tool of the Day!:D

An honorable mention for Tool of the Day goes to Moondance for making the last two options up:p

EDIT: Here's an interesting fact for you all. Gesink best finish in a GT is 6th place which is in the Vuelta & Tour. TGBM has finished 4th in a GT therefore TGBM>>>>>>>>Robert Gesink.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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theyoungest said:
Tour > Giro > Vuelta.

Tour:
+ GC excitement, an uncharacteristically entertaining first week, Contador showing signs of humanity, hardest raced GT of the year
- absolutely nothing decisive happening on GC until the final weekend, boring Pyrenees stages

Giro:
+ beautiful course, best stage of the year (to Gardecchia), Contador on top of his game is a sight to behold
- course was so hard that it kind of neutralized the race, Contador on top of his game ruins the excitement

Vuelta:
+ GC excitement, if anyone predicted this podium he's a multi millionaire by now, hopefully Nibali is a bit less overrated after this
- all mountain stages except Angliru ruined by headwind and too low gradients, like last year a serious lack of star quality in the top-10

Pretty much this. Although I probably wouldn't even give plus points to the Vuelta except some of the short uphill finishes which are always great to watch despite being predictable.
 
khardung la said:
A GT where half the contenders are out due to accidents in the first week is a catastrophically bad GT. Vuelta the best for me this year, exciting till the end. The Giro was gorgeous, but probably too hard for encouraging someone to fight Contador back in his own terrain.

Do you sertious;ly think they were actual contendors though? cmon. i know i may hae a slightly biased view, but catastrophically bad?

i dont think so, and from a lot of the posts a few people would seriously disagree with you also. and when was the tour decided? second last stage? how was that not exciting to the end?
 
Jun 16, 2009
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diggercuz said:
Do you sertious;ly think they were actual contendors though? cmon. i know i may hae a slightly biased view, but catastrophically bad?

i dont think so, and from a lot of the posts a few people would seriously disagree with you also. and when was the tour decided? second last stage? how was that not exciting to the end?
I better prepare you for what is to come from that response.

I think Gesink, Vino, Wiggins, Van den Broeck all having issues with crashes and the issues sanchez had is what khardung la means though in saying that having some of the other contenders battling it out would of helped Cadel.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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auscyclefan94 said:
The people who voted the last two options of the poll have won the prize of Tool of the Day!:D

An honorable mention for Tool of the Day goes to Moondance for making the last two options up:p

EDIT: Here's an interesting fact for you all. Gesink best finish in a GT is 6th place which is in the Vuelta & Tour. TGBM has finished 4th in a GT therefore TGBM>>>>>>>>Robert Gesink.

other then evans the field was pretty strong at veulta 09' ;)
 
Aug 1, 2009
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Tour > Vuelta > Giro

Tour: Last week was amazing, with a tired Contador making kamikaze attacks, Andy showing some guts and a super Evans made the TDF fun to watch.

Giro: Contador seemed like riding with amateurs, was boring the overall, but individual stages like Etna, Zoncolan and Val di fassa were epic.

Vuelta: Good in general terms, I liked more than Giro, the negative point was the lack of top riders: Evans, Schlecks, Contador, Basso ...
 
May 27, 2010
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I personally think tour of colorado was the best GT this year.
The tour of california was pretty boring with the radioshack domination.
The tour of utah wasn't great too.
:D
 
Vuelta > Giro > Tour.

Tour was decided in 2 mountain stages and one time trial. Vuelta was three weeks of action where GC contenders didn't hide themselves behind domestiques but had to fight for it every day. Giro was dominated by Contado but there was plenty of action to beat this edition of the Tour which was a disappointment for me.
 
Sep 16, 2009
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1-Tour, 2-Giro and 3-Vuelta

For me The Tour and Giro were both entertaining with some very exciting stages that were truly fun to watch. This years Giro however will always be somewhat overshadowed by the passing of Weylandt.

I can't help but feel sorry for the Vuelta. The schedule does it no favors at all. Extremely hot weather plus no man's land late August dates and crazy stage transfers lend themselves to what has become the ugly step child of the three GTs. Rather than a typical GT you seem to have one of three motivating factors for the Vuelta riders:
1. Riders trying to atone for lackluster seasons/accidents (Wiggins,VandenBroucke,etc.)
2.Young riders proving they can stand up to the rigors of three week stage racing or are ready for GT leadership roles(Bennatti)
or
3.Riders competing for spots on WC teams or those already with spots on teams searching for form
I think that the Vuelta is doomed to "third wheel" status as long as it remains in its current time slot.
 
profff said:
I think that vuelta is not anymore a GT comparable to giro and tour
I enjoyed the race because it was still in discussion until last stages but IMHO the road is too weak to compare the vuelta to the others two GTs.
no mountain stage more than 200km with three or four grand cols: no gardeccia stage, no agnello-izoard-galibier stage, no really difficult stage in the last week where GT rider can really make the difference ( pena cabarga it is not enough).
this kind of road , short stages (160km) with a garage ramp at the end favourish a different kind of racer than the normal gt winner.
normally GT winner excels on long stages with more than a difficulty, repeated long climbs and among the best skills requested to win a gt there is recover and the ability to make the difference in the third week.
this could be one of the reason why diesel engines like menchow, VBD2, nibali did not excel in this vuelta ( also their form may be was not that good)in favour of different kind of riders like cobo and froome, who never proved anything on a traditional road GT.

vuelta is becoming a completely different kind race than a traditional gt: no long stages, no long climbs, no difficult and selecting stages in the third week, with consequently a completely different kind of winner.

so, even if vuelta has been entertaining, my ranking is : tour first, giro second, vuelta third


I beg your pardon, but it was on the only and most difficult stages, that VDB2 and Nibali REALLY failed...So your hypothesis that tougher stages would have made things differently doesn't fly with me.

In the easier mountain stages they finished quite well actually.
 
Aug 31, 2011
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Voted Giro > Vuelta > Tour.

Giro because the parcours was epic, we got the chance to see the best stage racer in the current peloton at his absolute best, and although tragically sad, the way that WW's death was handled was one of the most moving things I have ever seen.

Vuelta second because of the close and unpredictable GC battle, Froome and Cobo going mano a mano on Pena Carbega, and from a purely biased British point of view, having two Brits (yes I know Froome is Kenyan...) on the podium is pretty exciting.

The Tour last because there were too many crashes that eliminated too many contenders, and as was mentioned earlier, although there wasn't anything that wrong with the stages themselves, the order there were in was rubbish. And the Pyrenees were incredibly disappointing.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Dekker_Tifosi said:
I beg your pardon, but it was on the only and most difficult stages, that VDB2 and Nibali REALLY failed...So your hypothesis that tougher stages would have made things differently doesn't fly with me.

In the easier mountain stages they finished quite well actually.

After VDB2's injuries, what did you expect?

Nibali has little excuses though, he just sucked.