Rate the 2015 Giro d'Italia

[Jagartrott]

7/10
Entertaining, but I cannot believe what I've seen.

 

[Mozart92]

9

Even flat stages got surprises. Didn't give 10 only because Contador pretty much dominated the giro since Aru and Landa had both some bad days.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

9/10

Drama in almost every stage. Would have given it a 10/10 if Hesjedal and Kruijswijk at least got a stage win or jersey for all their efforts.

 

[Carols]

Re:

I only had real access since 2011 so I can ignore everything else. Best GT I could watch more than half an hour per stage.
I didn't jump around with joy seeing the parcour, it promised a good first week, the rests are nice but with today's racing you'd never know. Alberto gave hope, but if he's too good, it's also bad.
But everything went way better than expected, first week was incredible, than it just got crazier. Even all but one flat stage had their stories. At Cervinia stage, when it got boring, I thought to myself that we deserved a boring stage after being spoiled by the whole entertainment.
No real big names other than Contador? It doesn't bother me, big names and big entertainment don't always go together, and I don't rate gt only on gc battle only.
To me it's a perfect 10, better future gt can go 11 if they want. On a personal note, my dad passed away on the first Thursday but this Giro does not bring back sad memory, it's so good it helped me get through hard times and remember everything with smiles. Alberto, Mikel, Ryder, Steven, Carlos, Domenico and all those guys with big hearts, I thank and salute them all.

My heartfelt sympathies for you loss, may your dad RIP. Losing someone we love can be so very difficult.

The Giro also provided me with an enthralling distraction as my brother passed away 10 days prior to the race start. We would have discussed the race each day so I was missing that, but the race was still grand.

 

[Asero831]

top 5 sprinters not present
top 5 classic riders not present
Most World class GC not present

 

[Arnout]

8 or 9 out of 10. Huge step up from all GTs last years.

For me, the biggest blemish on the race was the behavior of Antón on the Mortirolo. If I were Movistar I would fire him on the spot, riding up to your captain with the higher classified guy in your wheel, then dropping like a stone when you reach him. Every bit of Anton fandom I still had is gone forever.

This Giro proved that a race without any superhard final climbs but interesting profiles before the final few km almost guarantees great spectacle. At the same time, it was so important that some of the riders just behind the main three guys were always willing to ride (discouting Amador in the last few stages when he was fading). Hesjedal broke up the race time and time again, it was great to see.

Astana clueless, they realized too late that they didn't have one leader, but two. Landa did so much work in the first two weeks, who knows where he would've been with more protection.

Ultimately Contador was the deserved winner, but he's far from invincible, I doubt he'll win the Tour.

 

[May0maniac]

This was the best Grand Tour this century.

Nope, best GT since the 2010 Giro but not the best Gt of the century, that's a hyperbole.

 

[markene2]

This was the best Grand Tour this century.

Nope, best GT since the 2010 Giro but not the best Gt of the century, that's a hyperbole.

I agree, the 2010 Giro was amazing, one that i will never forget. This was also a very good Tour but not as good as the 2010 edition.

 

[jens_attacks]

loved the 2010 one but it was a kid's game compared to this one

 

[Tank Engine]

A very solid 8, possibly 9. The major thing missing was a real GC battle on the Finestre. Great parcours and things happening almost every day.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Gave a 7... Would have been easily a ten. But I don´t like to be fooled. I wanna see the best guy going for the win, not the political correct. Martinelli and Co spoiled it. To please the home town fans, Aru was protected when even the non-cycling-fan housewife could see Landa was better, and could have been in a fight for the win until the end. AST was farcial. With that team and DSes with a functionating brain, they could have dominated like Renault in the 1984 TdF

 

[Fernandez]

Re:

7/10
Entertaining, but I cannot believe what I've seen.

Me too. What a mess of Giro.

 

[Irondan]

Re:

top 5 sprinters not present
top 5 classic riders not present
Most World class GC not present

And your point is? The thread is to rate the race, not who is in the race....

 

[Roude Leiw]

Voted 8, easily a 9 or 10 if GC would not have been decided after 10 days. Still a very entertaining race. Someone else than just Astana to challenge Bertie would have made it a 9 even with GC decided early

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

I only had real access since 2011 so I can ignore everything else. Best GT I could watch more than half an hour per stage.
I didn't jump around with joy seeing the parcour, it promised a good first week, the rests are nice but with today's racing you'd never know. Alberto gave hope, but if he's too good, it's also bad.
But everything went way better than expected, first week was incredible, than it just got crazier. Even all but one flat stage had their stories. At Cervinia stage, when it got boring, I thought to myself that we deserved a boring stage after being spoiled by the whole entertainment.
No real big names other than Contador? It doesn't bother me, big names and big entertainment don't always go together, and I don't rate gt only on gc battle only.
To me it's a perfect 10, better future gt can go 11 if they want. On a personal note, my dad passed away on the first Thursday but this Giro does not bring back sad memory, it's so good it helped me get through hard times and remember everything with smiles. Alberto, Mikel, Ryder, Steven, Carlos, Domenico and all those guys with big hearts, I thank and salute them all.

Condolences! RIP to your dad!

Thanks a lot, Mate. Cycling helps, both as activity and spectacle, especially when it's this good.

Don't be afraid to put some weight on your friends, they will be happy to help you. When my dad died, I drank way too much Patron for a few weeks, and felt no better. Once I started doing fun rides with my friends I started getting my head good again. I still like to drink Patron though! If you don't have someone to purge to, I am more than happy to help. Maybe sometimes an anonymous ear is good too.

 

[jmdirt]

Re: Re:

I only had real access since 2011 so I can ignore everything else. Best GT I could watch more than half an hour per stage.
I didn't jump around with joy seeing the parcour, it promised a good first week, the rests are nice but with today's racing you'd never know. Alberto gave hope, but if he's too good, it's also bad.
But everything went way better than expected, first week was incredible, than it just got crazier. Even all but one flat stage had their stories. At Cervinia stage, when it got boring, I thought to myself that we deserved a boring stage after being spoiled by the whole entertainment.
No real big names other than Contador? It doesn't bother me, big names and big entertainment don't always go together, and I don't rate gt only on gc battle only.
To me it's a perfect 10, better future gt can go 11 if they want. On a personal note, my dad passed away on the first Thursday but this Giro does not bring back sad memory, it's so good it helped me get through hard times and remember everything with smiles. Alberto, Mikel, Ryder, Steven, Carlos, Domenico and all those guys with big hearts, I thank and salute them all.

My heartfelt sympathies for you loss, may your dad RIP. Losing someone we love can be so very difficult.

The Giro also provided me with an enthralling distraction as my brother passed away 10 days prior to the race start. We would have discussed the race each day so I was missing that, but the race was still grand.

Condolences to you and RIP for your bro!

 

[Netserk]

How is Greipel not a top-5 sprinter?

Cavendish
Kittel
Kristoff
???
???
Greipel

 

[Eshnar]

It's been a great Giro. Definitely the best race in the last 5 years, and maybe even more. I don't remember the last time we had three weeks in which literally every day was worth tuning in for more than the last 10 minutes.
We had multiple days with the favorites attacking each other at more than 20 kms to go. Almost half of the stages saw a peloton with no more than 40 riders at 50+ kms to go. We saw a peloton with 50 riders entering the last climb on stage 19, the favorites attacking at 10 to go, and thought that it was the most boring stage of the race. It's just been incredible. The gaps in the GC have been gigantic, more fitting to the 60's or 70's than to the "modern era".
Thanks to all the riders (in particular to the "usual suspects" ) and to the awesome route. Hopefully people have realized that "modern cycling" doesn't have to be as boring as it often is.

Now, let's hope organizers have taken note and will start designing this kind of parcour more frequently. Sure the TV ratings have been great, at least in Italy and Spain (don't have data for the rest). In Spain the ratings are comparable, if not superior, to those of the Vuelta. In Italy the first week destroyed the results of last year (it was to be expected), but in general had better ratings every single day. And most important of all, the ITT had 22.5% share, 2.5% better than the Oropa stage last year. Most viewed stage, ofc, the Sestriere: almost 3.5 million viewers, almost 30% flat share.

 

[gunara]

I only had real access since 2011 so I can ignore everything else. Best GT I could watch more than half an hour per stage.
I didn't jump around with joy seeing the parcour, it promised a good first week, the rests are nice but with today's racing you'd never know. Alberto gave hope, but if he's too good, it's also bad.
But everything went way better than expected, first week was incredible, than it just got crazier. Even all but one flat stage had their stories. At Cervinia stage, when it got boring, I thought to myself that we deserved a boring stage after being spoiled by the whole entertainment.
No real big names other than Contador? It doesn't bother me, big names and big entertainment don't always go together, and I don't rate gt only on gc battle only.
To me it's a perfect 10, better future gt can go 11 if they want. On a personal note, my dad passed away on the first Thursday but this Giro does not bring back sad memory, it's so good it helped me get through hard times and remember everything with smiles. Alberto, Mikel, Ryder, Steven, Carlos, Domenico and all those guys with big hearts, I thank and salute them all.

My heartfelt sympathies for you loss, may your dad RIP. Losing someone we love can be so very difficult.

The Giro also provided me with an enthralling distraction as my brother passed away 10 days prior to the race start. We would have discussed the race each day so I was missing that, but the race was still grand.

Condolences to you and RIP for your bro!

jmdirt and Carol, you know how that when you lose someone you at the same time realize that you're not as alone as you normally think you are, suddenly you find a way to reach people and vice versa, and you just have to grab that opportunity.
Meanwhile, when I find some relief in watching this Giro, the last few stages were so stressful to watch, it's exhausting I deliberately skipped the last day and only read the news after I was sure it's all over . I heard even the last stage was good, the hell, I've given it a 10 already

 

[rzombie1988]

Did I watch a different Giro? From the start I knew no one was going to touch Alberto. It was over at the time trial. Yes, they did some good racing in the last week, but I missed the first two weeks and never felt like I missed a thing. Aru wasn't a really serious contender for Contador nor was anyone else in the field, but you can say that about any race with him that doesn't have Froome in it.

No comparison to Contador's last 2 Vuelta wins or his previous Giro win. Better than the 2014 TdF though.

Either we have a bunch of new fans or we have people with bad memories.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Did I watch a different Giro? From the start I knew no one was going to touch Alberto. It was over at the time trial. Yes, they did some good racing in the last week, but I missed the first two weeks and never felt like I missed a thing. Aru wasn't a really serious contender for Contador nor was anyone else in the field, but you can say that about any race with him that doesn't have Froome in it.

No comparison to Contador's last 2 Vuelta wins or his previous Giro win. Better than the 2014 TdF though.

Either we have a bunch of new fans or we have people with bad memories.

Ban imo

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Did I watch a different Giro? From the start I knew no one was going to touch Alberto. It was over at the time trial. Yes, they did some good racing in the last week, but I missed the first two weeks and never felt like I missed a thing. Aru wasn't a really serious contender for Contador nor was anyone else in the field, but you can say that about any race with him that doesn't have Froome in it.

No comparison to Contador's last 2 Vuelta wins or his previous Giro win. Better than the 2014 TdF though.

Either we have a bunch of new fans or we have people with bad memories.

... or we have people thinking a 3 week GT is only about the guy at No 1 and the next one challenging him (or not). Well if you see it that way, I think you chose the wrong sport to follow. How about Tennis? There you have your singled out 1-1 battle for 3 hours every day.

 

[observer]

voted 10.
action and excitement every day.
i even liked the internal tactical astana battle.

don't care who was there, just that i was entertained every single day. even the flat days.

Porte getting exposed was pretty good coming from an Aussie point of view. As much as I'd love him to do really well, the media really needs to learn to do their homework and not just hype him up because he is an Aussie. Everyone knows he is a 1 week rider.

still sad to see him and Pozzo leave early.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Did I watch a different Giro? From the start I knew no one was going to touch Alberto. It was over at the time trial. Yes, they did some good racing in the last week, but I missed the first two weeks and never felt like I missed a thing. Aru wasn't a really serious contender for Contador nor was anyone else in the field, but you can say that about any race with him that doesn't have Froome in it.

No comparison to Contador's last 2 Vuelta wins or his previous Giro win. Better than the 2014 TdF though.

Either we have a bunch of new fans or we have people with bad memories.

I don't have a bad memory, I just don't remember where I put it.

 

[oncehadhair]

Compared to the procession that many gts end up being this was a 10. Not only a race for the win, that went into the second last day and was completely misread by Astana, but the race for minor placings was hard-fought.

Other highlights:
- the comeback of Aru,
- the vulnerability of Contador
- the strength and depth of Astana and their failure to capitalise on it
- the ability of Orica to aim for and achieve victories that use the abilities of their team
- Gilbert is not finished
- the fighting spirit of Hesjedal and Kruijswijk
- how bad luck and uci inconsistency can destroy the morale of a rider

Great race - leaves the tdf for dead.