Rate the 2016 Tour de France

[loge1884]

6 from me ....

on the positive:
- Peter Sagan
- the man/team doing the most for the win also winning (applies for yellow, green and polka dot jersey)
- to the surprise of many, Chris Froome can be quite entertaining
- Peter Sagan
- interesting sprints
- some bold attacks and some of them even rewarded (Bardot, De Gendt, Izaguirre, Pantano, van Avermaet)
- did I mention Peter Sagan?

on the negative:
- no competition of any means in GC
- in particular Nairo Quintana (the course of this tour could have been designed by his brother - so if NQ can't do more out of this one, I wonder if he'll ever be able to fare better)
- some spectators just lacking any respect for the riders (seems to get worse every year)
- breaks including Peter Sagan seems to infect all other riders with the cowardice virus and the ultimate no-pull-just-suck-wheel commandment seems to prevail (notable exception: Chris Froome)

and just a thought for those complaining this tour being a borefest:
the last time the GC was still contested in the last week was to my memory in 2011 (that tour would have a 9 or 10 in my books) and before that maybe 2010, 2008 and 2007 (the last one a bit tainted with the exit of Rasmussen) ... so that makes 4 out of the last 10 ....

 

[jmdirt]

Best TdF this year!

 

[LeSensei]

I'll give this a 3, and if it weren't for Froome and Sagan it would be an unrated.

 

[Broken_Leg]

I'll have to wait for tomorrow to vote.

Quintana attacking from the start of the Champs Elysees circuit and TTing his way to 2nd place would add a few points, I guess

 

[postmanhat]

Re: Re:

Also, I will honestly never grasp why someone's favourite rider/countryman winning or doing great will make the race that much better, say, a 7 or a 8. The race was still pretty trash overall.

It's human though . Had Pinot won, I'd have given it a 30. Had Quintana won by five seconds over Valverde, You would have given it a 60 . It's hard to separate personal feelings and take an objective stance (unless you're Merckx_Index of course ).

Not everyone is incredibly biased. I fancy certain riders, but I'm also capable of valueing rides from riders I don't like.
I gave it a 2, maybe most of all based on the final dissapointing week.

Same here. The first two weeks would be a 7/8, but this week has been poor, today in particular. A 6 overall though for Froome, Cav and Sagan's antics earlier, and Yates overall (fanboy score).

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Also, I will honestly never grasp why someone's favourite rider/countryman winning or doing great will make the race that much better, say, a 7 or a 8. The race was still pretty trash overall.

It's human though . Had Pinot won, I'd have given it a 30. Had Quintana won by five seconds over Valverde, You would have given it a 60 . It's hard to separate personal feelings and take an objective stance (unless you're Merckx_Index of course ).

Not everyone is incredibly biased. I fancy certain riders, but I'm also capable of valueing rides from riders I don't like.
I gave it a 2, maybe most of all based on the final dissapointing week.

Obviously you didn't read my rating, with props given to some riders that I don't like one bit . From a fanboy standpoint, this was a nightmare of a Tour for me: eleven months waiting for this. Yet I gave it a 7.

Having said that, it's a bit naive to wish that everyone on this forum be absolutely objective. See the spread of the ratings: some are disappointed that their favorite rider(s) didn't win, others elated that their favorite rider(s) had a great Tour. That's not being "incredibly" biased. That's perfectly understandable. As long as we're honest about the reason(s) why we give it a 2,a 4, a 8, fair enough.

 

[Põhja Konn]

2. We can't ignore expectations coming into the Tour when assessing how it actually transpired on the road. In that respect this years Tour was far worse than the 2012 editions of both the Giro and the Tour itself.

Tour 2014 was comparable as that also was preceded by high expectations, which failed to be fulfilled,but the lack of a ridiculously strong team riding in a manner of Sky 2016 ment the race for lower podium and top 10 spots behind Nibali was quite open and interesting to watch.

The worst GT I have seen. Bardet's attack and stage win, which earned him the eventual overall podium was a rare ray of light. Some racing outside the GC fight was quite good, but this was no more than a sideshow. Problem was, this was effectively the only show there was. One team being able to control and suffocate the race to an extent Sky did, made it look like a sad parody of a sport I fell in love to 7 years ago. There have been now 5 consecutive editions of the Tour ending up as procession for the winner. Something needs to done about it.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Also, I will honestly never grasp why someone's favourite rider/countryman winning or doing great will make the race that much better, say, a 7 or a 8. The race was still pretty trash overall.

It's human though . Had Pinot won, I'd have given it a 30. Had Quintana won by five seconds over Valverde, You would have given it a 60 . It's hard to separate personal feelings and take an objective stance (unless you're Merckx_Index of course ).

Not everyone is incredibly biased. I fancy certain riders, but I'm also capable of valueing rides from riders I don't like.
I gave it a 2, maybe most of all based on the final dissapointing week.

Obviously you didn't read my rating, with props given to some riders that I don't like one bit . From a fanboy standpoint, this was a nightmare of a Tour for me: eleven months waiting for this. Yet I gave it a 7.

Having said that, it's a bit naive to wish that everyone on this forum be absolutely objective. See the spread of the ratings: some are disappointed that their favorite rider(s) didn't win, others elated that their favorite rider(s) had a great Tour. That's not being "incredibly" biased. That's perfectly understandable. As long as we're honest about the reason(s) why we give it a 2,a 4, a 8, fair enough.

It's indeed naive to think everyone is trying to be objective. Actually I think over 80% isn't

 

[Valv.Piti]

Its also important to remember, when we compare this year's Tour to 2009 and 2012, that both routes were horrible. This route on the other hand was quite good with LOTS of opportunities for those who dared and had the legs. On that account, its hugely disappointing since we could look at many stages in those two years and say with a high probability that nothing serious would happen anyways. Not so much this year.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

3.
Some good things afterall includes:
- Funny pictures of Froome running in the pine forest
- Sagan's performances
- Return of Cavendish
- Young riders fulfilling their promise (Yates and Meintjes)

Still the most important ingredient of a good grand tour was lacking. Essentially it was a boring race.

 

[Escarabajo]

5 because of Pantani!

 

[Valv.Piti]

I also think the young riders such as Meintjens and A. Yates are way too caught up in making results. I know, its very important, especially in July, but we haven't seem them do anything. Not even once. They are passive followers, it seems very, very natural for Yates especially. They are young, it should be the other way around.

 

[Andro]

2

1.5 points for Sagan
0.5 points for Froome running up Ventoux

 

[el chava]

Bardet and Pantano made the tour for me. Overall the route design was allright I guess. Sagan also a highlight , although I am not a fan at all.

Otherwise this was pure anglo-saxon watt science torture devoid of any human initiative and a massive letdown following a nailbiting Giro.

Yes, something needs to be done.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Its also important to remember, when we compare this year's Tour to 2009 and 2012, that both routes were horrible. This route on the other hand was quite good with LOTS of opportunities for those who dared and had the legs. On that account, its hugely disappointing since we could look at many stages in those two years and say with a high probability that nothing serious would happen anyways. Not so much this year.

I think 2012 was a worse race, but this year was a bigger disappointment. We had so many promising stages that it was just impossible to imagine not one of them will be good. At the end the only good stage in a race full of mountains was a flat stage.

 

[el chava]

Re:

I also think the young riders such as Meintjens and A. Yates are way too caught up in making results. I know, its very important, especially in July, but we haven't seem them do anything. Not even once. They are passive followers, it seems very, very natural for Yates especially. They are young, it should be the other way around.

Exactly and this is why fx Alaphillipe is cool. I also fear a bit for Bardet riding too conservative in the future, but luckily his sole impro attack paid off

 

[Jagartrott]

You can't have a successful grand tour with no tension whatsoever regarding who wins it.
No way this should receive a 'pass'.

3.5/10 thanks to some rays of light in the non-gt-contender department.
Otherwise pretty miserable.

 

[Pricey_sky]

6/10

It wasn't a great race at all, but I like Cav and Froome so it hasnt been a bad 3 weeks for me.

The crosswind stage was good, seeing Sagan and Froome on the attack and holding off the sprint trains. Froome taking everyone by surprise and winning on a downhill finish was decent too. Ventoux was an utter shambles but I can laugh about it, Froome running up Ventoux will be replayed for years to come. Cav returning to form and not only finally beating Kittel, but smashing him over and over was fun to watch, also a deserved yellow jersey for Cav. Plus the great 3 weeks for Adam Yates, he's got a huge future ahead of him as many of us predicted.

Some of the breakaway stages were ok too, Pantano was good to watch, but nobody in the GC really giving it a big dig apart from Froome and then Bardet on stage 19 was very poor.

 

[Jagartrott]

Froomy should've been given a penalty for running up the parcours. The rules don't allow it. Would've made for some GC excitement, perhaps.

 

[WildspokeJoe]

I have to say this ended up being one of the worst tours in a long time because the second half felt so controlled and a foregone conclusion. The yellow and green were never in doubt and the mountain competition is a farce.

It started off promising with Cav regaining his form from past years and getting to wear the yellow jersey for the first time. Sagan was Sagan doing his thing and making it impossible for the sprinters to win the green jersey. Plus, he too got to wear yellow for the first time! Froome’s downhill attack was brilliant as was the yellow jersey-green jersey breakaway but no other rider with GC ambitions showed any panache.

Bad luck for Porte and Mollema. Cancellera did nada. TJVG faded like a pair of jeans. Cannondale was embarrassingly bad. I will say Bardet deserved his second place unquestionably and was a bright spot but he never worried Froome in the least.

If you’re a diehard fan of British cycling, you should be ecstatic as the overall and white jersey ride into Paris on the back of Brits. Plus, stage wins from 3 different riders. One for cummings and multiple for Froome and Cav plus multiple days in the green jersey.

Sky rode unchallenged. There was really no competition. Last year, Nario made it at least a little interesting. Not this year.

As an aside, I hate what the mountain jersey has become. Dicky V screwed it up. Riders tank on time go on long breakaways to win points. The winners are great climbers but hardly kings.

 

[Valv.Piti]

They can't really make the mountain classification more skewed towards the best climbers, the GC-riders who are, you know, supposed to win MTF's. It happened in 2011, 2013 and 2015 with Sanchez, Nairo and Froome. At least Nairo and Froome never really targeted that competition. Then you have a complete off-year like this were nobody couldn't be bothered about chasing breaks for a possible stage win and then its obviously gonna be second tier riders like Majka, Pantano etc. Not really much you can do about it when they don't want to race, sadly.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

I give it a 6 out of 10

I think the sprinters, the puncheurs and the climbers going for the polka dots were great this tour...... but the GC contenders were very disappointing, not a single one daring to put anything on the line, at any stage, even today.... bunch of pussies, from 2nd to 14th place .

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

Froomy should've been given a penalty for running up the parcours. The rules don't allow it. Would've made for some GC excitement, perhaps.

But you're allowed to dismount and carry your bike to the line. Therefore, you'll have travelled more than 0m on foot as you cross the finish lines... so you are allowed to run up the parcours, just with your bike in hand (which Froome didn't, but important to highlight that running up the parcours itself is fine)

 

[Cannibal72]

Re: Re:

Froomy should've been given a penalty for running up the parcours. The rules don't allow it. Would've made for some GC excitement, perhaps.

But you're allowed to dismount and carry your bike to the line. Therefore, you'll have travelled more than 0m on foot as you cross the finish lines... so you are allowed to run up the parcours, just with your bike in hand (which Froome didn't, but important to highlight that running up the parcours itself is fine)

And you have to be wilfully not using a bike...it's not that cut and dried.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Have we honestly come so far that we all are waiting for the Vuelta, the GT of 10 murritos, to commence? At least we are sure we will see some decent time gaps.

(Yes, admittedly, the 2012 Vuelta was the GT that sparked my interest in cycling again after some sad, sad years).