Rate the 2016 Tour de France

[kwikki]

Bardet is 26.

 

[hrotha]

Really looking forward to Louis Meitjulich following wheels for the next 10 years. His emergence will surely be remembered forever and ever.

 

[Cannibal72]

Re:

Really looking forward to Louis Meitjulich following wheels for the next 10 years. His emergence will surely be remembered forever and ever.

To be fair, he is 23 and had literally no team.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Really looking forward to Louis Meitjulich following wheels for the next 10 years. His emergence will surely be remembered forever and ever.

To be fair, he is 23 and had literally no team.

True, but I don't see how that changes anything.

 

[Cannibal72]

Re: Re:

Really looking forward to Louis Meitjulich following wheels for the next 10 years. His emergence will surely be remembered forever and ever.

To be fair, he is 23 and had literally no team.

True, but I don't see how that changes anything.

Well, my attitude is that young riders deserve a little bit of leniency. This is the first GT he's ever done in which he's discovered he can, day after day, stay with the favourites' group over a series of climbs. He doesn't really know his limits yet; maybe if he attacks he'll feel it a day later, or a week later, and with no team to help him back to the favourites' group he might lose his best chance to discover whether he can stick with the best. Give him a bit of time. (I can quite understand why someone might be disgruntled by this performance, to be fair.)

 

[hrotha]

But he already did that at last year's Vuelta, and knowing how you handle attacks is surely also part of learning your limits, isn't it? In terms of attitude, I don't think there's many examples of very conservative riders who become more entertaining once they're older (Cadel Evans is about the only one who immediately comes to mind), so I don't feel there's a particularly good reason to cut him some slack on that front.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

But he already did that at last year's Vuelta, and knowing how you handle attacks is surely also part of learning your limits, isn't it? In terms of attitude, I don't think there's many examples of very conservative riders who become more entertaining once they're older (Cadel Evans is about the only one who immediately comes to mind), so I don't feel there's a particularly good reason to cut him some slack on that front.

And he barely did, maybe in the classics but in GT's not really that much but he definitely improved.

 

[El Pistolero]

Large drop in TV ratings #TDF2016 : -32% Holland -25% Spain -16% Flanders -12% France -10% UK -10% Germany -5% USA #aso @sporza_koers

 

[Red Rick]

I agree that what Meintjes did was nothing to be happy about. He wasn't even top 10 for most of the Tour and still did jack ***.

 

[Miburo]

Re:

Large drop in TV ratings #TDF2016 : -32% Holland -25% Spain -16% Flanders -12% France -10% UK -10% Germany -5% USA #aso @sporza_koers

8 man teams won't change a bit though (not that you said that of course).

You had Pantani and VDB ;p, now you've nibali and Contador.

But when they're gone, who is left heh? Sagan can't do everything by himself, cycling is in a crisis. We need a new guy for GT's that only cares about the W, I don't think Bardet is talented and consistent enough.

But if you've one guy who can and will battle Sky, then those ratings will rise in a sec

 

[Red Rick]

Euro's. Duh. Not to mention they were in France

As for the Dutch. Dutch start last year, so.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

Really looking forward to Louis Meitjulich following wheels for the next 10 years. His emergence will surely be remembered forever and ever.

To be fair, he is 23 and had literally no team.

Actually he's 24, not that it matters much. He was definitely the most boring rider this Tour. From the top 20, probably only Reichenbach came close in terms of invisibility.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Strangest thing is there was less than 8 minutes from first to tenth which suggests the riders were evenly matched.

Or it suggests that people mainly followed wheels, that the best team neutralised any attack, and that Froome did not need to do any real pro-active racing in the mountains.

Nah. It suggests riders were evenly matched but teams got their strategy wrong in both tactics and team selection.

 

[yaco]

Meintje is lucky to get top ten. He only got it because Gerrans crashed in the cross winds stage which caused that part of the peloton to sit up when the Meintje group was 2 minutes behind. Meintje would have lost 3+ minutes in that stage.
.

 

[loge1884]

Re:

...

With regards to Tour as a whole, I think there is a degree of rose-tinted glasses. Whenever you have a generationally dominant rider the Tours tend to be a bit dull. It's only afterwards that mythology sets it.

Don't believe me? Go back and watch Hinault's 5 victories. You'll be surprised at how most of them were duller than 2016. The same is true of Merckx. (Heresy! Kill him!!) Indurain, oh my God.

There are few that stand out with real drama (1989!!!) but most are pretty pedestrian. I know he's loathsome but at least Lance Armstrong was thoughtful enough to take it so far with the drugs that he could actually breakaway from his own Skyborg train and smash the race to pieces. Quite exciting viewing, even though the real battle was being fought by doctors.

In its own way, Cadel Evans's race was exciting, if only because his main rival was his own fractured personality, and never again will we hear "Don't stand on my dog...or I cut your head off"

I can second every of your words .... and I would like to elaborate further on the 2011 tour (the last one to my memory decided in the final week):
we had in stage 18 an epic ride by Andy Shrek, an epic fight/struggle by Cadel E. to limit time losses and the most disgraceful performance of a yellow jersey (Thomas Voeckler not pulling one inch and even prohibiting his teammate Pierre Rolland to do so) I can recall - all in one stage ....
we had an epic stage 19
and we had a very tension und suspension loaded TT in stage 20 (will Cadel E get the better end vs Andy S?)
with regards to GC what happened in stage 1 - 17? probably even less than happened in the third week of 2016 ....

just to show that people seem to regard fights in the third week far higher than whatever happened in week one and two ...

 

["Jeff"]

Adam Yates was just a few seconds behind for 3rd spot. What did he do in the last mountain stage, nothing. He rather finished 4th.

All you need to know about the current crop of riders, no character.

 

[kwikki]

Re:

[quote=""Jeff"":3o3q5xz6]Adam Yates was just a few seconds behind for 3rd spot. What did he do in the last mountain stage, nothing. He rather finished 4th.

All you need to know about the current crop of riders, no character.[/quote]

Then you know nothing at all about Yates.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

...

With regards to Tour as a whole, I think there is a degree of rose-tinted glasses. Whenever you have a generationally dominant rider the Tours tend to be a bit dull. It's only afterwards that mythology sets it.

Don't believe me? Go back and watch Hinault's 5 victories. You'll be surprised at how most of them were duller than 2016. The same is true of Merckx. (Heresy! Kill him!!) Indurain, oh my God.

There are few that stand out with real drama (1989!!!) but most are pretty pedestrian. I know he's loathsome but at least Lance Armstrong was thoughtful enough to take it so far with the drugs that he could actually breakaway from his own Skyborg train and smash the race to pieces. Quite exciting viewing, even though the real battle was being fought by doctors.

In its own way, Cadel Evans's race was exciting, if only because his main rival was his own fractured personality, and never again will we hear "Don't stand on my dog...or I cut your head off"

I can second every of your words .... and I would like to elaborate further on the 2011 tour (the last one to my memory decided in the final week):
we had in stage 18 an epic ride by Andy Shrek, an epic fight/struggle by Cadel E. to limit time losses and the most disgraceful performance of a yellow jersey (Thomas Voeckler not pulling one inch and even prohibiting his teammate Pierre Rolland to do so) I can recall - all in one stage ....
we had an epic stage 19
and we had a very tension und suspension loaded TT in stage 20 (will Cadel E get the better end vs Andy S?)
with regards to GC what happened in stage 1 - 17? probably even less than happened in the third week of 2016 ....

just to show that people seem to regard fights in the third week far higher than whatever happened in week one and two ...

2011 also had Voecklers fight to stay in yellow, and the great stage to Gap. The point is though that the 3 stages you mentioned above were all two times better than the best stage in 2016 + 2011 also had a great narrative due to Voeckler and the last week and the Narrative is probably at least as important as the stages themselves. But this tour had neither nor. The stages were dull, the gc was decided after stage 13 and the winner got his yellow jersey already in the first week and never struggled one bit.

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

[quote=""Jeff"":kn5wz8gy]Adam Yates was just a few seconds behind for 3rd spot. What did he do in the last mountain stage, nothing. He rather finished 4th.

All you need to know about the current crop of riders, no character.

Then you know nothing at all about Yates.[/quote]

Was enough to see him at Tour, if GC contenders should be like him, I am going to stop watch cycling

Anyway I voted 3, Froome did nice job even if it was not so hard for him with team like that,
he was just dominant and showed even some action even if it was not classic interesting attack in mountain stage which people should remember for years
feel pitty for Aru, even if he did not tried at all at least he let Astana try maybe too nervous from pressure of race, I believe he will win tour in future

 

[kwikki]

Re: Re:

[quote=""Jeff"":1o1nqii2]Adam Yates was just a few seconds behind for 3rd spot. What did he do in the last mountain stage, nothing. He rather finished 4th.

All you need to know about the current crop of riders, no character.

Then you know nothing at all about Yates.

Was enough to see him at Tour, if GC contenders should be like him, I am going to stop watch cycling

Anyway I voted 3, Froome did nice job even if it was not so hard for him with team like that,
he was just dominant and showed even some action even if it was not classic interesting attack in mountain stage which people should remember for years
feel pitty for Aru, even if he did not tried at all at least he let Astana try maybe too nervous from pressure of race, I believe he will win tour in future[/quote]

The boy is only 23. He won the white jersey. He fought himself onto the virtual podium. He'll be on it next year.

 

[Eshnar]

Re: Re:

The boy is only 23. He won the white jersey. He fought himself onto the virtual podium. He'll be on it next year.

If he's not ambitious at 23 he won't be next year. Or the year after it. It's not something you can train for I'm afraid.

 

[hrotha]

Ullrich shouldn't have worried after losing the 1998 Tour, he was going to win a gazillion of them anyway.

 

[Eshnar]

Re:

Ullrich shouldn't have worried after losing the 1998 Tour, he was going to win a gazillion of them anyway.

And Cunego should have let Simoni win the 2004 Giro, everybody knew he was gonna win the next 10 editions anyway.

 

[kwikki]

Re: Re:

The boy is only 23. He won the white jersey. He fought himself onto the virtual podium. He'll be on it next year.

If he's not ambitious at 23 he won't be next year. Or the year after it. It's not something you can train for I'm afraid.

Riiight. So fighting yourself to 4th place and hanging on to the top guys in the world shows a lack of ambition??

If he could have attacked himself back on to the podium he would have done so. What he says to journalists is neither here nor there.

 

[Eshnar]

Re: Re:

The boy is only 23. He won the white jersey. He fought himself onto the virtual podium. He'll be on it next year.

If he's not ambitious at 23 he won't be next year. Or the year after it. It's not something you can train for I'm afraid.

Riiight. So fighting yourself to 4th place and hanging on to the top guys in the world shows a lack of ambition??

If he could have attacked himself back on to the podium he would have done so. What he says to journalists is neither here nor there.

He couldn't have tried on the final descent? why not? Did anybody put a leash on him or what?