Rate the 2017 Giro d'Italia

[lartiste]

I voted 9, and I know that it's extremely generous. I agree with the statements that the route was poorly designed, particularly for the 100th anniversary edition. But (and hrotha may call me out on this once again ) the riders make the race, and they did.

There were a lot of story lines: we saw a great hope fulfill his potential and get on top of the srinting world in Fernando Gaviria. Mikel Landa's quest for a win and a jersey. Pierre Rolland's aggressive riding paying off, it goes on and on.

How about TJVG's demise? I'm no fan of his, but it was painful. I really felt for him and was glad that he won a stage, found a gleam of hope.

And then of course, the GC competition was thrilling. A new face emerged: Tom Dunoulin. Had he been the guy who lost the Giro for taking a dump, after his loss at the Vuelta, I'm not sure that he would ever recover mentally. I'm happy for him and for the many Dutch on this forum. Good for you!!!

And then, of course, there was Tibopino ending three miserable GT years and show us what a champion he is. Il Grandissimo! Il Cappo di Tutti Coppi! Yes, I'm getting carried away .

It was a great race, and I'll mention Jungels, Zakarin, Bauke, and Pozzo, all great riders. Big thanks to them. What a show!

Yes, it depends on the prospective. I like long range attacks too, I can find a few more things that would lower my rating, but it can't take away for what was a great race.

I am with you, this is exactly my opinion. What a race!

 

[Chomsky]

Not enough sprinting stages.

From a GC standpoint it was fantastic. Nice to see a good guy win against rivals that show such disdain to fair play and sportsmanship.

It is rare in a grand tour that I find a GC rider outshining a sprinter but I have to give Doumolin credit. But unlike most modern day GC riders he is well rounded and skilled as a rider.

But just as exciting as the GC race was the performance by Gaveria.

One thing I really like about the Giro was that unlike most Giros and Vuelta they rode this like a TDF contesting almost every stage and riding very hard. Often the pace is not as hard as the Tour but this Giro they raced hard and with fight every stage. It was nice to see as I hate it when the peleton does not contest breakaways.

 

[lenric]

I gave it a 9. Very competitive GC-wise.
I was in doubt between the 8 and the 9, mainly because the route was so terribly designed that it makes the TDF seem like geniuses.
Concentrating almost all the mountains in the last week is a very poor decision that could have backfired... which it kinda did, because the riders were exhausted.

But all in all, it was very good for the suspense. The suspense of not knowing, yet anxiously waiting at any moment for some rider to drop like a stone.

 

[observer]

I feel we were robbed of an even better race by the moto taking out team sky, and partly yates, but not sure he could have contributed too much more. I think if landa or thomas were still in with a sniff, there might have been enough firepower to crack TD. Plus taking a bog on the side of the road make unnecessary banter about fairness of waiting for riders. On that, i don't think riders should stop for anyone or anything as each team has its own tactics to think about.

 

[jaylew]

I honestly don't know if I noticed Maxime Monfort one time in this entire Giro yet somehow he was 13th.

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

Lol at the idea that this was the best GT in any lengthy period of time, even more so since the Tour 2011. I suppose that's fitting in that people thought the 2011 Tour was good because the ending was exciting and forgot that 2/3 of the race sucked out loud. A good bit of finish line intrigue will work wonders in making people forget that half the race was really miserably poor. This race should really be a nail in the coffin of the sector of the forum that argues that critiquing the parcours has no merit because the riders make the race; the riders wanted to make the race but for much of it the crappy parcours wouldn't let them. This wasn't a great GT by any stretch of the imagination. It was decent, but not special, and I am concerned if this is the new level to be considered super-exciting as it will probably be seen as vindication of insanely backloading the route. But mostly, I just want to reiterate that the 2011 Tour is the most overrated race of the modern era.

The entire last week of the 2011 Tour was amazing. And the reason everyone loves the 2011 Tour? Every TDF since then has been absolute sh*t.

What exactly was amazing on that week, 2 stages does not make the race, 2011 tour was just crap, and even that 2 interesting stages finished by quite uninteresting result, only Andy Schleck made real time gain on Galibier and on Alpe d Huez that was just desperation, no more on climb like that, favourites all together, this you considering as awesome?

 

[movingtarget]

I give it a 9 simply to have so many riders competing for the win in the final TT was good to watch. I can't say I wasn't entertained and the rides by Pinot and Zakarin were also good. But if Crapgate didn't happen it could have ended up a bit dull. It was Dumoulin's loss of time before the TT that kept it interesting and the fact that Quintana and Nibali were unable to fully crack Dumoulin in the mountains. But I also think the accident with the motorbike changed the race in Dumoulin's favor. Sky were wiped out in the first week on GC and Movistar, Katusha, FDJ and Nibali's team were not dominant enough to provide the knockout blow to Dumoulin. Much better race than last year. Movistar needed to take more risks to crack Dumoulin and it didn't happen.

 

[cellardoor]

8...enjoyed Gavira's sprint wins and the tense last week. Also got my desired winner and white jersey. Ok, didn't get to see the best climbing ever on display or long range attacks, but the closeness of the GC made up for that. I feel that this is how a GT should be, a battle between TTers who lose time in the mountains and climbers who lose time in the TTs...having guys who are the best climbers and TTers is pretty boring.

 

[mariposa]

I gave it a 6 but that was only because of the GC battle coming down to the last day. The first week was so boring I nearly stopped watching and the second week hardly any better. The riders made the most of an underwhelming route and Doumoulin won because that route suited him the best. I was also so sick by the end of the race of commentators making judgements on when riders should and shouldn't stop and building Doumoulin up as some kind of pillar of virtue that I was hoping anyone but him would win. As someone else mentioned the weather also disappointed, when did we last have a Giro with such good weather.
On reflection perhaps I should have voted 5!

 

[OlavEH]

I gave it a 6, and then I'm being generous.

Only one good stage the first two weeks, and only the Bormio stage was a at least 9/10-stage. The last three stages were disappointing

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

5/10 and that's being generous. I didn't think shiit gate was entertaining as they didn't really attack Dumoulin there. And him shiiting himself was was supposedly the highlight of the race, according to some here. Dude should be forced to wear Pampers from now on, as this is the second time in two years. And RCS shouldn't design a course tailor made for Froome in suboptimal form, when they ought to know he's after the TDF record.

Least entertaining GT I've watched in a few years.

 

[Climbing]

Horrible stage design sapped away most of the fun, though was entertaining because it was so very close in the end.
Time to make a change up there with RCS.

 

[rainman]

7 because of the last week intrigue and a great finale in Milan. The rest had its moments but for me the riding of Quintana and Nibali was poor by their standards. Even when TD was in trouble on at least two climbs, and not just crapgate, they were still hesitant or just unable to really go for it.
To see Quintana attack but only as far as the wheel of an exhausted Amador, or a brave but knackered Pelizotti still towing the line even though TD was off the back typified the frustrating action of this Giro.
Dumoulin was the deserving winner, that much was good, as was the riding of Pinot, Zakarin, and Jungels. Also Gaviria's sprinting has to deserve praise. And Italy looked fabulous everywhere they went.

 

[The Hegelian]

7.

A lot of its value was in seeing a bit of a changing of the guard. Pinot, Dumoulin & Zakarin all look the real deal. Jungles was impressive. Yates minus the crash would have been close'ish to a podium. The Quintana-Froome-Contador-Nibali holding pattern has been ruptured - and that is a breath of fresh air.

Other than that plus the small gaps in GC, the race itself was pretty tiresome.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Racing was pretty bad, but there was some suspense at least. First two weeks were super boring and the third week was okay but ultimately very anticlimactic for me (talking about the racing, not the result). I gave it a 5.

To be fair, the riders did try to work with the terrain they had, but Nibali and Quintana just weren't strong enough and they didn't get good terrain for going from far. In the third week there were a few instances where the peloton was very small earlier on already,. but then it just fizzled out a bit due to lack of quality attackers and lack of appropriate terrain. With some minor tweaking in stage design, with Dumoulin not losing a bunch of time in the poopgate and with Nibali and Quintana just a bit better and maybe Landa not crashing, it could have easily been an 8 or something.

 

[dgodave]

I enjoyed it a lot.

But not enough hill-towns and castelli. So only a 7.

 

[bob.a.feet]

Re: Re:

Lol at the idea that this was the best GT in any lengthy period of time, even more so since the Tour 2011. I suppose that's fitting in that people thought the 2011 Tour was good because the ending was exciting and forgot that 2/3 of the race sucked out loud. A good bit of finish line intrigue will work wonders in making people forget that half the race was really miserably poor. This race should really be a nail in the coffin of the sector of the forum that argues that critiquing the parcours has no merit because the riders make the race; the riders wanted to make the race but for much of it the crappy parcours wouldn't let them. This wasn't a great GT by any stretch of the imagination. It was decent, but not special, and I am concerned if this is the new level to be considered super-exciting as it will probably be seen as vindication of insanely backloading the route. But mostly, I just want to reiterate that the 2011 Tour is the most overrated race of the modern era.

The entire last week of the 2011 Tour was amazing. And the reason everyone loves the 2011 Tour? Every TDF since then has been absolute sh*t.

But the first two weeks were utter 2012 Giro level dreck, at the end of stage 11 everybody still standing was on their TTT times give or take a few seconds from crashes and the few that Evans gained on MDB. And then the riders raced the Pyrenees like they were lobotomized and we got a flat stage on the penultimate weekend.

Sure, it picked up in week 3, but basically what happened was that Cadel Evans won a really good edition of the Dauphiné and because we got a couple of great stages late on, everybody crapped themselves with excitement, forgot about the previous two weeks, and ASO therefore believed this was the way to go and everything was rosy and justified terrible backloaded routes with crappy 100km mountain stages to themselves.

I'll admit I'm probably overrating it, but when I compare it to every Tour since it seems legendary.

 

[spalco]

Really good imo, so I vote 8.

I'm usually overrating stage races though in comparison to other people here, because I judge it more by how much entertainment it provided me, and not so much by how much excitement there could have potentially been.
So, since I watched most stages from start to finish, and therefore had something like 70 hours of entertainment, it was good. That there could have been more mountain attacks maybe or harder mountains doesn't really factor into it.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

Wasn't Hesjedal dropped from the main group on Lago Lageno already?

He was yo-yoing big time. If anyone had put the hammer down, he would have been dropped definitively. But since it was early in the race, they all thought "why should we waste resources to drop Hesjedal?" He got stronger as the race went on, but JRod was essentially hill sprinting.

This edition was clearly better than that one. I gave it an 8. The Etna stage was disappointing, due to the headwind. The remaining mountain stages were pretty good, although a long range attack was not forthcoming. Everything looked to be going well on the Stelvio stage and then I had a meeting. When I came back, I saw that nothing had happened, but then Tom went for a c**p almost immediately (so maybe I'm a sort of anti-Giggs).

The race was more intruiging than thrilling (but that's a good thing at my age ) and it was great to see riders with different characteristics riding for the GC win and the tension rose as the last week went on.

As usual, there were a number of notable vignettes to complement the main plot:
TJ getting the stage win after struggling.
Landa coming back from a crash and finally winning a stage after a couple of near misses.
Jungels being a monster in the wind and Bergamo.

Of course, I don't complain about the boredom of the first week, since I only watched the highlights, so my view might be slightly biased.

And of course, the Blockhaus stage was the worst in all GT history

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

The best GC I've seen so far in my life, a 9

 

[Netserk]

Re:

The best GC I've seen so far in my life, a 9

My condolences.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I've seen 11 Giros so far, this would be my ranking, top to bottom:

1. 2010 - Best GT I've seen. Only 2003 TdF can rival, and probably beat it, but I don't remember much apart from Mayo and Armstrong on La Luz.
2. 2015 - Epic Astana and varied and challenging parcours made you feel like something was happening each day.
3. 2008 - Ricco and Sella tearing it up, Gibo and Di Luca, young and very smart Contador, excellent parcours.
4. 2011 - Contador awesome, Nibali and Scarponi and Antón on Zoncolan. <3 Rujano. Deadly parcours.
5. 2016 - Backloaded action, but once it got started it was awesome.
6. 2007 - I liked di Luca, but I remember this Giro because of Saunier Duval being super awesome and Andy Schleck who was amazing.
7. 2017 - Definitely the weirdest GT I've watched.
8. 2009 - Meh. Bad parcours, but good battle for pink.
9. 2013 - Weather ruined it all unfortunately, I think it was a very decent design with lots of long and tricky stages.
10. 2014 - Exceptionally shitty parcours and it seemed to rain all the time. Nothing happening before the last 3 km apart from Martello. The time trial were good, tho.
11. 2012 - No.

 

[Netserk]

I take it that '11 and '16 are ranked 4th and 5th?

edit: Those weren't there yet when I posted this

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I take it that '11 and '16 are ranked 4th and 5th?

edit: Those weren't there yet when I posted this

yeah I messed it up, it should be good now

 

[Netserk]

Re:

I've seen 11 Giros so far, this would be my ranking, top to bottom:

1. 2010 - Best GT I've seen. Only 2003 TdF can rival, and probably beat it, but I don't remember much apart from Mayo and Armstrong on La Luz.
2. 2015 - Epic Astana and varied and challenging parcours made you feel like something was happening each day.
3. 2008 - Ricco and Sella tearing it up, Gibo and Di Luca, young and very smart Contador, excellent parcours.
4. 2011 - Contador awesome, Nibali and Scarponi and Antón on Zoncolan. <3 Rujano. Deadly parcours.
5. 2016 - Backloaded action, but once it got started it was awesome.
6. 2007 - I liked di Luca, but I remember this Giro because of Saunier Duval being super awesome and Andy Schleck who was amazing.
7. 2017 - Definitely the weirdest GT I've watched.
8. 2009 - Meh. Bad parcours, but good battle for pink.
9. 2013 - Weather ruined it all unfortunately, I think it was a very decent design with lots of long and tricky stages.
10. 2014 - Exceptionally ****** parcours and it seemed to rain all the time. Nothing happening before the last 3 km apart from Martello. The time trial were good, tho.
11. 2012 - No.

Based on similar reasoning, I gave it 5, but it could (and probably should) have been 4.