Rate the 2019 Giro d'Italia

[Tonton]

I was expecting the thread to be created the second Richard Carapaz crossed the finish line today. C'mon guys/gals .

I hope the poll works .

 

[The Chicken]

It was bad.

 

[sir fly]

Works, yes.

 

[Escarabajo]

Oh boy!

Nothing against the winner. But the Giro got to a bad start without Bernal and little after without Dumoulin.

I was dreaming too much about the Gavia stage. I can't believe how much I think about these epic stages to come down to a modification of the stage. Stage was OK but it was never the same without it.

Maybe a 6 because of the winner. I haven't decided maybe I'll wait until I hear more opinions.

 

[Red Rick]

3.

We basically waited 12 stages for *** to finally hit the fan only to realise afterward that it was over after stage 14.

 

[Tonton]

The poll works!!! I can't believe it!!!

I gave this one a 5: not as entertaining, not as much drama as the last two. A deserving winner but many what ifs. The Giro Magic didn't happen, didn't save a back-loaded, flawed design. After a laborious start to say the least, a few really good stages, but no magic.

In '19, best GT is unlikely to be Il Giro.

Hats off to Carapaz though, and also to a few riders who did very well like Roglic, Mollema, or Majka. I wish Landa had podiumed, but there are only three spots...well done Valentin. Nibali animated the race, but I don't know if I'm disappointed for or by Il Squalo...

 

[jaylew]

Good but not great. Took too long to get into the mountains and most of the mountain stages were won from breaks. 6.5

 

[Laplaz]

A 6 for me. Nothing more.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Gets a 6 from, but its hard to judge it just yet for me.

Stage 13 was amazing, but the rest wasn't all that great. Other notable stages were the 3 other big mountain stages which all were good, but I expected more from the Mortirolo-day. Damn snow. The other two were on par, thats the stage over Colle San Carlo and Passo Manghen. The day in Como was a great stage, I forgot that as well. And the stage that opened up the mountains to Pinerolo was very decent.That basically means I now have mentioned stage 12-16 and stage 20 which was kinda predictable actually looking at the route. The rest was very unforgettable, altho I enjoyed the time trial as well.

Could have been much better tho with Bernal and Tom. Totally different dynamic then. But I liked the winner, so thats maybe why it doesnt get a 5.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Oh boy!

Nothing against the winner. But the Giro got to a bad start without Bernal and little after without Dumoulin.

I was dreaming too much about the Gavia stage. I can't believe how much I think about these epic stages to come down to a modification of the stage. Stage was OK but it was never the same without it.

Maybe a 6 because of the winner. I haven't decided maybe I'll wait until I hear more opinions.

I feel the same way: losing Dumoulin and Bernal was a bit of a bummer, Gavia was a gamble for the organizers and it blew to our faces, making this Giro pale in comparison to last year, with Zonc and Finestre as epic places, icons that delivered (Finestre big time, Zoncolan to some extend).

We shouldn't take anything away from Carapaz. He's no superstar, doesn't have the following that Dumoulin, Yates, Bernal, others have, but he showed courage and strength and he will (God willing) inspire other GT riders to attack and shape their destiny. That's refreshing.

 

[HelloDolly]

Not great especially in comparison to more recent Giros

Too many long flat stages in the beginning
But we were told the final week would be brutal and make up for this but the fizz never materialized

Movistar were too strong
Carapaz was under estimated
Roglic flattered to deceive
And Nibali took his eye off the prize

Gave it a 6
Some good stage wins

 

[cineteq]

- Gave a 5
- Race parcours design, the main reason
- Dumoulin DNF and Bernal DNS

 

[ThePirate81]

Gave a 4.
Underwhelming edition,third week has been a borefest without Gavia and no proper Dolomites stages.
Happy for Ciccone,hope he'll become a GT GC contender soon. He has the guts and the engine,but needs to improve on the TT bike.

 

[DanielSong39]

To be fair Carapaz and Movistar were too strong, they did a great Sky impression

No chance for drama because Carapaz was too strong. Kudos for a great performance, though!

 

[hayneplane]

A 4 for me.

Worthy winner but part of me wonders whether Roglic could have won instead with the Movistar supporting cast instead of his own team that was invisible the second the road tilted upwards backed up by inept actions from the lead team car.

Some terrific secondary stories like Conti and Polanc battling bravely to stay in pink for as long as possible and great stage wins from Zakarin and Ciccone.

The parcours were poorly managed with so few big stages on weekends and nothing truly difficult in a road stage until the second Thursday. They might have got away with the backloading if not for the cancellation of the Gavia.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

4. It just didn’t live up to the hype, unfortunately. Yates no show, Bernal literal no show and Tommy D wreck were factors, but there were just too many sprinters stages early on.

 

[movingtarget]

Gave it a 5. The route didn't work. the first half was a snorefest and the final week sent most of the sprinters home which was understandable. So the riders that racked up points all disappeared mostly. Many of the stages were too long with nothing decisive on the route happening to split the field. Inevitably one of the high passes was snowed in as often happens with the Giro. Surely there are plenty of hard climbs at lower altitude.The TV coverage was poor just like the Vuelta. Time gaps were irregular updates and they couldn't even give onscreen head to head time differences in the final TT. Movistar finally put it together as a team and rode well but they really should have had Landa on the podium as well. Roglic was there for the picking a along way from the finish. Nibali was a disappointment but Roglic can thank him for enabling his first podium. Bernal not starting and Dumoulin's early exit didn't help the race. The worst Giro at least of the past decade.

 

[Bolder]

5 from me. I wasn't really interested until stage 14.the mountain stages were anti climactic. However if you look at the top 10, it was pretty much the same 1p riders you'd expect to be there. Carapaz was a real révélation. This is conjecture but I think Dumoulin and Bernal would have podiumed.

 

[Robert5091]

When the riders say it's boring, well ... bad parcours made worse by the Gavia's removal. If this carries on, the Volta a Portugal will soon become the race of the year!

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Backloading is very bad for GTs.
Almost no classic terrain.
Movitrain dominant.
Raceaction became a placement game,.

On the upside the tree TT's gave the race some legitimacy.
Competitive sprint field.

4.

 

[Pantani_lives]

It wasn't strictly backloaded; the decisive part were stages 13 to 16. The Giro was over when Carapaz and Landa caught Nibali back before the top of the Mortirolo. Menghen was too far from the finish to have much impact. I'm not sure if the Gavia would have made a lot of difference. I'd say stages 13 to 16 were good, but what came before and after wasn't interesting GC-wise, apart from the time trials. Fortunately there were some fun stage winners towards the end, like Chaves and Cima, who outfinished the sprinters.

The first four in the GC all might have won if circumstances and tactical decisions had been different. Nibali and Roglic were the two dogs fighting for a bone; Carapaz was the third who ran away with it. He was strong and agressive, but it's very disappointing that he will become another part of the Ineos train, choosing money over sporting achievement. Landa once again wasn't the leader of his team - perhaps next year at Bahrein.

 

[SafeBet]

I gave it a 6. First half was dreadful, I don't think I'll remember any of those stages in 3 months. The end of the second week was great and created expectations for the third week. The problem is that the third week was poorly designed: Mortirolo stage wasn't bad but we all wanted the Gavia and never got it.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I gave it a 7 to balance things out, but it was probably a 6.
A bit better than 2017, but clearly worse than 2016 and 2018, 2015 was on another level.

 

[Tigerion]

I'll give it a 6
A couple of great stages and the races wasn't over until the 2nd last stage.
Backloading was annoying and the first ITT wasn't enough to shake out the pretenders

 

[Climbing]

I realized only later that the third week was poorly designed, Vegni failed once again pretty much in similar vein of 2017 last week.
Plus way too backloaded.

Problem is that TdF and Vuelta will be even worse...