Rate the 2024 Giro d'Italia

[dercuforever]

Average route.
The best won and won a lot. (This is a plus to me).
Average/low adversity.
Almost no attacks except last climb.
GANNA won, some frenchies won, ALAPHILIPPE reborn. Breakaway wins were cool.
Early stages fun with Narvaez and Pog + Thomas.
6/10.

 

[Valv.Piti]

How can you know when UAE decided the pace of every single stage?

Oh come on, just look at them. A bunch of 2nd and 3rd tier GC-riders on this route is just a recipe for disaster with microscopic gains here and there and then maybe a big "showdown" on Grappa, but in all likelyhood they are just too close together and aint able to make a diff. Thomas would be the biggest competitor to Martinez regardless, and we all know how that would go

 

[Gigs_98]

I must admit I'm still not optimistic at all, cause with the given riders you do probably just want a more 2014esque route with a bunch of hard MTFs.

Probably true. Maybe Ineos actually try something with Arensman if it's for the win.

 

[Red Rick]

Probably true. Maybe Ineos actually try something with Arensman if it's for the win.

If Adam Blythe would do live imitation of DS explaining Thomas what was going on I'd voluntarily listen to that.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Probably true. Maybe Ineos actually try something with Arensman if it's for the win.

Yeah, no they are not. I have thought that too many times, and a 38 y/o Thomas in decline is trying to to as little as possible and somehow fluke his way to a win. They are jsut a negative bunch IMO.

I think Pogacar made the race much better. Just think 2022 and 2023, but with worse riders and worse route.

 

[Salvarani]

Amazing to be able to tell the grandkids that I watched the GOAT race and win this Giro so dominantly.

10, obviously.

Also, there was many fun stages and entertainment on almost every one. Good route and the riders really made the race. Happy days. What a time to be alive!

 

[hayneplane]

6/10

Too many sprint stages but at least several of them had some intrigue as to which sprinters would be shelled out the back early on and there was an even battle between Merlier and Milan as there is nothing more dull in cycling than a sprint stage with an outright dominance by one team and rider.

The Pog show was 10/10 as he attacked everywhere it was realistic to expect him to and a few others along with doing some lead out positioning to pay back his teammates along with the joyful moments like the souvenir gifts to Pellizzari and the young boy in the Astana jacket.

The medium mountains delivered some epic battles to get in the break and the redemption arc for Alaphillipe plus signature breakout moments for Steinhauser, Pellizzari and Pelayo Sanchez.

The GC battle was the worst I have ever seen and that includes last years Giro stalemate until Monte Lussari ITT. None of them bar a very young Tiberi showed any courage to attack and he does not yet have the level to threaten. The rest of the GC guys barely even deserve 0/10.

The wildcard teams were much better than recent years as Tudor got a top 10 in Storer and Polti-Kometa a top 15 with young plus active in breaks whilst VF-Bardiani were everywhere in the breaks with at least 3 different riders shining and had Pellizzari lighting it up as the next best climber behind Pogacar in the 3rd week.

Some suspense would have helped but I suspect that in years to come we will look back very fondly on the legendary performance of Pogacar, especially if he goes on to do the double.

 

[ice&fire]

I don't know what's been Pogacar appearance fee, but it's been well spent money., because we have seen zero attacks for GC from everyone else
Good breakaway action and Narvaez preventing Pogacar from pulling a Bugno are not enough to rate this above 2012.
Anything above 1 is for the landscape.

 

[Põhja Konn]

6.
Quite average, but so clearly better than the last two editions that I decided go a slightly upwards with rating it. Pogacar being so much better than the rest both added and took away from this race. On one hand, there was no real GC battle because of him. On the other hand witnessing historic performances has its own value.

Most other things apart from GC battle were above average - some good breakaways, good sprint duels between Milan and Merlier as well as nice amount of TT-ing for current standards. Briefly it even looked like there was going to be a proper fight for white jersey, but that didn't really materialise.

Overall far from perfect, but due to Pogacars performances and general dominance certainly a memorable race. As such it was vastly superior to previous two editions.

 

[Bolder]

4. Best part was seeing some new faces at the sharp end of the non-Pog peloton. And Alaphilippe being a factor again. Otherwise zero drama for me.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Like a version of 2011 that had nothing as good as Rifugio Gardeccia and no feelgood moment at Macugnaga. But thank heavens, no deaths during the race.

It was a much better race than 2023.

I nearly typoed 2003 in there. It was not a better race than 2003.

 

[Red Rick]

2023 significant attacks between title contenders: 4

2024 significant attacks between title contenders: 0. Maybe 1 if we count O'Connor trying to HODL on Oropa

 

[Tim Cahill]

It's hard to get something going with moves from down the GC when you've got Pogacar frantically marking duo attacks from Roman Bardet and Kevin Vermaerke in the 3rd week .

 

[Netserk]

8/10

The question is always what people mean by "good". Do they mean a winner of high quality or do they mean suspense? This Giro had the most dominant GT win of the century, with a massive performance by Pogacar. That also means there was hardly any suspense, so people on the Internet will complain.

What constitutes a "good" Grand Tour? The 1969 Tour is one of the most legendary races in cycling history, but there was no suspense. Merckx won by 17 minutes. The 2001 Vuelta on the contrary was close until the final time trial, but people hardly remember Angel Casero's victory.

This was a Giro that people will remember because of the dominance of the winner. But now we'll get a few more pages of moaning.

Good as in providing what I watch cycling for in as high quality as possible. That is so much more than just suspence. The past two Giri had "suspence", but lacked racing.

The 2015 Giro did not have much suspence, but it was the best Giro of the past decade. It had drama, it had characters. It had riders who gave it their all, who really tried. Even when faced with adversity.

This edition too had qualities, but it did not have those that made the 2015 one so great. What challenge did Martinez, Thomas and O'Connor provide? What did Pogi overcome?

 

[QueenStagiaire]

5. Woohoo, Pogačar won and I do like a good show, but if your guy wins by ten minutes and the world only revolves around him, that‘s boring and takes away from it all. The way Pogačar already had the win locked up in December actually saved the image of this race because there was no GC battle expected, so there are no complaints about the lack of a fight. 2022 and 2023 had similarly good breakaways, but it was overshadowed by the intense frustration about Jai Hindley‘s and Geraint Thomas‘s negative racing antics respectively. I think this race has negatively influenced my opinion of Pogačar, not because I disagree with his style of racing, but because I want him to take victories against the best riders in the best races.
One final thing that is very disheartening about this race is that the increased TT mileage actively hurt the race because most strong TTers have a negative Modus Operandi that leads to horrible racing. Carapaz and Bernal (or Gall) for example would be great in this race but they just aren‘t going to go to the Giro if the Giro route doesn‘t suit them. With the Tour, it‘s different because it‘s the biggest race and the strongest climbers would still show up if there was 100 kms of TT. As a fan of any form of racing that separates the riders from each other and makes them fight for time, this is a sad revelation.

On second thought, maybe I should change my vote to a 3. (following the Netserk method) As last year, if you give this a 10, you are unable or unwilling to see nuance and probably are on your way to a parasocial relationship.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

2/10. It was doomed from the start with the field and route, but the fact that expectations were in the gutter shouldn't distract that the racing itself was also in the gutter. Zero tension for overall, points or KOM classifications, zero action for podium or BYR. Only positive was that the breakaway action was pretty good... on the rare occasions that the break actually stayed away.

 

[Red Rick]

5. Woohoo, Pogačar won and I do like a good show, but if your guy wins by ten minutes and the world only revolves around him, that‘s boring and takes away from it all. The way Pogačar already had the win locked up in December actually saved the image of this race because there was no GC battle expected, so there are no complaints about the lack of a fight. 2022 and 2023 had similarly good breakaways, but it was overshadowed by the intense frustration about Jai Hindley‘s and Geraint Thomas‘s negative racing antics respectively. I think this race has negatively influenced my opinion of Pogačar, not because I disagree with his style of racing, but because I want him to take victories against the best riders in the best races.
One final thing that is very disheartening about this race is that the increased TT mileage actively hurt the race because most strong TTers have a negative Modus Operandi that leads to horrible racing. Carapaz and Bernal (or Gall) for example would be great in this race but they just aren‘t going to go to the Giro if the Giro route doesn‘t suit them. With the Tour, it‘s different because it‘s the biggest race and the strongest climbers would still show up if there was 100 kms of TT. As a fan of any form of racing that separates the riders from each other and makes them fight for time, this is a sad revelation.

On second thought, maybe I should change my vote to a 3. (following the Netserk method) As last year, if you give this a 10, you are unable or unwilling to see nuance and probably are on your way to a parasocial relationship.

Yeah it's really noticable how "there were good breakaways" becomes a post hoc argument to justify a bad race being good suddenly.

 

[Netserk]

2/10. It was doomed from the start with the field and route, but the fact that expectations were in the gutter shouldn't distract that the racing itself was also in the gutter. Zero tension for overall, points or KOM classifications, zero action for podium or BYR. Only positive was that the breakaway action was pretty good... on the rare occasions that the break actually stayed away.

Did you find the extreme dominance worse than the timid racing for the victory of the past two years?

 

[Red Rick]

Did you find the extreme dominance worse than the timid racing for the victory of the past two years?

How timid was it even? Bondone, Cibiana, Tre Cime were all raced as expected. Cappucini raced well.

You think if you plop stage 19 of last years Giro in there Pogacar attacks before Tre Cime?

 

[Gigs_98]

Yeah it's really noticable how "there were good breakaways" becomes a post hoc argument to justify a bad race being good suddenly.

You'll have to admit though that not all breakaway battles are equally good. Alaphilippe's win for example was a genuinely iconic ride, so of course that stage should be a favorable point for this Giro.

 

[Red Rick]

You'll have to admit though that not all breakaway battles are equally good. Alaphilippe's win for example was a genuinely iconic ride, so of course that stage should be a favorable point for this Giro.

So was Ben Healy's last year. Pinot trying to win a stage was great. Derek Gee and his 58 2nd places.

 

[Kazistuta]

2/10. The main objective in a grand tour is the GC, and despite that I like Pogacar, the GC "battle" was mildly put absent. Just as well with the sprints, where we really only needed to see who from Merlier/Milan would end up victorious. Yes, some interesting break away wins, but we get them every year regardless of who's in them. I love cycling and obviously saw as much as I could, but didn't really feel likebI missed much, when I couldn't watch it on tv. It was like a scripted play.

 

[Netserk]

How timid was it even? Bondone, Cibiana, Tre Cime were all raced as expected. Cappucini raced well.

You think if you plop stage 19 of last years Giro in there Pogacar attacks before Tre Cime?

Yes, if he has to catch Quintana.

The opening stages were so much better this year (compared to Lago Laceno and Gran Sasso). If Cappucini was raced well, so was San Vito. As I recall them, the attacks in the mountains were all done with reserves left for the sprint (hmm, perhaps except Bondone), Tre Cime was even worse than I expected (and I didn't expect much).

 

[Gigs_98]

So was Ben Healy's last year. Pinot trying to win a stage was great. Derek Gee and his 58 2nd places.

Healy's win last year was genuinely boring though. Just by far the strongest guy in that break. I'm not saying the break battles were all bad last year, they absolutely weren't, but going through it stage by stage I really think this year the quality of breakaway wins was above average.

 

[Red Rick]

Yes, if he has to catch Quintana.

The opening stages were so much better this year (compared to Lago Laceno and Gran Sasso). If Cappucini was raced well, so was San Vito. As I recall them, the attacks in the mountains were all done with reserves left for the sprint (hmm, perhaps except Bondone), Tre Cime was even worse than I expected (and I didn't expect much).

Prati di Tivo might as well have been Gran Sasso. All that's different is the pretense.