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Rate the Giro 2014

Page 2 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

How was it for you?

  • 10 - Worth watching every moment

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
6.

Too little entertainment over 3 weeks.
Drop the backloading, don't make all the mountain stages MTFs, design better "flat" stages and include a couple of tough hilly stages.

GC wise, Rolland and Hejsedal lifted the action with Quintana and Aru chipping in. Otherwise way too much wheelsucking and not enough risk talking by other players.

I welcome Bouhanni on the bigger scene. He stepped up when the chance came along.

Pirazzi finally getting a stage win was nice.

Best stage for me was the MTT with the Stelvio debacle coming 2nd.

I think TdF and Vuelta will beat the Giro this year, but you never know.
 
Really enjoyed this race. As the adage goes, it's the riders that make the race and they provided the excitement.

Kittel
Dominant in the early sprints. Unfortunate that illness took him out. An ongoing duel with Bouhani would have been interesting.
Pirazzi/Battaglin/Canola - love to see small teams win, love to see the break stay away
Rolland - attacking nearly every day in the mountains with Sicard usually leading the way
Aru - a revelation (for me), a rider with panache I hope to see more of
Hesjedal - dogged in the last week, made the TTT crash moot. I doubt he would have finished much higher without that crash, but would Dan Martin have podiumed?
Uran - Maybe he was no match for Quintana in the end, but the GC race got exciting when he won the TT.
Quintana - lived up to his billing as the favourite. There's always the expectation of something spectacular from a GC winner, and if he didn't show us that, it was probably because he didn't need to, but surely this is a multiple Grand Tour winner

I probably should mention Ulissi and the other Green team, but I wasn't paying attention on some days. These were just my personal highlights.

As for the polemics and disasters, unfortunate though they are, they do add drama. This would not have been the same race without the Garmin TTT pial up, Evans profiting from the mass pileup, Quintana sneaking away on the snowy descent. I guess it helps to be non-partisan.
 
Between 5 and a 6. The battles in the mountains were simply dull. Montecampione was pretty much the only mountain stage (well, the final 5k) that got me excited.

Break away racing was good though, especially that epic sprint on Oropa. Also special mentions for Rolland (obviously) and Arredondo for attacking like crazy.
 
Aug 9, 2009
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7
Uran got me really excited at the ITT. I expected Quintana to grab the rosa but it was anticlimatic when he did. I tried to get excited about him in the pink as well but the way he got it was hard to swallow. He's a great champion and a deserving winner nonetheless so I'm quite happy but just not as happy as I thought I'd be.
Aru was also a great highlight. I loved the podium result.
 
7 for me.
I was happy with orica taking pink. I enjoyed Matthews keeping it for a week and winning a stage. I enjoyed Arredondo and Rolland quite a bit. They made things exciting when some of the other GC guys didn't. I enjoyed stage 16 in spite of the controversy - The controversy was part of the entertainment. :D The biggest thing I was happy with was the overall GC winner!
 
Feb 19, 2014
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Gave it a 6 for Rolland and Aru.

Some forgettable stages.Stelvio farce ruined a GC battle too.A decent Giro but nothing more than that.Need to get rid of Vegni,clueless.
 
Gave it a four. GC suffered the same as last year ie one rider who was just too strong for everyone else. All the jerseys were decided way too early and with no competition. The route design was shockingly poor and two dimensional (as called by pretty much everyone when it was announced) and lead to passive boring racing for the most part.

The fun of the breakaways, AG2R, and the emergence of Aru as a GC leader saved it from being a complete dead loss.

Oh and a shout out for a great ride by Sebastián Henao in his first GT.
 
I basically enjoyed every single stage. Only a few of the flat ones were a bit boring. Every Mt finish was exciting, even if the Stelvio stage closed down the fight for victory. New heroes born and old heroes dying is very symptomatic for this Giro. When considering how stuffed with everything this Giro has been compared to the last 3 editions, I simply needed to give it a 10, although 9.5 would be more fitting.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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Starting from 10.
-1 for too many sprints.
-1 for riders being wusses at times (wet roads, lol).
-1 for crashes (Purito, Martin, etc.).
-1 for being too back loaded.
-1 for not enough attacks by the GC's early.
-1 for again not enough attacks by the GC's late.
+1 for Aru's great riding and making the podium.
+1 for Quintana big attack and how he rode on Val Martello.
+1 for a very good uphill TT.
-1 for a horrible Zoncolan.
-1 for the controversy.
+1 for Quintana winning.

So that gives us a 6. And I'm being generous here, I could easily have taken away 3 for how bad Zoncolan was. :eek:
 
8/10 because of the great podium with two Colombians and a young Italian.

Of course there were a lot of boring stages, and the Zoncolan was a disappointment. However what I will remember is Quintana's massive climbing in the Stelvio stage and the mountain time trial. Also Uran's time trial, Aru's stage win and Rolland's attacks.
 
Escarabajo said:
7.

I don't like it when the Grand Tours make it heavily backloaded. It becomes a survival race for the third week. Then everybody have the tendency either to watch each other or be happy with their positions.

This.
Also the back loading led to a lack of variety in parcour for the first half of the race.
A 6
 
I gave it an 8.
Lots of good stages, and as there always will be some dull stages and some favorites crashing out of Grand Tours I don't let this affect my score.
And for those who claims the overall was decided too early, I will remind you of the GC after stage 15...

1(1) Uran Rigoberto Omega Pharma - Quick-Step63:26:39
2(2) Evans Cadel BMC Racing Team1:03
3(3) Majka Rafal Tinkoff-Saxo1:50
4(7) Aru Fabio Astana Pro Team2:24
5(6) Quintana Nairo Movistar Team2:40
6(4) Pozzovivo Domenico AG2R La Mondiale2:42
7(5) Kelderman Wilco Belkin-Pro Cycling Team3:04

Good money to be won at that stage for all of you who already was 100 % sure that Nairo would win:p
 
Feb 23, 2012
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7/10

A good Giro but nothing outstanding. I liked that the GC was wide open until the Stelvio, but overall was there too much backloading. First week was very dull, except for the usual crashes. Second week was already much better and third week was obviously the best.

Stelvio stage was one to remember, horrible weather, drama and a big change in the GC. Zoncolan biggest disappoinment, but I didn't see the point anyway of using it at the end of a GT. Good breakaway action in some stages and nice to see all the youngsters in the GC.
 

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