Rate this year's three Grand Tours

[ericthesportsman6]

Oh, and just to mention, I think next year's GT's have the potential to be much much better. The fields will be stronger at all three races, and the return of Ricco is exciting.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Oh, and just to mention, I think next year's GT's have the potential to be much much better. The fields will be stronger at all three races, and the return of Ricco is exciting.

Maybe. Problem is most of these young riders, along with the veterans all prioritize the tour. So if the organizers throw another luckluster course at us, so many big names are gonna waste their big push for a GT at the tour.

I suspect you will see the same kinda names compete the giro / vuelta give or a take a rider or two.

 

[Magnus]

the stage into Pau was just an epic fail of all proportions.

Did you actually watch the stage?

 

[Vonn Brinkman]

As all have said before me: Giro was definitely the best. No explanation needed.
Tour....well I'd give it a 5 or a 6. The cobbles were very exciting. Nothing else.
I liked the Vuelta, it was better than the Tour. Gilbert's wins, the constant attacks by Xacobeo and Andalucia, the fight for the KOM, Anton's fearful crash, and yesterday's stage was truly epic.

 

[eljimberino]

Giro: even the snow storm stage where we couldnt get a live feed was thrilling. It was like: what carnage will emerge as soon as the blizzard clears? Everyday was great.

Tour: First week was good. Chauvanel and Vino saved it, barely.

Vuelta: I like that the guys who appear to take it seriously seem to be genuine people.

 

[Climbing]

Giro: 10
Well, what to say, I was terrified because 4 days before the start of the Giro i had a surgery (nothing mortal, but you never know ), but after being home i understood that i could follow the entire Giro.
Well I haven't seen a GT like this for years, it was truly epic and everything converged to make it perfect. Imagine if Nibali was not in the same team with Basso... even more descent show! Well I say 10 without doubt.

Vuelta: 7
I liked it, but too many little mountain finish, where you could have put more great mountain stages, but definitly better than Tour.

Tour: 5.5
I would be disappointed only if I have ever hoped to a good race. They continue to live in the past and don't put decent climbings like Zoncalan type ending, just those Tourmalet 3 times forever. Of course the field is afraid of trying something and everyone race conservatevely.
It would be 4 if not for cobblestone stage, even if i dislike this... too unpredicatable, and people like Menchov and Schleck could die in stages like this! And could be even worse if Contador was strong like 2009.

 

[Mellow Velo]

the stage into Pau was just an epic fail of all proportions.

Did you actually watch the stage?

Sounds like he did.

1)Giro (up there with 2005)
2)Vuelta (best Vuelta in years)






























3) The Tour. (Promised much and as usual, failed to deliver.)

 

[Zoncolan]

Giro: 9.5. Only reason it doesn't get a 10 is the field. The course design gets a 10. Montalcino, Zoncolan, Mortirolo... Maybe two days during the whole race that weren't exciting.

Tour: 6.5. Better than last year. Loved the inclusion of cobbles. Defensive riding in the mountains and A&A holding hands were a huge turn off.

Vuelta: 7.5. First week was very good. Gilbert and Anton (shame about him crashing out) made it really interesting. Lack of depth in the field + defensive riding + bad TV coverage (camera work/director too) was why I deducted some points. Kudos to Nibs again, he won on a course that didn't really play to his strength. Mosquera having the chance of a lifetime gives it another half point.

 

[Siriuscat]

I'll answer in two ways: Like everyone else then another angle

Giro - 10, it was an awesome three weeks. Didn't like the Dutch stages much but they created some fireworks straight away. Once we got to Italy, what a dream of a GT, I don't think I'll forget the Strade Bianche stage as long as I live......roll on May!!

Tour - 4, it had the potential to be great but was largely a damp squib. see later.

Vuelta - 8, good contest this year and a pretty good parcours as well though it's lacked for BIG mountains except yesterday of course. With the Vuelta there always a chance that one of these wildcard teams will do something special, Mosquera and Xacabo have lit the Vuelta up, but I feel for Igor Anton, i think this was his to win.

The other angle is excitement, what excites me about each GT is another angle. In this way I'd go Giro> Tour > Vuelta. No matter how good or bad the Giro was I get excited about it around mid April and you can't help get excited by the Tour, perhaps thats why we feel let down so often. By the time the Vuelta comes, unless there are top riders there willing to compete it becomes a damp squib, this year has been a refreshing change.

Just my tuppenceworth

 

[Francois the Postman]

For those who give the giro less than 10 bare in mind that to get the 10 the giro will need the following, + whatever you think it lacks

It was nigh perfection. Now if it had all that plus all the best riders, riders arriving covered in snow, Bartali and Copi, and a 3rd week that bettered the first 2 for entertainment value (subjective as it is, week 3 felt a tad flat to me), you'd have my 10.

This year's Giro was good as some of modern cycling's unwritten rules and stage protocols went out of the window. It was like the stuff of legend and will be remembered as one of the absolute great ones.

But it didn't have all the best riders from this era in peak form in a titanic struggle that went all the way to Rome.

The question is if the best riders all in peak form would add up to better entertainment. Nowadays, probably no.

So it's not so much what it lacks, but what it has too much off. Put very simple: riders nowadays are simply too good, material is too perfect, and race support, on the road and off, is too professional and instantaneous.

So, for no good, subjective, and totally unrealistic reasons, if you pick and combine all the "epic" stages over the years, forget that cycling has changed and some of the things that were part and parcel of cycling then will never come back, add some of the vintage rider battles that we have had, throw in a shop raid for drinks for good measure, and combine that into one monster story, that's roughly where my 10 floats.

But even with those things, there will even be a better one at some point. We will see an epic battle between two or three riders in a Giro like this, that will make us all weak at the knees. And all that is left then is an 11. I still have my 10.

Again, subjective and skewed as it is, there is something about ye olden days that I miss in modern cycling. So if you ask me to rate this one, once it has been through that weird place that is peppered with my irrational taste buds, it will not pick up a 10 en-route. Sorry if that leaves you dumbfounded Hitch.

 

[pugdog]

Giro 9.50 because I don't know what a 10.00 would be.
Vuelta 8.00 yesterday's last 4k tipped the balance upward for me.

Tour 4.00 it's committing suicide by its own gigantism. The organizers know it, but don't know how to resolve the problem.

 

[RdBiker]

Giro 9 - Varying course, many changes in GT leadership, unpredictable until the last few stages

Tour 6 - The course (and the first few stages) promised a tight race but it became a two-way deal which turned out to be very boring in the end

Vuelta 8 - Good mountain stages, selective TT, new riders, many possible overall winners, GT win was truly up for the graps until the penultimate stage


PS. Could a poll be made out of this somehow? Or could some one compile the answers from this thread? Cyclingnews would get a good end-of-the-season GT article from this thread. They (you) could even put a poll on the front page and get comments from readers.

 

[khardung la]

I would agree that this year it is Giro>>Vuelta>Tour

But I would never give the giro a 10 this year. A race that is won by Basso and in which the second is Arroyo is a race without real strong contenders/contenders not in top form. That itself will decrease its points to 9. Also the lack of a proper ITT was not a good idea. The winner must be a complete guy, TTing is also important in cycling.

 

[Magnus]

Sounds like he did.

I guess he just missed the part where

Lance Armstrong, Christopher Horner, Bradley Wiggins, Roman Kreuziger, Sylvester Szmyd, Nicolas Roche, Vinokourov and Sastre

was in a breakaway, van den Broeck tried to bridge the gap and Samu Sanchez got dropped from the peloton.

 

[Mellow Velo]

I guess he just missed the part where

Lance Armstrong, Christopher Horner, Bradley Wiggins, Roman Kreuziger, Sylvester Szmyd, Nicolas Roche, Vinokourov and Sastre

was in a breakaway, van den Broeck tried to bridge the gap and Samu Sanchez got dropped from the peloton.

Exactly the point. After the first hour or so of eyeballs out racing, the breakaway gottaway and the peloton went to sleep.
After that.........we'll lets just say that having the Aubisque 60 kms from the finish didn't exactly encourage an attackfest.

The breakaway did their best to liven up that final segment, but overall, the stage typified the race.

Anyhow, this is a general thread, lets not limit the debate to the merits of a single stage.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Giro 10
it was the best GT I've ever seen. The strade bianchi, nibali's downhill attacks,vino's attack, Evans' fighting for what he was worth and of course the epic L'aquila revolution!

Tour 5.5
Not for the interesting uphill battles because they were virtually non-existent.
But Cav's wins and his tears were amazing as were Evans' after he lost yellow.

Vuelta 8
Shame Anton fell out because that would've made it more interesting but there were a lot of uphill finishes and attacks(way better parcours than in 'le Grand Boucle'). Rodriguez epic TT fail was interesting to see too.

Edit: My 10 out of 10 just goes to the best GT i've ever seen. If one tops it that one would get the 10 and this year's Giro a 9.5. The 10 is not for an imaginary superGT but to a realistic very good GT

 

[hrotha]

Exactly the point. After the first hour or so of eyeballs out racing, the breakaway gottaway and the peloton went to sleep.
After that.........we'll lets just say that having the Aubisque 60 kms from the finish didn't exactly encourage an attackfest.

The breakaway did their best to liven up that final segment, but overall, the stage typified the race.

Anyhow, this is a general thread, lets not limit the debate to the merits of a single stage.

The trick is not to think of it as a mountain stage but as a medium mountain stage that got crazy for a moment. Then it's awesome.

 

[ttrider]

Giro 10 no doubt was unbelievably good totally agree with what everyone says about it, heres to hoping the field gets stronger next year, Evans and Vinos faces on the l'aquila stage were so funny, looked like someone had just knocked all semblance of hope from them! Needs a 40k flat tt to finish the deal!

Tour 7 it was good but Cancellaras an idiot and that stage to Gap was shocking, on challenging parcours they just hold hands, all the flat stages are so boring have 5 but not 10! No real classics finishes either, learn from the vuelta, 3 of these would be perfect

Vuelta 7 awesome first week but i always felt that apart from the last 30km when they try and put on a show its just shocking, there were no proper mountains either it was all such an easy parcour, just a lot of hard classics type of stuff and only Bola del Mondo and Lagos da Covadonga are real HCs

To improve the tour need some variety in the first week and stages that encourage attacks, the vuelta needs mountains and the Giro is almost perfect!

 

[AtletiSK]

Giro - 9 (the best GT of the year, great racing and constantly changing GC made it an excellent event this year... one point down for lack of big names but in fact I didn´t miss them, it made the thing more unpredictable)
TdF - 5 (very predictable and boring with almost no real fighting, I wish there had been more stages like Mende, TdF organizers should really modify the basic patterns of the route and take a lesson from Giro/Vuelta and include some steeper climbs)
Vuelta -7 (very good racing, nice small details on the route like Valdepenas de Jaén or Málaga finish and fantastic finish at Bola del Mundo.... what I lacked was better TV coverage - always a problem of this race - and a few bigger names)

 

[Eyeballs Out]

I've enjoyed them all this year to some extent. Giro 9, Tour 7, Vuelta 6

I thought the "design" of all was pretty good - an emphasis on the races being decided via road racing as opposed to dull TTs.

Loved the daring Giro route. Loved the Tour first week with the cobbles stage. Unfortunately the weather gods wrecked the Ardennes stage (too wet) and the crosswinds stage (no wind). The Vuelta had plenty of mountain finishes and steep ramp finishes but probably lacked a really good descent finish and a really strong mountain stage - there's not much point in having 3 or more Cat 1 climbs if they're separated by 50km valleys. This goes for all three tours and also all three tours would be improved by having 10/6/2 bonus seconds

As ever the riders make the race. The Giro more than lived up to expectations for two weeks until it fizzled out in the final week when Evans and Vino faded and Basso took control. The Tour missed Schleck sr and Farrar when they crashed and could have done with a more aggressive race from Rabobank but had Vino, plenty of drama and talking points. The Vuelta could have done without the Anton crash

In terms of the the abilities of the riders and resulting prestige of victories the Tour is still well ahead of the Giro which is still well ahead of the Vuelta and I don't see that changing any time soon

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I would agree that this year it is Giro>>Vuelta>Tour

But I would never give the giro a 10 this year. A race that is won by Basso and in which the second is Arroyo is a race without real strong contenders/contenders not in top form. That itself will decrease its points to 9. Also the lack of a proper ITT was not a good idea. The winner must be a complete guy, TTing is also important in cycling.

Óscar Pereiro was originally 2nd in the 2006 Tour, but that was a more interesting race than most of the ones that preceded it.

Just because Arroyo isn't a real GT podium contender does not mean that the field was weak - there were some better GT riders not on the podium. The L'Aquila 'gift' (four GCE riders in the break driving it on for Arroyo, and Arroyo was also 5th in the Strade Bianche stage and the first to bridge to Evans and Vino) made the race, because Basso and co. still needed lots of time in the mountains and had to continually go for it, while Arroyo is a rider who isn't good enough to not lose time to the élite climbers, but is good enough to limit his losses and make it very, very risky to give him that kind of advantage. It was the perfect kind of person to have in that situation - the GC battle was still open as long as the big names were aggressive enough, and it wasn't somebody who would crack and lose the whole lot in one go.

 

[theswordsman]

The three races definitely had a distinctive feel this year. The first week of the Giro, the key word was carnage. A lot of people talked about how crazy and dangerous the route was, giving Zomegnan a lot of grief. But there were some heroic performances, especially in terms of man versus nature, and at the end, everyone knew we'd seen something special. I had something attack and kill my computer dead, so I missed stage wins by Basso and Nibali, but I give the race a 10.

The Tour was ruined for me by finishes way too far from final climbs, but mostly by the behavior of riders. Cancellara neutralizing a race, head banging during a sprint finish, Schlecklet's mouth, then everything involving him and Contador, both in relationship and effort or lack of combativity. Oh yeah, Lance was there, with video and photos cropping up of him behaving badly. I give the race a 4, and you'd have to pay me to watch the DVD.

The first half of the Vuelta was unpredictable - you never knew who would win those early stages. Some guys, like Nibali and Roche, were solid throughout. Mosquero and Purito made things interesting. But there was the distraction of off-bike drama with Schlecklet, O'Grady and Cancellara. Still, for a number of guys, the effort was there, and the route was solid. It all came down to the last few days with the TT and Bola del Mundo. I give it an 8.

 

[The Hitch]

Did you actually watch the stage?

Craig must have watched the stage seeing as he came up with the same conclusion most who watched the stage did.

The Queen stage of the TOur and a breakaway takes it by 10 minutes. No gc guy does anything, anything at all. Zilch. Before we were talking about Sammy and Andy teaming up to do Mercx 70k solos and what not. But nothing happened.

And who led the GC contenders home? Thor Hushovd. On the queen stage of the tour. - Exactly

 

[craig1985]

Did you actually watch the stage?

Sorry, I wasn't being clear, the profile wasn't the best, it would of been better had they didn't have that 50km downhill run into Pau, just like the stage last year into Tarbes where we had Freire and Rojas dueling it out for 3rd place.

 

[Mellow Velo]

The trick is not to think of it as a mountain stage but as a medium mountain stage that got crazy for a moment. Then it's awesome.

The real trick is to appreciate that the same sort of start often happens at the Giro and the Vuelta, but due to extra tv coverage, we only get to see this "action" at the Tour.
This Vuelta has had some crazy attacking, during first hour or so.........but only according to live race updates.

Judge that "medium" mountain stage on the last 60 or so kms and you have Barredo's attack, him being left out to fry by the rest, while the peloton take a sightseeing tour of the Pyrenean foothills.