The Tour is over, before we focus on San Sebastian, Vuelta and the Worlds, first we should discuss - how good was it? An improvement over last year for sure (imo), but that is obviously not saying much, so on scale from 1-10, what would you give it?
Rate Tour De France 2018
- Thread starter Gerrard Slipped haha
- Start date
- Mar 13, 2009
- 29,413
- 3,482
- 28,180
Probably a 5.
The first week was horrible, and after that nobody could really break Sky. Probs to Dumo and LottoNL and Bardet for trying. The others, meh..
The first week was horrible, and after that nobody could really break Sky. Probs to Dumo and LottoNL and Bardet for trying. The others, meh..
- Aug 3, 2015
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5, a lot better than the races in 16 and 17, but overall pretty mediocre race to be honest. The stage to Laruns was great and the mountains were actually ridden rather aggressively by some of the contenders with some pretty nice long range attacks, but yeah.
... but next year! We always hope.
... but next year! We always hope.
5. Points for Degenkolb’s victory, Quintana’s victory, Sagan, Alaphilippe and Lotto-NL. Got tired of this race after two first weeks, also the reason that I didn’t make stage previews anymore (would love to do it for la Vuelta though). SKY boring, but Thomas won at least. It would have been over the top if Froome had won.
Actually, now I think about it, I feel it’s quite a forgettable Tour. Degenkolb’s stage and Quintana’s resurrection was the only instant memories from this race to come to my mind instantly.
Actually, now I think about it, I feel it’s quite a forgettable Tour. Degenkolb’s stage and Quintana’s resurrection was the only instant memories from this race to come to my mind instantly.
- May 9, 2010
- 11,070
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I can't go higher than 5, but I also thought this was better than anything since the 100th edition, which by the way followed the worst TDF of all time (2012), so I am considering this the 2nd best TDF since 2011. And I have to give it 5/10. Mind-blowing.
Like, none of the key MT stages were atrocious or anything, few of them were actually a lot of fun, but there was no point since the Alpe d'Huez stage were you felt Thomas' lead was in danger. But I guess G winning and Dumoulin & Rogla being on Froome's level was something we haven't seen since, well, a long time (not them particularly ofc, just that anyone could follow dawg, which was obviously a given this year). Shame about Porte and the shark, both would probably fight for the win and make the race way better. And Movistar...yeah. Also the sprint stages were nothing to write home about, yeah they actually sucked tbh, whatever.
A giant decline after the Giro, as everyone and their mothers expected, but this is still a 2nd best TDF in the Sky era
Like, none of the key MT stages were atrocious or anything, few of them were actually a lot of fun, but there was no point since the Alpe d'Huez stage were you felt Thomas' lead was in danger. But I guess G winning and Dumoulin & Rogla being on Froome's level was something we haven't seen since, well, a long time (not them particularly ofc, just that anyone could follow dawg, which was obviously a given this year). Shame about Porte and the shark, both would probably fight for the win and make the race way better. And Movistar...yeah. Also the sprint stages were nothing to write home about, yeah they actually sucked tbh, whatever.
A giant decline after the Giro, as everyone and their mothers expected, but this is still a 2nd best TDF in the Sky era
- Aug 3, 2015
- 22,741
- 10,688
- 28,180
I agree, that last stage to Morzine was probably the dirt worst bike racing I have seen. 2017 had a bit more going for it, it actually had a nice stage in the Pyrenees and stuff, altho there were something like 10-11 flat stages or something ridicolous like that. Obviously still a horrible race with a god awful 2009-esque route. 9 this year is still way too much, but they also got unlucky with the weather this year in the first week - no wind and sunny. Coulda been very different.
I was mostly disappointed by the stage to LGB, I had so fond memories from it back from 2009, but using that stage as the first mountain stage is just poor planning.
I was mostly disappointed by the stage to LGB, I had so fond memories from it back from 2009, but using that stage as the first mountain stage is just poor planning.
- Feb 18, 2015
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Before voting I was looking at what my vote was for the last two years. I gave 2016 a 2 and 2017 a 4. I'd say 2018 was as much better than 2017 as 2017 was better than 2016 but giving it a 6 or even a five would mean it was an average gt and imo it was clearly below, so I go for a four again and think I overrated last years race. What I have to say is that I didn't have much time this July and very often only saw the final kilometers of a stage which especially in some high mountain stages where I only saw the last climb might mean my view differs from the one of other people.
My biggest complaint about the tour is that there were once again too many bunch sprints (9 to be precise although some might not count Sagan's 2nd win as a bunch sprint) plus the stage to the Mur de Bretagne which didn't end in a sprint but was still only interesting for two kilometers. I know the tour has always been a sprinter friendly race but 9 is too much and completely nonsensical in a sport which first and foremost should still entertain the fans. I'm also not saying every stage has to be gc relevant (I'm not a huge fan of just putting a climb at the end of every other stage as it's often done in the vuelta) but gt's need variation and this tour, especially the first week, didn't have that. The 2nd week of this years giro showed how it should be done.
Despite some criticism I was therefore quite a big fan of the 3rd weekend of the tour with the two medium mountain stages in the massif central. Yeah stage 14 was basically a one climb stage and yeah the long descent and flat run in made stage 15 irrelevant to the gc battle, but at least those stages offered something no other stage offered. A mtf on the Pic Noir would have made it just another mountain stage but instead we has a unique breakaway battle.
I also really liked the cobbles stage although it didn't really influence the gc.
I'm not really sure what to think about the high mountain stages. I think they were quite a lot better than the ones in the last two years, although both stage 10 and stage 16 were massively disappointing from a gc standpoint. Still they were just lacking that extra bit of excitement. The sky domination on stage 11 was kinda funny even for someone who can't stand the team like me, the battle to Alp d'Huez was really exciting (although Nibali's injury was ofc massively disappointing) and while I think the Pyrenees stages weren't quite as good as the Alps stages we at least had some serious attacks on the yellow jersey and generally a gc that wasn't already decided before the peloton tackled the last mountain range. What the tour was missing though was a really great mountain stage, which I would argue is something the tour has been missing every year since 2011 but this year it especially stood out. A mediocre stage here and there happens in all gt's but there was no stage that will be remembered for years. Even if you don't have big gc action from 50 k out in the past we at least often had stuff like the Ventoux in 2013 and 2016, LPSM in 2015 or Ax3 in 2013, which were or are talking points for years.
Also a few things about the riders in this tour. Firstly, the narrative of Thomas vs Froome was probably the stand out narrative of this race but because Froome cracked this won't be remembered as a big duel. There was no betrayal or a domestique being clearly stronger than his leader. At the end it was really just as if the two were riding for different teams. Freaking Froome vs Landa last year ended up being more interesting.
Secondly, the competition in this tour. Maybe I'm reading too much into things but I think this race was again prove that the competition for the last two years has been really bad. What I found really interesting is that Thomas, Roglic and Dumoulin, who all haven't been gc contenders in the tour so far were all in front of the contenders of the previous two years. People have talked about Bardet and Landa being out of shape but if you compare them to Froome they are actually at a quite similar point to where they were last year. Don't get me wrong, I still think Froome was clearly the best gc rider in the world in the last two years, but I still think a very weak competition made it even easier. Froome in last years shape would have had difficulties to win this year. Unfortunately Porte and Nibali both crashed out, otherwise I think they would have been somewhere in the Roglic/Froome/Dumoulin region as well.
My biggest complaint about the tour is that there were once again too many bunch sprints (9 to be precise although some might not count Sagan's 2nd win as a bunch sprint) plus the stage to the Mur de Bretagne which didn't end in a sprint but was still only interesting for two kilometers. I know the tour has always been a sprinter friendly race but 9 is too much and completely nonsensical in a sport which first and foremost should still entertain the fans. I'm also not saying every stage has to be gc relevant (I'm not a huge fan of just putting a climb at the end of every other stage as it's often done in the vuelta) but gt's need variation and this tour, especially the first week, didn't have that. The 2nd week of this years giro showed how it should be done.
Despite some criticism I was therefore quite a big fan of the 3rd weekend of the tour with the two medium mountain stages in the massif central. Yeah stage 14 was basically a one climb stage and yeah the long descent and flat run in made stage 15 irrelevant to the gc battle, but at least those stages offered something no other stage offered. A mtf on the Pic Noir would have made it just another mountain stage but instead we has a unique breakaway battle.
I also really liked the cobbles stage although it didn't really influence the gc.
I'm not really sure what to think about the high mountain stages. I think they were quite a lot better than the ones in the last two years, although both stage 10 and stage 16 were massively disappointing from a gc standpoint. Still they were just lacking that extra bit of excitement. The sky domination on stage 11 was kinda funny even for someone who can't stand the team like me, the battle to Alp d'Huez was really exciting (although Nibali's injury was ofc massively disappointing) and while I think the Pyrenees stages weren't quite as good as the Alps stages we at least had some serious attacks on the yellow jersey and generally a gc that wasn't already decided before the peloton tackled the last mountain range. What the tour was missing though was a really great mountain stage, which I would argue is something the tour has been missing every year since 2011 but this year it especially stood out. A mediocre stage here and there happens in all gt's but there was no stage that will be remembered for years. Even if you don't have big gc action from 50 k out in the past we at least often had stuff like the Ventoux in 2013 and 2016, LPSM in 2015 or Ax3 in 2013, which were or are talking points for years.
Also a few things about the riders in this tour. Firstly, the narrative of Thomas vs Froome was probably the stand out narrative of this race but because Froome cracked this won't be remembered as a big duel. There was no betrayal or a domestique being clearly stronger than his leader. At the end it was really just as if the two were riding for different teams. Freaking Froome vs Landa last year ended up being more interesting.
Secondly, the competition in this tour. Maybe I'm reading too much into things but I think this race was again prove that the competition for the last two years has been really bad. What I found really interesting is that Thomas, Roglic and Dumoulin, who all haven't been gc contenders in the tour so far were all in front of the contenders of the previous two years. People have talked about Bardet and Landa being out of shape but if you compare them to Froome they are actually at a quite similar point to where they were last year. Don't get me wrong, I still think Froome was clearly the best gc rider in the world in the last two years, but I still think a very weak competition made it even easier. Froome in last years shape would have had difficulties to win this year. Unfortunately Porte and Nibali both crashed out, otherwise I think they would have been somewhere in the Roglic/Froome/Dumoulin region as well.
- Apr 20, 2009
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One of the worst tours I can recall.
1. The sprint stages were lacking top end talent. Finally we get a good amount of sprint stages but we are lacking the top end sprinters to make it exciting. They felt more like Vuelta sprints. Without Ewen, better versions of Cavendish and Greipel they were really lacking.
2. The GC was neutralized by only 3 mtfs and the TTT and ITT.
3. Even the hilly sprints were lacking.
The positives:
1. Quickstep. Every year they prove themselves to be the best team in the tour. No other team races better. Superb work from Gilbert, Alla, Jungels, Richeze and Gaviria.
2. Wanty I love how they attack the race. Pasquallon is a beast.
3. Roglic
4. Dumoulin and Froome both doing a great job after a very difficult Giro.
5. GT after all the hard work I am glad for him. A very humble and gracious winner.
6. Bernal Outside Thomas he was the strongest climber in the race. I hope to see him in the Vuelta.
7. GVA Loved how hard he rides.
8. The strength of the GC field. This is arguably the strongest GC field we have seen in 15 years. The top end with Froome sub par might be lower but the depth was really amazing. The polar opposite of the bare bones weak fields we saw in 2006 to 2012.
Ok maybe in retrospect it was not that bad. But below average.
1. The sprint stages were lacking top end talent. Finally we get a good amount of sprint stages but we are lacking the top end sprinters to make it exciting. They felt more like Vuelta sprints. Without Ewen, better versions of Cavendish and Greipel they were really lacking.
2. The GC was neutralized by only 3 mtfs and the TTT and ITT.
3. Even the hilly sprints were lacking.
The positives:
1. Quickstep. Every year they prove themselves to be the best team in the tour. No other team races better. Superb work from Gilbert, Alla, Jungels, Richeze and Gaviria.
2. Wanty I love how they attack the race. Pasquallon is a beast.
3. Roglic
4. Dumoulin and Froome both doing a great job after a very difficult Giro.
5. GT after all the hard work I am glad for him. A very humble and gracious winner.
6. Bernal Outside Thomas he was the strongest climber in the race. I hope to see him in the Vuelta.
7. GVA Loved how hard he rides.
8. The strength of the GC field. This is arguably the strongest GC field we have seen in 15 years. The top end with Froome sub par might be lower but the depth was really amazing. The polar opposite of the bare bones weak fields we saw in 2006 to 2012.
Ok maybe in retrospect it was not that bad. But below average.
- Jul 20, 2017
- 572
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- 11,780
5.
We saw lot of things in this Tour, but not so much by the GC contenders.
Sagan entertaining as always. Great run by Avermaet fighting hard to stay in yellow.
Alaphilippe was quite entertaining also.
We saw some good sprint performance but stage 6-7-8 were really boring...
Concerning GC, II found favorites were too often waiting for 'tomorrow', then we are left with a lot of "what if".
Also the crashes as always that took main players (Nibali, Porte), allowing sky to sometime reach 40% of the favorite group.
Alps were just terrible.
Stages in pyrénées were corrects, especially the last one which was very cool.
I liked that people tried from far away (Valverde / KRUIJSWIJK / Landa / Bardet), but sadly (from a spectator point of view) team sky several times wasn't left alone working.
Thomas looked very strong, like he could have won by 4min margin, but obviously didn't want to comit too much, perhaps wanting to avoid S. Yates' fate in the Giro.
Dumoulin tried, and if his style isn't super entertaining, at least his position on the bike is glorious (and he actually looks around him).
Quintana showed us that he can still be among the greatest on good occasion.
I think the most anti-show element in this tour was the headset (is it the correct word ?) that killed sooooo many moves. People know too fast who is in the group that escaped, and how much time they have on them.
Better than 2017, but not by much.
We saw lot of things in this Tour, but not so much by the GC contenders.
Sagan entertaining as always. Great run by Avermaet fighting hard to stay in yellow.
Alaphilippe was quite entertaining also.
We saw some good sprint performance but stage 6-7-8 were really boring...
Concerning GC, II found favorites were too often waiting for 'tomorrow', then we are left with a lot of "what if".
Also the crashes as always that took main players (Nibali, Porte), allowing sky to sometime reach 40% of the favorite group.
Alps were just terrible.
Stages in pyrénées were corrects, especially the last one which was very cool.
I liked that people tried from far away (Valverde / KRUIJSWIJK / Landa / Bardet), but sadly (from a spectator point of view) team sky several times wasn't left alone working.
Thomas looked very strong, like he could have won by 4min margin, but obviously didn't want to comit too much, perhaps wanting to avoid S. Yates' fate in the Giro.
Dumoulin tried, and if his style isn't super entertaining, at least his position on the bike is glorious (and he actually looks around him).
Quintana showed us that he can still be among the greatest on good occasion.
I think the most anti-show element in this tour was the headset (is it the correct word ?) that killed sooooo many moves. People know too fast who is in the group that escaped, and how much time they have on them.
Better than 2017, but not by much.
- Mar 20, 2010
- 13,132
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I give it a 6 but mostly for the subplots: Alaphilippe in the polka dots adding panache. Sagan crashing when he had the green wrapped up, but it was iffy if he could actually finish the race. Craddock carrying on day after day with a fractured shoulder to earn $$ for his hometown velodrome damaged in Harvey. The revival of Narito for one day and then he has an awful crash . Degenkolb after suffering a dreadful crash that it took him 2 years to recover from, riding away on the cobbles (I cried). TomDom doing a 2-2 in the Giro/Tour. Gilbert finishing on a fractured kneecap.
But most of all the emergence of Roglic at the GT level. He made a big leap up from his Romandie/Basque Country wins to the 21 day level. He created a fangirl with his cajones taking on multiple Skys, multiple times on multiple days. Hurting all of them except G. And the Telemark landing on the stage win podium sealed the deal. You just have to wait for someone to come along and move you; he has.
. Degenkolb after suffering a dreadful crash that it took him 2 years to recover from, riding away on the cobbles (I cried). TomDom doing a 2-2 in the Giro/Tour. Gilbert finishing on a fractured kneecap.But most of all the emergence of Roglic at the GT level. He made a big leap up from his Romandie/Basque Country wins to the 21 day level. He created a fangirl with his cajones taking on multiple Skys, multiple times on multiple days. Hurting all of them except G. And the Telemark landing on the stage win podium sealed the deal. You just have to wait for someone to come along and move you; he has
.
- Apr 16, 2009
- 17,599
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5.
I thought the route was good. I never imagined Sky dominating like this. And never thought Thomas was going to win. I found few things to cheer for.
I thought the route was good. I never imagined Sky dominating like this. And never thought Thomas was going to win. I found few things to cheer for.
- Feb 10, 2015
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First week was very disappointing and will need big reshuffle.
65km stage didn't pay off as it was your typical course de côte.
The best stages were the last of the Alps tryptique, and the last of the Pyrenees tryptique.
Geraint Thomas was never shaken.
3.
65km stage didn't pay off as it was your typical course de côte.
The best stages were the last of the Alps tryptique, and the last of the Pyrenees tryptique.
Geraint Thomas was never shaken.
3.
- Jul 16, 2011
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I sometimes wonder if any of the people who comment on the CN forums actually like cycling or have any understanding of it. The same people who pray for rain on cobbled stages bemoan the ffect that crashes and mechanicals have on GC. Flippin bonkers.
- Feb 21, 2017
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Re: Re:
Some of us might like riders who can handle a bike in rain or sun, on tarmac or cobbles. It's not exactly zero-sum in this game. I gave it a three, with only Balaphillipe, Sagan, and Degenkolb being the only real highlights. Sky smothered the race as usual, and frankly it was a bit of a bore considering how many OTL'ed, crashed, etc. At least there are some fall classics and the vuelta to look forward to before hybernation. Le tour disappoints as usual, as it has for the last six or seven years. The planning committee needs to rethink, and teams other than sky need to make a plan. Otherwise it will be ho-hum as per the norm.
oldcrank said:
Some of us might like riders who can handle a bike in rain or sun, on tarmac or cobbles. It's not exactly zero-sum in this game. I gave it a three, with only Balaphillipe, Sagan, and Degenkolb being the only real highlights. Sky smothered the race as usual, and frankly it was a bit of a bore considering how many OTL'ed, crashed, etc. At least there are some fall classics and the vuelta to look forward to before hybernation. Le tour disappoints as usual, as it has for the last six or seven years. The planning committee needs to rethink, and teams other than sky need to make a plan. Otherwise it will be ho-hum as per the norm.
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