Stage of the year.

[The Hitch]

Could a mod please change "Other/Vino" to just "other". I think it was autofill that did that.

OMOV.

What was the best GT stage of 2011.

Write in candidates welcome.

But Libertine, write in stages do have to be - cycling. Your motorsport heroes winning some race somewhere does not count.

Main contenders:

Giro 9 Messina to Etna –Contador puts in incredible climbing performance to destroy all his rivals the first major climb.

Giro 15 Conegliano to Gardeccia-Val di Fassa– 5 major mountains with 6000m of climbing cumulating in a 60km live tt battle between Nieve and Garzelli over 3 passes for the stage win, as fireworks for GC behind also come 60k from end..

Tour 16 Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux – Gap - Epic battle over climb and descent for the stage between EBH and Garmin double act, overshadowed by 3 Contador attacks that crack Schleck.

Tour 18 Pinerolo – Col du Galibier- Historic 60k solo from Andy Schleck wins the stage but Evans paces up final climb to keep himself in driving seat.

Tour 19 Modane – L'Alpe d'Huez- Contador attack while breakaway is still forming, pushes contenders to their limits from the word go, breaking Voeckler, but 2nd attack at the bottom of L'Alpe, fails to hold off Roland.

Tour 20 Grenoble – Cadel Evans crushes Andy Schleck in final tt as Tony Martin takes the stage.

Vuelta 7 Úbeda - Córdoba – Liquigas shock the cycling world by launching a stunning team downhill out of knowhere on an unfancied stage, to put time into rivals take 4 out of the top 5 positions and give cyclings greatest prodigy his first GT win.

Vuelta 13 Astorga to La Farrapona, David De La fuente abandons stage chances mere km from the end to Taramei, in order to pace friend JJ Cobo back into GC contention, as just behind Froome and Wiggins blow away race favorite Vincenzo Nibali

Vuelta 17 Faustino V to Peña Cabarga. Chris Froome, in heroic last chance attack, drops race leader Leader JJ Cobo who astonishingly himself comes back and drops Froome, before the young star manages to squeeze through for a stage win, in the final 10m.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Stage 20, 2011 was an ITT around Grenoble. Stage 20, 2008 was an ITT from Cerilly to Saint Amand Montrond.

 

[The Hitch]

Personaly I wish I could choose 1 fro each gt, as there was one from each gt that really stood out.

Gardeccia was obviously something special but Gap had probably the biggest GC impact of the entire race but it came as an absolute shock as we all expected a snoozefest which adds so much to it and its probably the stage from the list that I remember best of all.

And yet, when I look at how much was actually going on in the stages then Vuelta 13, even though few people will probably vote for it, had at one point 4 groups on the road.

The cameras had to show Taramei taking the plaudits but we wanted to see Cobo getting paced by DDLF. Meanwhile 20 seconds down the road Froome is tearing it up and behind them groups of scattered riders with Purito and Nibali among them. We dont see it as so significant now, but the day before that stage everyone was pretty sure that Nibali was going to win that Vuelta and there he was losing it, but so much was happening in front.

It was like an overload so much was happening that we were trying to understand.
,

Stage 20, 2011 was an ITT around Grenoble. Stage 20, 2008 was an ITT from Cerilly to Saint Amand Montrond.

lol yeah copied and pasted from the wrong thing there. Mods change that as well please.

Good spot btw. Though of course its not surprising you know that one in particular

 

[cineteq]

Vuelta 6: Nibali & Liquigas amazing downhill assault
Tour 18: Evans wins the Tour

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

TDF 18. No competition really.

 

[Forunculo]

Giro

Stage 15: Epic battle between Nieve and Garzelli and Nibali tried something different against Contador. Nibali and Contador made the stage. The bad thing was a conservative Scarponi taking 1:30 over Nibali.


Tour

Stages: 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20: Impossible to ignore one of them. The first 2 weeks were absolute boring, but the last week was an hymn to cycling. Contador attacking in 2cat climbs, Andy hystorical solo and Evans defence, Contador suicidal attack to save his honor as current champion and Evans hammering the TT as Indurain. One triggered an other. The last week was a pack to me.

Vuelta

Stage 14, 15 and 17: The most open GT of the year. First you think Jrod, Anton and Scarponi were the favourites, later Nibali, Wiggins and at the end
Froome and Cobo, Angliru and Pena Cabarga. The vuelta lacked one tricky stage at the end at the Basque, something like classic stage with many 2 and 3cat clims near the end.


I think this is the best year I remember seeing the bunch of epic stages. 2011 has been a good year for cycling. Few doping issues except Contador case (more political) and lot of good stages.

 

[hfer07]

Tour de Suisse Stage 3 Brig-Glis → Grindelwald, 108 km

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtpQ_7Bj_YM
http://www.steephill.tv/2011/tour-de-suisse/photos/stage-03/

 

[ramjambunath]

Tour de Suisse Stage 3 Brig-Glis → Grindelwald, 108 km

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtpQ_7Bj_YM
http://www.steephill.tv/2011/tour-de-suisse/photos/stage-03/

Definitely best individual stage of the year.

Best GT stage- 18 TdF, it would have been Gardeccia Giro if someone had challenged Contador which seemed a much better spectacle but lacked the meaning in terms of the overall classification as that of Galibier.

 

[Parrulo]

its gardeccia for me man that was a proper stage for the real hard man. as good as the alp d'huez stage was this year, it was only 100k long and had 50k of descend and flat btw the second to last and last climb.

stage 3 of the TdS was also amazing and imo much better then some stages on that list.

 

[Quixote]

Could a mod please change "Other/Vino"

Tour 20 Grenoble – Cadel Evans crushes Andy Schleck in final tt as Tony Martin takes the stage.
.

I know that this is simplistic, but for me the stage of the year was Cadel on the TT of Tour 20. On cycling world's biggest stage with everything to lose, Cadel kept his focus and pounded out the TT of a lifetime. It's the drama of the moment and the brilliance of the performance that I appreciate.
By the way, Hitch, good thread.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Tour de Suisse Stage 3 Brig-Glis → Grindelwald, 108 km

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtpQ_7Bj_YM
http://www.steephill.tv/2011/tour-de-suisse/photos/stage-03/

Who's that hot podium girl to the right?

 

[airstream]

Galibier, for sure. That raid illustrated brightly how weak and helpless peloton can be under really brave, audacious, up to a karmic self-destruction, attack. That stage is a value in and of itself. It's like Van Gogh's painting, which he hidden to sell for a rainy day and buy a slice of something eatable. It's a gold reserve of world cycling.

I don't get people who didn't like that stage even if they're Contador's fans. Eventually we love cycling more than any particular rider as I'd like to think.

 

[Marmot]

For me, it was stage 15 of the Giro (Gardeccia), but stage 19 of the Tour (L'Alpe d'Huez) was not far behind.

 

[Eshnar]

Gardeccia for me.
Hardest stage and best spectacle. Not meaningful for the gc but perfection doesn't exist I guess.

 

[Ferminal]

There is only one day where I couldn't leave my seat for 2-3 hours.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Galibier, for sure. That raid illustrated brightly how weak and helpless peloton can be under really brave, audacious, up to a karmic self-destruction attack. That stage is a value in and of itself. It's like Van Gogh's painting, which he hidden to sell for a rainy day and buy a slice of something eatable. It's a gold reserve of world cycling.

I don't get people who didn't like that stage even if they're Contador's fans. Eventually we love cycling more than any particular rider as I'd like to think.

I didn't like that stage, but not because I am a Contador fan, no, because I dislike Andy.

For me, the two best stages were Giro stage 9 and Giro stage 15. Because I didn't get to see stage 15 in it's whole, only the last few kilometers, I chose stage 9. But from what I got to see on youtube stage 15 was huge.

Also, LOL? Because this "That raid illustrated brightly how weak and helpless peloton can be under really brave, audacious, up to a karmic self-destruction attack. That stage is a value in and of itself. It's like Van Gogh's painting, which he hidden to sell for a rainy day and buy a slice of something eatable. It's a gold reserve of world cycling." is clearly contradicting the last line of your post. It seems obvious to me you're speaking from fanboy perspective.

And that last sentence is not true in my case. I'm primarily a Contador fan. Sure, the sport is amazing, but nowhere as exciting without your favorites and not so favorites battling against each other. To me, sport is always much less interesting without your favorites. That's for example why I don't watch football as much as I used to. I'm just weird like that.

 

[Mellow Velo]

A tough choice between Gardeccia and Galibier.
However, if one is objective and removes the subjective element of which GT one prefers, the Giro stage comes out on top.

Both stages warmed up 3 climbs from home, with the serious attacking beginning on the penultimate ascent.

The Giro stage comes out on top, because of two factors:
The Gardeccia stage involved a large number of attacking moves from various participants, while the Galibier boiled down one, excellent attacking strategy and ensuing chase.
(kind of flies in the face of the current, depth of field=quality, debate)

While fascinating, the run off the Izoard summit, up to the serious sections of the Galibier, from Briancon, was endless.
Meanwhile, from the top slopes of the Passo Giau, over the Marmolada/Fedaia, to evil ramp at Gardeccia all came within the same distance.

 

[Kvinto]

I would say Col du Galibier was the most epic GC ride of the year, it was the Tour battle showdown and it was something different in terms of tactics used by the main contender(s) but as the question stands "What was the best Grand tour stage of 2011" it is definitely Val di Fassa. Beautiful ride by both Garzelli and Nieve, a dramatic plot, an awesome come back by Nieve and finally an excellent victory. These are the most memorable GT moments in 2011 for me.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I have decided to go with the stage 20 ITT though I think any 3 of the tour stages for me could of been the stage I would have chosen. Evans absolutely dominated and confirmed his victory in what was deemed impossible by many 'experts'. Too slow? Too old? No. Too good!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Giro, stage 4, Wouter Weylandt memorial parade.

Though if I can't have that, then Rifugio Gardeccia.

Other non-GT ones worth mentioning:
Vuelta a Asturias, stage 3, Luarca - Santuario del Acebo
Vuelta a Asturias, stage 5, Tartieres Auto - Alto del Naranco
Tour de Suisse, stage 3 - Brig - Grindelwald
Vuelta a Burgos, stage 5 - Vilviestre del Pinar - Lagunas de Neila

MotoGP doesn't have "stages" so I couldn't pick it even if I wanted to (I don't actually care that much for MotoGP, I just like being facetious).

 

[airstream]

Also, LOL? Because this "That raid illustrated brightly how weak and helpless peloton can be under really brave, audacious, up to a karmic self-destruction attack. That stage is a value in and of itself. It's like Van Gogh's painting, which he hidden to sell for a rainy day and buy a slice of something eatable. It's a gold reserve of world cycling." is clearly contradicting the last line of your post. It seems obvious to me you're speaking from fanboy perspective.

I'm a fan but I'll never use it to flatter my riders and denegrate the others. I like cycling. I don't like myself in my love (personal preferences) to cycling as all of them are real heroes for me. In 2009 I'd call the Verbier without thinking.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

It's the Col du Galibier stage, even though I'm not an Andy fan, that was one hell of an amazing attack and stage. He really really deserved that win!

 

[Dancing On The Pedals]

Toss up between Gardeccia at the Giro or the stage to Alpe d'huez. Seeing Contador go so early I remember thinking 'what the ...' and then wow! Gardeccia was just a brutal, attritional, and fantastic stage to watch.

Best stage finish for me is Pena Carbega - fantastic and exhilarating to watch.

 

[Kwibus]

Stage 15 Giro.

Epic, just epic. The big names started attacking with 3 mountains to go. Nieve winning in an heroic way. etc etc etc.

 

[Mellow Velo]

I have decided to go with the stage 20 ITT though I think any 3 of the tour stages for me could of been the stage I would have chosen. Evans absolutely dominated and confirmed his victory in what was deemed impossible by many 'experts'. Too slow? Too old? No. Too good!

2 posts after I say about being objective.
The question was: What was the best Grand tour stage of 2011?
Not: Which Grand Tour stage excited you the most?

Actually, I'm quite surprised that an ITT makes Hitch's cut.