Tamest opening GT stage

[williamp78]

On a side note, its the first time i've ever seen an entire stage from start to finish live (apart from TTTs)

 

[Viking]

I'd like to remind everyone that grand tours generally only have 5-6 stages with real GC implications (and 2 or 3 of those are chronos, which I find to be boring). So 15-16 stages are legitimate races of their own that mean f★★★ all for that pretty GC jersey. You're not going to find a grand tour with 21 stages that have a realistic opportunity for GC time, so relax and enjoy those other stages for what they are.

I rather enjoyed this stage. I admit it had the normal, predictable, dull runup to the finale that a "sprinter's stage" generally has, but I loved the way the teams raced the last few kms. Just beautiful, really. It was just a shame Viviani couldn't come through with the win after Cannondale blasted everyone and disrupted the typical bunch sprint. Ah well. Cav' is effing dynamite even without an old Saeco-style train.

It wasn't a bad first stage at all. I really don't like the 'traditional' prologue - a chrono, which is 1) boring because there's nothing tactical that makes cycling interesting; and 2) the course is generally too short to have any significant impact on GC (barring a crash or mechanical).

Ideally, I'd like to see a grand tour start with an Amstel Gold kind of stage. Add in bonus time for the top 3 and you've got a stage that can be exciting on it's own and have real GC implications. Then again, the GC favorites would probably all sandbag and wait for that one big mountain stage just before the last rest day. That's just what you get in this type of race.

 

[SafeBet]

It wasn't exciting, but the scenery was lush.
The original parcours was much better, I agree with that.

 

[Winterfold]

I know your talking about the parcours, but just got to say, no one can call the finale of today's stage tame. Pretty epic final for a sprint stage.

Agreed.

I find this forum incredible sometimes - if you didn't like today's stage you should give up watching - you certainly shouldn't set yourself up as an arbiter of the merit, or otherwise, of stages.

That was a fantastic stage to watch.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I rather enjoyed this stage. I admit it had the normal, predictable, dull runup to the finale that a "sprinter's stage" generally has, but I loved the way the teams raced the last few kms. Just beautiful, really. It was just a shame Viviani couldn't come through with the win after Cannondale blasted everyone and disrupted the typical bunch sprint. Ah well. Cav' is effing dynamite even without an old Saeco-style train.

It wasn't a bad first stage at all. I really don't like the 'traditional' prologue - a chrono, which is 1) boring because there's nothing tactical that makes cycling interesting; and 2) the course is generally too short to have any significant impact on GC (barring a crash or mechanical).

Well, I hope we get to see some real racing stages from start to finish then, because start to finish on a piece of crap stage like that is just overkill and a real test of the commentators' ability to waffle about the rest of the race.

Ideally, I'd like to see a grand tour start with an Amstel Gold kind of stage. Add in bonus time for the top 3 and you've got a stage that can be exciting on it's own and have real GC implications. Then again, the GC favorites would probably all sandbag and wait for that one big mountain stage just before the last rest day. That's just what you get in this type of race.

The nearest we've had to that in recent years was in the 2008 Tour (another stage we saw start to finish in fact). Because the finish wasn't categorised, which it should have been, I think a few people underestimated the difficulty of the Plumelec finish:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Agreed.

I find this forum incredible sometimes - if you didn't like today's stage you should give up watching - you certainly shouldn't set yourself up as an arbiter of the merit, or otherwise, of stages.

That was a fantastic stage to watch.

You enjoyed the racing of all four hours? Did you believe Wurf would stay away? If it weren't for that (utterly pointless) solo break, we'd have watched 120km of OPQS riding the group around in bunch formation, does that really advertise the sport better than a competitive race? They could have held the race over one lap of the same circuit and shown a City of Naples 3 hour tourist information video, and it would have had the same effect. In fact, it would have been better, as there would have been fewer crashes.

And people who don't like watching a race where nothing whatsoever happens until the last 5 minutes except some random people crashing, should just stop watching the sport?

 

[bangnz]

I enjoyed the scenery.. Thats what cycling is about right?

I admit im not a big sprint fan and at the conclusion of the stage i had the feeling of "did i really just sit here until 3am for this "

 

[42x16ss]

Stage was a yawnfest. Only interesting stuff was the city of Naples and Wurf testing his legs.

Stage should have been run in reverse, would have encouraged attacks and reduced the sprint a little more.

 

[TourOfTexas]

Yep, that seals it. Radios have got to go.