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The worst Grand Tour you can remember

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Re:

ebandit said:
...indurain years.....if i remember correctly including 2 x 60km pan flat time trials.........

Mark L
I actually enjoyed those. Everyone attacking and Indurain winching himself back, crushing their spirit. Occasionally someone would seem to reach escape velocity but they would eventually be sucked in by the giant mass of power.

It's like heavyweight boxing, for me. Styles make fights. You get to huge overaggressive gorillas together and it's over in two rounds, tops. Two guys dancing around one another for fifteen rounds is no fun either.

For instance, I thought this Tour was going to be like the Rumble in The Jungle, with Nairo taking the punches as Froome tired himself out until he turned it around at the end. But he got goaded into attacking, and got pegged hard. Makes the final-round comeback all the more difficult.

Anyway, have to agree with those pointing at 2012 as the TdF apocalypse of boredom.
 
Re:

ebandit said:
...indurain years.....if i remember correctly including 2 x 60km pan flat time trials.........

Mark L

...but isn't that what many here are saying is missing from the current Tours: the long time trials that necessitate epic attacks by the little climbers in the mountains to compensate for time lost, supposedly making for a more entertaining event?
 
Jun 30, 2014
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The 2012 TdF or the 2012 Giro, probably the Tour because of Sky being so dominant (another remarkable thing about those 2 races is the fact that I've never seen so many people cheer for one team in one race only to hate them in the other one, everyone cheered for Uran and Henao in the Giro and hated the Skytrain that controlled the Tour).
 
Jul 6, 2016
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I hated the Hesjedal Giro and the Horner Vuelta, just because of the ugly image of such average GC racers suddenly winning. And oh I hated 2006, when I would finally see my hero Jan winning the Tour in an epic battle with Basso. After they got cut out I massively cheered for Klöden but the weakened T-Mobile team didn't chase either Pereiro as Landis and therefore the deserved winner in pure climbing and TT'ing ended up just third.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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El Pistolero said:
therealthing said:
2014 Tour by far. After Contador went there was no point even watching. No way was anyone going to even try to stop Nibali. Boring racing, apart from the cobble stage.

Nibali attacked a lot, hardly boring.

This Tour so far is the most boring one I've ever seen. The only excitement came from Peter Sagan's echelon stage and I guess Froomie's descent. The running Froome thingie is excitement for the wrong reasons, so I don't count it.

Giro 2016 was much better than this Tour has been so far!

And I'm saying this as a Belgian, and we have 2 Tour stages, wore yellow and a Belgian is leading the KoM competition. And I still find it boring.

Which doesn't mean much since belgians aren't the nationalistic type anyways.

You're a nibali fan, and he won one of the most epic stages in that giro and you dislike froome so it's hard to call you objective and using the belgian card to presumre you're neutral ain't working.

The first 2 weeks, the tour has been far better than the giro. Nothing happened at all in the giro until now.

And this comes from a contador fan. Although i'm belgian but i rather dislike cheering for someone cause he happens to be born in the same country as me
 
Jul 20, 2015
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Moments of excitement, Froome attacks on the descent, multiple attempted attacks by GC contenders on the way up to Andorra in an epic setting, Sagan and Froome attacking in the crosswinds, Yates getting taken out by a 1km banner, Froome, Porte & Mollema being taken out by a motor bike after leaving Quintana struggling massively on the Ventoux. All this and its only been 13 stages, with the last week looking very hard. I say exciting tours leave you talking about it with your mates, you saying this isn't the case after at least one of these incident?
 
Apr 3, 2011
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Re: Re:

PremierAndrew said:
tretiak said:
This tour. Running cyclist without bike. Go down in history.
Talk about a guy who can not keep nerves.

I think he was planning on running all the way, because he heard the team car was 5 minutes behind

imagine good old times when Vroom would have to fix his bike himself... but no blacksmith workshop this time... maybe sheets of carbon in the back pocket and a makeshift roadside oven built from stone, fire startded using DI2 battery

that would be best tour in ages!
 
So far this one, the race is already over and no third week yet.....and one of my favourite riders is Yates but still think its the worst tour.Theres no way Yates and Mollema will take any chances over the next stages,a 2nd and 3rd place in the tour for these guys is quite an achievement.
 
Re:

blaxland said:
So far this one, the race is already over and no third week yet.....and one of my favourite riders is Yates but still think its the worst tour.Theres no way Yates and Mollema will take any chances over the next stages,a 2nd and 3rd place in the tour for these guys is quite an achievement.

As has been the norm? I don't think the race is over, but surely things don't look worse than the last few years as far as time gaps heading into the third week go.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
RedheadDane said:
Giro 2011

Sure, the racing was good, but the tragedies overshadowed it.
And the stupid aftermatch as well.

Giro 2011? One of the best I can remember.

Giro 2012 the worst, then Tour 2012, Vuelta 2011.

What was good about the 2011 Giro? That route was absolutely horrible and rightly so Zomegan got fired after it.

Agree the the 2012 versions of the Giro and Tour were straight up like watching paint dry
 
This Tour is pretty bad, not because of the time gaps but more because of the farcical situations that have occurred. I honestly found it hard to get enthused about the Tour this year as I think it's just gotten to big and is more of a circus than a cycling race, hopefully the last week changes my mind :)
 
It is hard to blame ASO. The route is not so bad at all. Sure they could put more hard hilly classic type stages that could be difficult to control by SKY instead of dull flat sprinter stages.
ASO cannot do nothing with the strenght of Sky team unless they go with money cap way, that works so well in US sport.
Anyway this tour is far from worst. CAV beating Kittel without proper train, GVA keeping yellow next stage, Sagan against Orica, sprinter teams eating dust from Froome and Sagan, Froome doing Nibali in downhill, Molema bridging and attacking Froome, very promising battle for podium. Still 8 stages to go. Ok yerseys are probably done, but cycling here is not so bad at all.
Thanks GOD cycling is not only mano a mano HC climbing
 
Top 10 of the worst GTs:

1. Tour 2005
2. Tour 2004
3. Tour 2003
4. Tour 2002
5. Tour 2001
6. Tour 2000
7. Tour 1999
8. Tour 2016
9. Tour 2015
10. Tour 2013

Those who haven't seen the Tour before 1999 simply have no idea what this race is supposed to look like. Back then you didn't know beforehand who was going to win. When Rominger or Chiappucci attacked, Indurain had to chase them down by himself, dropping Bugno in the process. There was suspense for yellow in the mountain stages of the final week. There was a sportive battle between individuals.

Since 1999 this race has been killed by US Postal and their carbon copy Team Sky. When five of the ten best climbers are in the same team it's like watching a bad movie, when you secretly hope that one of the bad guys is going to win but you know it's not going to happen. Henao, Poels and Landa are cowards. If they were the leader of another team this race might be worth watching. If one rich team can buy all of them to become helpers of the "hero" it turns the Tour de France into bad entertainment, unbearable to watch.

I don't blame ASO. I think they have the same feelings and they're trying to design a course that gives attackers a chance. UCI is something else. They have favored US Postal and Team Sky with their decisions, so they are part of the problem.
 
Re:

classicomano said:
Probably that Lance tour where Kloden got 2nd and Basso got 3rd. Im not quite sure why but I just remember feeling really depressed about that one.
That was 2004. After Jan came so close in 2003 and Basso and Sastre being so keen for a fight I can understand. Until Alpe d'Huez it looked like Lance would have a fight on his hands but he just blew everyone away.
 
Jul 5, 2011
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Its funny comparing the epic ordeals of boredom. Summer is flying by, good time to get out there guys. The record button is my ally, skip the dreck and the boring bits.
 
Re:

Pantani_lives said:
Top 10 of the worst GTs:

1. Tour 2005
2. Tour 2004
3. Tour 2003
4. Tour 2002
5. Tour 2001
6. Tour 2000
7. Tour 1999
8. Tour 2016
9. Tour 2015
10. Tour 2013

Those who haven't seen the Tour before 1999 simply have no idea what this race is supposed to look like. Back then you didn't know beforehand who was going to win. When Rominger or Chiappucci attacked, Indurain had to chase them down by himself, dropping Bugno in the process. There was suspense for yellow in the mountain stages of the final week. There was a sportive battle between individuals.

Since 1999 this race has been killed by US Postal and their carbon copy Team Sky. When five of the ten best climbers are in the same team it's like watching a bad movie, when you secretly hope that one of the bad guys is going to win but you know it's not going to happen. Henao, Poels and Landa are cowards. If they were the leader of another team this race might be worth watching. If one rich team can buy all of them to become helpers of the "hero" it turns the Tour de France into bad entertainment, unbearable to watch.

I don't blame ASO. I think they have the same feelings and they're trying to design a course that gives attackers a chance. UCI is something else. They have favored US Postal and Team Sky with their decisions, so they are part of the problem.

Cowards? They've all made great progress at Sky, Poels is now a monument winner, Henao a more versatile rider and Landa won his first stage race and was well placed in the Giro prior to getting sick.
 
Re:

Pantani_lives said:
Top 10 of the worst GTs:

1. Tour 2005
2. Tour 2004
3. Tour 2003
4. Tour 2002
5. Tour 2001
6. Tour 2000
7. Tour 1999
8. Tour 2016
9. Tour 2015
10. Tour 2013

Those who haven't seen the Tour before 1999 simply have no idea what this race is supposed to look like. Back then you didn't know beforehand who was going to win. When Rominger or Chiappucci attacked, Indurain had to chase them down by himself, dropping Bugno in the process. There was suspense for yellow in the mountain stages of the final week. There was a sportive battle between individuals.

Since 1999 this race has been killed by US Postal and their carbon copy Team Sky. When five of the ten best climbers are in the same team it's like watching a bad movie, when you secretly hope that one of the bad guys is going to win but you know it's not going to happen. Henao, Poels and Landa are cowards. If they were the leader of another team this race might be worth watching. If one rich team can buy all of them to become helpers of the "hero" it turns the Tour de France into bad entertainment, unbearable to watch.

I don't blame ASO. I think they have the same feelings and they're trying to design a course that gives attackers a chance. UCI is something else. They have favored US Postal and Team Sky with their decisions, so they are part of the problem.

This is bang on, especially the bad movie analogy.

I stopped watching during the Armstrong years, and am only 1/4 in during these Sky years.

Having said that, the Indurain years were pretty bloody dull - one dominant rider and too many pretenders is enough to make it a bore, especially if the dominant rider has the template of 'crush the tt and defend the mountains.'

Having abstained from the early 00's, I can't judge which one was worse, so I have to put 2012 number one. The main reason it sucked was because it totally ended the renaissance period from '06-'11. Was basically like getting hit over the head with an accounting book after a few days at some rave festival.

Didn't make it to the end of 2014, but at least there was some drama to the half-way point.

2016 has been alright. Seeing the yellow jersey run up Mt Ventoux secures it safely away from any top ten lists.
 
Re: Re:

StryderHells said:
Valv.Piti said:
RedheadDane said:
Giro 2011

Sure, the racing was good, but the tragedies overshadowed it.
And the stupid aftermatch as well.

Giro 2011? One of the best I can remember.
...

What was good about the 2011 Giro? That route was absolutely horrible and rightly so Zomegan got fired after it.
...

I don't care how good/bad the route or the race was. It doesn't matter.
I'm sure if I was old enough to actually remember, then the 1995 TdF would be up there as well, because for me a GT - or any race - where someone died will always be worse than anything.
 
Apr 3, 2011
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Re:

rainman said:
Its funny comparing the epic ordeals of boredom. Summer is flying by, good time to get out there guys. The record button is my ally, skip the dreck and the boring bits.

exactly!

great exciting tour this year - you can do your great exciting bike ride in the afternoon with no fear of losing any action, then come back for the last great exciting 10-20k if you think it's worth live (I usually tend to leave sprint stages for later)

and after great exciting Giro you can look forward to great exciting Vuelta
 
Re:

carton said:
I think this Tour has been the best in years. GC attacks in flats and downhills, sprints decided by millimeters, Sagan crushing it and thoroughly earning his green jersey, a genuine battle for the polka dots (sad to see Pinot out, though), surprise contenders (Yates, Mollema). Not to mention all the utter madness. Outside of the fact that Froome seems to be by far the strongest, I've found it very, very entertaining.

100%.