Everybody has his opinions. I just hope the new age guys (i don´t mean that insulting, you just don´t know better) are a minority & organizers won´t listen to them. Otherwise we soon have Tour of Polands at the TdF. There you have everything: Tiny time gaps, undecided GCs until the final km, "exciting" racing.
I guess for you all the GT´s pre 1989 were crap, since they were decided by many minutes... Omg, what has pro cycling become?...
As Dekker said: Last years tour had exactly two stages. Funny it´s those which you mentioned. If no Giro 2012, then the 2011 tour would be easily the worst ever GT. I don´t have a short memory (as some others seem to have): The Schleck thread was full of despising posts about the non racing that happened during 2 1/2 weeks in 2011.
And the Giro 2012 had non attacking stages until estm. 1.000 meters from the finish line + one stage which could have made an impact on GC were riders basically went on strike. And, again funny here, your post just shows the lone exciting stage of 2012. You are cherry picking.
Here are the good (but surely not epic; i give you that point because you are right here) stages of 2012: 7, 8, 9 (yes people still mentioned Canc & Martin, so no boring TT like in the Armstrong-Days), 11, 16, and 17. That´s six stages. Double as much as Tdf-11 & Giro-12 combined...
Decided after Week 1?
Deep in week two there was a poll here saying 70% that Froome will win (ok, actually i am honest i voted easily for Wiggins), well even Rijs thought that. Anyway, if the tour was decided after week one, how comes the poll didn´t say 100% Wiggins?
Seems you didn´t see & followed the stories of this tour...