"Tour de Bore"

[William H]

The the two best TTers were also the two best climbers, and were both on the same team. That's always a set up for a boring Tour.

If Froome had been competing with Wiggins, it could have been a lot of fun. Particularly if Froome hadn't lost that time to a puncture

 

[montagna lunga]

I don't think it's possible for this tour to get any more bearing. When the highlight of a race is a few flat tires, you can't get any more boring than that. Someone just give Wiggins the trophy already because no one is going to attack.

Learn to spell and your trolls might get more participation

 

[slim charles]

I don't know how it rates in comparison with previous Tours, but this one rarely provided any real tension. Not all stages were terrible, far from it, but as far as GC is concerned, it was boring.

I hope for much more mountains and little less TT next year.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I don't know how it rates in comparison with previous Tours, but this one rarely provided any real tension. Not all stages were terrible, far from it, but as far as GC is concerned, it was boring.

I hope for much more mountains and little less TT next year.

You guys should look at the GC. Those are some huge gaps. This Tour can' therfore have been as easy a syou claim
If you want so see close races, go and watch 100m running.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

er, BR... nowhere in that post you quote does anybody say it was easy... just that it was boring.

And it was. Because there was no tension whatsoever.

 

[pmcg76]

er, BR... nowhere in that post you quote does anybody say it was easy... just that it was boring.

And it was. Because there was no tension whatsoever.

I think the only tension would have been if Froome had ridden his own race. Would have added a mite of tension anyway even if it was still a SKY fest.

 

[Red Rick]

This tour was ****ing boring, there you have it. The most exciting stage was yesterday and that says pretty much

 

[Bavarianrider]

If you want tension read a criminals tory.
It was a brilliant Tour actually.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If you want tension read a criminals tory.
It was a brilliant Tour actually.

I only watched the first half, but I do seem to recall that once they left Belgium the quality of the tarmac was excellent.

 

[the asian]

If you want tension read a criminals tory.
It was a brilliant Tour actually.

But still your darling Tony martin failed to take advantage of it.

This type of borefest was kind of expected when the TT heavy parcours was announced and with the absence of Contador & A Schleck, even though nobody thought SKY would be so dominant.
This is why I'm against having so much TT kms in the Tour, despite the opinion of Bavarian Riders and some others who argue that more TT kms means more attacking from the climbers. The Tour normally doesn't have enough properly designed mountain stages for the climbers to take back lost time. This encourages powerful teams, who will have a good Time Trialler as a leader to smash his rivals in the TTs and then to ride conservatively in the mountains. for example in the past two decades, Banesto with Indurain & USPS with Armstorng.
Having such big time gaps between riders, especially because of the dominance of their TT ability doesn't mean a interesting race, to the contrary it turns out to be a rather boring one.

 

[Bavarianrider]

But still your darling Tony martin failed to take advantage of it.

This type of borefest was kind of expected when the TT heavy parcours was announced and with the absence of Contador & A Schleck, even though nobody thought SKY would be so dominant.
This is why I'm against having so much TT kms in the Tour, despite the opinion of Bavarian Riders and some others who argue that more TT kms means more attacking from the climbers. The Tour normally doesn't have enough properly designed mountain stages for the climbers to take back lost time. This encourages powerful teams, who will have a good Time Trialler as a leader to smash his rivals in the TTs and then to ride conservatively in the mountains. for example in the past two decades, Banesto with Indurain & USPS with Armstorng.
Having such big time gaps between riders, especially because of the dominance of their TT ability doesn't mean a interesting race, to the contrary it turns out to be a rather boring one.

Apart of Froom. Where were the climbers that were better than Wiggins????????????????????????

 

[the asian]

If you want tension read a criminals tory.
It was a brilliant Tour actually.

Apart of Froom. Where were the climbers that were better than Wiggins????????????????????????

Untill this tour, Nibali, VDB & Evans were better climbers than Wiggins. But the attacks they did, didn't sustain because they were easily brought back by a dominant Sky Team, and most of the mountain stages weren't properly designed for an attack to stick.

 

[Derrick]

I have made this point on another thread but the reason why attacks didn't last was because 50 yards out of the saddle and then sitting down on 39x27 does not constitute an attack. With well surfaced, evenly graded roads of modest 10% gradients it's never going to succeed. Especially with so few either unwilling or unable to follow with counter attacks. Too many were content to follow. It wont be long before we have a bunch full of Leipheimers.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

This tour is no where near the level of excitement of last years, of course with 100 km of time trialing and a team like sky bringing back all the dangerous attacks we can't expect much. To bad there is not a Schleck or Contador type rider at this tour, it is missing a rider that can blow the field apart with a single move.

Some people seem to have a very very short memory:

Last years tour actually had backward riding by the Schlecks. There was so much non racing in there that obscure guys like Vanendert won MTF´s. This years tour is light years ahead of last years. And, BTW, the worst GT ever was the Giro 2012. There was no racing (outside of De Gendt´s solo win) at all!!

Actually this tour was even better than expected since many thought (especially me): "Omg, no Schleck, no AC, not many MTF, 100 km TT; this will be boring". Yet we saw some separation; some attacks wayy further away from the finish line than JRod (Giro 2012) or FSchleck (TdF 2011) did; and if Sky hadn´t put all cards on Wiggins, we´d have even witnessed some fireworks by Froome.

This tour was very much ok, considering that the worst was expected since the presentation of the route.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Fact is: There hasn't been a great Tour since 2003.
The last five have been.................well, fill in the blank.
The Tour is designed to generate money, not excitement.

 

[Duartista]

Fear not. Prudhomme is going to invite Colombians next year: http://www.velo101.com/pros/article/interview-de-christian-prudhomme--5666

 

[gthx_gthx_]

Some people seem to have a very very short memory:

Last years tour actually had backward riding by the Schlecks. There was so much non racing in there that obscure guys like Vanendert won MTF´s. This years tour is light years ahead of last years. And, BTW, the worst GT ever was the Giro 2012. There was no racing (outside of De Gendt´s solo win) at all!!

Actually this tour was even better than expected since many thought (especially me): "Omg, no Schleck, no AC, not many MTF, 100 km TT; this will be boring". Yet we saw some separation; some attacks wayy further away from the finish line than JRod (Giro 2012) or FSchleck (TdF 2011) did; and if Sky hadn´t put all cards on Wiggins, we´d have even witnessed some fireworks by Froome.

This tour was very much ok, considering that the worst was expected since the presentation of the route.

What ? Last week of TDF 2011 was amazing , AC and AS were attacking , i mean really attacking far from the last climb. And unlike this year it was interesting to watch those crazy attacks because there was no team sky doing all the work for a leader who has never really been in the wind in the mountain. However last year we all saw Evans killing himself to limit the losses on Andy Schelck. We saw contador attacking uphill and downhill on medium mountain stages , wasn't that amazing ? The Rest was boring though.

For me , the tour we'just had was almost just as expected , which is not really a success.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Untill this tour, Nibali, VDB & Evans were better climbers than Wiggins. But the attacks they did, didn't sustain because they were easily brought back by a dominant Sky Team, and most of the mountain stages weren't properly designed for an attack to stick.

Sorry but that's flat out Bull****.
Nobody of them was capable to drop Wiggins that's the reality.

For you guys a cycling race is only great if the race is close and a pure climber wins it at the end.
You have the Giro for this, the Tour was never like this.

 

[guncha]

5 riders looking at eachother up a 15 km long mountain is just as depressing as what we've witnessing in the last week of the Tour - Close GC or not.

It is far more depressing to wait 9 months for TDF and to know that mountain spectacle is possible only in three stages and to know that Colombier, Peregue and Garnier will be wasted... If I remember correctly then Hejsedal and Rodriguez gain time on each other multiple times in the mountains of this year's Giro...

 

[simoni]

Besides mountain stages before the first weekend I think the routes have been pretty varied lately.


I think '94 was pretty cool with Indurains raid on Hautacam, brake through by Virenque and Pantani, Poli on Ventoux (and as a Dane three danish stage victories makes it a bit special too). Of course Rominger not living up to the promise of '93 was disappointing. Of course a route like '94 would make for an unheard of amount of moaning about the number of sprint stages in the first half of the race.
Agreed on '04 and '05.

I was lucky enough to follow the '94 tour through the pyrenees and alps and thought it was pretty good overall. We had Boardman's awesome prologue, Yates grabbing yellow, two cracking stages in the pyrenees (Hautacam, Virenques long break to Luz Ardiden), Poli on Ventoux and a great passage through the alps from Ugroumov. Thinking back, it was a far tougher tour than we're used to seeing nowadays.

The GC has been fairly dull this year but there's been a lot of exciting stages - the Jura in particular.

With regard to downhill finishes, I see nothing wrong with the peyresourde day - thats close to being a MTF really. But the stage to Foix was a complete waste.

I've been wondering how many kms of TT is ideal - I'd say that each of this years TTs have been about 10-15km too long. Add another mountain stage in the alps (e.g. over some of the northern climbs such as the Aravis, Colombier, Joux Plane, and then I reckon the balance would then be about right.

 

[gthx_gthx_]

Sorry but that's flat out Bull****.
Nobody of them was capable to drop Wiggins that's the reality.

I am no sure of anything i am going to say : But did wiggins ever really made the chase on his own in any mountain , i think he always had Froome to help him ?

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

What ? Last week of TDF 2011 was amazing , AC and AS were attacking , i mean really attacking far from the last climb. And unlike this year it was interesting to watch those crazy attacks because there was no team sky doing all the work for a leader who has never really been in the wind in the mountain. However last year we all saw Evans killing himself to limit the losses on Andy Schelck. We saw contador attacking uphill and downhill on medium mountain stages , wasn't that amazing ? The Rest was boring though.

For me , the tour we'just had was almost just as expected , which is not really a success.

You are right on some points....

But most of us expect great things to happen in mountain stages. We got it from the first day in this TdF, while last year actually.... nothing happened. The late attacks in 2011 were pure desparation (ASchleck, AC). No different this year (VDB, Nibali). And AC´s attacks failed too!

BTW, when did Evans attack last year?? He was riding the same way as Wiggins this year, only w/o a Sky-Train.

 

[the asian]

Fear not. Prudhomme is going to invite Colombians next year: http://www.velo101.com/pros/article/interview-de-christian-prudhomme--5666

And put a TTT of 40 Kms and two ITTs of 60 KMs each.

Does he give any indication of next years' parcours?

 

[jsem94]

What is needed is more challenges throughout the entire three weeks.

 

[gthx_gthx_]

You are right on some points....

But most of us expect great things to happen in mountain stages. We got it from the first day in this TdF, while last year actually.... nothing happened. The late attacks in 2011 were pure desparation (ASchleck, AC). No different this year (VDB, Nibali). And AC´s attacks failed too!

BTW, when did Evans attack last year?? He was riding the same way as Wiggins this year, only w/o a Sky-Train.

I meant Evans leading the whole peloton to limit losses on Andy Schleck on Galibier stage.
And yes Evans rode the same as Wiggo without his train , and on this particular stage it was very interesting to watch.