[grumble]Well, I like to reserve judgement until I’ve seen it all and I hate to be negative but I really do think that was mince. An absolute shadow of what a GT could be. Probably a touch bitter as I took days off for some of the ‘key’ stages.
Yellow - Course design immediately ruled out anyone that didn't have a strong ITT and ensured it was always going to be a three horse race (Wiggins, Evans & Froome). Only one horse was able to race to anything like the best of their abilities. Of the top teams contending the GC, only one turned up with a squad focussing on winning yellow while the rest had multiple or no apparent objectives.
When you are relying on Nibali to animate the race you are going to struggle. He is a great intelligent rider, but not the most naturally gifted and previously not considered a top tier climber.
Green - Griepel not contesting it from the outset and no Hushovd or on-form Gilbert to compete with Sagan on certain stages. A shadow of the contests of previous years where it was a two or three way contest until the end between riders of differing styles.
KotM - back to the bad old days of non-climbers contesting it while nobody else cared. Recognised sprinters at the head of the peloton for many climbs and most climbs only seeing accelerations when Evans or VdB wanted to be first to get a bottle at the summit.
Team contest - As exciting and relevant as always. Radioshack, possibly the only team with the assets to test Sky in the second half of the race, made no attempt at any point to launch an attack on the top 5. Their main contribution was to chase down an attack by VdB; at least Sky neutralised the race for a legitimate reason. Leaving arguably their top ITT performing GC contender Fuglsang out didn’t help them either. If the Team contest contributed to the conservative and risk free riding by RSNT then we are better off without it.
Stage wins – a couple of gutsy efforts but nothing to linger in the memory other than Voeckler and the slowest sprint finish in history
(and possibly Stage 18). Some stages where the peloton actually slowed down in order to not catch the breakaway too early, which brings me to…
Team radio - Entertainment killer as always, removing virtually all hope of unpredictability and making it far easier for a team like Sky to manage every scenario from the front. Likely contributing to nervousness and crashes that robbed us of several leading talents.
Positives – plenty of young talent in and around the top 10. The race may have been so bad that the powers that be will take notice and tinker again. This race strengthened the case for getting shot of two-way team radio.
Score: 2/10
(last years TdF I would give a 7/10 and if it wasn’t for crashes it could have been a 9 or even 10. From 2008-2010 I'd have given them all 6/10 or 7/10)
[/grumble]
Feels better getting that off my chest. Roll on the Olympics