Tour de France appreciation thread

[Cobblestones]

Great Tour or Greatest Tour?

And you know, tomorrow, it'll be decided by less than 7" just to kill us by heart attack.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

One of the best!

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Not bad...

 

[Cobblestones]

This edition topped the Giro.

 

[dlwssonic]

I think its about half of the standard of the 2010 giro. AND THAT IS ****ING GOOOOD!!!!

 

[Panjalin]

I can onlys day that i enjoyed every kilometres of this TDF. It sorta helps when there is no given results. Incredible so far (and there is so much left!)

 

[luckyboy]

Couple of very good stages. Better than 2009 and 2010.

 

[The Falcon]

Great tour....stunning contrast with the Pharmstrong processional years.

 

[hrotha]

This edition topped the Giro.

Definitely. Pity the Pyrenees sucked, otherwise it would have been legendary.

 

[Marva32]

Wouldn't call it the best, but would call it the best in the last 10 years

 

[Thomsena]

Best final week I've ever seen. For sure

 

[luckyboy]

It has been good after the second rest day. The Pyrenees were dire. The stage that Rui Costa won was good, but the rest of the first week was pretty dull, and too marred by the crashes.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Most exciting Tour in years as far as distribution of jerseys goes, yesterday and today 'saved' this Tour from being an also-ran as far as 'proper' racing by the big boys is concerned.

Today was just an utterly stunning day's racing - to use an otherwise over-used word, today was awesome!

 

[armchair]

Each of the big leaders has put themselves on the line at different points in the race. Absolutely thrilling and surprising throughout. And still not decided.

My favorite highlight (so far) is still the race between Evans and Contador at the finish of stage 4.

 

[slim charles]

phenomenal 3rd week. pity about all the injuries, and not so great 2nd week [but there were interesting stages, even if not GC relevant]
definitely better than this year's giro, but i think less epic than last year's edition [of the giro]

 

[Dutchsmurf]

The last week was great, no doubt about that. The first two weeks were at times boring and typical Tour like. That nothing is decided still is party due to nothing happening in 2 weeks. So in total we can call it an above average Tour and a good GT. But 2 days of great racing doesn't make a great Tour.

I personally rate it under this year's Giro and not even close to last year's Giro. Sure Contador kinda dominated the Giro this year and this year the Giro didn't live up to the expectations caused by last year. But overall over 3 weeks there was more happening than in 3 weeks of the Tour. And I rate a GT over 3 weeks, not based on its most exciting day.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Greatest Tour? Good joke.

This has been a really, really good one-week stage race.

It's been a sorely lacking Grand Tour.

 

[Kvinto]

I guess that in the comparison with 2009 and 2010 edition this Tour is really great.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Can't please everyone I guess. I think it's one of the best I've ever seen. Just fantastic. The way the guys have been fighting for it when it matters the most has been terrific.

Early crashes hurt though. One can only imagine if JVDB, Wiggins and Horner had been riding in this last week.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Can't please everyone I guess. I think it's one of the best I've ever seen. Just fantastic. The way the guys have been fighting for it when it matters the most has been terrific.

Early crashes hurt though. One can only imagine if JVDB, Wiggins and Horner had been riding in this last week.

It's easy to have the energy to fight for it when it matters most when you haven't had to expend any energy fighting in the first two weeks since none of the stages matter.

 

[joe1265]

+1 Great TdF ever!

 

[jsem94]

These last 2 days are up to par with Giro 10. Other than that, it's been fairly stale - with exceptions.

Depending on how it all plays out this weekend we're looking at a 6.5-7/10 for this tour.

 

[aahmadhu]

one one the best tdf in years definitely. pity the gc field was trimmed down by crashes more than the actual battle. it would be a battle of titanic magnitude if vino, van den broeck, wiggins, kloden n horner were still in the race, along with a fit gesink.

never before i see the battle for yellow, white n the polka dots been this interesting, on the same day, the ultimate n final day of the mountain stage. n not forgetting, the battle of green back in the gruppeto. all on the same ultimate day.

i've been watching tdf for just over 10 years. 1999 to 2005 were lance's freight trains boring years.. 2006 was won by a freak breakaway.. 2007 was so-so.. 2008 was a weak field.. 2009 things were starting to look interesting.. 2010 was actually quite good with excellent GC fields.. but this year's battle is absolutely titanic~!!

polka dots finally gets a deserved winner, green is fought in the grupetto, young rider's white is interesting with new faces, yellow's battle is down to the wire.. can't ask for more..

 

[AtletiSK]

last 3-4 days have been very exciting, but before it was very very boring... I think they should be more creative with the route, overally it will be remembered as a very good one, but let´s be honest, was more of a 5-day "race" than a 3-week one

 

[Dr. Maserati]

Each of the big leaders has put themselves on the line at different points in the race. Absolutely thrilling and surprising throughout. And still not decided.

My favorite highlight (so far) is still the race between Evans and Contador at the finish of stage 4.

That to me is the big point of this years Tour.

All the GC guys had to put it on the line and be aggressive. Add to that some brilliant individual stages with worthy winners (eg,EBH, Gilbert, Thor, Farrar, Cav) and it has been an excellent event.

It will always be hard to top 1989 (as much because it finished with a TT on the final day with a leading French rider during its Bi-centennial celebrations) but this is close - and as you say, its not decided yet!