What is the best Grand Tour of the year?

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

I think I know the answer, but some people had different opinions. To give a quick recap to refresh your memory, here’s some notable info about each race
Giro- memorable stage:14, the stage where Bora lit it up and Simon Yates won in Torino. Jai Hindley won with Carapaz 2nd and Landa 3rd. Demare won points while Keon Bouwman won KOM and two stages.
Tour- memorable stage(s):11,17,18. First one Jumbo lit up and gained the Yellow Jersey and big time on Pogacar, while the last two stages Pogi tried to force Vingegaard into danger but to no avail. Jonas Vingegaard won with Pogi 2nd and Geraint Thomas 3rd. Wout Van Aert won Green while Vingegaard took home KOM
Vuelta- memorable stage:6 The rainy one on Pico Jano, Jay Vine attacked early and won the stage, while Evenepoel and Mas took 1:30 on a medium gradient climb. Remco Evenepoel won with Enric Mas 2nd and the teenage star Juan Ayuso 3rd. Mads Pedersen took the green along with 3 stages, while Richard Carapaz took KOM and 3 stages.

 

[Berniece]

A lot of years I actually think the Giro is the most fun to watch, but this year, easily the Tour de France. It was one of the best editions ever.

 

[perico]

The Vuelta is always fun to watch, but the TDF was easily the best of the year

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I see Jay Hindley already voted.

 

[Big Doopie]

TDF by a landslide.

 

[Kwibus]

A lot of years I actually think the Giro is the most fun to watch, but this year, easily the Tour de France. It was one of the best editions ever.

Yeh I've been a Giro lover for years, but last years weren't very good. TdF this year was easily the most entertaining. It's not even close this year.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Tour - 7.5/10
Vuelta - 3/10
Giro - 2.5/10

The worst Giro in a long time and a bad Vuelta coincide with the best Tour in a long time. Easy decision this year.

 

[Earns1985]

The worst thing about the giro had been the very annoying TV coverage. There had been attacks and accelaerations in the GC group, but they just didn´t show it to us.

But even with better coverage the best one this year would clearly have been still the Tour.

 

[Izzyeviel]

Tour - 7.5/10
Vuelta - 3/10
Giro - 2.5/10

The worst Giro in a long time and a bad Vuelta coincide with the best Tour in a long time. Easy decision this year.

Only a 7.5? What would've been needed for a 9 or ten?

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Only a 7.5? What would've been needed for a 9 or ten?

Any sort of weakness from Vingegaard in the second half of the race.

 

[DNP-Old]

Agree with Mr. Devil himself. The race was great, but it doesn't rival 2003 for instance. In hindsight, the race was done and dusted after Vingegaard got in yellow. A small collapse or constantly bleeding time on his part somewhere could've taken the race into greater heights. If Pogacar was able to shed of say 20 to 30 seconds on Alpe, it would've been very different and much, much better. I'd give it somewhere between a 7 and an 8 as well, it definitely isn't a 9 or 10 to me.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Probably the most loopsided in a while.
Tour was incredible from week one all the way to the end, and yes, Vingegaard didn't look like losing anymore after Granon but Pogacars relentless attacking still made it great entertainment.
Giro and Vuelta had absolute deserving winners but simly terrible route designs. Giro offered nothing for two weeks except for some solid MVDP and Girmay action as well as Bora making stage 12 interesting and then week 3 - while I'm in principle not against backloading a parcours it spectaculary backfired because nothing happaned except for 30 minutes on Fedaia.
Vuelta had a surprisingly good first week thanks to Remco but a meh second week and a terrible third week, almost as bad as third week of TdF 2001.

 

[tobydawq]

Agree with Mr. Devil himself. The race was great, but it doesn't rival 2003 for instance. In hindsight, the race was done and dusted after Vingegaard got in yellow. A small collapse or constantly bleeding time on his part somewhere could've taken the race into greater heights. If Pogacar was able to shed of say 20 to 30 seconds on Alpe, it would've been very different and much, much better. I'd give it somewhere between a 7 and an 8 as well, it definitely isn't a 9 or 10 to me.

Yes, it rivals 2003. And beats it.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I wonder why people rate this Tour 7, while they actually enjoy watching cycling.

Its 9 for me. Could be 9,5.

 

[red_flanders]

Yeah, with Valv.Piti on this. Great Tour, so many different storylines. Great GC battle. Easy 9 for me.

 

[roundabout]

Yeah, with Valv.Piti on this. Great Tour, so many different storylines. Great GC battle. Easy 9 for me.

After stage 11, the closest Vingegaard came to losing the Tour was through his own bike handling.

Heck, when thinking about it, the only other time when he got into trouble was through his and the teams fumbling of the bike changes on the cobbles stage.

The 'great GC battle' had Vingegaard breathing through his nose following Pogacar and then putting a minute in under 5km on the Hautacam

 

[red_flanders]

After stage 11, the closest Vingegaard came to losing the Tour was through his own bike handling.

Heck, when thinking about it, the only other time when he got into trouble was through his and the teams fumbling of the bike changes on the cobbles stage.

The 'great GC battle' had Vingegaard breathing through his nose following Pogacar and then putting a minute in under 5km on the Hautacam

So you'd rate it lower. Great! I enjoyed the heck out of it, as amazingly, I didn't know at any point until the end that Pogačar wouldn't take back time. I also rate the first, second, and third weeks equally. Also enjoyed the battle between Pog vs Vingo/Roglič. Rarely seen anything like it. Great battle IMO.

 

[roundabout]

So you'd rate it lower. Great! I enjoyed the heck out of it, as amazingly, I didn't know at any point until the end that Pogačar wouldn't take back time. I also rate the first, second, and third weeks equally. Also enjoyed the battle between Pog vs Vingo/Roglič. Rarely seen anything like it. Great battle IMO.

I did not know at any point until the very end that there would be no Giro stages worth watching for GC action.

 

[tobydawq]

I did not know at any point until the very end that there would be no Giro stages worth watching for GC action.

Lol

 

[red_flanders]

I did not know at any point until the very end that there would be no Giro stages worth watching for GC action.

Cool. If you want to argue about someone’s subjective opinion about why they rated the Tour the way they did, I’m sure you can find someone who’s interested.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Looks like two Jai Hindley-fans and a Remco-fan had fun during the other GT's.

To be honest, the Vuelta wasn't that bad at all, I'd say it was pretty mediocre. Not bad, and not really that good either, but it sure was watchable. The Giro on the other hand was dogshit in my opinion, while the Tour, outside of Denmark, was absolutely fantastic on more or less every stage. Transitions stages were great, and the mountain stages got raced extremely hard. I couldn't care less that it wasn't all that close in the end.

 

[ontheroad]

I think you can enjoy all of the Grand Tours if you aren't just focussed solely on the GC race and its like the first day back at school after the Vuelta is over knowing that its going to be 8 months until the Giro. Thats why I love the Giro as it's the one you are left waiting the longest before so the anticipation levels have time to build.

However this year it had to be the Tour which had almost everything. The GC race was fascinating and quite often the early battles to get into the break were almost as interesting as the finishes. In hindsight Vingegaard was in cruise control and Pogacar only ever gained about 2 bike lengths on him for the entire tour if you take out the cobbled stage bike change debacle. But up until Hautacam there was always the anticipation that Pogacar might do something and that helped keep the suspense going until the last few days.

Next years tour might be the most stacked edition in recent memory if all of the riders take to the start line. However I expect that some of the favourites outside of Pogacar and Vingegaard will see the stacked lineup and instead make the Giro their main target.

 

[ice&fire]

I wonder why people rate this Tour 7, while they actually enjoy watching cycling.

Its 9 for me. Could be 9,5.

Perhaps because people remember 1989 where the two favourites swapped positions in GC several times, or 1987 where the first four riders in the final GC held the yellow jersey at some point during the second half of the race. This year has been good, but compared to those... not even close.

 

[Nick2413]

After stage 11, the closest Vingegaard came to losing the Tour was through his own bike handling.

Heck, when thinking about it, the only other time when he got into trouble was through his and the teams fumbling of the bike changes on the cobbles stage.

The 'great GC battle' had Vingegaard breathing through his nose following Pogacar and then putting a minute in under 5km on the Hautacam

I agree this Tour was nowhere near as close as everyone says. Pog had no chance and following Roglic on stage 11 wasn’t anything close to the difference maker. Literally every time Vingegaard went he gained minutes.

 

[tobydawq]

I agree this Tour was nowhere near as close as everyone says. Pog had no chance and following Roglic on stage 11 wasn’t anything close to the difference maker. Literally every time Vingegaard went he gained minutes.

Yes, and that is very easy to say after the fact but during the race we didn't really know that, did we?