Which one was the worst Grand Tour of the last decade?

[therealtimshady]

2004 tour was awful from start to finish

 

[Red Rick]

Either 2007 Vuelta or the 2004 Giro..

Can't remember that Giro, but it had a good 60km solo and an inside team war

 

[The Hitch]

Actually, i think the 2010 Vuelta is one of the best i've seen since 2007:

Malaga was nice
Valdepenas was awesome
Xorret de Cati had decent action
Andorra was good
Pena Cabarga had action, real shame Anton crashed out
Lagos de Covadonga and Cotobello sucked
Bola del Mundo was epic

I agree. Vuelta 2010 was cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cNi6HoSpYA&feature=plcp

Especially Purito Nibali 1 on 1 with all the crowds making the road too narrow for Purito to attack until the turn, on Pena cabarga.

 

[ultimobici]

Had to vote for 2012 Giro for the simple reason that the winner took it in a dull dull manner. Had Rodriguez won it'd be a different matter.

 

[BroDeal]

Can we combine all the Tour routes from 2009 to 2012 into one big suckfest? Crap routes. Crap racing.

 

[Peccio89]

I will go for Tour 2002 and Tour 2006.

But i haven't follow Vuelta very much at at the beginnining of the century, so i'm considering pretty much only Giro and Tour.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

2008 tour, no Astana, and Saunier thrown out = boooorrriiinnggggg

 

[Libertine Seguros]

4: 2004 Giro: awful field, 117km "queen stage", Petacchi winning approximately 204 stages in bunch sprints, just appalling racing.

3: 2009 Vuelta: If only Sánchez and Mosquera hadn't got hurt in the pile-up in Liège, this could have been interesting. Instead, Mosquera was far enough down that his attacks were seen as an irrelevance, Valverde sprinted for bonus seconds to get the lead, and then in week 3 Caisse d'Epargne just let the break decide everything (not helped by one of Guillén's traditional tame final weeks), and nobody else was willing to take it back knowing Valverde would win the bonus second sprint. La Pandera and Xorret del Catí were fun though.

2: 2012 Giro: Like the 2009 Vuelta, only without the excuse of crashes, and with the course so backloaded that rather than racing for a bit then being happy with positions and pulling rank, they all pulled rank until it was too late. Ryder Hesjedal - Giro winner. Does not compute. Even though he was probably the best rider in the race. Absolute farce of a race from more or less every other contender, with the only exceptions absolved from my disgust being de Gendt and Cunego. An in-form Cunego could well have won this race, nay, SHOULD have won this race, because he was about the only guy out there who looked like he cared enough to try to win, rather than try not to lose. My problem with the Tour has always been that it's about 30 guys trying not to lose, whereas the Giro is about 10 guys trying to win. This year, we got 10 guys trying not to lose.

However, voting for it would be hasty and spurred on by emotions. In time, when the dust has settled, maybe it can make the step up, but for now I feel I would be acting too rashly to give it #1 position, simply because of:

1: 2009 Tour: the absolute perfect vortex of suck. A Team Time Trial that sorts out the GC, a pathetic excuse for a Tour route, epitomised by the stupidity that was Óscar Freire and José Joaquín Rojas sprinting for 3rd on a so-called high mountain stage, which would have been for the victory if Caisse d'Epargne had had a bit of help on the front. The second week with Rinaldo Nocentini in yellow was one of the worst weeks of racing I've ever seen, with Astana getting on the front and letting the break go every day, and Ag2r just being happy to preserve the lead. None of the entertainment was on the bike, with the exception of the last 40km of stage 17, probably the best stage Christian Prudhomme has ever produced on paper. People were reduced to feigning excitement at Franco Pellizotti outsprinting Egoi Martínez at the summit of cat.2 climbs and HTC attempting to sprint in slow motion in order to give us something to talk about. Even Amets Txurruka gave up on attacking. All of the action was in the press, mostly nonsense spouted from the lips of Team Armstrong, and frankly Kenny van Hummel was the only person to emerge from this piece of crap with any dignity intact.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Well, this Giro just made me angry.

 

[Descender]

This Giro, without a shadow of a doubt.

 

[Mellow Velo]

This thread is clearly biased.
Why are there no Tour of California options?

In all honesty, having seen them all and given my memory, it's difficult to place this year's Giro slops, with the older, stinky garbage, such as the terribly tame 2002 Tour de Lance and is anybody else in the race?

I suspect even the old corpses out there, would struggle to smell as bad as this year's May flower.

 

[Anonymous]

Can we combine all the Tour routes from 2009 to 2012 into one big suckfest? Crap routes. Crap racing.

I wholeheartedly agree. The TdF has been boring my tits off for as long as I can remember. I'd go as far to say that I really don't enjoy the race.

This years Giro has been pretty ****-poor, also. Every man and his dog knew that the race would be decided on the last few stages, and even they disappointed to a degree.

 

[Cervelo77]

I've been following cycling for less then a decade, so i can't say. I have to say this Giro sucked, because the favourites waited too long. I voted for the 2007 Vuelta which basically had just 2 tt's and 4 incredibly weak MTF's

Actually I think the favorites just didn't have it. Too bad, so sad. They had plenty of road to work with to drop Hesjedal, and couldn't.

Worst was 2006 TDF. Total debacle. Believe it left us with Pereiro as a TDF winner. What the heck is that?

 

[Duartista]

For me, the 2006 Giro would be up there with the less competitive Armstrong Tours (I have a particular antipathy for 2004). The ET and the Buffalo show was a farce, even if it better to watch than the 2009 Tour, the 2007 Vuelta, or the 2004/2012 Giros.

 

[mortand]

I voted for the 2007 Vuelta. As far as I remember that was one drawn out snoozefest, which, admittedly, suddenly got sorta interesting for two stages towards the end, because of a very aggressive CSC team. They only really caught out Vladimir Efimkin on the stages to Avila and Abantos, but at least something happened. Besides that, nothing of interest.

To be fair, come Vuelta time, my interest in cycling is usually on a downward spiral after a long season. That probably didn't help my affection for the race either.

 

[Parera]

FFS you dorks act like this year's Giro pushed your grandmother down a flight of stairs...and kicked your dog for good measure. It played out pretty much like every other bike race, ever. If cycling causes this much bellyaching I suggest finding something else.

 

[SafeBet]

1: 2009 Tour: the absolute perfect vortex of suck. A Team Time Trial that sorts out the GC, a pathetic excuse for a Tour route, epitomised by the stupidity that was Óscar Freire and José Joaquín Rojas sprinting for 3rd on a so-called high mountain stage, which would have been for the victory if Caisse d'Epargne had had a bit of help on the front. The second week with Rinaldo Nocentini in yellow was one of the worst weeks of racing I've ever seen, with Astana getting on the front and letting the break go every day, and Ag2r just being happy to preserve the lead. None of the entertainment was on the bike, with the exception of the last 40km of stage 17, probably the best stage Christian Prudhomme has ever produced on paper. People were reduced to feigning excitement at Franco Pellizotti outsprinting Egoi Martínez at the summit of cat.2 climbs and HTC attempting to sprint in slow motion in order to give us something to talk about. Even Amets Txurruka gave up on attacking. All of the action was in the press, mostly nonsense spouted from the lips of Team Armstrong, and frankly Kenny van Hummel was the only person to emerge from this piece of crap with any dignity intact.

You convinced me.

 

[Lanark]

I'd probably say the 2004 Tour was the most boring. 2003 gave some hope that Armstrong was beatable, but 2004 was just a total snoozfest. Basso and Armstrong riding hand in hand to the top, Voigt dropping from the lead group to catch Ullrich, can't remember much else from that race. 2005 was pretty bad as well, that race was literally decided in the first stage. What a disgrace.

I'm surprised the 2008 Giro and Tour are options in this poll, but the 2008 Vuelta isn't. I thought that was clearly the worst GC of that year.

 

[180mmCrank]

... I suggest finding something else.

OK. Be nice everybody

T

 

[thehog]

1: 2009 Tour: the absolute perfect vortex of suck. A Team Time Trial that sorts out the GC, a pathetic excuse for a Tour route, epitomised by the stupidity that was Óscar Freire and José Joaquín Rojas sprinting for 3rd on a so-called high mountain stage, which would have been for the victory if Caisse d'Epargne had had a bit of help on the front. The second week with Rinaldo Nocentini in yellow was one of the worst weeks of racing I've ever seen, with Astana getting on the front and letting the break go every day, and Ag2r just being happy to preserve the lead. None of the entertainment was on the bike, with the exception of the last 40km of stage 17, probably the best stage Christian Prudhomme has ever produced on paper. People were reduced to feigning excitement at Franco Pellizotti outsprinting Egoi Martínez at the summit of cat.2 climbs and HTC attempting to sprint in slow motion in order to give us something to talk about. Even Amets Txurruka gave up on attacking. All of the action was in the press, mostly nonsense spouted from the lips of Team Armstrong, and frankly Kenny van Hummel was the only person to emerge from this piece of crap with any dignity intact.

The Astana-lead soft pedal over the Tourmalet was the bitter end. Prudhomme after doing a "deal" on the pancors was farked off. Watching the entire peloton ride over the highest mountain in France as if it was a charity ride was an insult.

Shleck and Contador that year were 4 minutes faster than the rest of the field. Yet we had to watch stage after stage with zero opportunity to attack with the pretence that the rest could still win. It's the lowest the Tour sunk. They sold their race for dollar and it failed badly.

 

[roundabout]

Any Vuelta of the last 5 years or so. Consistently ****.

 

[Pippo_San]

2006 Tour. Puerto ruined years of entertainment.

 

[Gubby Allen]

I wasn't watching the Giro's or Vuelta's that closely 8-10 years ago, but from these, I expected the 2008 Tour to be a poor one, but ended enjoying it, open race, not a lot of class riders in it that year, but Menchov, Evans, Valverde kept it competitve & Sastre was terrific.

Giro this year similar in a way, not blessed with the top riders, but most at least figured, Schleck was a let down, Rujano disappointed. Liqigas seemed to have the same tactics in any mountaint stage, 1 rider after another on the front, until Szmyd rides himself to exhaustion, not much damage done, he moves away for Basso to take over & the top 3 ride away from him. It never really looked like working. It took too long to get the GC down to the contenders but the last 3 or four days had enough to make it a decent tour.

The tour is the tour, so I'll always love it but the last few I haven't been enthralled with, they haven't really started until the 3rd week - even the first lot of mountains haven't done much damage, Schlecks have wasted opportunities to make it more interesting. It could do with a decent high stage in the first week, or at least one with a tough climb at the end.

But then the tours towards the end of Lance's reign were all a bit predictable in how they would pan out.

 

[bicycle_rack]

Any of the Lance wins except for the year Ullrich was on Bianchi.

 

[rzombie1988]

I liked the 2008 and 2006 TdF's. Wiggo's performance was pretty memorable as was the ridiculuous dropping of Kloden by Contador. I also don't hate Lance, so it was interesting to me. Doping or not, Floyd's escape was still exciting and was a great stage.