Who made this TdF worth your time?

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, if you think only 18+19 was thrilling to watch, we saw two different races Or we're just thrilled by different things... Either way, I think many of the other stages were thrilling too.

I thought the last 10km of stage 4, a bit of stage 6, the last 20-25km of stage 8 (though mostly as a Movistar fan, since the GC action was lacking), the last few km of stage 12 (mostly as a Euskaltel fan, since the GC action was lacking), Thor's great chase of Roy (though the GC action was lacking), then pretty much everything since Contador attacked on stage 16.

That's been good.

But that's very, very little for two entire weeks of racing. We've had a great final week - but for me, that's only salvaged a decent race out of what had been a pretty poor one. All this "best Tour ever" stuff is a bit over-the-top, driven at least in part by the heady celebrations of the excellent stages in the last two days.

It's got a long way to go to beat 2006 or 2007, or the 2008 Giro.

 

[Grayguard]

I thought the last 10km of stage 4, a bit of stage 6, the last 20-25km of stage 8 (though mostly as a Movistar fan, since the GC action was lacking), the last few km of stage 12 (mostly as a Euskaltel fan, since the GC action was lacking), Thor's great chase of Roy (though the GC action was lacking), then pretty much everything since Contador attacked on stage 16.

That's been good.

But that's very, very little for two entire weeks of racing. We've had a great final week - but for me, that's only salvaged a decent race out of what had been a pretty poor one. All this "best Tour ever" stuff is a bit over-the-top, driven at least in part by the heady celebrations of the excellent stages in the last two days.

It's got a long way to go to beat 2006 or 2007, or the 2008 Giro.

I understand your point. But I think the close GC stadnings, for many, have made these last few stages, more exciting than in many years.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I understand your point. But I think the close GC stadnings, for many, have made these last few stages, more exciting than in many years.

The close GC standings have made for an epic finale. But rendered the first two weeks practically pointless. They may as well have had it as a one-week race with a longer-than-usual prologue.

Judging it as a one-week race, it's been phenomenal. But it's probably going to get about a 6 or a 7 from me, cos it's hard to call it the biggest spectacle in the sport when nothing happens except crashes for the first half of it.

The 2008 Giro had a backloading of mountain stages too, but at least a couple of stages more challenging than anything the Tour has had this year (the Pescocostanzo one, for example) in the first two weeks. And that had multiple people in contention until the final day. And how about the 2010 Giro, which had the mud on stage 7, a MTF on stage 8, and the L'Aquila stage prior to its week 3 showdown? Even last year's Vuelta came down to the final few stages with multiple contenders, and people putting in career rides to get back into contention, though admittedly Antón crashing out obviously changed things. And there, you had Málaga and Valdepeñas de Jaén, every bit as good as the uphill finishes in the Tour this year, then Xorret del Catí (better than any of them) and Pal before we got to the end of week 2.

The reason we've had an epic finale to the Tour this year is twofold.
1) At least two riders have finally realised that you have to be prepared to lose in order to win;
2) Prudhomme made sure there would be multiple contenders in the final stages by making sure that contenders wouldn't be eliminated in the first two weeks unless they crashed. Sadly for him lots of people did crash.

 

[phanatic]

Tour been a bummer for me. Early crashes and drop out and injuries to a lot of the contenders has ruined it imo.

Basically I agree with this.

 

[Parrulo]

i agree 100% with libertine.

 

[GroupDK]

These guys have made the tour for me. !

Contador ( i guess ASO is pretty fund of letting him race, had a big part of the show we have seen in this tour 2011)
Hushovd
Voekler
Andy (yesterdays stage)
Evans (showed big heart the last few days)
hoogerland (or what his name is, the guy who barb-wire-dives like dolphins)

The biggest let down this tour, is for me Saxo bank Sungard, sure I know they from a neutral perspective have done it okay and have got a lot of sponsor exposure, and offcourse many proteams like Radioshack / Rabobank / Astana / Liquigas / Katusha and some others have been fare worse.

But still, im dissapointed because Saxo is normally the team that take the race and truely made it and been the top creating-team the last many years..

so expected a lot and have as a viewer been spoiled the last years with impressing beautiful team-riding and offcourse it obvius that it will have effect when they loose the hole back-bone of the 2010 team to 2011 (6 of 9 2010 tour-riders to leopard) and cant upgrade with new riders, when the first got finansiel at place late 2010 when all was signed on other teams.

But still had high expactations... and here the team was for me a let down..

 

[The Hitch]

Ironically even though the guy i had picked as number 1 won the freakin stage, he moves down the list to number 4 and Contador moves up to number 1. Voeckler moves up to 2 and Sammy moves up to 3.

I watched the ITV replay and even Phil and Paul were calling Contador a hero. Even P and P