the unpredictability of a Grand Tour
ugo.santalucia
Posts: 25,618
Who would have thought that a Giro with only Contador as a big name would turn out so entertaining and nail biting even for the GC?
Who would have thought that with the all magnificent 4 on the start line, the Tour would end after the first summit finish?
It just goes to show how unpredictable cycling is: sometimes exciting beyond expectations, other times disappointing beyond belief
Who would have thought that with the all magnificent 4 on the start line, the Tour would end after the first summit finish?
It just goes to show how unpredictable cycling is: sometimes exciting beyond expectations, other times disappointing beyond belief
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I hope it's not all over and even if Froome does take it I'd like to think there'd be a bit of a fight for the other top spots. 2 to 6 is very close but there seems to be a reluctance to attack outside the Moviestar duo.
For the Tour, in everyones heads it's going to be this epic 4 way battle, but what is the realistic chance of that ever happening? There's always likely to be 1 guy better than the rest. People even attempted "scripting" the exciting race where Froome and Quintana lose time in the northern stages and then launch lots of attacks to take the time back.
It's almost like they've never seen the TdF before
FF mentioned this in the other thread, I went back over some of the stage results and it was a good race, to be fair.
The bit on Stage 20 where he was dropping time like (insert witty metaphor here) was pretty nail biting! And the bit where Astana tried to drop him after a mechanical and then he came back and thumped them was exciting too (there was more).
I would have preferred it if Contador had won a stage or two, but hey ho.
But.. but this is simply not true, though.
In my opinion it has been disappointing in that respect, as none of the other three showed any sign of form whatsoever.
The Giro was a crescendo of emotions, just when everybody thought Contador had it in the bag so easy and Aru was the pale shadow of himself, things took a dramatic turn. The difference is that Contador had a weak team, while Froome has the best one.
I fear what is left in this race is a parade towards Paris "a la Armstrong". In fact thrashing everybody on the first climb and then controlling the race was exactly what Lance used to do.
I also seem to remember posts here along the lines of "well the Giro was great - and with such a good field in the tour..."
The Mortirolo was a great day's viewing. It is just great to see GC contenders out by themselves smashing up hills to catch/distance/limit loses
And to be honest I have really enjoyed the TdF so far. 4 cracking stages at the beginning, the team time trial was nail-biting as ever, Gorilla in Green, Cav winning a stage, Sagan being Sagan.
There is still a bit of a fight going on lower down the GC so hopefully when we hit the alps we will get some racing going for that
So what you are saying is that by being unpredictable, the Tour has become predictable???
Basically yes..
That's basically how I remember it. It looked like it was going to be close until Porte had his time penalty. After that Contador never looked like being beaten in the mountains and absolutely smashed everyone in the time trial. He had a wobble on the last stage when he was already 4.5 minutes ahead.
It was a great race from a cycling perspective but I don't remember the GC battle being particularly exciting.
I think the Alps next week will throw up some surprised for these reasons.