Rate the Tour 2015
Comments
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I gave it a 7, but judging grand tours is tricky. You want 1) a close fight for the overall, and 2) exciting individual stages on a daily basis.
The 1989 Tour was so great because it had both: Nailbiting GC and lots if successful breakaways and interesting stuff happening even in the flat stages. Still, it's mostly the GC battle it's remembered and valued for.
The 2011 TdF is often considered a good one, and it had the closest GC race of recent editions, but everyone forgets that it had a whole load of boring flat predictable sprint stages.
The 2015 TdF kept me entertained on a daily basis, but the GC fight was not much ( although slightly better than 2014, 13 and 12), and won't be looked back on in a few years as a particularly memorable one. Especially not if Froome wins a couple more and it'll be just one of his wins0 -
Properly off topic now but crowds were relatively sparse last night at the Crit Champs (bigger crowds at the Sheffield GP last week) and someone commented on Twitter about how the viewing experience on TV was the lesser for it. I suppose the inclement weather didn't help but I guess there must've been a fair few people who thought they'd rather watch it on telly. Interesting to note that there were no big screens (although you could position yourself outside Walkabout and see the coverage there) whilst there will be a big screen at the independently run Tickhill GP later in the year.I am glad people go to watch it by the side of the road. It's always good to see big crowds watching and it definitely enhances my experience watching on TV....so keep it up.0 -
There is a Beer tent on the Kwaremont. Well I never. That must be how popular RVV has become (can't be any other Flanders race, Yet) to have some "Barmy Army" hanging around, Like the TDF mountains.Can't see the appeal of watching some races live, however a beer tent on the Oude kwaremont is kind of my idea of heaven. Anyway can people stop saying Sagan was amazing he won nothing apart from the best placed losers Jersey and to be fair Griepel would have been a better winner of the points for me.
I'm not keen on Sagan but I have to admit he is the most worthy winner of the "Roulers" green jersey.
The Hype that surounds him in California gets carried over by the media to Europe. That I find is sickening.
EDIT
Where is Barnsley. ?? :roll:Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 19720 -
Just watched "How the tour was won" on ITV4, and what struck me looking back over the stages was just how many opportunities there were to put time into Froome, if any of them had succeeded, then there would have been a huge fight to follow, the fact that Froome pulled almost every attack back by Quintana bar one, just goes to show that even a three week GT can turn or in this case not turn, in a few minutes in any stage.0
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I agree with you. The first week was thrilling (folks had said it would be won in the first week) but after that the GC contenders just rode, there was hardly a decent attack between them all race! Froome and Sky worked like hell for the first week then clung on for 2 weeks....? For me Froome won the tour because none of the others wanted it badly enough. Nibbles and Contador simply weren't there, Valverde seemed more content talking to Contador and Quintana doesn't have the presence to mount a series challenge. So, good race from Sky, open a gap then just sit there.Just watched "How the tour was won" on ITV4, and what struck me looking back over the stages was just how many opportunities there were to put time into Froome, if any of them had succeeded, then there would have been a huge fight to follow, the fact that Froome pulled almost every attack back by Quintana bar one, just goes to show that even a three week GT can turn or in this case not turn, in a few minutes in any stage.
So many other teams simply rode for their pay.'Performance analysis and Froome not being clean was a media driven story. I haven’t heard one guy in the peloton say a negative thing about Froome, and I haven’t heard a single person in the peloton suggest Froome isn’t clean.' TSP0 -
I agree with you. The first week was thrilling (folks had said it would be won in the first week) but after that the GC contenders just rode, there was hardly a decent attack between them all race! Froome and Sky worked like hell for the first week then clung on for 2 weeks....? For me Froome won the tour because none of the others wanted it badly enough. Nibbles and Contador simply weren't there, Valverde seemed more content talking to Contador and Quintana doesn't have the presence to mount a series challenge. So, good race from Sky, open a gap then just sit there.Just watched "How the tour was won" on ITV4, and what struck me looking back over the stages was just how many opportunities there were to put time into Froome, if any of them had succeeded, then there would have been a huge fight to follow, the fact that Froome pulled almost every attack back by Quintana bar one, just goes to show that even a three week GT can turn or in this case not turn, in a few minutes in any stage.
So many other teams simply rode for their pay.
Except that's not what happend. Froome took time out of all his rivals on stages 1, 2, 3, 9, 10 & 14. That's two solid weeks of attacking at every opportunity right there. I don't call that building a lead in the first week and then just defending. Watch the program again and see how much Quintana was just shodowing Froome for instance.
I do agree however with all the rest. Nibili, Contador and Valverde just weren't there and Quinatana just didn't have enough to trouble Froome until he got sick in the last few days and even then it looked a bit half-hearted.0 -
Youre splitting hairs mate, Contador just sat on Froome's back wheel and never made a meaningful attack. Qunitana probably wanted to but didn't have team support to make it stand. The others weren't there. Yes, Froome took time out of his rivals on a few occasions but the damage had already been done. Not saying it wasn't a good tour, I thoroughly enjoyed it but it would have been a different race of the gaps were just 20 seconds as opposed to 2-3 minutes.'Performance analysis and Froome not being clean was a media driven story. I haven’t heard one guy in the peloton say a negative thing about Froome, and I haven’t heard a single person in the peloton suggest Froome isn’t clean.' TSP0
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I went for 7/10, which seems to place me the pessimistic side of average. That sounds about right.0
