Final Tour mark overall

specialgueststar

7+ Hot and cold. But was more than the sum of it's parts

redvision

Only a 5 from me.

I should be happy as won quite a bit with froome and uran podium spots, but I found this to be possibly the most boring tdf I have watched.

DeVlaeminck

A solid 4

iainf72

4/10 for me.

There were some good individual stages but the parcours was just not working for a decent GC race.

When you break it down, Froome put time into Bardet and Uran on 4 stages. Uran and Bardet put time into Froome on 1 stage. The stages just didn't seem to offer enough to make a real difference.

andyp

iainf72 wrote:

When you break it down, Froome put time into Bardet and Uran on 4 stages. Uran and Bardet put time into Froome on 1 stage. The stages just didn't seem to offer enough to make a real difference.

One of those stages wasn't even considered a GC stage.

FocusZing

Four? Blimey!

Six, there was a GC battle. Flats were a training ride to a 5km setup sprint, but to be expected.

m.r.m.

5 for me. GT's need to be decided in the mountains, and there wasn't enough action there this time.

That being said, I don't mind race organizers throwing sprinters and all rounders a bone occasionally with the parkour. Those type of riders are as much a part of cycling as the climbers.

RichN95.

Five I think.

joe2008

A solid 8

salsiccia1

5/10

Good:
Sunweb - stupendous racing, with Barguil especially riding brilliantly
Dan Martin - brave and aggressive

Bad:
The GC battle only really happened in the last 500m of a couple of stages or following mechanicals
Cav and Sagan going out early, leaving one completely dominant sprinter who then crashed out
Crashes taking out Valverde and Porte

iainf72

andyp wrote:

One of those stages wasn't even considered a GC stage.

Yup. Comparing it to last year, Bardet put time into Froome on 3 stages. And Quintana the same (I think)

I might do a comparison of the last few years and movement of top 3 throughout the race. If it follows the same pattern it means either a) Froome was more formidable than usual or b) the route was bumwash.

mamba80

So long as Sky dominate in they way they do, it can never be more than a 5 (for the GC)

how can you have an entertaining GC race when you ve team of potential tour winners ALL riding for Froome? he will always win, incidents aside.

Its not Sky's fault but they have turned the TDF into the F1 of the Schmacher era.

rick_chasey

If last year was 3 this was 5.

agentorange88

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Bad:
The GC battle only really happened in the last 500m of a couple of stages or following mechanicals
Cav and Sagan going out early, leaving one completely dominant sprinter who then crashed out
Crashes taking out Valverde and Porte

Both Valverde and Porte took themselves out, cant hold that against the Tour, in fact, that they crashed pushing too hard kind of made gave it an edge.

RonB

6/10

Good
AG2R and Dan Martin with their attacking spirit rather than settling for conservative GC places
Wanty and TdG pretty much ever present in the breakaways
Kwiato being immense for his team
Prettiest road in the world
ITV4 covering the race live

Bad
Losing too many key riders and early on to boot - Valverde, G, Porte, Sagan, Cav
The parcours, which provided a close finish but denied us any real opportunity to see the GC contenders really race one another
Stick Froome gets

agentorange88

agentorange88 wrote:

Salsiccia1 wrote:

Bad:
The GC battle only really happened in the last 500m of a couple of stages or following mechanicals
Cav and Sagan going out early, leaving one completely dominant sprinter who then crashed out
Crashes taking out Valverde and Porte

Both Valverde and Porte took themselves out, cant hold that against the Tour, in fact, that they crashed pushing too hard kind of gave it an edge.

No_Ta_Doctor

6 for me

I think it was worth trying something a bit different, but we're not really going to see much change in GTs until we cut the team size down to 6 or 7.

inseine

I feel like a fool saying a 7 but I honestly found it a good Tour. If you take the number of individual exciting stages rather how they shaped the overall then it was good.
I'd be interested to hear if people who gave it a 4 think they've ever seen a 10 or the just find stage races a bit dull.

Mad_Malx

6 from me

blazing_saddles

It was a tour of extremes: some extremely entertaining stages, but rather more in the way of extremely dull stages.
Factoring in the pros and cons of a close GC..

A solid 5.

RichN95.

inseine wrote:

I feel like a fool saying a 7 but I honestly found it a good Tour. If you take the number of individual exciting stages rather how they shaped the overall then it was good.
I'd be interested to hear if people who gave it a 4 think they've ever seen a 10 or the just find stage races a bit dull.

It's hard for a stage race to get a ten. And individual stage might. Stage 9 was a genuinely one of the great stages.

andyrac

I'll be generous, and give it a 6; which when there was a close GC battle seems slightly strange - but it never really seemed to get going. I think this years route was the problem; very few TT kms, and only 3 MTFs; possibly/ probably designed to be Bardet friendly.
Will we see another similar route to help him? I hope not.

bobmcstuff

6 I think. If either of the latter mountain stages had properly kicked off it would have been a 7.

Pross

On the basis that 5 would be an average Tour I'll give it a 5. The closeness of the GC was better than average (just needed a minute extra on his bad stage to be really interesting) but there were fewer exciting stages than most years and we lost more contenders in the GC and points competitions than normal. The route got some things right, I tend to enjoy medium mountain stages from a racing point of view but it lacked a really good MTF. I think it would have benefitted with some of the dull sprinters stages being on the coast where you are more at the mercy of the winds.

inseine

There seems to be some sort of consensus that overall it would rate as an average Tour. Just some people think average is 4 or 5 or 6!

jimmocrates

5
It was building up really nicely up to the Pyrenees, but fizzled out a bit after that.
The time gaps were tight, but never genuinely saw anyone winning other than Froome with the TT on the horizon.

I've enjoyed the past couple of Giro/Vuelta more as they were in the balance up until the last stage or two.

gweeds

A 5 for me.

mr_goo

3 to 4. Can't remember the last time that I've not enjoyed the TdF. Nothing really kicked off in the mountains, and I don't think that was down to Sky dominance. If Landa and Nieve are off to other teams for their own GC ambitions who's gonna fill those spots?

Lanterne_Rogue

Probably a seven. Should have been an eight but it never quite reached the climax it deserved. Some stages that promised little turned in great racing, some stages that offered great racing just about delivered, and the best I can say about the underwhelming stages is that it's preferable for them to underwhelm than for a promising stage to be bobbins. At least you don't feel robbed by it, except apparently everyone else does...

RonB

Mr Goo wrote:

3 to 4. Can't remember the last time that I've not enjoyed the TdF. Nothing really kicked off in the mountains, and I don't think that was down to Sky dominance. If Landa and Nieve are off to other teams for their own GC ambitions who's gonna fill those spots?

Poels, Kennaugh, Intxausti, Lopez, Deignan ...

The_Boy

Using Robert Parker's 100 point scale, I'll give this 80/100. So that's a 6/10 for the weirdos.

Close GC battle which somehow felt it was never really know doubt - at the very least, having the second TT would have felt better at end second/start of third week.

In spite of riders leaving the race, he battle for green was finely balanced right up to the point that kittel had to withdraw.

Barguil winning KOM was great, but I now wish we would have seen what he could have done targeting GC.

Too many pan-flat sprint stages and too few middle mountains. Then again, I love middle-mountain stages so much that I'd love it if Proudhomme followed thru with his threat to run 21 such stages.

So yeah. Some good, some not so good but a pleasant three weeks bike racing.