Rate the race: Tour de France 2018

No_Ta_Doctor

Does what it says on the tin. In the absence of a definitive evaluation from out Master Of The Chipper iainf we're going to have to do this democratically. Marks out of ten for this years Tour please.

Feel free to include reasoning.

hypster

I gave 5 out of 10 which includes a point for Geraint Thomas winning. Generally poor parcours with little actual competition for all the jerseys.

blazing_saddles

hypster wrote:

I gave 5 out of 10 which includes a point for Geraint Thomas winning. Generally poor parcours with little actual competition for all the jerseys.

Gave it one more, but basically the same sentiments.

Perhaps instead of pandering to the ASO's wishes ( €s ) and wasting money on research (cos we all know what will happen) upon the impact of cutting to six man tour teams, our headline hunting leader should get them to cut the bloated circus that comes with the race.
Then they might be able to take the race onto more varied parcour and problem solved.
The spice of life and all that.

bobmcstuff

I went 5 as well. It wasn't very competitive really, looking back - but at the time it seemed very tense, because even though Thomas was in yellow for ages I think we were all waiting for something bad to happen or him to get dropped. And I think Nibali was looking pretty ominous till he abandoned.

RichN95.

I went for a 6. A local winner boosting the score. I think I was too generous.

Ultimately Thomas's three rivals where two people who had fought a more exciting race in Italy and an inexperienced rider. The show piece stages of the cobbles and Alpe d'Huez served only to remove two main protagonists. The other jerseys were won almost unopposed. Sky dominated because they have come up with the formula to control a formulaic race.

lettingthedaysgoby

7.

Was 5, but gained 2 bonus points - one for G winning, the other for Degenkolb winning the Roubaix stage. The latter being my personal tour highlight.

m.r.m.

4 of 10. It felt like too many incredibly boring sprint stages. The GC fight was fun and the mountain stages were as well. Would love to see only 4 flat stages and more rolling and mountain top finishes. Also a longer TT.

timothyw

Gave it a six, but struggling to think how it could have been much worse entertainment wise.

I guess it won a couple of point for the Roubaix stage and likeable winner.

GC fight never really happened. G was the only rider unaffected by punctures, crashes, having a rubbish Team TT etc so him also being the strongest didn't create any drama, especially once he took back to back alpine stages.

First week was truly dull as dishwater - you could make a very short highlights reel of what happened in that week.

Huge come-down after the excitement of the Giro this year.

m.r.m.

TimothyW wrote:

Huge come-down after the excitement of the Giro this year.

Extremely true.

ocdupalais

Initially, I gave it 1 million points before realising it wasn’t me that won, or Jan Ullrich. In my disappointment I docked it 999,994. Then added 1 cos G won.
I used to feel an annual slump the day after Boxing Day: now it’s the day after the day after Paris on the 3rd Sunday in July.

DeVlaeminck

6

I thought the parcours was good but the organisers were umlucky in that some of the pre race main contenders crashed out or failed to show up with decent form. Even so up until the Pyrenees it was reasonably well poised but fizzled out without a lot of action.

timoid.

5. Turgid first week. Green and dots jerseys decided too early. Never felt like Thomas lost control of the yellow.

Some interesting stages (Degenkolb, Alaphilippe) and a bonus point for Martin's never say die attitude.

Standard average Tour I'm afraid.

sniper68

6 here.
It just felt a bit flat this year.Glad Geraint won but the excitement just wasn’t there for me.

takethehighroad

Blazing Saddles wrote:

hypster wrote:

I gave 5 out of 10 which includes a point for Geraint Thomas winning. Generally poor parcours with little actual competition for all the jerseys.

Gave it one more, but basically the same sentiments.

5 for me for much the same reasons. Reminded me of 2012, happy with the winner but bored by the "racing"

Vino'sGhost

I thought it was a seven, marred by loss of Nibali and also the whinging Aussie (I need someone to loathe)

First week was pants right up to the cobbles and then it began. The odd short stage is a winner for me and losing sprinters was ok.

A real shame about nibs

davidof

hypster wrote:

I gave 5 out of 10 which includes a point for Geraint Thomas winning. Generally poor parcours with little actual competition for all the jerseys.

Yes, a 3 week chipper. Usual lack of imagination and ambition by ASO, triumph of gimmicks over substance.

No_Ta_Doctor

My possibly-overrated 7 explained:

It's entertainment. That goes beyond the actual racing (which was a touch dull) and into the circus that is the TdF.

There was plenty of controversy to talk about:
Riders pepper-sprayed, Brailsford V The Mayor, The Public V Sky, Brailsford V France, Idiots with flares V The riders, headbutting in sprints, flappy handed "punching" and DQ, Greipel V Demare, Kittel V Katusha, The Movistar Trident V Actual race strategy, The Alps V The Sprinters, Dumoulin V Moto drafting, ASO V Dumoulin team car drafting....

There were younger riders that made their mark or stepped up a grade: Gaviria, Groenwegen, Alaphilippe, Bernal, Roglic, Latour

There was Dan Martin.

There was Degenkolb on the cobbles.

I hardly heard a peep from the W/Kg crowd, which was nice.

There was the "who's the leader (will Froome attack?)" game. There was the "Which stage will Geraint crash on?" worry (closest was the back-wheel slide on the TT?)

There were the top three TTers in the world (Gold, Silver, Bronze in Bergen) within 32 seconds of each other on GC fighting for the last two podium places on the final TT.

All in all, a very entertaining tour, if you look beyond the actual racing....

I also give an extra star for the personal reason that it was one of the most enjoyable to follow on this forum - great thread starters, impressive work in the lanterne rouge thread, and very little bickering/trolling.

jimmythecuckoo

I always have my cup a little more full than the majority on here.

So 8.

Great scenary, good parcours and a bit of drama.

kleinstroker

First week was unmemorable, even now I cannot remember a single day before the cobbles and it was only a few weeks past. Losing Porte & Nibali was a massive blow to the second half of the tour, but there were a few good days here and there.
6/10

andytee87

6 being objective. Excitement was mainly due to being Welsh not necessarily the racing.

Plus points: Alaphillipe proving his potential/talent beyond the Ardennes; Groenewegen showing Champs-Elysees 2017 wasn't a fluke; Bernal es un jefe; Sagan is statistically a worse bike handler than Geraint ; cobbles were a suitable amount of chaos

Negatives: Loss of so many sprinters due to time cut or injury or being Kittel, Nibali being taken out- don't think he was as strong as the top 3 but could've triggered more exciting stages in the Pyrenees; Bardet & Yates being sub-par; the trident was more of a toothpick (so successful they are going with the same strategy at the Vuelta), think loss of Uran & Porte meant Sky didn't have to go all in for one or the other too early

carbonclem

Standard stuff. Sprints were pretty disappointing I felt and too much coverage of boring stages can cause fatigue early on. Cobbles and Alpe delivered. Not sure how Nibs and Porte would affect the overall, although Nibs previously won it neither is a proven winner amongst strong opposition. Geraint winning was great. Movistar sucked. Bardet disappointed. Shame to see Sagan struggling at the end.

And, Dimension Data - the season from hell!

Lanterne_Rogue

Gave it a six, but rounded up one more because nobody got pinged for doping and we could (mostly) concentrate on the racing, at least once it started.

On a daily basis it was enjoyable enough to follow, the winner adds at least half a point (the intrigue within Sky was entertaining for the uninformed wannabe psychologists amongst us), and there was enough weird stuff (the Keystone Cops, cobbles etc) to give us something to talk about.

The only things that really niggled me were that there were at least two too many empty stages where nothing was likely to happen and the race never failed to live down to our expectations. As enjoyable as the traditional low-level bitching is, it gets a bit much day after day. The other problem was that the bottom end of the GC was always pretty static, so there wasn't much to report on or riff off, but that's only an issue if you've committed to writing about it day after day and what sort of idiot does that to themselves?

Mad_Malx

Presumably the 10 was scored by Geraint's mum?

TheBigBean

Mad_Malx wrote:

Presumably the 10 was scored by Geraint's mum?

I was just wondering that, and who scored it a 1.

squired

I gave a six.

The problem I have with the Tour is that they don't want to accept that riders have changed how they approach races now. Instead of trying to work with that they still produce a parcours that isn't compatible with modern racing. The Giro and Vuelta have, in comparison, been far better at adapting.

For example, if you have a mountain stage where there is a long section of valley between the penultimate and final climb it is likely no-one will try anything until the final climb. Or you have the tough climbs at the start and then a 5% average final climb - all that does is encourage the exact sort of team riding that they say is boring people. Or if you compare to this year's Giro, it had far more mountain top finishes and made for an exciting race. This tour was hailed as one of the most mountainous in recent years, yet the placement of those mountains meant that similarly exciting racing wouldn't happen.

Also, the placement of stages are badly thought out. If you have consecutive days in the mountains, with the toughest at the start you are limiting the racing opportunities because no-one wants to burn themselves out with a couple more mountain stages to follow on the subsequent days. Similarly, it seemed from what a lot of cobbles guys said that having the cobbles will have left the GC guys sore going into the mountains. It would have been better to have the cobbles right at the start of the race (maybe first weekend), followed by a few flat days.

blazing_saddles

TheBigBean wrote:

Mad_Malx wrote:

Presumably the 10 was scored by Geraint's mum?

I was just wondering that, and who scored it a 1.

Lappartient innit.

lucan

No tA Doctor wrote:

My possibly-overrated 7 explained:

It's entertainment. That goes beyond the actual racing (which was a touch dull) and into the circus that is the TdF.

There was plenty of controversy to talk about:
Riders pepper-sprayed, Brailsford V The Mayor, The Public V Sky, Brailsford V France, Idiots with flares V The riders, headbutting in sprints, flappy handed "punching" and DQ, Greipel V Demare, Kittel V Katusha, The Movistar Trident V Actual race strategy, The Alps V The Sprinters, Dumoulin V Moto drafting, ASO V Dumoulin team car drafting....

There were younger riders that made their mark or stepped up a grade: Gaviria, Groenwegen, Alaphilippe, Bernal, Roglic, Latour

There was Dan Martin.

There was Degenkolb on the cobbles.

I hardly heard a peep from the W/Kg crowd, which was nice.

There was the "who's the leader (will Froome attack?)" game. There was the "Which stage will Geraint crash on?" worry (closest was the back-wheel slide on the TT?)

There were the top three TTers in the world (Gold, Silver, Bronze in Bergen) within 32 seconds of each other on GC fighting for the last two podium places on the final TT.

All in all, a very entertaining tour, if you look beyond the actual racing....

I also give an extra star for the personal reason that it was one of the most enjoyable to follow on this forum - great thread starters, impressive work in the lanterne rouge thread, and very little bickering/trolling.

^^^This ^^^
8 from me

I expected to be entertained and I was.

I didn't even let the Bikeradar moaners and whiners spoil it.

Mad_Malx

No tA Doctor wrote:

My possibly-overrated 7 explained:

It's entertainment. That goes beyond the actual racing (which was a touch dull) and into the circus that is the TdF.

There was plenty of controversy to talk about:
Riders pepper-sprayed, Brailsford V The Mayor, The Public V Sky, Brailsford V France, Idiots with flares V The riders, headbutting in sprints, flappy handed "punching" and DQ, Greipel V Demare, Kittel V Katusha, The Movistar Trident V Actual race strategy, The Alps V The Sprinters, Dumoulin V Moto drafting, ASO V Dumoulin team car drafting....

There were younger riders that made their mark or stepped up a grade: Gaviria, Groenwegen, Alaphilippe, Bernal, Roglic, Latour

There was Dan Martin.

There was Degenkolb on the cobbles.

I hardly heard a peep from the W/Kg crowd, which was nice.

There was the "who's the leader (will Froome attack?)" game. There was the "Which stage will Geraint crash on?" worry (closest was the back-wheel slide on the TT?)

There were the top three TTers in the world (Gold, Silver, Bronze in Bergen) within 32 seconds of each other on GC fighting for the last two podium places on the final TT.

All in all, a very entertaining tour, if you look beyond the actual racing....

I also give an extra star for the personal reason that it was one of the most enjoyable to follow on this forum - great thread starters, impressive work in the lanterne rouge thread, and very little bickering/trolling.

This is an excellent summary.
I went with a 6. I missed out on the excitement because of the stages I was able to watch live: the first week, and stage 18 , before the final TT.

philbar72

formulaic race in weeks 2 and 3 that never really got going except for.

1) the cobbles brilliant win for Dege
2) alpe d'huez stage, great battle up the mountain
3) Dan martins Muur De Bretagne win

outside of that a bit flat. also in terms of structure, it was too hard for world class sprinters. the finale was very flat, with Kristoff the best of the rest...

specialgueststar

6 comme ci comme ca

Dumoulin saved it for me - liked the parcours - not a believer of G Whizz - Froome pedalling that eliptical ring at 120 rpm oh my gawd- no Nibs in the alps - Spanish non event - first week out of context ( didn't need the cobbles - a 20/20 in a test match) -

blazing_saddles

SpecialGuestStar wrote:

Dumoulin saved it for me - not a believer of G Whizz

I've see this sentiment a lot amongst the disgruntled and for the life of me can't figure how they make the distinction.
How can one conservative, time trialing diesel be more exciting than another?
The only difference I saw was that when Thomas did attack, he gained time.
It's like many of the Dutch who find Thomas's transformation, as they like to call it, "unbelievable" while at the same time buying into Dumoulin's evolution, whole heartedly.
Weird double standards