Rate the Giro

bobmcstuff

Since there's been a few posts in different threads, I thought I would make a poll...

Definitely not a vintage edition for me, I didn't watch a whole lot of it but I don't seem to have missed much either.
Nothing that will stick in the memory much either.

Shame about Yates, obviously didn't get it right with his form this time around.

In the end we were left for Nibali to make the race interesting but he doesn't seem to be able to quite make the difference any more.

Nice to see some younger guys looking good though - Sivakov, Carthy etc.

3 or 4 out of ten from me. Probably a 3 to be fair.

lettingthedaysgoby

I can't quite make my mind up really.

There were lots of individual bits that made for great viewing, but somehow it didn't gel as an overall spectacle for me. I didn't find myself poring over as much info as I could, reading various blogs and so on like I usually do.

I'll go with a middle of the road 5 I guess.

iainf72

It's a 4. Just about. I flitted between 3 and 4 but I'll be kind.

I think the Giro needs to move away from trying to settle the race on the penultimate stage. I know they need to contend with weather etc but they need to move the blocks of climbing around a bit.

First week was a disaster though - The most boring tosh I've been in a very long time.

andyrac

I was feeling generous and gave it a 6; however after the last few editions it felt a bit of a let down. Not helped by a poor route, which was mainly flat for the first 10 days....unimaginative.
I dislike the thinking behind backloading GTs with the mountains in the 3rd week.

m.r.m.

I guess I'll post it here again, so the discussion is in the same place.

Terrible edition. Didn't really enjoy it at all. Happy with the winner, but no fireworks ever really. Tedious sprint stages and everyone in the end just barely holding on without anyone being able to shift anything at all (If you don't count Roglic getting back onto the podium).

Roglic utterly deserted by his team. Terrible mechanical assistance with an even worse interview of the directeur sportif a day later. Left without support almost the entire way, especially in the mountains.

Lopez did well to hold on to white, but lost a position due to fan interference.

Carapaz a good winner, but imho won because he was given too much time at the start. Did manage to hold on well and might have won regardless, since he didn't lose that much time in the time trials.

Landa is Spanish Richie Porte. Endless contracts for mediocre results. Good job if you can get it.

Yates DOA and MIA

Dumoulin might have had an easy ride to a title if he hadn't crashed and had shown up in shape or ridden into shape. None of this is a certainty, but the race greatly missed his lack of attacking and boringly dieseling up climbs.

Guilio Ciccone with a great Giro.
Ackermann with great Giro.
Caleb Ewan with good Giro.
Viviani utter failure.

1/10.

No_Ta_Doctor

A curmudgeonly 3 from me.

Nothing much happened for two weeks, then not much else happened.

A canny win for Carapaz, who snuck in by the back door while Nibali and Roglic marked each other out of the race then couldn't shift him. Not helped by Dumoulin crashing out and Yates being all mouth and no trousers.

And for me, personally, Tao crashing out was a disaster, was really looking forward to seeing what he could do with the leash off.

carbonclem

Felt generally a bit dull but the ES end montage looked great
Kudos to Caleb, Akkerman, Carapaz and Carthy

Yates’ best Giro result remember...

Landa - meh, Nibs - panache but meh, Roglic - meh.

I bet G would have won had he not been on the ale all winter.

mididoctors

Way Too many long sprint stages. They gamble with this show down in the dolomites finale. Maybe not every year. Why they didn't go into the appenines more? The giro has no excuse compared to the tour.

Gave it a 4. The best bits were the breakaways duelling it out in the final. Zakarin win was a good stage. ...

Dunbar masnada peters chiccone Chavez and nieve

mididoctors

Still way better than the worst giro I have ever seen which was the 2004 edition which I would struggle to give a 1

RichN95.

mididoctors wrote:

Still way better than the worst giro I have ever seen which was the 2004 edition which I would struggle to give a 1

At least 2004 had Cunego and Simoni falling out.

I’ll go for a 4. Below average but some nice stage winners.

gweeds

The first 10 days or so were absolute horsepoo. Felt like two different races shoehorned into one.

iainf72

Quick.Step are finished.

No stages wins.

hypster

I struggled to remember anything of great note especially as there was no real GC battle. Some great individual stage wins by unsung heroes but no suspense from the main contenders. I think the stage 21 TT just about summed it all up as it looked like everyone had lost interest - riders that is, not to mention the spectators.

3/10 For Carapaz with 2 stage wins and looking like someone who actually wanted to win.

phreak

A drab race made all the worse for following such a memorable race last year. One to forget, and I can't help feel that Carapaz will join the ranks of Quintana as an early winner who struggles to replicate his success.

confused@BR

First half was dull. Wasn't there some sort of problem with the early route? You know there is a problem when the Vuelta has a more interesting parcours.
Shame about the accidents early on, rather took the heat out of the race.
Carapaz made the most of every chance.

RichN95.

Ultimately it suffers from comparisons to last year’s masterpiece.

A lot of people held out hope that someone might “do a Froome”, but the essential ingredient to doing a Froome was absent.

bobmcstuff

Which joker's given it a 10??

Didn't know Carapaz's mum was on the fourm.

orraloon

Little bits of interest without big drama. 3/10. Breakaways getting something. Carapaz igniting a nation's interest in cycling. Lovely scenery when not pixxing it down. But in all a bit meh.

amrushton

it gave some smaller teams/other names a chance to shine eg Masnada/Ciccone/Chavez. Yates finished top 10 - last year he was toast despite his success. Too many long stages with nothing - in the days of full tv coverage it becomes tedious. I gave it 3.

pblakeney

Distinctly average. No more, no less.
A very slow start countered by breakaways and new pretenders.

jam1e

I gave it a 7 but now I'm trying to justify it I can't really, my only positives were Nibali not winning, Lopez smacking that idiot spectator about a bit and the nail biting breakaway win.

Negatives:
Bernal
Tao GH
Roglic's team - not specifically the guys who went and presumably tried their best but the fact that his A team didn't even make the start line.
First 2 weeks pretty much.

jerry3571

First 14 days were a snore fest. Weather was a bit pants. I wish they would start at the bottom of Italy and only use the Alps/Dolomites in the last bit. The weather at the best of times up there is at best changeable and riding up at 2000m+ means cold rain and snow. Having most of the climbing in those conditions is going to kill off a lot of riders. They can use Appenines, Sardinia Sicily a lot more even though less big.
I think the long wet stages might have sorted out Mr Yates. He might like it warmer and drier than most. Can't think why else his wheels fell off. :?
Happy Tom missed out and hope for a strong performance at the Tour now

bm5

Dodgy voting there with the 10. Is it a secret ballot? Orla's mum maybe?

salsiccia1

Solid 7 from me.
- A worthy winner, with a huge bonus it wasn't Nibali
- Some great stage wins for the smaller teams, Cima especially
- The real emergence of some more young talent: Sivakov, Cathy, Dunbar
- Some stupendous scenery, as per with the Giro

I think we were all a bit spoiled by last year's magnum opus but with perspective this has been a pretty entertaining GT.

crescent

I enjoyed the Eurosport coverage, thought the mix of presenters and commentators was just right. The last few days in the Dolomites were, visually at least, spectacular. The race itself was a bit flat though, can't quite put my finger on it but it just didn't excite me as much as a Grand Tour normally does. Nice to see a different face on top of the podium for a change. 5/10 for me.

RichN95.

The Giros of the 2010s - Ranked! (based on GC battle)

10. 2012 - Rodriguez fails to beat a pedestrian Hesjedal. De Gendt(!) gets on the podium
9. 2013 - I just remember Visconti & the snow. Nibali won in second gear
8. 2014 - Quintana blunders his way to a soft win due to a controversial neutralised descent
7. 2019 - It finished yesterday.
6. 2011 - Contador wins with ease while out on bail. Then loses in court
5. 2017 - Dumoulin wins as Nibali and Quintana watched each other
4. 2016 - Nibali's comeback, assisted by Kruijswijk's snow blindness
3. 2015 - Contador triumphs against Astana
2. 2010 - Basso wins, but the muddy Strade and the great escape make it stand out
1. 2018 - The Wire/Breaking Bad/Game of Thrones of Grand Tour cycling.

pblakeney

Crescent wrote:

The race itself was a bit flat though, can't quite put my finger on it but it just didn't excite me as much as a Grand Tour normally does.

Were any of the genuine contenders in the last week one of your favourite cyclists?
I suspect that is highly pertinent to interest.

mrfpb

5. But only because I can't give a GT less tha 5.

Carapaz slumped over his bike after wobbling into the arena was the perfect image of a winner who has given everything.

The joy of Ackerman and Chavez in particular after their stage wins was a great antidote to the "too cool to smile" or over analytical post race interviews of the usual winners.

I missed Ineos. Thwy were their but not working. Not having a big hitter meant they didn't slap the peloton in the face and say "let's make this happen"

Did anyone actually ride the last km to a win without looking over their shoulder? Thats what real champions do. That sort of confidence was missing from the GC.

timothyw

I think the treatment of Viviani also served to compound the dull parcours - at a stroke one of the players (and the home favourite) for the points competition was taken out of contention, making the series of flat stages even more dull to follow.

Ironically we did get an interesting twist in the points jersey comp with stage 18, one of the better stages.

I'd probably have given it a 3/10, bonus point for Ecuador taking their first GT win, an event that a nation will long remember even if the rest of us will try to forget.

squired

I agree with the sentiments on here. Worst Giro I can remember in a few years. Having said that, will we be sitting here at the end of July talking about how the Giro was better than the Tour?!

rick_chasey

If 5 is an average Giro it's a 3.

if 7 is an average Giro it's a 4.

If, as per some, you can't go lower than a five (so you're ranking it out of five) then it's 7 outa 10 (i.e. a two star).