Rate The Race: Tour de France 2020
Comments
-
7, good stages, nice battle for green. GC was a slow burner0
-
I've gone 7 too. Sprint stages were good, probably more exciting than the supposed GC stages in the early part of the race. Amazing TT to finish elevated it a point or two.0
-
Very very good. Getting to Paris against the odds, good weather, a really scenic course, a nice range of hills, good sprint stages, echelons, breakaways succeeding, breakaways getting caught. A good contest for the green, drama for yellow up to the last competed stage. And Wout.1
-
Excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I want to avoid bias towards never being able to give full marks. It wasn't phenomenal for (large) stretches, but very good. However it stuck the landing and you can see in movies/series how important that can be (see The Usual Suspects vs Game of Thrones e.g.)
The ending was just so spectacular that it vaulted a 8/10 Tour into 10/10 for me.PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 20230 -
I give it a 7 . Very interesting race rather than exciting . Marred by the collapse of the French and ineos . Some superb cycling on show and tactical intriguing. Feels like the consolidation of a new phase in the sport ..
However the fact it happened at all in 2020 I added a 1 due to its boost to everyone's morale .. it successfully managed to get it through France without spreading covid through the bunch . Deserves recognition for that .. so I gave it a 8
BUT
the insane final tt drama that floored us all was a real emotional experience That few of us will forget so I add another 1 .
Total 9"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
Pretty good, I thought.
- GC pressure cooker started simmering immediately, cooked them one by one, then blew the safety valve in spectacular fashion right at the end
- Luck fell the right way to give quite a few riders results they deserved, either for their efforts this tour (WVA, Hirschi) or before (Kwia, Yates in yellow at the third attempt, Porte)
- Sunweb created all sorts of havoc by racing in a different competition to everyone else. Felt like more solo/breakaway wins than usual this year
- Proper green jersey competition meant that even the flatter stages were raced hard by Bora trying to shift Bennett. Also Sagan being followed everywhere by the Green Shadow whilst looking grumpy was genuinely amusing, especially in the final week when Bennett suddenly became a breakaway rider. How did that happen?
- Bit of luck on duller stages - echelons happened, and they threatened at other times too
- The freakish mountain top finish turned out to be less freakish than feared but still caused all sorts of problems. Can't wait to go back again to that one
- Crashes had less impact than normal, fortunately
- Some genuinely heart-warming moments of sportsmanship - the Pog'n'Rog show, Carapaz and Kwiatkowski
- Some really interesting sprints that rewarded technical artistry - Ewan popping out at the last second, Bennett on the Champs after dropping back off his man
0 - GC pressure cooker started simmering immediately, cooked them one by one, then blew the safety valve in spectacular fashion right at the end
-
Giro 2018 still the best GT I have ever watched"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0
-
I've given it an eight.
I'd probably have gone for a more miserly 7, but the fact they managed to get to Paris at all, and did all this in the most f@cked up of seasons is worth the extra point.
There was much to like - genuine green jersey competition, Sunweb classics approach, Richie's podium etc. But though the denouement was spectacular there was little in the way of real GC man to man racing, bar the sprints for bonus seconds. Yes, seeing riders crack and fall off the back is interesting and part of racing, but it's never quite as exciting as a full-blooded attack to win. Pretty much everyone that thought Roglic had it in the bag thought they were watching pretty standard fare, tactically interesting but not all that much to get the blood pumping.
I think Pogacar's win surprised everyone - even on the morning of the TT there were few that thought he could take the yellow barring a crash or puncture for Roglic. So a point gained for the genuine surprise, but a point lost for not feeling there was much tension in the buildup.Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
An exceptional performance in the final time trial doesn't make a Tour a great one, otherwise Indurain taking 6 minutes out of Fignon in the 1992 Tour would have been a worldie, when of course it really wasn't.
Sadly the GC battle never took off prior to the final TT, with most mountain top finishes seeing a decent sized pack scrabbling for bonus seconds. The comparisons with 1989 are frankly absurd. That year the yellow jersey changed hands 4 times between Fignon and LeMond before LeMond got it back for the 3rd time in Paris. Throw in the early drama from the reigning champion missing his start spot on the prologue and trying to play catch up throughout and it was an infinitely better race with real attacking throughout.
This was great in the sense that there was a real chance we wouldn't have had any racing at all this year, so it was lovely that we got an entire Tour in, but it wasn't a classic in any stretch of the word.0 -
9, thought it was excellent for the modern era.
‘89 unlikely to be repeated with Power, radios and improved scientific understanding of performance.
Sunweb, green jersey battle, entire top 10 fluid until the very end.
A really exciting generation of young riders coming through and not scared to race.0 -
Can I take a point off for all the adverts with abused animals/children/Zwift owners on ITV? Ended up listening to far more Eurosport than I'd have liked as a result...1
-
the 89 tour is good very good because of the gc battle but it was full of dross flat stages that would have had this forum in a rage about. even the last 20k of modern flat stages outdo anything from that era. the 80s and 90s were full of predictable sprints and soft breaks won by lottery.. great champions like Bart Voskamp and Roscioli [who? exactly] .. let's face it it was only a spectacular two-horse race in 89 cos the favourite forgot his start time for the prologue warming up in a car park.phreak said:An exceptional performance in the final time trial doesn't make a Tour a great one, otherwise Indurain taking 6 minutes out of Fignon in the 1992 Tour would have been a worldie, when of course it really wasn't.
Sadly the GC battle never took off prior to the final TT, with most mountain top finishes seeing a decent sized pack scrabbling for bonus seconds. The comparisons with 1989 are frankly absurd. That year the yellow jersey changed hands 4 times between Fignon and LeMond before LeMond got it back for the 3rd time in Paris. Throw in the early drama from the reigning champion missing his start spot on the prologue and trying to play catch up throughout and it was an infinitely better race with real attacking throughout.
This was great in the sense that there was a real chance we wouldn't have had any racing at all this year, so it was lovely that we got an entire Tour in, but it wasn't a classic in any stretch of the word.
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
without covid i would give it a 8RichN95. said:Maybe I'm rating it a point lower as I'm working from home and saw all. Grand Tours are usually better in highlights programmes
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
He was that impressed by Sam Bennett's win?ddraver said:I'd have gone 7.5 if possible.
Our old friend iainf gave it 7/10, up from 5/10 because if the last day. 5/10 from him being really rather good indeed...
He has scored tour's as highly as 8.5 before though.0 -
I have to say the highlights for Sunday's TT could have been a heck of a lot better.0
-
7 for me. Some good stages over the Friday to Sunday of the first week, several good stage wins with Hirschi, SKA and Kwiatkowski. The Green and KoM battles were pretty decent, would have been better still had Sagan not had his moment of madness. A changing of the guard too with no Sky / Ineos win and Sagan not winning green.
It drops marks as the GC was a bit negative with very few genuine attacks by any of the contenders and the two favourites seemingly content to fight it out in sprints for bonus seconds but then THAT stage really made it memorable.0 -
the " dont drop dead with out living a will for your cat to be cared for" one got me emailing the ombudsmanLanterne_Rogue said:Can I take a point off for all the adverts with abused animals/children/Zwift owners on ITV? Ended up listening to far more Eurosport than I'd have liked as a result...
"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm1 -
how much money did those charities spend advertising during the race?"If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0
-
In 89, apparently some people were suggesting beforehand that Lemond might take it back on the final TT (I say apparently because I was 1 at the time so I wasn't busy following the tour).phreak said:An exceptional performance in the final time trial doesn't make a Tour a great one, otherwise Indurain taking 6 minutes out of Fignon in the 1992 Tour would have been a worldie, when of course it really wasn't.
Sadly the GC battle never took off prior to the final TT, with most mountain top finishes seeing a decent sized pack scrabbling for bonus seconds. The comparisons with 1989 are frankly absurd. That year the yellow jersey changed hands 4 times between Fignon and LeMond before LeMond got it back for the 3rd time in Paris. Throw in the early drama from the reigning champion missing his start spot on the prologue and trying to play catch up throughout and it was an infinitely better race with real attacking throughout.
This was great in the sense that there was a real chance we wouldn't have had any racing at all this year, so it was lovely that we got an entire Tour in, but it wasn't a classic in any stretch of the word.
On the eve of stage 20, nobody suggested that Pogacar would be able to do that. Even during the stage when Roglic had lost 20 seconds, people were saying that Pogacar had gone out too hard, Roglic was pacing himself etc.
The comparison with Fignon and Indurain is daft as well because everyone knew Indurain would destroy Fignon in the TT (again, apparently, as I was 4 so I had other things on my mind)0 -
I gave it an eight.
Kingstongraham pretty much summed up the race for me.
Regardless of when it took place, it was still a full on Tour raced over great parcour in consistently glorious weather.
Stage 7 was the outstanding stage of the race for me, since it happened on the most innocuous of profiles.
Then there was that ITT after some well designed mountain stages.
However, I am just meaner and of course a boring train strangling much of the racing, even in a change of kit, is still a boring train."Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
6, GC boring till the last hour it was race. bennet winning green and Kwiato getting a stage saved it from being a sub 5 for me.0
-
I thought the two week battle for green was the first convincing case of needing to see the stage starts.RichN95. said:Maybe I'm rating it a point lower as I'm working from home and saw all. Grand Tours are usually better in highlights programmes
I'd confidently informed a friend that's new to cycling that the stage starts could be really hectic and interesting, and the peloton promptly tricked Ladagnous into going solo from the flag. That was two minutes of my life that were only worth it for the comedy valueWarning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
That's not true. One of the few things I can clearly remember is how everyone was saying that taking 2s a km was impossible, so it really was a surprise. Even Fignon apparently congratulated Lemond on his second place.bobmcstuff said:
In 89, apparently some people were suggesting beforehand that Lemond might take it back on the final TT (I say apparently because I was 1 at the time so I wasn't busy following the tour).phreak said:An exceptional performance in the final time trial doesn't make a Tour a great one, otherwise Indurain taking 6 minutes out of Fignon in the 1992 Tour would have been a worldie, when of course it really wasn't.
Sadly the GC battle never took off prior to the final TT, with most mountain top finishes seeing a decent sized pack scrabbling for bonus seconds. The comparisons with 1989 are frankly absurd. That year the yellow jersey changed hands 4 times between Fignon and LeMond before LeMond got it back for the 3rd time in Paris. Throw in the early drama from the reigning champion missing his start spot on the prologue and trying to play catch up throughout and it was an infinitely better race with real attacking throughout.
This was great in the sense that there was a real chance we wouldn't have had any racing at all this year, so it was lovely that we got an entire Tour in, but it wasn't a classic in any stretch of the word.
On the eve of stage 20, nobody suggested that Pogacar would be able to do that. Even during the stage when Roglic had lost 20 seconds, people were saying that Pogacar had gone out too hard, Roglic was pacing himself etc.
The comparison with Fignon and Indurain is daft as well because everyone knew Indurain would destroy Fignon in the TT (again, apparently, as I was 4 so I had other things on my mind)
Also, worth noting just how fast Lemond's time trial was.0 -
Happened to us in Yorkshire - there was a group of us at the first little rise able to see all the to kilometre zero, some of whom had never watched cycling before (and went home vowing to buy a bike). We confidently predicted chaos.
Flag drops. Jens Voigt goes off the front. The riders all look at each other, shrug, and immediately start soft-pedalling to ensure there's a big gap and nobody being ordered to try and get across. Brilliant.1 -
I've gone for an 8. I think it would be a 7 if the exact same race had taken place as normal in July, but for me that warrants an extra point.0
-
One guy was using Tri bars the other not . Kinda deflates it a bitTheBigBean said:
That's not true. One of the few things I can clearly remember is how everyone was saying that taking 2s a km was impossible, so it really was a surprise. Even Fignon apparently congratulated Lemond on his second place.bobmcstuff said:
In 89, apparently some people were suggesting beforehand that Lemond might take it back on the final TT (I say apparently because I was 1 at the time so I wasn't busy following the tour).phreak said:An exceptional performance in the final time trial doesn't make a Tour a great one, otherwise Indurain taking 6 minutes out of Fignon in the 1992 Tour would have been a worldie, when of course it really wasn't.
Sadly the GC battle never took off prior to the final TT, with most mountain top finishes seeing a decent sized pack scrabbling for bonus seconds. The comparisons with 1989 are frankly absurd. That year the yellow jersey changed hands 4 times between Fignon and LeMond before LeMond got it back for the 3rd time in Paris. Throw in the early drama from the reigning champion missing his start spot on the prologue and trying to play catch up throughout and it was an infinitely better race with real attacking throughout.
This was great in the sense that there was a real chance we wouldn't have had any racing at all this year, so it was lovely that we got an entire Tour in, but it wasn't a classic in any stretch of the word.
On the eve of stage 20, nobody suggested that Pogacar would be able to do that. Even during the stage when Roglic had lost 20 seconds, people were saying that Pogacar had gone out too hard, Roglic was pacing himself etc.
The comparison with Fignon and Indurain is daft as well because everyone knew Indurain would destroy Fignon in the TT (again, apparently, as I was 4 so I had other things on my mind)
Also, worth noting just how fast Lemond's time trial was."If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm0 -
Except it remained a very fast time trial even when everyone else was using them, and this was about expectations before the time trial when people didn't know how effective they were.mididoctors said:
One guy was using Tri bars the other not . Kinda deflates it a bitTheBigBean said:
That's not true. One of the few things I can clearly remember is how everyone was saying that taking 2s a km was impossible, so it really was a surprise. Even Fignon apparently congratulated Lemond on his second place.bobmcstuff said:
In 89, apparently some people were suggesting beforehand that Lemond might take it back on the final TT (I say apparently because I was 1 at the time so I wasn't busy following the tour).phreak said:An exceptional performance in the final time trial doesn't make a Tour a great one, otherwise Indurain taking 6 minutes out of Fignon in the 1992 Tour would have been a worldie, when of course it really wasn't.
Sadly the GC battle never took off prior to the final TT, with most mountain top finishes seeing a decent sized pack scrabbling for bonus seconds. The comparisons with 1989 are frankly absurd. That year the yellow jersey changed hands 4 times between Fignon and LeMond before LeMond got it back for the 3rd time in Paris. Throw in the early drama from the reigning champion missing his start spot on the prologue and trying to play catch up throughout and it was an infinitely better race with real attacking throughout.
This was great in the sense that there was a real chance we wouldn't have had any racing at all this year, so it was lovely that we got an entire Tour in, but it wasn't a classic in any stretch of the word.
On the eve of stage 20, nobody suggested that Pogacar would be able to do that. Even during the stage when Roglic had lost 20 seconds, people were saying that Pogacar had gone out too hard, Roglic was pacing himself etc.
The comparison with Fignon and Indurain is daft as well because everyone knew Indurain would destroy Fignon in the TT (again, apparently, as I was 4 so I had other things on my mind)
Also, worth noting just how fast Lemond's time trial was.0
