Rate The Race: Tour de France 2020

gregster04

I enjoyed some of the stages. Hirschi on the attack, SKA’s late attacks were exciting to watch and the Time Trial was obviously quite a spectacular turnaround.

I can’t say I was that excited by the sprint finishes. Sam Bennett seems like a lovely bloke as does Caleb Ewan but I missed characters like Cavendish going at it.

Most of the mountain stages were lacking real drama too. Maybe Jumbo were just too strong to be attacked.

DeVlaeminck

7 and a point of that is for the scenic route. Decent enough race.

jimmyjams

Irrespective of how many points I gave for the race, I'd rate the route very highly. I hope Prudhomme keeps to the idea of more bumpy and less flat. It permitted more stages for interesting and sometimes exciting breaks (and was also better scenery than those endless flat stages).
Although, with the Tour starting next year in Brittany, I fear the 2021 Tour will include several uninteresting stages across northern France (perhaps after a Mûr-de-Bretagne stage early on).

mididoctors

TheBigBean said:

mididoctors said:

TheBigBean said:

bobmcstuff said:

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.

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).

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)

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.

Also, worth noting just how fast Lemond's time trial was.

One guy was using Tri bars the other not . Kinda deflates it a bit

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.

Every one says that but forgets fingon rode that TT at 32 mph without Tri bars

mididoctors

jimmyjams said:

Irrespective of how many points I gave for the race, I'd rate the route very highly. I hope Prudhomme keeps to the idea of more bumpy and less flat. It permitted more stages for interesting and sometimes exciting breaks (and was also better scenery than those endless flat stages).
Although, with the Tour starting next year in Brittany, I fear the 2021 Tour will include several uninteresting stages across northern France (perhaps after a Mûr-de-Bretagne stage early on).

I will second that parcours super interesting . Massif was excellent

above_the_cows

8 from me. There was some good bits of racing. The GC might have been slow to get going and lacked any major "wow" moments until the final TT - I mean is it really a GC battle if it doesn't involve some skinny bloke running up a mountain in cleats? - but very pleased to that nothing happened to Titchie Richie to see him achieve his dream and MY MAN Little Flower get a stage win in such epic style...

Granted my viewing was limited this year by work commitments (whoever invented Zoom should be shot inot the sun, it means I have no excuse of not doing certain things when I'm working from home - and the general state of the world meaning I have more work, boooo) but there seemed to be a lack of suitable roadside Boar Man attractions caused maybe by fewer crowds.

But a solid addition and enjoyable scenery.

rick_chasey

I struggle to give the Tour a proper mark because I sort of don't care about the racing, I just love that it's on.

It's the Tour! It's on! Everyone's talking about it!

andrew_culture

For the first time in as many years as I can't remember I didn't watch the full highlights show every night on ITV4. The five minute Eurosport recaps seemed to be enough. Then everything on the final TT and I felt like I'd missed out on a lot!

On the whole I'm really enjoying the field being a bit more open. Having Le Tour, The Giro and Vuelta so close together has really mixed things up!

mididoctors

rick_chasey said:

I struggle to give the Tour a proper mark because I sort of don't care about the racing, I just love that it's on.

It's the Tour! It's on! Everyone's talking about it!

You have to commit or gtfo

rick_chasey

*shuffles off*

mididoctors

Lol

kingstongraham

rick_chasey said:

I struggle to give the Tour a proper mark because I sort of don't care about the racing, I just love that it's on.

It's the Tour! It's on! Everyone's talking about it!

Sounds like a 10.

hypster

7

I have to admit I found the lack of real GC battle very disappointing. I think the main problem (for me) was watching a lot of the early stages live and I found Roglic's/JV lack of adventure very boring. However, referring back to the highlights programs I score entertainment points as follows:-

One point for Hirschi
One point for WvA
One point for Kwiato
One point for Jumbo Visma (they tried)
One point for Richie Porte
One point for the Col de la Loz stage
One point for the final TT

blazing_saddles

kingstongraham said:

rick_chasey said:

I struggle to give the Tour a proper mark because I sort of don't care about the racing, I just love that it's on.

It's the Tour! It's on! Everyone's talking about it!

Sounds like a 10.

But minus 5 for the Dutch lot dropping the ball over the line.

ddraver

rick_chasey said:

I struggle to give the Tour a proper mark because I sort of don't care about the racing, I just love that it's on.

It's the Tour! It's on! Everyone's talking about it!

Would that more people have such a positive attitude!

It's really rare to have a stage that doesnt deliver...something...even if it's just the excitment of the last 10km as a sprint builds up.

Watching the tour just for the GC is frankly watching it with your eyes closed

salsiccia1

An 8 from me.

Some stages would have been great stand-alone one-day races, with Sunweb in particular racing brilliantly. The GC wasn't particularly compelling until the penultimate day, which was sensational in fairness. I would have given it a 6 but the time trial, plus the fact they actually got the race on and got to Paris means it gets it some bonus points from me.

specialgueststar

rick_chasey said:

I struggle to give the Tour a proper mark because I sort of don't care about the racing, I just love that it's on.

It's the Tour! It's on! Everyone's talking about it!

Just give it a mark ( cf not tipping in a diner Reservoir Dogs)

It happened and the rotation of talent, an excellent parcors , lots of highs and lows. Last week the kettle drums building to a grand finale. I always mark high. It's the Tour!