Rate The Race: Giro 2021

No_Ta_Doctor

Gravel roads, a butchered freezing and wet queen stage, first time stage winners galore, Ganna power, attacks on wet descents, from Bernal's back to Bernal's Back! Did you like it?

mrb123

I gave it 7. Really enjoyed it, might have been an 8 if we'd actually seen the Giau stage!

Pross

6 from, a few decent stages and unexpected wins plus a little bit of GC jeopardy on the final stage but slightly shambolic organisation at times and the loss of significant amounts of climbing took the shine off.

RichN95.

I went for 6. Bear in mind I'd probably not go below a 4 for any GT.

It was a Giro for the unsung riders. Caruso on GC. Numerous first time winners of stages. The GC really came down to Bernal v Bernal's back, the former thankfully triumphant. I know points and mountains aren't as big a deal at the Giro, but even Sagan won almost anonymously.

pblakeney

7. If a race is raced but there are no TV viewers, did it really happen? 😉
I say yes.

bm5

7. For some of the individual stage stories and Caruso’s.

mididoctors

7 thought I would subtract 1 to 6 for poor coverage but decided that is unfair on the riders so bumped back to 7.. It was pretty interesting at times, caruso was great

ddraver

6, but again if struggle to think of anything I'd have given below 4...

In short, lots of "nice" stories with first timers/old timers but nothing really "great"

Will be remembered by few people except the riders who had their own moments.

tailwindhome

Went 5 - watchable, but without the gravel stage completely forgettable

No_Ta_Doctor

I went for the uninhibited attacking riding from the GC. Pretty much every stage where something was on offer they went for it, frequently from longer out than we usually see.

DeVlaeminck

I went for 6 - ok but nothing special.

Probably lost a point for shortening the Queen stage unnecessarily.

rick_chasey

I always enjoy the Giro a lot, especially recently. The coverage generally is so much better than it was (it wasn't very long ago you'd be dumped into the middle of whatever stage and you'd have to really listen to harmon for the first 5 minutes to know what was going on)

But as Giro's go, bang average - 5 it is.

singleton

7 frome me. I enjoyed it, and liked that a number of break-aways went the distance which kept it interesting, even if not very predictable for my PTP.

kingstongraham

First half good, second half not so good.

+ Taco, Ganna, the gravel stage, the scenery when the sun shone, Bora burning everyone off and Sagan winning the stage, Dan Martin and Nizzolo both winning stages, the battles for the break to get away, Bernal looking unbeatable, then looking beatable

- the weather, the lack of pictures, the two shortened stages meaning there was only one stage with multiple really hard long climbs, the crashes, the long boring sprint stage not being long enough

Gut feeling was a 5 - it won't last long in the memory, but the first half was pretty good viewing, so up one.

pblakeney

Best thing for me was that we got up to 20 kms to go in the penultimate stage and still nobody knew who was going to win. And the breakaway wins.

No_Ta_Doctor

Defining moment for me was Bernal's solo in pink in the rain. Even though the stage had been shortened it was a bloody tough day, and had the race's Cimo Coppi. Attacking solo in pink from distance to win the stage (after a quick strip of the rain jacket) would have been an iconic ride if we'd had some pictures of it.

shirley_basso

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Defining moment for me was Bernal's solo in pink in the rain. Even though the stage had been shortened it was a bloody tough day, and had the race's Cimo Coppi. Attacking solo in pink from distance to win the stage (after a quick strip of the rain jacket) would have been an iconic ride if we'd had some pictures of it.

To this point I'm surprised there isn't footage which is saved on the moto-cameramens' cameras. Do they not have SD cards which save as well as broadcast to the aeroplanes?

kingstongraham

I'm still slightly unsure - Bernal was impressive, but when put under pressure over multiple hard long climbs, he looked in trouble. The two stages that were shortened were the other two with multiple long hard climbs. It's a real shame that the race wasn't ridden as intended.

Lanterne_Rogue

Fizzled out a bit and recency bias means I've chucked another point on to try and allow for that impression. If Yates hadn't suffered so much whenever it was cold and wet it would have been a better race right to the end.

I suspect the main reason this Giro will be talked about in future is going to be (inevitably) because of Evenpoel. An unpromising start that he goes on to defy, or the first signs of weakness against the big beasts? I don't think you can sensibly make any predictions right now, but with hindsight we'll almost certainly use it as a reference point.

No_Ta_Doctor

shirley_basso said:

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Defining moment for me was Bernal's solo in pink in the rain. Even though the stage had been shortened it was a bloody tough day, and had the race's Cimo Coppi. Attacking solo in pink from distance to win the stage (after a quick strip of the rain jacket) would have been an iconic ride if we'd had some pictures of it.

To this point I'm surprised there isn't footage which is saved on the moto-cameramens' cameras. Do they not have SD cards which save as well as broadcast to the aeroplanes?

RAI did have some footage from the moto with Bernal, but didn't make it available outside Italy. I've not seen it.

bobmcstuff

7 for me.

I'm rating on a "how much did I enjoy it 1-10", not "5 is average, 10 is perfect" though so as per above I'd probably not give any GT a really low grade. Maybe if it was 21 sprint stages...

I enjoyed Taco, Caruso, Fortunato, and Bernals first little crack added a bit of intrigue. That Strade Bianche stage was great.