Rate The Season 2023

No_Ta_Doctor

So with the season now well over, the nights drawing in and the methadone of the cyclocross season not quite kicking in yet, how do we rate the year gone by?

We had Geraint's heartbreak in the Giro as Roglic mugged him in the final TT. That kicked off a Jumbo-Visma triple GT victory with Vingegaard destroying Pogacar in the third week TT in the Tour then Kuss being the recipient of a Vuelta carve-up that saw all three on the podium.

In the classics MvdP lit it up with the win at MSR and followed up with Roubaix, while Pogacar took Flanders and two Ardennes wins before crashing in Liege. Jumbo-Visma had looked dominant in the the spring classics until Pog did his thing - with Van Baarle taking Omloop, Van Aert E3 and Laporte Gent-Wevelgem and Dwaars Door Vlanderen. Pidcock chipped in for Ineos with a win at Strade Bianche

Remco took LBL and San Sebastian, MvdP the rainbows in Glasgow - after a quick "hospitality visit" to some locals while he race was stopped by climate protestors and a crash in the final kms. Pogacar ended the season with his third Lombardia in a row

Mads P was ever present in all the big races, but a monument or world's victory just eluded him, though he really tried hard. Stages in the Giro and the Tour will have been some comfort.

World Tour win list 2023:

Santos Tour Down Under - VINE Jay
Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - MAYRHOFER Marius
UAE Tour - EVENEPOEL Remco
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad ME - VAN BAARLE Dylan
Strade Bianche - PIDCOCK Thomas
Paris - Nice - POGAČAR Tadej
Tirreno-Adriatico - ROGLIČ Primož
Milano-Sanremo - VAN DER POEL Mathieu
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya - ROGLIČ Primož
Classic Brugge-De Panne - PHILIPSEN Jasper
E3 Saxo Classic - VAN AERT Wout
Gent-Wevelgem in Flanders Fields ME - LAPORTE Christophe
Dwars door Vlaanderen - A travers la Flandre ME - LAPORTE Christophe
Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres - POGAČAR Tadej
Itzulia Basque Country - VINGEGAARD Jonas
Paris-Roubaix - VAN DER POEL Mathieu
Amstel Gold Race - POGAČAR Tadej
La Flèche Wallonne - POGAČAR Tadej
Liège-Bastogne-Liège - EVENEPOEL Remco
Tour de Romandie - YATES Adam
Eschborn-Frankfurt - KRAGH ANDERSEN Søren
Giro d'Italia - ROGLIČ Primož
Critérium du Dauphiné - VINGEGAARD Jonas
Tour de Suisse - SKJELMOSE Mattias
Tour de France - VINGEGAARD Jonas
Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa - EVENEPOEL Remco
Tour de Pologne - MOHORIČ Matej
BEMER Cyclassics - PEDERSEN Mads
Renewi Tour - WELLENS Tim
La Vuelta Ciclista a España - KUSS Sepp
Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France - MADOUAS Valentin
Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec - DE LIE Arnaud
Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal - YATES Adam
Il Lombardia - POGAČAR Tadej
Gree-Tour of Guangxi - VADER Milan

No_Ta_Doctor

6 votes and no debate? Can't say I'm not dissapointed....

I gave it 8. Some superb spring classics (Flanders was brilliant), an intense TdF but let down a little by the Vuelta in the end

rick_chasey

Give it a week. Big deadline on Thursday next week and then I’m killing time till crimbo

m.r.m.

I loved the entire season. All the generational talents came through and we had some all time one day bangers (WC RR, RVV, PR, MSR).

The GT's were pretty good with the Vuelta lacking some suspense, but somewhat making up for it by the rather unusual and memorable circumstance.

My only disappointment was Remco getting Covid at the Giro and not being able to battle Roglic for the win there, making things slightly too easy for Roglic there.

Pross

m.r.m. said:

I loved the entire season. All the generational talents came through and we had some all time one day bangers (WC RR, RVV, PR, MSR).

The GT's were pretty good with the Vuelta lacking some suspense, but somewhat making up for it by the rather unusual and memorable circumstance.

My only disappointment was Remco getting Covid at the Giro and not being able to battle Roglic for the win there, making things slightly too easy for Roglic there.

Eh? He scraped through on the penultimate stage.

Pross

Some very good one day racing. Unlike above I felt the GTs were a bit lacking and the Tour lacked Pog being at his best. JV were simply too dominant at times.

Dorset_Boy

Monuments were good, best one day riders won.
Giro had drama but needed Remco to last longer, and Roglic got a bit lucky - killer blow couldn't be delivered when he struggled and Sepp Kuss rescued him, yet again.
Tour was ruined by Pog's broken wrist.
Vuelta was awful bar in the in fighting which was eventually resolved by the PR team.

mididoctors

Excellent poll post @No_Ta_Doctor



A few thoughts sketched out

Had some really duff moments but ateotd it was clash of the titans .

The density of talent was excellent.

The tour was a real story .

So was the vuelta for different reasons

The giro will be forgotten except the rain and final stage

Classics were strong .

I really enjoyed it.

mididoctors

m.r.m. said:

I loved the entire season. All the generational talents came through and we had some all time one day bangers (WC RR, RVV, PR, MSR).

The GT's were pretty good with the Vuelta lacking some suspense, but somewhat making up for it by the rather unusual and memorable circumstance.

My only disappointment was Remco getting Covid at the Giro and not being able to battle Roglic for the win there, making things slightly too easy for Roglic there.

Bold poll .... Though it will be remembered for a long time. It will be hard to top .

mididoctors

No_Ta_Doctor said:

6 votes and no debate? Can't say I'm not dissapointed....

I gave it 8. Some superb spring classics (Flanders was brilliant), an intense TdF but let down a little by the Vuelta in the end

Neck deep in Gaza ,.... Good to be in here

RichN95.

Of the 9 big races:

Good: Worlds, San Remo, Paris-Roubaix,, Giro

Good to OK: Tour, Flanders

OK: Lombardy, Liege

Stinker: Vuelta

A decent return and an admittedly crude measure so a 7

gsk82

I won't vote as there's too many variables. The classics were dire other than the monuments. I only saw bits of the giro, the tour looked a foregone conclusion long before the tt and I don't know if I saw any of the vuelta.

Monuments and works were great. Everything else not so.

gsk82

gsk82 said:

I won't vote as there's too many variables. The classics were dire other than the monuments. I only saw bits of the giro, the tour looked a foregone conclusion long before the tt and I don't know if I saw any of the vuelta.

Monuments and worlds were great. Everything else not so.

blazing_saddles

I can't vote either.
I was away from the live action for the whole of Spring and only caught the tail end of the extremely wet Giro. The Vuelta was the utterly predictable Jumbo procession. The first two weeks of the Tour were very good, but the final week was another no contest.

So I am somewhat surprised to see the year given such high marks. I must have missed the Spring for the ages.

kingstongraham

Mostly unmemorable unfortunately, with a few exceptional races (MSR, Flanders, PR, Worlds), but some processions and it really petered out.

The Vuelta was so bad it sticks in the mind unfortunately.

andyp

The best riders in the world going toe to toe in the spring elevated this above your usual season. The first three monuments were exceptional.

The Giro was a great race, coming right down to the last kilometre of the penultimate stage. Most GTs are rarely that close. The Tour was decent, even if it was a procession ultimately. The Worlds repeated the same theme as the spring. Please UCI can we have it back in the August spot, where it belongs, permanently?

The Vuelta was sh!t, but then it usually is.

mididoctors

There was a lot of stand out moments in 2023 ....

Pross

Must be at least a 12 for Rob Hatch based on most of these scores and comments

m.r.m.

Pross said:

m.r.m. said:

I loved the entire season. All the generational talents came through and we had some all time one day bangers (WC RR, RVV, PR, MSR).

The GT's were pretty good with the Vuelta lacking some suspense, but somewhat making up for it by the rather unusual and memorable circumstance.

My only disappointment was Remco getting Covid at the Giro and not being able to battle Roglic for the win there, making things slightly too easy for Roglic there.

Eh? He scraped through on the penultimate stage.

I didn't think Thomas was going to win even for a second. Roglic only ever does the bare minimum to win.

m.r.m.

RichN95. said:

Of the 9 big races:

Good: Worlds, San Remo, Paris-Roubaix,, Giro

Good to OK: Tour, Flanders

OK: Lombardy, Liege

Stinker: Vuelta

A decent return and an admittedly crude measure so a 7

Why was Flanders only good to okay? It had WVA imploding when he was looking fairly decent during the race and having won E3 and having gifted GW to Laporte, Asgreen fighting tooth and nail to hang on and ultimately failing despite a truly valiant effort and Pogacar dropping MvdP in dominant fashion at the final climb. Not sure what needs to happen for an edition of RVV to be better?!

rick_chasey

RichN95. said:

Of the 9 big races:

Good: Worlds, San Remo, Paris-Roubaix,, Giro

Good to OK: Tour, Flanders

OK: Lombardy, Liege

Stinker: Vuelta

A decent return and an admittedly crude measure so a 7

ORDER, ORDER. You Cannot call the Giro good...

From the "Rate the Giro" thread.

RichN95. said:

Score 3/10 It was a dud I’m afraid. They can’t all be winners. I’m not even sure the final TT was great. Roglic thumped everyone. It just seemed not to be due to rubbish TV coverage and the mechanical.

rick_chasey

Will write up my own review but the Giro was an absolute stinker apart from the final TT, and there is a lot of revisionism going on here. @andyp the giro was *not* a great race (though in fairness, you were one of the few who gave it 7 at the time).

kingstongraham

I couldn't remember how I rated the Giro at the time - gave it a 4, with the comment "It felt like a Vuelta".

This year though, the Vuelta felt like an insult. Not just the GC race but almost everything about it.

No_Ta_Doctor

So, looks like polls got trashed in the migration 😪