Last great Grand Tour?

jimmocrates
jimmocrates Posts: 131
edited May 2015 in Pro race
Lucky enough to have been on paternity leave for all of May, so seen all of the Giro, which has been entertaining, but going into the final week, it looks like Contador can only lose this in a crash.

Most GTs in recent years have promised a lot at the start, given some brilliant individual stages, but the GC as a contest has fallen flat in the last week.

Last years Vuelta was building nicely, but ultimately fell short.
What do you all think?

Comments

  • salsiccia1
    salsiccia1 Posts: 3,725
    The Tour in 2011 was very good, with some great stages and a very good battle between Schleck and Evans.

    BTW congratulations :D
    It's only a bit of sport, Mun. Relax and enjoy the racing.
  • philbar72
    philbar72 Posts: 2,229
    Agree re 2011 tour. Some outstanding performances.

    The 2012 vuelta was good, Rodriguez was on fire but didn't quite have enough.
  • phreak
    phreak Posts: 2,905
    The 2010 Giro was probably the best of recent times. An epic route, some fantastic stages and the GC in contention right up until the final few stages.
  • ic.
    ic. Posts: 769
    I think the 2011 Tour was the standout, really. But I did enjoy 2013 too. Agree they have mostly fallen flat lately. Why is that? Expectation too high, poor route, bad luck to riders, one rider dominating? Combination of all of those I think.
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  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,234
    phreak wrote:
    The 2010 Giro was probably the best of recent times. An epic route, some fantastic stages and the GC in contention right up until the final few stages.

    +1

    Best Tour of modern era is 1998
    left the forum March 2023
  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,731
    Agree on the 2011 Tour, there were some cracking Giros in the last 10 years too but maybe not the most recent ones.
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  • Daz555
    Daz555 Posts: 3,976
    Salsiccia1 wrote:
    The Tour in 2011 was very good, with some great stages and a very good battle between Schleck and Evans.

    BTW congratulations :D
    I wonder how it would have panned out if Wiggo had not crashed?
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  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    Best Tour of modern era is 1998
    careful the children might object to that one where a drop of rain had the right foot in charge instead of the left one.
    Boy, did I cheer that one home.
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  • chrisw12
    chrisw12 Posts: 1,246
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    phreak wrote:
    The 2010 Giro was probably the best of recent times. An epic route, some fantastic stages and the GC in contention right up until the final few stages.

    +1

    Best Tour of modern era is 1998

    My first thought with my 'cycling head' on was to completely disagree with this but on reflection it's the only one I've watched from start to finish on youtube and will probably watch again in the winter turbo sessions. The whole story, the way some of the cyclists behaved given what we know now, it's very entertaining.

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