[Closed] Rate this year’s TdF

Totally agree, has been awesome.
fascinating gc, teams treating it like a classics day
Feel sad now it is over. Bring on the rest of the grand tours

Hell yeah

It was good yup

But it seems the haters already hating saying it was drug fueled

But it seems the haters already hating saying it was drug fueled

How long before the results are out and he's in the clear?

Actually I thought that for all there was some aggressive racing, up until yesterday I thought it just felt like Roglic just had to complete the course to win it. He really had not done that much and none of the other GC contenders apart from Pog did much either. Perhaps it was because I didn’t really see Pog as a genuine challenger it felt a bit processional. The TT changed all that, but nobody really saw that coming.

GC-wise it was pretty dull until yesterday, the racing for stages was quite good and I was really pleased to see Richie Porte get along deserved podium.

Overall 8/10.

Loved every minute of it. Exciting, dramatic,and some real racing(for a change) 8/10

9.5/10
Thought Roglic looked shaky after the first big mountains. GC order kept changing constantly.
Great moves by Superman Lopez till the last day of course. Porte getting better each day despite mechanicals/crashes and Pog looked the strongest rider from the first uphill finish. Didnt see that turnaround coming though...
But the real winners...Hirschi..amazing rider
Sam Bennett ending Sagans dominance/career possibly, Kamna etc.....
and Adam Yates in yellow 🙂

I loved it but apart from yesterday the GC was a bit dull

Great race, the route was one of the better ones in recent years I feel and through that there were a load of opportunities for different riders.

Caleb Evans winning with ease, alaphillipe and Yates in yellow seem a world away......Hirschi losing a stage and then winning it, Sam Bennet, naughty Sagan, Alaphillipe going pop, Wout Van Aert riding like a cyborg and eyeballing riders like one as well. And that’s just the Half of it all. Kwiato and carapez, Porte having a mechanical...as usual it goes on and on

9.5/10 for me.

ETA, even though yesterday’s stage was awesome for the GC, Richie Porte getting a podium was my best moment

Reckon Roglic wasn't as good as everyone thought but had such a strong team that he got away with it, until he didnt. He does have form for fading in the last week.
Overall was good because even though Rog seemed to have to sewn up you could imagine quite a few others maybe having a flyer and getting into yellow.

GC was a bit dull

I can see where your coming from as the highlights made it look that way. There was quite a bit going on that didn't get shown/glossed over quite quickly in the highlights to get to the last ten minutes that everyone wants to see....then declares the race a bit dull

I watched quite a few of the stages in full, I still found the GC quite dull.

Best in a long time, would watch again

Try Moto GP.

It hasn't been nearly as dull as the last 3-5 years .

Loads of well raced stages, different winners and changing of yellow, and then the cliffhanger on the last TT, this was a good one.

GC was fairly dull - I'd "predicted" that Roglic would fade but then it became obvious that he wouldn't* and that, once Bernal dropped away, Pog had already lost it in the wind

Viewed as a series of one-day races though, magic

And, yeah, it might make me a hater but to me it also felt a bit like the "old days" with the speeds they were smashing out once they got to racing

Not enough high mountains for my taste. Lot's of great day racing, but without in the absence of long TTs and no high finishes I thought the GC and KoM lacked excitement.

Fine by me though, it's boring if they have similar routes/structure every year.

There was quite a bit going on that didn’t get shown/glossed over quite quickly in the highlights to get to the last ten minutes that everyone wants to see….then declares the race a bit dull

Oh right, I must have missed Pinot mounting his attacks or Bardet going off the front or Alaphilipe giving the GC riders a fright, or Uran or Porte or Moviestar do anything much other than follow or Ineos and Jumbo going toe to toe all day before Roglic,Pogacar and Bernal went at each other by only watching the last ten minute highlights. Give Landa his dues he had a go.

Sounds terrible What do you want ? Jousting with pugal sticks as they ride along ?

Sounds terrible What do you want ? Jousting with pugal sticks as they ride along ?

Do you always get so defensive and childish when people dont agree with you?

Jumbo dominated the GC race from start to the day before the finish, a load of good riders suffered crashes or injury and didnt get shots off. If Pogacar hadnt pulled off that TT result it would have been a team sky like snoozefest for GC. Away from the GC we saw some great racing from Herschi for example or Carapaz but the GC was effectively neutralised until the final TT where Roglic cracked and Pogacar did a magnificent ride.

Good bits:
- the individual stages were almost all excellent races in their own right
- a TT that was fun to watch
- the green and polka competitions

Less good:
- The GC race lacked emotion until the end
- The doping chat*
- People going on about that kind of brakes people were using as if it were in any way interesting

*I get why it's there, but the entire conversation seems to be 'that guys went fast - he must be juiced'. I know the questions need to be asked constantly, but that doesn't stop it being boring.

Indeed . It just seems that some folk will find the tour boring unless someone stuck a firework up their arse and sprinted away from the peloton at every opportunity .

I guess they don't understand how multiday stage cycling works.

Perhaps it was because I didn’t really see Pog as a genuine challenger it felt a bit processional. The TT changed all that, but nobody really saw that coming.

Well it seemed fairly clear on the Peyresourde that Pogacar was very strong and I was amazed he was allowed any time at all. If anyone thinks his performance on the TT was exceptional check out this.

I think some people are blinkered into watching the battle for the win. A bit like F1, there are plenty of "midfield battles". I think it's been a very interesting race and especially in the way that other fights, like the green jersey, sort of got in the way of the GC competition.

A classic its amazing what a bike race can be when they just go out and race.
One thing that puzzles me is the mechanical doping row.
Call me old fashioned but if you hide a motor inside a frame surely the added weight will out do the gains and how do you power the thing?
Asking for a friend.

Call me old fashioned but if you hide a motor inside a frame surely the added weight will out do the gains and how do you power the thing?

Erm... You know those e-bike things?

GC-wise it was pretty dull until yesterday, the racing for stages was quite good and I was really pleased to see Richie Porte get along deserved podium.

That sums it up for me.

It just seems that some folk will find the tour boring unless someone stuck a firework up their arse

Probably best you keep your sexual predilections to yourself tbh.

Again I’d say a pretty excellent tour. 9/10 from me.

- Sam Bennett’s redemption coming out of the shadow of Sagan
- JV and their excellent team, I warmed to WVA, TD and Seb Kuss much more than roglic though.
- writing the race off as the most boring rider winning only to have pog overturn it
- dani Martinez stealing a stage win off bora
- LÓPEZ attack and stage win
- Ritchies podium
- hirshi and sunweb generally for brilliant tactics

Basically a lot of good even if roglic was a bit defensive in his riding, he had every right to be I know!

Call me old fashioned but if you hide a motor inside a frame surely the added weight will out do the gains and how do you power the thing?

Good Lithium ion batteries are about 200Wh/kg, exceptional human cyclist sustain close to 7W/kg for 1 hour. Ok, so lets say you use a 1kg battery and add 1kg for motor, transmission, electronics - you've added a 100Wh/kg component to the system which contributes over 14 times the specific energy of the hooman rider part of the system...

JV and their excellent team, I warmed to WVA, TD and Seb Kuss much more than roglic though.

Its strange how that happens isnt it. Roglic didnt put a foot wrong (till it all went wrong), was never anything but humble when winning and was extremly generous in defeat and yet I never warmed to him. Wout and TD were great but I didnt warm to Sep Kuss for some reason.

I enjoyed this years race. 9/10

Enjoyable race good to see some new scenery too.

I'm wondering if UAE allowed JV to tow their young superstar along because they don't have the strength to defend the Yellow Jersey for many days. Pogacar finished many of the climbing stages on his own with no team mates around him for the last 5km or so it appeared.

Some of the stages were good fun but as an entire tour it's becoming so repetitive in terms of the GC.

There simply aren't enough genuine GC contenders. The fact that PR was 1st using just time bonuses for a massive part of the race said it all.

Pretenders like Quintana constantly being talked about as contenders until they get dropped on the 1st climb every year is getting boring.

Just wish there were more genuine contenders.

Overall despite the covid weirdness I think it was a great tour.

Highlights for me:

Alaphilippe’s win on stage 2, it got a bit dusty when in the post race interview he dedicated the win to his father who had passed away.
Hirshi animating the race at every opportunity (deserved winner of the Super Combativity)
All the GC guys battling it out on the Grand Colombier and Col de Loze
Sam Bennett and an actual Green Jersey competition

But overall, that final TT was just extraordinary. Triumph and despair

9/10 loved it!