Giro D'Italia 2008 : Stage 2 - Sunday, May 11: Cefalù - Agrigento, 207km

Originally Posted by guncha

If I counted correctly this Giro has 8 stages in which last 100km or more are flat/dead flat. In some of those stages there is a 2nd cat. climb in an early part of the race but it still is mainly flat course for sprinters. Some other 2 or 3 stages have small uphill finishes at low altitudes.

Both Giro and Tour usually have from 7 to 10 flat/mainly flat stages. The only change I see is that Giro has more uphill finishes at small climbs which is quite nice. I don't have anything against sprint finishes and I think each GT must have some 8 stages for sprinters. I could agree that transitional stages of TDF 06 was too flat, but I don't think it is the case in 03, 04, 05, 07, 08...

I think there is unconstructive criticism towards Tour: Tour is bad because it is Tour while Giro is good because it is Giro. Nobody has criticized organizers of Giro that real mountains of this Giro will start with Stage 14 only… I am sure in similar case Tour would get a lot of negative comments... Nobody has saluted this Tour because of 3 consecutive stages above 2600 while in case of Giro everybody would have welcomed it...

Originally Posted by micron

Totally agree - there is a lot of snobbism about the Tour v The Giro. I think this year's TdF route will prove to be every bit as challenging as the Giro and I think, whilst Prudhomme is in charge, we will see things get better and better. But you only have to look back over the Tour's history to see what epic routes and racing there have been.