2012 TDF Boooring

[hpearson]

It is like someone sat down and said "lets design a tour that is so absolutely boring that everyone will stop watching. Lets have no HC finishes, no epic climbs, no team time trial nothing that the fans like. Better yet lets have a big time trial at the beginning so that all a guy has to do is sit on a wheel for two weeks, That should ice all the fans"

This is worse than the Pro Cycling Challenge.

Froome should have grown a pair and gone for it. If Hinault can tell Lemond and Contador can tell Armstrong to ******** he can tell Wiggo.

It is about the strongest man Froome not the strongest team, quit being a puss and start racing!

Say what you want about Armstrong, the dude was a total predator on a bike and that is what it takes!


Victory but no glory for Wiggo! He didn't earn it.

 

[oldbobcat]

It would have been more exciting had there been more contenders. Evans was off-form and the others that should have been there just weren't.

Wiggo earned it well. He'd be preparing for it since January.

 

[jhuskey]

Froome did what he was paid to do. Don't forget it is their job and the employer lays out the job duties in a contract. He may have very well been the stongest rider I do agree and also think this was one of the more boring events I have seen. Maybe making the more mountain top finsihes would have made it better but I just don't see the excitment of days gone by in the riders themselves.
I miss the wild Vino, Armstrong vs Ullrich, tean time trial and even Cancellara pulling until he is spent. To me it was lacking a lot of color as in year past.

 

[slovakguy]

maybe the tour was boring (sky certainly rode attentively enough to make it so),
maybe wiggins and sky management have taken the correct public relations path by never, ever mentioning the issue of froome's solid chance at the the top step (although the wife and girlfriend can debate the issue),
maybe the racing was better in years past (unlikely in my opinion if only because sky's tactics are carbon copied from usps' racing book),

but, even for all that, boy could i use a giant fix of eurosport start to finish coverage of stage right now.

 

[jhuskey]

To add there is just something about Le Tour that is a special ambiance and feel. The whole event lends it's own experience that does leave you wanting more.
After all what tastes good and doesn't taste good is 24 hours without food.

 

[swampy1970]

It would have been more exciting had there been more contenders. Evans was off-form and the others that should have been there just weren't.   Wiggo earned it well. He'd be preparing for it since January.

He'd been training for it since last year - he apparently didn't have an offseason as his new coach, a former swim coach, didn't believe in such drivel. I'm tired of whiny people going on about long time trials - if you want to mention riders from the 80s and things that happened back then also recognize that some tours in the 80s had time trials upto 80km in length and some tours even had three TTs plus a prologue and those TTs were longer than the last one in this years Tour. Times change, courses change as do the styles of racing. Riders need to adapt. There's no such thing as an easy Tour. A Tour that's better suited to one rider maybe but I doubt anyone finished in Paris saying it was easy. I'm guessing the OP has never raced up a 15 mile climb or had to time trial with trashed legs when his pay check depended on it...

 

[hpearson]

I like Wiggo but this whole idea of winning a TT and sitting on a wheel for two weeks is ****. More mountain top finishes and a team TT keeps the lead changing.

I don't think it was a contract or who was paying the check that kept Froome from racing and I don't think it was the Skye company wanting to win. If I am signing the checks for Skye it creates much more publicity for my brand to have the two top guy slugging it out than one boring TDF victory.

Had Wiggo had not been so self serving he could of said "obviously we are the two strongest riders, lets race!" This whole idea of Froome waiting for Wiggo when there was no clear threat anywhere is ****. Hinault, Armstrong, Lemond, Contador etc would of said "kiss my ass if you can catch it."

I like the time trials, they are amazing, but when the entire three weeks comes down to one time trial........ ugh!

It is about the strongest guy not winning. Just ask Eddie!

 

[ambal]

I've only been following the tour since 93, it was easily the most boring tour since then. The Lance years were also poor, at least he attacked and appeared to have some rivals in Ulrich and Basso among others..

 

[hpearson]

I loved the Lance years. There were so many times where Beloki, Ulrich, Basso, Mayo, Pantani, Vino, and others looked stronger for a period of time and I thought, "he just doesn't have it this year". Especially in 2003. But he always got it together. It made for exciting racing.

Even when he lost 26 mins to Voeckler it was exciting to see him claw how way back. Not sure he could pull back 26 against Thomas now.

That sprint were he clipped Kloden at the line was one of the best races I have seen.