I'm now a Giro convert...

[oldguy00]

Pro racing has been boring since the demise of Armstrong and Ulrich.
Yes, I said it. Sorry.

[bobswire]

Originally Posted by ultraman6970

Everything calculated made the race bore as hell... The only way to me to keep the "calculated" part off and keeping it at the same time, just to make the race more entertained is just make smaller teams and add a couple of more teams.

No idea about the vuelta this year but hope it gets as good as been in the last few years.

To make it more entertaining take away radio's and power meters. Take today for instance, Yates runs away while the contenders look at one another waiting for someone else to make a move and getting their instructions from their radio's. Had they worked together they could have brought Yates back and fought it out at the finish.

[bobswire]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

Pro racing has been boring since the demise of Armstrong and Ulrich.
Yes, I said it. Sorry.

Pretty much, no need to be sorry.

[choke]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

Pro racing has been boring since the demise of Armstrong and Ulrich.
Yes, I said it. Sorry.

I suppose that one could make the case that the TdF first became a snoozefest when Indurain was winning but I would put the start of that era as the Armstrong years. That's when I first lost interest in the Tour and I haven't watched it since. At least Indurain was willing to race the other Grand Tours, unlike LA.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by bobswire

To make it more entertaining take away radio's and power meters. Take today for instance, Yates runs away while the contenders look at one another waiting for someone else to make a move and getting their instructions from their radio's. Had they worked together they could have brought Yates back and fought it out at the finish.

I understand the race radio criticism in general, but I think the real issue with today’s racing was that 1 guy (Dumoulin) had bringing Yates back as a priority, and everyone else had “put time on Froome” as a primary priority with “put time in Dumoulin” as a second priority. Pozzovivo and Pinot are racing for second. Lopez and Carapaz are marking each other for white jersey. The issue IMO, is differing incentives, not yappy DSs

[ultraman6970]

They all have helped now froome would be out of reach even more, specially for pozzovivo and pinot, always team ideas f... up the race.

Example, Vuelta 2014 (stage 20 I think) purito, contador and valverde dropped froome in a mountain stage, contador was winning but told purito and valverde just pull all together to get rid off of froomey right there forever because they had a ITT next day, Purito and Valverde refused to work. Easy they could have pulled a couple of minutes out of froome that day to secure the podium.

Valverde and purito sat and Froomey catched them, that day froome got second and they dropped purito like a minute behind. Purito because he always does weird stuff lost his podium right there, next day was the ITT, and there is no way purito was going to get 2 minutes back from froomey.

Today pretty much happened the same situation, they just sat. Instead of pulling to kill froome because with the time gaps they are off yates reach but one screw up in the TT and froome will comeback to the podium. The colombians had their own race. I was wondering why TD was not going ITT mode and leave everybody behind, too late now, Pozzovivo will regret it, same pinot, Froome has big chances of getting at the podium door by the end of tuesday.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Avispa

But, I think road bike racing can be a bit boring to watch, especially when you have these dull narrators.

They're called "presenters." They're not dull if they're Carlton Kirby and Sean Kelly. And who watches all six hours anyway?

I watch the Eurosport coverage on demand instead of live, skipping along to catch the good parts. I watch about an hour's worth in total, with one monitor on the broadcast itself and another monitor showing the stage info at www.giroditalia.it.

Lotsa fun this way:

[cadence90]

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[Johnnysmooth]

Originally Posted by paredown

I'm ashamed to admit it, but until this year I had never watched even a minute of Giro coverage.

There-I said it. Hard to admit on a bike forum.

For me (as I suspect for a lot of folks) big racing meant 'Le Tour' -- kicking back on hot summer days and enjoying the unfolding travelog of France as the backdrop for racing.

This year, I have not been feeling well, so a few more days of taking it easy than usual, and I have been watching the Giro--and I am really enjoying it.

There has been good racing this year--riders and routes seem great (although I have no basis of comparison obviously), and the expansive background is an Italy that I don't know--just as beautiful and variegated as France.

Makes me want to pack my bike and ride some Italian back roads!

Like you was a Le Tour exclusive viewer and on occasion, watched a stage of Giro. Tour started to get boring, started watching Giro a bit more. 2015 went and saw some Giro man stages - what a spectacle.

Now all in on Giro - love this race and this year has been particularly good.

[Avispa]

Originally Posted by rousseau

They're called "presenters." They're not dull if they're Carlton Kirby and Sean Kelly. And who watches all six hours anyway?

Yes, sitting in front of a computer screen would be awfully hard to see the six hours... By the way, they are called "hosts", not narrators or presenters...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presenter
The term is also used in other countries, such as Ireland and Sri Lanka. In the United States, such a person is always called a host, a hostess (females), or an M.C. (Master of Ceremonies or "emcee").

[FlashUNC]

The Giro and Vuelta can be fun with novel stage structures and generally not trying to take themselves too seriously.

But any three week grand tour is going to be a slog to watch.

[rain dogs]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

Pro racing has been boring since the demise of Armstrong and Ulrich.
Yes, I said it. Sorry.

Can I ask if you actually watched much pro racing from 1998 through 2005 or just the Tour de France?

Because Armstrong and to a lesser extent Ullrich were rather anonymous in "pro racing" outside of the Tour and rarely targetted any races to win, so not sure how they made anything exciting other than the TdF (and many years of that are debateable... 2004 for example. 2005 was pretty crap too.)

And, if you didn't watch many other races, you missed likely the best stuff, and if you're continuing to judge based solely on the Tour, you're still missing much of the best stuff.

Almost every one of the Boonen vs Cancellara duels (which really didn't start until Cancellara won his first Roubaix in '06 - post Armstrong and Ullrich) were magnitudes more intersting than Armstrong vs Ullrich with perhaps the exception of 2003.

Heck, if we're talking just the Tour during Armstrong.... Contador having his way with Lance during all the team infighting was arguably much more dramatic than any of the 99-2005 races.

[Jaybee]

Originally Posted by rain dogs

Can I ask if you actually watched much pro racing from 1998 through 2005 or just the Tour de France?

Because Armstrong and to a lesser extent Ullrich were rather anonymous in "pro racing" outside of the Tour and rarely targetted any races to win, so not sure how they made anything exciting other than the TdF (and many years of that are debateable... 2004 for example. 2005 was pretty crap too.)

And, if you didn't watch many other races, you missed likely the best stuff, and if you're continuing to judge based solely on the Tour, you're still missing much of the best stuff.

Almost every one of the Boonen vs Cancellara duels (which really didn't start until Cancellara won his first Roubaix in '06 - post Armstrong and Ullrich) were magnitudes more intersting than Armstrong vs Ullrich with perhaps the exception of 2003.

Heck, if we're talking just the Tour during Armstrong.... Contador having his way with Lance during all the team infighting was arguably much more dramatic than any of the 99-2005 races.

Maybe my memory is hazy, but I seem to remember a lot of Hincapie/VandeVelde/Landis/Levi/Basque climber of the month dragging Lance across the first 2 climbs at ludicrous speeds until he would crush the last one. Punctuated by a few iconic moments sure, but not much drama in the Lance era.

[oldguy00]

Originally Posted by rain dogs

Can I ask if you actually watched much pro racing from 1998 through 2005 or just the Tour de France?

Because Armstrong and to a lesser extent Ullrich were rather anonymous in "pro racing" outside of the Tour and rarely targetted any races to win, so not sure how they made anything exciting other than the TdF (and many years of that are debateable... 2004 for example. 2005 was pretty crap too.)

And, if you didn't watch many other races, you missed likely the best stuff, and if you're continuing to judge based solely on the Tour, you're still missing much of the best stuff.

Almost every one of the Boonen vs Cancellara duels (which really didn't start until Cancellara won his first Roubaix in '06 - post Armstrong and Ullrich) were magnitudes more intersting than Armstrong vs Ullrich with perhaps the exception of 2003.

Heck, if we're talking just the Tour during Armstrong.... Contador having his way with Lance during all the team infighting was arguably much more dramatic than any of the 99-2005 races.

I've been watching pro bike racing since around 1989. I loved the TDF's with LeMond, and likewise with Armstrong. I guess maybe I like the north american coverage.....I found it very exciting to watch. And yes, I also loved watching Cancellara, Thor, etc battle it out in other races. Now I find the grand tour races a lot more boring and predictable. Giro stage 14 Zoncolan......boring as hell for the whole day until guess who, froome races ahead for the last minute....
To each their own I guess.