Originally Posted by Alekhine

Ya, there are other things besides the GC to spice up a tour, absolutely. I think people are making the mistake of not indicating that they are talking about the GC comp exclusively, instead saying it was a boring tour, and as people are correctly pointing out, it just wasn't. I found Voeckler's and Sagan's stories this year very exciting. I don't see any reason why the question of this year's GC being something of a Bore de France is particularly illegitimate though. It's okay to say it. I've been enjoying this event and others longer than many here have been alive, and yes, I was less than enthusiastic about the 2012 GC comp as it unfolded.

That said, to answer the OP, sure - there are other tours in history that compete with it and even supersede this year's GC in the snooze department. To some extent any GC comp where the first place finisher thrashes the field from beginning to end is in its way boring or at least not so suspense-filled, and there have been plenty of those, including probably the most celebrated tour ever with Merckx in '69. The difference in that case is that Merckx was such an exciting rider and went all out and blasted the field on more than just the TTs (and of course won everything there was to win). It's just exciting to watch a superman do his thing. People look forward to interesting mountain stages and GC contender stage wins that aren't TTs. That's just the way it is. The desire to root for the underdog is an old one too, so people want to see a visible struggle between worthy adversaries, preferably with some seesaw component in the standings or even made-up time on a stage over the leader, even if the underdog loses in the end. Added to this, just about any tour where some current top class rider(s) are absent can be disappointing for some before it even begins, or tours where a big name drops out mid-ride, etc (Ocana!). Lots of variables, and this year's tour had a few of the negative ones in the same hat. Funny enough, I found it exciting in those moments this year where Evans bonked in the mountains.

Would disagree to a slight extent with Bacciagalupe about all 5 of Anquetil's wins, though his characterization of Anquetil is pretty true. He was primarily a conservative rider whose godlike TT skills did most of the trick, not unlike Wiggo. But it's not just the winner and his team tactics that makes it boring or not. It takes two (sometimes more) to tango, and it feels like people are disappointed with Wiggins'/SKY's competition more than anything. Conservative GC riders and TT specialists who are workmanlike in the climbs still have to deal with not-so-conservative competitors, particularly in the mountains, and those competitors can make for a wildly exciting GC comp no matter how boring the winner's tactics are - or even better - the comp can make that conservative rider drop his conservatism (and his support). The 1964 tour was especially dramatic with regard to what people want out of a good GC, and the duel between Anquetil and Poulidor on the Puy de Dome absolutely dwarfed anything in this year's GC comp suspense-wise. To be fair, it dwarfed most GC stories and was a very close race, with Anquetil not taking the maillot jaune until very late and only beating Poulidor by 55 seconds overall. I have a photo of those two practically leaning on each other on the Puy with looks on their faces that are pretty similar to death - that's exciting. The 1961 tour (Anquetil) on the other hand was even more of a total whitewash than this one.