Tumisu

Personally, I think that Vuelta and Giro can have toughest itineraries, but the competition during Tour de France is huge, all the top athletes are there, so the rythm is higher, and in the end the race is harder. What do you think?

bikepro

You'll get more responses in the Professional Cycling forum.

Garfield Cat

Part objective and part subjective.

Maybe mostly subjective. Depends on who the rider is. A sprinter or a climber. Also depends on if that rider did other rides before that Giro, Tour, Vuelta.

Courses change each year, just another thing to consider.

gpsblake

My 3.5 cents is the Tour de France is the hardest. Not so much as the course, but because of the media circus and psychological factors of winning the grandest of the grand tours. Ask 100 random people on the street and maybe 4 of them know what the Giro or Vuelta is. 100 of them will know what the Tour de France is.

I-Like-To-Bike

My 3.5 cents says: Ask 100 random non bicycling enthusiasts and maybe 50% will know what country the Tour de France takes place in, less would know what sport is involved. I wouldn't be surprised if none could recognize what the Giro or Vuelta represent.

Juha

MichaelW

In my experience, watching the TdF is harder, it requires more commitment and is more emotionally draining. Fortunately we have a very good 1hr daily highlights programme with excellent commentary.
I watched one stage in the UK last year and standing around for 2 hours was pretty hard work. I got a better view at the start of a Vuelta stage.

Garfield Cat

There are times when you hear the riders being interviewed after a certain stage win. Some stages are exceptionally brutal due to weather conditions, crashes, breakaways, attacks and chases. I especially like the way Cadel Evans speaks about the stage. It's as if he died and came back to talk about it.

no1mad 

Agreed, which is why I moved the thread from General Cycling.

mprelaw

Years ago, Groucho Marx had one of the first TV game shows. If a contestant did really poorly, at the end of a show he'd throw out a softball question just to let him or her win some money. I remember this one: "What sport uses a tennis ball". The woman still got it wrong.

I would say maybe 20% of the C riders at the average group ride would know what the Giro or Vuelta is.

Myself, given the often-brutal weather, I'd go with the Giro.

Keith99

Guess my hope of responding to a driver who yelled out 'Hey lance' with no way, Martin, Martin Vandenbosche was probably a bad idea.

Not even a good idea here.

Leinster

Tour is hardest to win because it's the one that the best riders are always trying to win. A lot of Vuelta and Giro winners know that it's a bit of a consolation prize.

The Giro and Vuelta might (I would guess) be harder to ride, though. The spring snows in Italy or the Autumn rain in Spain, more days of mountains, mountains that ramp up to 25+%. If only they had some cobbles.

mprelaw

You'd fare no better throwing out Andy Hampsten or Chris Horner.

roadwarrior

Giro. Weather. Especially in the Dolomites and the Italian Alps. It is also early in the season, so figuring things out can be interesting.

fietsbob

Depends on the year and the routes that year .. I suspect when the Tour was on Gravel roads on bikes with only a flip flop hub ,
and you had to do your own service and wear a couple spare tires , was not a Cakewalk.

canam73

I dunno. They also got to booze it up along the way. That seems frowned upon now.

diphthong

giro. the first gt of the year combined with the weather, the dolomites, some of the crazy sprint finishes/circuits + long distances = the giro. the vuelta generally has shorter stages
and is seen as a consolation tour for those injured early in the year or riding for next year's contract. personally enjoy the racing most in the vuelta since i find it the most animated.
find the giro as the greatest spectacle and find the tour having the best head to head racing.

sprince

It's not even close. If for some reason if my life depended on starting and finishing a grand tour, I would not pick the Giro.

AlexanderMG

qft

Campag4life

Yeah, more like it.

Lone

the tactics of the Tour outweigh the strategy of the Giro. Although i like the giro the best, i think the tour is tougher because of the daily position battles in the peleton and the constant position changes in the leaderboard catergories and legendary status of the race.