merlinextraligh

Ok, setting aside doping issues, doesn't this have to be one of the better Tours. In my frame of reference (pretty close watching from the early 80's and some first hand recollection of the seventies) it has to be at least top 5.

I'd put it behind Lemond in 1989, Lemond in 86, Armstong in 2003,

Pretty close between this year and 85, (the Lemond Hinault story) 87 Roche beating Delgado , and Lance's first win, but I'm not sure what else.

If you go back a bit further then maybe Poulidor and Anquetil, but for me your getting into history I didn't see.

So where would you slot this year?

reef58

It was pretty good. The term up for grabs is used a lot, but this year it truly was.

Richard

shawnj73

I agree but you are leaving out all the Merckx years. Watch the old Eddy Merckx videos from the 60's, it doesn’t get much better than that. No drugs 25 pound bikes with only 10 gears; now that is racing.

Lithuania

I havent been around long enough to make a proclamation like that but I will say that I greatly enjoyed the rasmussen/contador battle immensely regardless of the drugs. I will remember it for a long time.

raptor3x

You're kidding, right?

Laggard

Merckx got busted twice. He swears that he didn't dope.

merlinextraligh

Merckx's prerformances were obviously incredible, but when you ride away from everyone like 1969, its a great individual performance, but I'm not sure that make as great of tour as one that is more closely contested.

LWaB

This Tour will not go down as one of the great Tours.

magicant

Agreed, but I found it exciting and interesting.

VT Biker

Well,

it will go down as the darkest days in cycling within the current view of most fans.

But as history passes, this tour will be re-analyzed and will be more appreciated due to the suspense (on the road), Barloworld, Boonen's quest for the green, and the general overall excitement day to day. There were about 5 stages that were failed to provide any storylines of significance aside from the sprinters competition.

In addition, while the darkest days were during the race, this Tour will be looked upon as the final straw the really changed cycling, doping, and how teams and riders were required to participate both on and off-season.

Jarery

I found the initial half of the tour to be one of the best I've watched. No one was the dominate force taking control of the race early, everything was up in the air. Riders were tentative as they tested each other. You had no idea how it was going to play out each day. It was great.

Then the middle portion with every day a new rider becoming dominant, and winning a stage and/or the yellow, immediately followed by being kicked out for doping. Each day the racing was great, lots of attacking in the hills, lots of exciting riding, but each day it was a downer to see the previous day erased due to doping.

By the end of the doping section of this years tour, i was almost ready to just turn it off and not finish watching. Im glad i did follow it through, as the last couple days and the time trial added a great 3 way competition with no one being tossed for drugs.

Where I am left with a bad feeling of it all, is the fact the majority of the stages would have been raced differently if those who were tossed, had not been allowed to enter in the first place. I would of loved to see the 3 leaders actually battling each other throughout the stages instead of working together to defeat druggies. And then only having 1 flat, 1 TT, and 1 ceremonial stage left to fight each other.

Definatly entertaining though.

merlinextraligh

perhaps its impossible to seperate the action on the raod from the doping controversy, and that may be why it may not go down as a great tour. But the closeness of the competition and the uncertainty of the outcome certainly should make it rank up ther if you could divorce the doping issue.