The Tour: What Impressed and Disappointed You
 

Now that the Tour is over, impressed and disappointed you? Here is my list:

Impressed:
* Tom Danielson taking 9th place overall. It's nice to see a fellow American in the top 10, especially one who isn't well-known.
* Thomas Voeckler's determination. Every day after he got the yellow jersey, the Eurosport UK site would say, "Today is the day Voeckler loses yellow." He hung in there longer than anyone expected him to.
* Team Europcar. In addition to Voeckler, white jersey winner Rolland is also from Europcar. Not a bad Tour debut for this team.
* George Hincapie: 16 Tours and 9 times being a super domestique to the overall winner. Big George will be missed when he decides to retire.
* Cadel Evans in the ITT. He was only 7 seconds slower than Tony Martin's scorching time. He really put the hammer down on the Schlecks to seal his victory.
* Alberto Contador. After a rocky start he moved up in the standings and did very well, considering his bad luck in the first week and not being fully recovered from the Giro. He knew that he wasn't going to win, but went out giving it his all. He also didn't whine or make excuses when he hit the wall and lost time to the Schlecks.

Disappointments:
* The Schlecks. Yes, I know they came in 2nd and 3rd, and it was a first to have brothers on the podium. But they were way too whiny about having to ride downhill on a wet road and crying about Bjarne Riis conspiracies. They also spent too much time marking Contador and didn't pay enough attention to Sanchez or Evans.
* Vino. I never was a big Vino fan and knew that he was going to retire at the end of the season. But I hate to see someone have a career-ending injury.
* All of the injuries in general during the first week. Plus the stupidity of fans and media cars that caused some of the crashes.
* The Eurosport coverage of the award ceremony. It was almost all about Cavendish with a little bit about Evans and almost nothing about Pierre Rolland or Samu Sanchez. The way it was covered, a casual viewer would think that the green jersey was the big one.

Impressed me?
1 - Johnny Hoogerland
2 - Cadel's grit
3 - Team BMC
4 - Team Garmin Cervelo
5 - The out and out determination of Thomas Voeckler....guys like him are the reason I love this sport
6 - Cavendish
7 - The overall unpredictability of this years edition. It was tooth and nail just about everyday. Going into the last week with about 8 guys having a shot for the podium was all that we could ask for
8 - Big George, shepherding, yet another, winner. I saw a thread here in BF calling him over-rated....ask Cadel or Lance about that.
9 - Tom Danilson going for 9th in his first TdF. Way to go Tommy D.
10 - TTT being back.

Disappointments:

1 - Team Radio Shack and their awful luck
2 - French media cars
3 - The number of crashes and the amount of riders knocked out due to them
4 - No Juan Mauricio Soler

Overall, this was one of THE most entertaining Tours de France I have ever watched. I even got my girlfriend's son to watch with me. He was getting iunto it big time. THAT was awesome!


Cheers,

Brian J.

Agree. Was really hoping the team would have been more of a presence.

Andy Schleck doing nothing in the Pyrenees, waiting for the last couple of Alps stages to do anything, was a disappointment to me. Of course maybe he just couldn't.

I was actually impressed by Contador, in that he seemed mortal. I found I preferred him minus the pistols, and actually started routing for him (though I was routing mainly for Evans and also Voekler). I just so much more preferred him when he was up against it.
The Schlecks - well, Andy, I wasn't disappointed by his performance - that breakaway was stunning, but I was disappointed by what seemed to me a certain nievity - a belief you could do something like that, and still win, and also their constant whining. All that "Downhills too dangerous". Last time I looked, this was the TdF, which has a certain reputation for being out to grind riders into the dirt.
Cav, I was impressed by, of course.
The rejigging of the sprint rules, also impressed by.
And Thor. Really impressed by him.

+
Cadel riding like he still has the rainbow jersey.
Thor riding like a bad-ass classics guy. Looking forward to next spring.
Voeckler again.
Mid-stage sprint points, make them work for the green.
Hoogie, Flecha, Ten Dam.
Tjallingi's loud M***** F****** in the stage 5 crash (I swear that's what I heard).
Andy S. showing some aggression after a lackluster 2011.
New teams and young racers showing good talent.
Oh, and Gilbert taking Cat 4 flyers every chance he could get.

-
Kind of a lackluster TDF overall. 5 or 6 exciting stages out of 21.
Crashes.
Horner crashing out. I really wanted to see him duke it out with those guys.
Vino crashing out. Career ending mishap...
Contador was not at his best.

Disappointed:
-The Schlecks didn't try hard enough to win in the mountains. I expected them to go out and kill themselves to drop everyone.
-All the crashes in the first week.
-Wiggo, Horner and Kloden having to pull out despite having the best form of their careers.
-12 days of waiting for the first mountain stage. Come on!


Impressed:
-Contador going out like a champion
-Voeckler's 10 days in yellow
-Thor Hushovd winning 2 stages, including a mountain stage, and spending 7 days in yellow
-Edvald Boasson Hagen winning 2 stages
-Pierre Rolland winning the white jersey and Alp d'Huez
-Tylar Farrar winning a stage on American independence day.
-Andre Griepel out-sprinting Mark Cavendish
-Tommy D. getting top 10 in his first TDF
-Cadel Evans surviving in the mountains without a bad day
-Teejay Van Garderan wearing the polka dot jersey for a day
-Jelle Vanendert, a complete unknown, hanging in the mountains with 'the big guns'
-Last but not least, the podium girls!

I was impressed by Cadel's victory address - delivered first in French, and then again in English.

I was impressed by the rule changes for the green & polka dot jerseys. I like the one big intermediate sprint.

Obviously Evans was a nice surprise.

I was not impressed by all the crashes that took out or slowed down big names. What could a healthy Wiggins, VDB, Gesink, Horner, and Vino have done?

I know they want the final week to be close and exciting, but what about the first two weeks? They need to bring back another TT to shake things up and force the weak TT guys to attack.

It would have been nice to see Horner back up his "no one can drop me" statement, especially since there may not be a next year for him.

impressed: Phil Sherwin not calling Damiano Cunego "Le petit prince" every 3 minutes.

unimpressed: National Champions Jerseys for countries with less than 1,000,000 people. If Frank Schleck gets a special jersey for betting his brother and another 499,998 people then Tejay van Garden should get a Montana State Champions jersey for being faster then the other 900k residents of Montana.

Most of mine have been covered, but I was most impressed by Team Europcar. For a small-budget team without a lot of big names, they rallied around Voeckler. He was never isolated, even on really tough stages. Voeckler himself managed to hang in with the best climbers up until the final mountain stage. And, of course, Pierre Rolland winning Alp d'Huez and the best young rider.

I was most disappointed in the polka-dot podium girls' dresses. I thought last year's umbrella dresses were bad, but these were unflattering to the extreme. The other podium girls seemed to have several dress options, while the polka dot girls were stuck in those awful things every day. (This is the girl in me talking - I really want to own a couple of the podium dresses).

Impressed by AG2R and FDJ.

Impressed by Garmin

Disappointed with Quick Step: I somehow got signed up for their daily e-mail on results... they were truly sad; here's an actual subject line: "RACE REPORT: Kevin de Weert Defends 13th Position"

I have opinions on the riders, but most of them have been mentioned.

Looking forward to future tours, I really liked the new points structures for the KoM and green jerseys, as well as the shorter length Alpe d'Huez mountain stage. The abbreviation made the whole stage faster, more lively, and we got to see the whole thing on TV. I think the riders and the viewers would both be happier if EVERY mountain stage was around 100k.

I think they should bring back time bonuses though. The sprinters wouldn't care, but the mountain top finishes are made much more interesting when the big GC contenders are given incentive to chase down every attack to salvage those time bonuses. I'm sure Jelle Vanendert would disagree with me here. ;)

Hilarious. Maybe Hincapie can get a Queens, NY champ jersey? They have five times the population of Luxembourg.

Yes to time bonuses. One of the many things the Giro does better than the TDF.

Disappointed - Why nobody could grab 3rd over Frank Schleck? Guy can't TT out of a paper bag and gets 3rd. I suppose when Voeckler is dropping Basso like a sack o' potatos maybe times have changed. Injuries to Horner, Klodie, and a 85% Basso didn't help. I just see the Schlecks as incomplete riders, dudes that can climb, use some cheeky tactics (Andy's Galibier attack), but cant't TT.
Impressed - Voeckler - dude has balls of steel and wants to win.

Impressive performances from Voeckler, Hoogerland & of course, Jens Voigt - as always :thumb:

Disappointments...not so much!

That's a bit harsh but funny though. Seriously, how many people in Montana ride competitively compared to Luxembourg?

The whole thing impressed me especially Voeckler.
Two disappointments 1) no Vino. 2) no Wiggens. Would have loved to see what they would have added to the fray.

Impressed by:

Voeckler.
Thor.
Gilbert.
Cunego.
Evens.
Cavendish.

Disappointed with:

the absence of a prologue TT.
the absence of a a TT before the mountain stages.
Levi, Horner, & Wiggins crashing out.
A. Schleck's lack of fitness/aggression in the Pyrenees.
Bassos' ride.
Vaughters implying that Garmin mostly loses when most of the field is doping.

Impressed Hoogerland managed to finish the stage let alone the tour.. Impressed Cadel fought and fought, second twice, some nasty luck in previous tours and people writing him off... Cool as a cucumber...

Team HTC's organization... No mistakes... if they get up front it is all over... Renshaw is a machine and Cav is a missile... No personal victories there it is all about team HTC and stage wins/Green

Unimpressed: Camera Vehicles... to have two vehicle versus cyclist accidents in one year is shocking.. I saw that footage of the Car-Fletcha-Hoogerland crash again... terrifying..

I'm impressed with the next generation of GC contenders.
was glad to see Rolland win on the Alpe and win the young
rider competition.
I was sort of disappointed that the of results of
Andy's break on stage 18 came to naught. Hell of an attack,
hell of a recovery by Cadel for that matter.

Marty

Andy Schleck's ride on stage 18 and then to challenge again in stage 19.
Evans
Voeckler
Samuel Sanchez decending
team HTC