There are 4 really well designed mountain stages: 14, 15 19 and 20. I like all of those stages, especially stage 15 which is a cool edition to the race. Finestre-Sestriere combo is always nice, but the valley and Bardonecchia might postbone the action. The last stage has the potential to be all out, Tzecore and Pantaleon are very hard climbs and I will get disappointed if we dont see any action there as it is the last stage of the race.
Zoncolan is Zoncolan, but they have toughened pre-Zoncolan a bit up, thats always good.
Montevergine is the most boring MTF in the world, Prato Nevoso is meh, so is Etna, so is Gran Sasso. Could use more time trials and medium mountain stages, they are not that hard.
Overall I think I like the route better than this year. 5,5/10 would be my grade, maybe even 6/10.
Looking at the route, I think it's an okay one. Not the best, but not the worse, average at least. Some interesting stages there, especially the medium mountain ones. Glad to see the return of the Zoncolan too.
About Froome, either he will end up being a massive legend wether he wins 3 consecutive GT's, maybe 4, or he will prove that he has got both feet on Earth and is a human like us all. I think.
Nokere Koerse is also spicing up the race, more (flat) cobbles towards the end of the race. It's a nice change since all the other cobbled classics seem to prefer cobbled hills nowadays.
Think Froome will end up losing both the Tour and the Giro.
He just generally gives me the feeling that he'll implode like Wiggins in 2013, either by getting sick or just not having it with the guys who are more suited to Giro racing. The only way I really see him winning is if the big contenders smell blood and a chance to win the tour, but he'll still probably have to contend with Dumoulin and Landa at least and I'm not sure he'll even be able to beat them on Giro profiles.
At the tour, like many Vueltas, especially Contador's 2014 win, Froome isn't invincible when he's not perfectly prepared and since most riders will be in perfect form (which isn't true for a lot at the Vuelta) he'll probably be crushed by fresher riders.
I agree Froome may struggle at the tour after the Giro. But if the Giro line up is similar to recent years Froome will win at 75%, especially with team sky behind him. I would be tempted to go for the giro/Vuelta double next year and then go for Tour number 5 the year after.
So will Froome be accepted as one of the all time greats if he wins the Giro?
"Ringo is exactly right", Shonak - 8 September 2016
ringo182 wrote:
So will Froome be accepted as one of the all time greats if he wins the Giro?
You can prattle on about dominating the brink between generations, the team effect, etc. but for me he surely will (not saying he isn't potentially already) if he wins the Giro. If he completes the double then his record will show the equal-top TDF wins, wins in all three GTs, and two doubles (probably the harder two as well). No arguing with that surely?
Edited by jandal7 on 03-12-2017 08:40
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ringo182 wrote:
I agree Froome may struggle at the tour after the Giro. But if the Giro line up is similar to recent years Froome will win at 75%, especially with team sky behind him. I would be tempted to go for the giro/Vuelta double next year and then go for Tour number 5 the year after.
If a few riders like Dumoulin, Landa, maybe Lopez, Nibali or Valverde are there then I think they'll give him enough of a challenge to have to work for his win - we're still yet to properly see Froome vs. Dumoulin and Team Sky often doesn't love the Giro style of racing.
As for the all-time great thing, he's won enough races now that I don't think winning any more will change his status, he's got to win them with good racing or wait for time to reduce the races to a list of results.
