Race Ratings 2020

Since the 2021 season is up and running, it's high time that we polished off the Race Ratings for 2020. We already had a post on the [pre-pandemic season running up until Paris-Nice](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/g83ach/race_ratings_2020_precorona_catch_up/), not to forget [the 2019 catch-up too](https://www.reddit.com/r/peloton/comments/g30lu5/2019_race_ratings_overview_analysis/), but nothing on the rebooted season that occurred last year from Summer to late Autumn. If you are still sat at home listlessly (and don't have this to do idly), it might be a good time to re-watch some of the best of last year, and here is presented what our users think!

*Caveats as per usual - not every race got a race rating form, and you can't force people to fill them out.*

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For the TL;DR edition, here are the **top 25** best one-day races/WC events/stages of 2020 (including spring and with at least three responses):

| Race/Stage of Race | Responses | Rating | Time |
|-|-|-|-|
| **Tour de France - Stage 20** | **192** | **9.81** | **Full Broadcast** |
| Criterium du Dauphine - Stage 5 | 57 | 9.75 | Full Broadcast |
| Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne ME | 12 | 9.75 | Full Broadcast |
| Giro d'Italia - Stage 18 | 45 | 9.73 | Full Broadcast |
| Binckbank Tour - Stage 5 | 22 | 9.59 | Two hours |
| Paris-Nice - Stage 2 | 9 | 9.56 | Hour |
| Giro d'Italia - Stage 20 | 27 | 9.52 | 2 hours |
| Paris - Tours ME | 3 | 9.33 | Full Broadcast |
| Tour de France - Stage 13 | 49 | 9.29 | Full Broadcast |
| Giro d'Italia - Stage 10 | 39 | 9.28 | Full Broadcast |
| Tour de France - Stage 9 | 61 | 9.26 | Full Broadcast |
| Giro d'Italia - Stage 3 | 34 | 9.06 | Hour |
| Paris-Nice - Stage 6 | 4 | 9.00 | Hour |
| Paris-Nice - Stage 7 | 3 | 9.00 | Full Broadcast |
| Gent-Wevelgem ME | 115 | 8.98 | 2 hours |
| Vuelta a Espana - Stage 17 | 9 | 8.89 | No Consensus |
| Tour de France - Stage 17 | 50 | 8.88 | 2 hours |
| Ronde van Vlaanderen ME | 63 | 8.87 | 2 hours |
| Tour Down Under - Stage 6 | 7 | 8.86 | 45 minutes |
| Vuelta a Espana - Stage 8 | 20 | 8.80 | Hour |
| Valenciana - Stage 4 | 4 | 8.75 | 45 minutes |
| European Championships RR - WE | 7 | 8.71 | No Consensus |
| Strade Bianche ME | 97 | 8.71 | Full Broadcast |
| Tour de France - Stage 7 | 137 | 8.71 | Full Broadcast |
| Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 7 | 6 | 8.67 | Full Broadcast |

I heard the Tour de France last year ended with a bang. Might need the rest of the Tour for reference though.

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### Grand Tours

**Tour de France**

The Tour despite everything was held successfully this year, with as per usual a stacked field rolling around France. You can see in the data that there were three compelling periods of the race with lulls falling inbetween.

[Here is shown the average rating for the stage against the viewcount from the subreddit stats, showing what type of stage it was, be it a Sprint/Medium/High/ITT or TTT.](https://i.imgur.com/ofW6vfN.png)

As you'd generally expect the Sprint Stages are characterised by ambivalence, whereas the high mountains generate "better" stages, with the final ITT providing an epic culmination to the General Classification.

**Giro d'Italia**

Now first thing to note here - the Giro and Vuelta overlapped, and a whole bunch of races overlapped with them, whereas the Tour was slightly more isolated racing wise. So the viewcounts are less helpful than in usual seasons.

Nevertheless, you can still pick out the crucial days.

[Here is shown the average rating for the stage against the viewcount from the subreddit stats, showing what type of stage it was, be it a Sprint/Medium/High/ITT or TTT.](https://i.imgur.com/LeLTuxr.png)

Some very definite spikes in there, for Etna, a thrilling breakaway on Stage 10, and then the resolution of the GC towards the very end of the Giro, with the Stelvio stage netting the highest rating of the three weeks.

**Vuelta a Espana**

Now the Vuelta overlapped slightly with the Giro, and in general ran very, very late into the season, with racing usually over by November time, hence the deflated viewer stats. It was also only 18 stages due to logistical issues caused by the Pandemic.

[Here is shown the average rating for the stage against the viewcount from the subreddit stats, showing what type of stage it was, be it a Sprint/Medium/High/ITT or TTT.](https://i.imgur.com/8sd0AcK.png)

The race was very light on sprint stages, heavily favouring the hills as you'd usually expect. It seems the race was initially fairly entertaining, before settling down to a more predictable fashion before hotting up in the finale as the GC narrowed, with the penultimate stage the best rated. Worth noting seven out of the last ten stages were recommended as only catching the last 20 minutes or less, which says a lot about how they panned out.

**Summary**

Here's a look at the overall stats for the GTs, with the Tour the highest rated this year, the Vuelta languishing in last.

|  | Av. No. Responses | Average Rating |
|-|-|-|
| Tour | 47 | 7.93 |
| Giro | 16 | 7.53 |
| Vuelta | 10 | 6.88 |

### One-Day Races

**ME**

One day races kicked off again with Strade Bianche, and ran through all the way until almost the last week of October.

| Date | Race | # Responses | Rating | Time |
|-|-|-|-|-|
| 1/8/20 | Strade Bianche | 97 | 8.71 | Full Broadcast |
| 3/8/20 | Grand Trittico Lombardia | 3 | 5.00 | Final Five Minutes |
| 5/8/20 | Milano-Torino | 5 | 5.00 | Final Five Minutes |
| 8/8/20 | Milano-Sanremo | 47 | 8.53 | 45 minutes |
| 6/8/20 | Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge | 6 | 7.33 | 30 minutes |
| 12/8/20 | Gran Piemonte | 12 | 7.75 | 20 minutes |
| 15/8/20 | Il Lombardia | 28 | 7.07 | Hour |
| 18/8/20 | Giro dell'Emilia | 7 | 7.86 | No Consensus |
| 25/8/20 | Bretagne Classic - Ouest-France | 9 | 7.22 | Hour |
| 26/8/20 | European Championship RR | 12 | 6.58 | Hour |
| 17/9/20 | Coppa Sabatini | 1 | 6.00 | Full Broadcast |
| 25/9/20 | WC ITT | 8 | 7.75 | Full Broadcast |
| 27/9/20 | WC RR | 65 | 8.40 | Hour |
| 30/9/20 | Fleche Wallonne | 14 | 7.57 | 30 minutes |
| 4/10/20 | Liège-Bastogne-Liège | 65 | 8.42 | 30 minutes |
| 7/10/20 | De Brabantse Pijl | 15 | 8.60 | Full Broadcast |
| 11/10/20 | Paris - Tours | 3 | 9.33 | Full Broadcast |
| 11/10/20 | Gent-Wevelgem | 115 | 8.98 | 2 hours |
| 14/10/20 | Scheldeprijs | 35 | 4.71 | Final Five Minutes |
| 18/10/20 | Ronde van Vlaanderen | 63 | 8.87 | 2 hours |
| 21/10/20 | **Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne** | 12 | **9.75** | Full Broadcast |

Turns out then that Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne was *the* race to watch, if you could take more cycling at that point in the season. Strade Bianche, Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem & Paris-Tours were pretty decent too.

**WE**

Women's racing also kicked back off with Strade Bianche, and ran through to October as well. EC RR pick of the bunch here.

| Date | Race | # Responses | Rating | Time |
|-|-|-|-|-|
| 01/08/20 | Strade Bianche | 11 | 8.00 | Full Broadcast |
| 25/8/20 | GP de Plouay | 7 | 7.14 | 20 minutes |
| 27/8/20 | **European Championships RR** | 7 | **8.71** | No Consensus |
| 24/9/20 | World Championship ITT | 4 | 6.75 | Full Broadcast |
| 26/9/20 | World Championship RR | 98 | 6.91 | Hour |
| 30/9/20 | Fleche Wallonne | 5 | 8.40 | Full Broadcast |
| 4/10/20 | Liège-Bastogne-Liège | 18 | 8.17 | Full Broadcast |
| 7/10/20 | De Brabantse Pijl | 2 | 8.50 | Full Broadcast |
| 11/10/20 | Gent-Wevelgem | 3 | 8.00 | No Consensus |
| 18/10/20 | Ronde van Vlaanderen | 7 | 8.14 | Hour |
| 20/10/20 | Driedaagse Brugge-De Panne | 1 | 8.00 | Full Broadcast |

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### Stage Races

**ME**

First off, a little [here's a little chart ranking stage races by average rating, with average number of responses labeling each column](https://i.imgur.com/rXCHFfx.png).

BinckBank Tour is obviously somewhat affected by the ludicrous last stage, but the Tour de l'Ain is probably one that snuck under the radar here.

As for individual stages, from the second half of the season, there were very few stages rated above eight.

| Race/Stage of Race | Responses | Rating | Time |
|-|-|-|-|
| Criterium du Dauphine - Stage 5 | 57 | 9.75 | Full Broadcast |
| BinckBank Tour - Stage 5 | 22 | 9.59 | Two hours |
| Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 7 | 6 | 8.67 | Full Broadcast |
| Tour de Pologne - Stage 4 | 11 | 8.55 | Full Broadcast |
| Tour de Wallonie - Stage 1 | 3 | 8.33 | Full Broadcast |
| Volta a Portugal - Stage 2 | 4 | 8.25 | No Consensus |
| Tour de Pologne - Stage 2 | 6 | 8.17 | 10 minutes |
| Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 4 | 7 | 8.14 | Full Broadcast |

Final stage of the Dauphine would be the one to watch, alongside that finale to the BinckBank Tour.

**WE**

Nowt to go off for women's I'm afraid.

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**Most responded to polls**

Here are a couple of snaps of the [top 25](https://i.imgur.com/4t1YBRU.png) & [26-50](https://i.imgur.com/oeWQR2y.png) of the most responded to polls from last year. Naturally the Tour comes out pretty high, but lets not forget some kid doing wonder-things in Burgos too hastily either.

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**Conclusion**

Finally, here's a link to the sheet [if you're extremely curious](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qbCmOYkKTKdaZ81IyYQ2ZSo2JG26-1ka6p5-h1jJhwk/edit?usp=sharing).

And a [stack of cookies](https://sugarandcharm.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/butterlesschocolatechipcookies_1.jpg).

*Don't ask me about race ratings this year, ask a current mod, I was just bored at home*.