Greg Lemond, Lance Armstong, Eddie Mercxx

Wayneraltman

The assertion that anyone other than Lance Armstrong is the greatest bike racer in history is completly ridiculous. Certainly not Greg Lemond, that is for certain. It shames me to participate in a sport that Lemond has bruised so badly with his unfounded attacks on the true hero of the sport.

Mr Lemond, if you know something the rest of us do not, please come out with it, otherwise your baseless attacks on Lance make you look bad, not him. He, in every way shape and form on a bike is the better man, and your rumor, and inuendo do nothing to change that.

Most of us regarded you as a hero as well, but no longer. You are pathetic, and are undermining the recovery of the sport... so stop. It is very telling that there are NO contact points on any of Lemond's websites. He offers his "fans no way I could find of contacting him. Could it be that he could not bear the fans of Lance Armstrong slapping him silly every time he made these clueless charges?

Grow up Lemond, get over it you have been bested for all time, and there is no way around it.

Wayne Altman

Wayneraltman

By the way this thread is exactly like the MMA thread I belong to. Compare the greatest cyclists to those of another era is brainless. Tactics change technology changes, ect. How about this? In the modern era Lance Armstrong is the undisputed king of cycling, and I would not piss on Greg Lemond if he were burning at my feet.

Wayne Altman

jws

Comparing riders from different eras is anything but brainless; just because there is no one definitive answer only makes it more interesting.

Regarding Armstrong, the real shame is that all through his career he made a point to ostracize whistelblowers like Bassons and Simeoni. If cycling is to be cleaned up, it's the riders, particularly the top riders, that must demand it.

my list:

1) Merckx
2) Hinault
3) Coppi
4) Van Looy

mitosis

How about: in the modern era (last 10 years) Armstrong is the king of the tour de france.

If you want the true king of cycling go no further than Eric Zabel.

Wayneraltman

That is acceptable, of course I meant the TDF in my post. I am more ignorant of the other races. I stand corrected.

It just burns me that it is ok to snipe someone from the shadows, and with no proof whatsoever. All one would have to do is whisper they had absolute proof of Lance Armstrong cheating, and the press would fill the Grand Canyon to get it published. So please stop with the disparraging comments about LA. He is innocent of any wrong doing until you can prove otherwise.

Wayne Altman

saherring

Winning grand tours does not make one the greatest cyclist of all time, just the greatest cyclist when it comes to grand tours. Armstrong won very few one day races. Mercxx won over 500 races including all 3 grand tours and many one day races...many of them 2 & 3 times as well. His overall record is unmatched. He destroyed opponents without the help of a team in many instances. Also, when Lemond beat Fignon by 8 seconds, he only had only 2 team mates left in the race during most of the last week. I highly doubt if Armstrong could have won seven tours without his team. In fact he has credited his team with his ability to win 7 tours and has stated on numerous occasions that he could not have done it without the team. An all-around record must be considered in determining who was the greatest...not just winning the tour de france.

SaintAndrew

jigga please *pfft* he only won the TdF, and of the 5 and up winners, (besides indurain who spent like 8 years as a domestique prior to winning) he was the only one not discouraged from riding it.

now i think he could have won the giro and the tour (he would never risk that though), but he'd have almost no shot at the giro/tour/world's, and further he wasn't bold enough to try to do it so fuck him.

btw thanx for bumping this year-old, useless thread.

Imback

Eddy Merckx was the greatest cyclist ever, Armstrong is the greatest tour de france rider ever, however, I believe his TDF only attitude didn't help the sport at all.

I am curious on how he found such a really good winning formula, maybe his hormone replacement therapy after cancer helped with the recovery, and Dr. Ferrari gave him some really good vitamins

ishiwata

You're absolutely correct!

(I'm assuming you meant "Eddy Merckx" where you wrote "Lance Armstrong.")

youngda9

You're quite the ambassador for the sport, aren't you. Someone comes in here looking for history, opinions and lively debate and you tell them to f-off. If you don't have anything to say, stop wasting you time and the rest of ours. You're a jack-ass.

Why don't you go to the post in this forum where the 15 year old kid wants to know about getting into racing. Surely this has been covered elsewhere on the internet, books, etc. Tell him to f-off also and stop wasting everyone's time.

Ahhh...just shut the forum down, no need to chat to people. What would you do with yourself...1800+ posts has to take a lot of time. If your time is so precious, then don't bother taking one hand off your mouse to type how your time is being wasted, just click to the next post.

Jacob24

I belive that lance is the best cyclist of all time, but not the most accomplished, if you look at how he won the tours, with total dominance, and how much of a superior cyclist he was to his peers, that is the only conclusion I can draw. This is even more the case considering the new information that the racers he dominated were doping, something I assume Eddie Mercxx never faced. Many of the other cyclists mentioned in this thread have more overall victories than Lance does, but you can't compare Lance to them because he never attempted to win many of the races others on this forum use as proof that Lance was inferior. he simply didn't have the same goal. I'm sure that If Lance was to attempt to win as many races as he could, as opposed to focusing on dominating one race he would be inarguably the most accomplished cyclist of all time
If you want proof for his being the best cyclist of all time look to how he won the tours, never showing weakness except one time when he cracked.
also for those of us who like numbers, look at lances lactic threshold, his VO2 max, and wattage, ect.
You are free to disagree, but in my opinion, all of the things I listed above prove him to be the greatest of all time, bar none

ishiwata

actually, palmares, if anything, prove who is the best.

actually, riders in the 60s/70s were doped (tommy simpson ring a bell?). and merckx was almost certainly on stuff himself.

actually, merckx would have won more tours de france if he hadn't been assaulted during the race by spectators, or if he put more of a focus on winning the tour over winning absolutely everything.

actually, this topic is boring me to death.

mitosis

actually, if you look at the riders who finished immediately behind Armstrong last year and notice they have been discredited (without proof in some cases) for doping, it is even more difficult to believe LA didn't dope.
actually.

EvilJediJ

The only thing we have close to an objective comparison between era's is the World Hour Record. In the future we will be able to compare riders to our current generation easier, due to things like power meters.

Even though changes in aerodynamics certainly made the world hour record up to who had the fastest bike just as much as the fastest rider, scientists have been able to ascertain the power readings of riders including Merckx. When all is said and done it goes like this...

The best performance in the hour record ever is Tony Rominger, second is Chris Boardman(1996). Faaaar behind these two in third place is Eddie Merckx and in 4th is Indurain. The incredible thing about Merckx is that he broke the hour record in 1972. That same year he won 5 classics, the Giro and the Tour!!! Then he still had the muster set the world hour record in October!! Simply the greatest year a cyclist has ever had. Even after that hellish season he still put in a better time trial performance than Indurain, who was at the peak of his Time trial dominance at the time.


Recently, the UCI changed the rules of the aerodynamics of the bicycle so that riders would have to have similar bikes to that of Eddie Merckx. Chris Boardman was able to beat Merckx by 9 meters! But even still his bike was no doubt more aero than Merckx. Of course Boardman was at the end of his career and had already been starting to feel the effects of osteoporosis. Ondrej Sosenka, was able to beat the system by using a flywheel. His record should not count.

Lance dedicated a team of scientists called the F1 group for his attempt to break the hour record. he was obviously training for, we have seen the videos of him on track bikes in the wind tunnel. But he called off his attempt. Did he find out in training that he wouldn't be up to the task? We most likely will never know.