Best track sprinter

Please use the above poll to vote for who you think is the best track sprinter since the 80's to the present, i hope this gets a lively debate going

Lee

Restricting this to the 80s plus is a mistake. You've left out a lot of great sprinters from the 80s as well. Where's Gordon Singleton or Curt Harnett?

I've had the good fortune to know and ride and race with many great track riders since the early 70s to today.

Daniel Morelon is unquestionably the finest sprinter I've ever seen. Multiple world & olympic championships single and tandem. Not only was he incredibly fast, but the best tactician I've ever seen.

Other great sprinters would certainly be Patrick Sercu (Perhaps the best all around track rider), ; Koichi Nakano was brilliant and knew how to ride tough - you couldn't intimidate Nakano; Curt Harnett had BLAZING speed; Laurent Gane (coached by Morelon) and Ryan Bayley seem to be the best today. I'd say Bayley has the most raw potential and is in a great Australian program. Lutz Hesslich dominated for sometime and would certainly be among the all time best. Another great, seldom heard of these days, was Anton Tkac. I rode with Anton quite a bit in the summer of 76 - he had gears left that he never needed to use when he won in Montreal. Hell of a great guy too (As is Curt) I also rode quite a bit with Peder Pedersen. A world champ and another great guy. Probably not in the elite class of Morelon, Nakano & Hesslich - but seriously fast and fun to hang with.

For Americans, Marty Nothstein had incredible speed, and developed a great racing mindset as well to become a superior tactician; Mark Gorski of course had some strong rides; Leigh Barcewski was very good. The current crop of US track cyclists is sadly, quite weak as far as sprinters go. Although, I look for great things from Mitch if he can stay focused.

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If you are voting it would be great if you would leave a short note explaining your choice.


Lee

Anyone know what Nothstien's personal best time was? He has the track record at trexlertown(his hometown track, www.lvvelo.org) at 10.347, but it is concrete, outdoors, at sea level
I read Hubner did 9.9 (was this at altitude?)

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"friendship, family, religion. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business!" -Mr. Burns
The faster you go, the fewer passing cars

I'm relatively young (21), so I can only speak about the guys I have seen race. I picked Gary Neiwand, an Olympic champion, fast, and brash to boot. Had a sublime kick, you could see him accelerate when he was already at top speed, but it was so smooth and so quick. I don't think that there are too many guys out there that, when passing on the last lap in the back straight during a semifinal, have moved up all the way to the blue stayers line and dropped down in front of their opponent.

Also, I think Curt Harnett deserves a bit of a mention. Not as one of the best sprinters, but definitely the fastest if for only one race (9.76 for the flying 200 if I'm not mistaken).

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Taras

I dont recall Gary Niewand ever being an Olympic champion.... one of very few races he actually never won. But he was a persoanl favourite of mine along with French rider Florian Rousseau. I admire Florian for the fact that he won the world Kilo champs one year then proceeded to win the sprint the next year i believe. What a champion, in the glory days of track sprinting! Also i think Arnaud Tornant deserves a mention even though he is still reasoanbly young. Anybody who can win three world championships in one year (and four kilos in a row!) has to be a freakishly good rider even if he never wins an olympic gold.

This might hot the debate up!

I went through all the worlds and Olympics (just the sprint) since 1979 and awarded points like this;

Worlds 1st=3 points
2nd=2 points
3rd=1 point

Olympics 1st=5 points (figured Olympics must be worth a bit more!)
2nd=3 points
3rd=1 point

The results were;

1st Lutz Hesslich 30 points
2nd Koichi Nakano 24 points
3rd Jens Fiedler 21 points
4th Michael Hubner 17 points
=5th Florian Rousseau 15 points
=5th Laurent Gane 15 points
7th Marty Nothstein 13 points
8th Gary Neiwand 8 points
9th Darryn Hill 7 points
10th Frederic Magne 1 points

Hesslich. no contest.

Close for 2nd and 3rd....Neiwand, Hubner, Nakano, Rousseau.

Did he not win the sprint at the '96 Olympics? Must also agree with you on Florian, and Tournant is a beast.

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Taras

1. Fiedler
2. Nothstein
3. Harnett

Track World Records:

http://www.uci.ch/english/palmares/t...cord_index.htm

It's a bit confusing to read at first because there's a few different categories: outdoor, indoor, profesional, amateur, Olympic, etc.....

I can see why you would have Fiedler and Nothsein up there, but Harnett? Can you explain.

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Taras

No. That's the order they finished in Atlanta.

Regardless, people still loved Harnett because he was SO FAST.

He still holds the world record at 9.865

Lutz Hesslich would have to be my choice for best sprinter, very fast and a fantastic tactician, his win in the 1988 Olympics summed it up for me, he just outclasssed everyone else. I would find it very difficult to choose others but it would be a close call between Hubner, Fiedler and Niewand.