A Scandinavian wins Paris - Roubaix. But did anyone there notice it?

[Howard Kveck]

In article <Yf%[email protected]>,
"Tom Kunich" <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Amit" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > "Tom Kunich" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > > "Henrik Jensen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > > news:[email protected]...
> > > >
> > > > Did you check the German media if anyone is noticing the victories of
> > > > Jaksche, Voigt, Zabel, Wesemann... (Ullrich in a few months)?
> > >
> > > One thing is very interesting - for a rider that didn't have a large
> > > palmares, Riis is proving to be a genius Director Sportiff.
> >
> > Yeah right. What other current DS won the Tour de France ?
>
> I wasn't aware that a Tour win constituted a large palmares regardless of
> the importance of the race. Riis pretty much came from nowhere to win the
> Tour. He was hardly on the radar screen when Miguel faultered. The following
> year he was blown out of the water by Ullrich. That's no disrespect for
> Riis. But we have to remember Julich was close to the podium that year.

Many people just didn't take note of Riis in the years leading to his
Tour win. But look at his results in the TdF over the years: fifth
in '93 for Ceramiche Ariostea, 14th in '94 and third in '95 for Gewiss. He
had two stage wins each in the Tour and the Giro, as well as a couple of
Danish championships and a Tour Denmark overall.
<http://www.trap-friis.dk/cykling/hof/danmark.Riis.htm>

--
tanx,
Howard

Q: Can we call it a quagmire yet?

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

 

[Morten]

In rec.bicycles.racing Bob Schwartz <[email protected]> wrote:

> I think what we're seeing is the difference between the impact of a
> classics winner and the winner of a Grand Tour, particularly the Tour
> de France. Denmark is a good example of this.

> I'm sure Henrik will correct me if I am wrong on this, but it was
> Riis' emergence as a Tour contender that made cycling popular in
> Denmark. Prior to that Rolf Sorenson became the first ever Danish
> classics winner in the 1993 Liege-Bastogne-Liege and I'll bet he
> got about as much coverage in the Danish press as Backstedt's win
> in Paris-Roubaix got in Sweden.

Sørnesens win in 93 /did/ get a lot of attention, as did his second a
year or two earlier in Milano-SanRemo and his 4.th places in Flandern
- however his first classic win (in 91 or 92) in Paris-Tours didn't get
noticed because it wasn't in the spring.

Actually Cycling has always been very popular in Denmark but the appeal
to the masses and making front covers in the tabloid newspapers has always
requied success in TDF. examples of that are Sørensens yellow jersy
and following exit due to a crash in 91, Riss's sudden apperance in 93
and the yellow jersies of Kim Andersen and Jørgen Bo Pedersen in the
80'es.

--
Morten Reippuert Knudsen

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