Pro Cyclists



All time favourite :

Sean Kelly : GOD!
Just pips my old clubmate Stephen Roche.

Oscar Freire : great rider, thrice world champion and modest guy.
Laurent Jalabert : superb all round ability, classy guy, gentleman.
Miguel Indurain : power and glory and a gentleman.
Andy Hampsten : smoothest action on a bike (along with Rochey).
Greg LeMond : hard fighter and good guy, awesome palmares.
Phil Anderson : grit, determination and tough guy a la Kelly.
Erik Zabel : the best results of any rider in the past 10 years, phenomenal.
Jan Ullrich : wunderkind!
Jens Voigt : another hard man - but a great guy too.
Peter Van Petegem : the proto-type Belgian hardman.
Paolo Bettini : Mr Consistency a la Zabel.
Michele Bartoli : classy action on the bike, great great classics rider and a handsome lad to boot (at least mrs Limerickman says so!).
 
sergen said:
Nobody's mentioned Jens Voight. A class act both on and off the bike.
Jens gets my vote! He's why I started cheering for CSC, him and Bobby J.

Now that I've been following the results of CSC in 2006, I've been closely watching Frank Schleck. What a performance on Alpe d'Huez! I think this guy is a real TdF podium contender in a couple years!
 
padawan said:
Jens gets my vote! He's why I started cheering for CSC, him and Bobby J.

Now that I've been following the results of CSC in 2006, I've been closely watching Frank Schleck. What a performance on Alpe d'Huez! I think this guy is a real TdF podium contender in a couple years!
And Amstel, of course. But everytime I look at that photo from d'Huez (just saw it again while checking his palmares), man, he looks sickly skinny. Those things he probably refers to as arms, geesh!

I didn't realize he had so many strong stage race overall placings, top 10 in Paris-Nice thrice, in Suisse, in Mediterraneen.
 
limerickman said:
All time favourite :

Sean Kelly : GOD!
Just pips my old clubmate Stephen Roche.

Oscar Freire : great rider, thrice world champion and modest guy.
Laurent Jalabert : superb all round ability, classy guy, gentleman.
Miguel Indurain : power and glory and a gentleman.
Andy Hampsten : smoothest action on a bike (along with Rochey).
Greg LeMond : hard fighter and good guy, awesome palmares.
Phil Anderson : grit, determination and tough guy a la Kelly.
Erik Zabel : the best results of any rider in the past 10 years, phenomenal.
Jan Ullrich : wunderkind!
Jens Voigt : another hard man - but a great guy too.
Peter Van Petegem : the proto-type Belgian hardman.
Paolo Bettini : Mr Consistency a la Zabel.
Michele Bartoli : classy action on the bike, great great classics rider and a handsome lad to boot (at least mrs Limerickman says so!).

Excellent list Lim. Zabel and Van Petegem are two that I certainly forgot about when I made my list. You're right about Zabel's results. I guess I never really thought about it but his palmares is unbelievable!
 
JRMDC said:
Lim, looks like you need to add some youngsters to your list. They will all be retired soon!

Jens Voigt is the youngster in that list !
I'm showing me age, eh?

I like the current generation : Boonen is very impressive.
Frank Scleck looks a good prospect.
One for the future : Bernard Kohl of TM.
I think he'll do well.
 
meehs said:
Excellent list Lim. Zabel and Van Petegem are two that I certainly forgot about when I made my list. You're right about Zabel's results. I guess I never really thought about it but his palmares is unbelievable!

Why, thank you!

Actually my guys are pretty old - a bit like your list.
Van Impe. Superb.

We're a couple of old foggies, Meehs!

But I agree with your point - it's tougher to warm to this generation for some reason.
 
limerickman said:
But I agree with your point - it's tougher to warm to this generation for some reason.
Well, if the category is "all time favorites," it is hard to list people whose careers are not yet half complete. Of the current old guard, you do have a few. I was guffing you a bit about the youth, but the list is reasonable.

You could add Boonen; he has won so much already that, were he to retire today, he would have been quite the rider! Soloing in at the Ronde was really something.

"Current favorites" is something else entirely.
 
JRMDC said:
Well, if the category is "all time favorites," it is hard to list people whose careers are not yet half complete. Of the current old guard, you do have a few. I was guffing you a bit about the youth, but the list is reasonable.

You could add Boonen; he has won so much already that, were he to retire today, he would have been quite the rider! Soloing in at the Ronde was really something.

"Current favorites" is something else entirely.

Agreed.
 
JRMDC said:
And Amstel, of course. But everytime I look at that photo from d'Huez (just saw it again while checking his palmares), man, he looks sickly skinny. Those things he probably refers to as arms, geesh!

I didn't realize he had so many strong stage race overall placings, top 10 in Paris-Nice thrice, in Suisse, in Mediterraneen.
Yeah, he was trying to win the Rasmussen look-a-like contest. His arms... Rasmussen's legs. :p And yes, lots of strong results throughout this year. Right now he'd have to be classified as mainly a climber but if he can improve his ITT skills a little, he'll be a serious weapon.
 
MY favorites are:

Jacky Durand-got to like his attacking style, always ready to give it a go.

Ekimov- Any guy that can win an Olympic Gold 2 decades apart, and can ride when he is 40 years old gets all the respect that I can offer.

Ludo D. (Sorry can't remember how to spell his name)-Another rider who might could have won a major 1 day race if he rode with strategy if not for brute strength.

Andrei Tchmil-A rider who was still able to get Top 10 results into his 40s.

Udo Bolts-Domestique SPecialist, whether for Zabel, or for Ullrich, or even for his 1 day of wearing the Polka Dotted Jersey

Current riders:

Vino-A well respected and a very aggressive style of rider. Eventhough he is respected, I think his palmares are better then most people think. Paris-Nice winner, Podium Tour De France, Dauphine Libre winner, Tour De Suisse winner, Olympic Medal, L-B-L winner (Or was is Fleche?)

Erik Zabel- Any man who can race year round, and wins, and eventhough they are so far between, the guy has finished second about 30 times this year, and still comes out the next day and expects to win.

Hincapie- Has always been a strong man, makes you wonder if Hincapie would have had Lefevre as a Classic DS, if he could have won a couple of Monuments.
 
Capt.Injury said:
Vino-A well respected and a very aggressive style of rider. Eventhough he is respected, I think his palmares are better then most people think. Paris-Nice winner, Podium Tour De France, Dauphine Libre winner, Tour De Suisse winner, Olympic Medal, L-B-L winner (Or was is Fleche?)
L-B-L, and also Amstel, and also Deutschland Tour, and stages at TdF and Vuelta, ...

But not Olympics, he was bronze at the 04 world time trials.
 
Cunego22 said:
Who are your favorite riders and why?

I know this is a corny thread but it is positive and not about doping.
Bob Breedlove - (Attitude and tuff as nails) plus he was my age.
http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/files/raam2005/riders/breedlove_bob_2005.htm

Eddy Merckx - ("The Tour de France is a hard race.... That's why it's easy for me to win.")

Thomas Voeckler - (I will never forget his time in yellow during the 04 TdF)

George Hincapie - (Domestique Roial)

Andreas Kloden - (Domestique Roial)

Bob Roll - (for making racing look fun)

Greg Lemond - (put American cycling on the map)

Marco Pantani - (what a climber and what a character)

Jan Ullrich - (he's always there, always in the mix)

Sean Kelly - (he's Irish)



Many others....
 
Amazing the popularity of Vinokourov !! Not that I'm surprised, nor do I disagree.

If it's about all-time racers, I was also big fan of Durand, as my pseudo indicates. That style of racing he had (attacking all the time, even when it was obviously a stupid choice) was not only spectacular to watch, I saw it as a poetic way of considering his job (meaning not just as a job, but as a true passion). Within big champions, I can only remember Hinault racing much on his guts like that (I'm too young to remember Merckx properly). Voeckler might have something of Jacky going on today, he did one attack in this year's TdF (can't remember the stage, a mountain one) that was equally hilarious (he chased for an hour on is own to catch a distant breakaway, only to be find himself exhausted and useless as soon as the final climb began) and beauifully spirited. Not sure he will be as strong as the original though...

But globally this kind of style has been mostly lost, today the riders are all ear-plugged, and obey to conservative computer-decided tactics. I understand, but it ruined much of the fun to be had to watch races. Funny fact by the way : at the end of his long career, Durand was confronted to these smalls devices, and pretended on several occasions that they didn't work not to have to listen to anything but his heart. 'Sorry, sir, I couldn't hear you, the thing must have been broken or something...'
 
I have mine as a 3 way tie between Miguel Indurain, Marco Pantani and Mario Cipollini.

Have to give some credit to Fred Rodriguez.
 
JRMDC said:
L-B-L, and also Amstel, and also Deutschland Tour, and stages at TdF and Vuelta, ...

But not Olympics, he was bronze at the 04 world time trials.
He was a Silver Medalist in 2000 Olypmics, behind Ullrich, and in front of Kloden (I believe)
 
JAPANic said:
Koji Fukushima...

Not good enough (yet) for the big races but he impresses me every year with a big win... plus I get to ride with him once or twice a year...



One of his biggest rides...

A few years back when Boonen won in Japan Koji was going wheel for wheel with him in a mountain stage break away... they were really pushing it hard around some very dangerous downhill bends...

I'm going to add in Jacques Anquetil and Fausto Coppi as well...


Anquetil was a Babe Ruth type of guy... out on the booze all night, didn't like training and would be winning races the next day...
 
Capt.Injury said:
He was a Silver Medalist in 2000 Olypmics, behind Ullrich, and in front of Kloden (I believe)
Yes, thanks for the correction, in the road race, you are correct about Kloden.
 
padawan said:
Jens gets my vote! He's why I started cheering for CSC, him and Bobby J.

Now that I've been following the results of CSC in 2006, I've been closely watching Frank Schleck...


It's like we're brothers. I could have written this exact post. I love Dave Z too, mostly because of his 1 question interviews of the peleton and his article on main-taint-ence. What a funny boy.

Michael
 

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