Brad Wiggins 2012 TDF - Best ever British Sporting Achievement?

[Smokin Joe]

And many comments are anti cycling, no surprise there.

Why should there be?

Start a thread on football or F1 to name but two and this forum will get loads of haters contributing. Just enjoy your sport and stop looking for love.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Chris Hoy thinks so, it certainly knocks Torvill & Dean into a cocked hat.

Can you guys think of a better achievement.........

Steven Redgrave.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Steven Redgrave.

Really?

And how many mountain passes did Redgrave have to paddle his canoe over then? Go on, answer that one.

FAIL

Next please.

 

[aJohnson]

Why should there be?

Start a thread on football or F1 to name but two and this forum will get loads of haters contributing. Just enjoy your sport and stop looking for love.

I'm not complaining, just observing. Though it is sports news as opposed to it being in a football forum.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Really?

And how many mountain passes did Redgrave have to paddle his canoe over then? Go on, answer that one.

FAIL

Next please.

About as many lakes as Bradders had to cycle through .....

 

[Smokin Joe]

About as many lakes as Bradders had to cycle through .....

Come on, it did rain one day you know.

 

[Fab Foodie]

Come on, it did rain one day you know.

Fair point .....

 

[Herbie]

Wiggins is quite a rider and the team around him are unbelievably good. I am slack-jawed in my admiration of him, even as one of the gainsayers who thought he'd never win a TdF. He seems to have the job done and I find that exraordinary and wonderful.

I find it hard to compare achievement between disciplines and decades, but these are some names:


I recall the absolute domination of Coe and Ovett in 800, 1500 and Mile over a number of years. Cram and others came in on the end of that surge of fantastitude, but Coe and Ovett seemed somehow capable of hoovering up titles and records at will in what are some of the blue ribband track distances.

After many years of injuries at unfortunate times, I found Kelly Holmes' twin golds in the same Games quite a stunner. Most would have quit by then.

From the world of motorsport, I have a great regard for Barry Sheene and also Dave Thorpe.

Thorpe took several World titles in a sport hardly covered by UK media but hugely popular in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.... which sounds uncannily familiar to many a cycling fan. I saw him ride in a one-off event while living in France many years ago and he was greeted like some sort of deity by the crowd. Back here, he'd have gone unnoticed.

I think its a fantastic achievement by Wiggo and should be celebrated afterall it might not happen again...Thinking of past glories how the great Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams 1924 Olympics and even Daley Thomson he was some athlete!

 

[Linford]

From the world of motorsport, I have a great regard for Barry Sheene and also Dave Thorpe.

Thorpe took several World titles in a sport hardly covered by UK media but hugely popular in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.... which sounds uncannily familiar to many a cycling fan. I saw him ride in a one-off event while living in France many years ago and he was greeted like some sort of deity by the crowd. Back here, he'd have gone unnoticed.

For me, the best in motorsport has to be John Surtees.

Wiki - He was 500cc motorcycle World Champion in 1956 and 1958–60, Formula One World Champion in 1964, and remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.

That really is IMO some sort of incredible achievement to attain.

 

[pplpilot]

Dougie Lampkin trials rider.Has won five consecutive World Indoor (1997–2001) and seven consecutive World Outdoor Championships (1997–2003). He has also won four World Team Championships (Trial des Nations) in years 1997, 1999, 2002 and 2003, six British Adult Championships, two Spanish Adult Championships and the world famous Scott Trial on three occasions...

 

[PaulB]

I'd say so.
I can only think of Linford winning gold in Barcelona to put in the same bracket.
Both iconic events with genuine worldwide competition.

Drug cheat.

 

[Buddfox]

A lot of people are talking about multiple events, but didn't Chris Hoy really mean a one-off achievement? That's how I heard it, and he has a point. Winning an olympic gold, a golf major, the world cup... all seem less impressive than winning the Tour de France, IMHO.

If we're looking at a body of work, and include Wiggo's earlier successes, then it's impressive, but he's not done enough (yet) to top Redgrave.

 

[Hip Priest]

Why should there be?

Start a thread on football or F1 to name but two and this forum will get loads of haters contributing. Just enjoy your sport and stop looking for love.

Never understood why people get upset if other people don't enjoy their chosen sport. Come to think of it, I don't understand why people are trying to place Wiggins' achievement into some sort of British sporting hierarchy.

He won the Tour de France - that's enough for me.

 

[PaulB]

Joss Naylor. Never heard of him? That's part of why his achievements are so special. But as he didn't compete in world championships or Olympics, preferring to set incredible new marks on his own, he probably doesn't count.

He counts for me. There's nothing nearer 'superhuman' than what Joss Naylor casually achieved.

 

[PaulB]

there are many of a similar ilk to Joss Naylor, I read a book on someone who ran all the mountain ranges/peaks of Britian and Ireland (can't remember his name) unbelievable achievement or even what the comedian Eddie Izzard did, 43 marathons in 52 days with very little training..

You're thinking of Hugh Symonds.