Pre-Lance

[papercorn2000]

And obviously Fausto Coppi - the greatest rider ever.

 

[wafflycat]

And obviously Fausto Coppi - the greatest rider ever.

Keep up at the back! See post 34 on the thread!

 

[kennykool]

Look up Rene Vietto, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Vietto, one of the men who "should" have won at least one tour. Sacrificed himself in 1934 in one of the great tales of Tour heroism.

Here he is; after having heard that his team-leader had broken his wheel, he rode back up the mountain, gave Magnin (?) his wheel and then had to wait for some 20 minutes before he could get a new one. Vietto was, at the time MJ on the road, was off in the lead and looking a shoe-in for the GC.

http://www.pyrenees-passion.info/images/cyclisme/vietto1.jpg

fascinating....absolutley fascinating!!!!!

 

[papercorn2000]

Keep up at the back! See post 34 on the thread!

I was just adding another vote.

Do you women never listen?

 

[mondobongo]

A bit of a character was Louison Bobet who shares a monument on the Col d'Izoard with none other than Fausto Coppi.

Bobet's major feat is that he was the first man to win 3 back to back Tour de Frances and has a most impressive Palmares:

Tour de France (1953, 1954, 1955)
French National road championship (1950 and 1951)
Milan-Sanremo (1951)
Giro di Lombardia (1951)
Critérium International (1951 & 1952)
Paris-Nice (1952)
Grand Prix des Nations (1952)
World Cycling Championship- Road race (1954)
Ronde van Vlaanderen (1955)
Dauphiné Libéré (1955)
Tour de Luxembourg (1955)
Paris-Roubaix (1956)
Bordeaux-Paris (1959)

 

[kennykool]

Mondo....never even heard of that lad. Thanks

cant believe there were so many OTHER great riders....Lance is still THE man tho IMO of course

 

[papercorn2000]

A great GT rider but...

 

[monnet]

Great thread.

Of the moments mentioned that I can remember personally the 86 and 89 Tours were incredible. Roche's win in 87 over Delgado was something too (Ligett screaming '...it's Roche, it's Stephen Roche!').

Hinault winning Roubaix and his comments afterwards, I paraphrase but along the lines of, 'It's a stupid race. A dangerous race. An anachronism. I hate it but to be a great in cycling you have to win it. Today I've won it, I don't need to ride it again.' He did, of course, ride it again.

And then there's Kelly. Pipped in Flanders. THAT descent of the Poggio to catch Argentin. The green jerseys and all those Paris Nices.

Then there's all the riders others have mentioned, not to mention the likes of De Vlaeminck, Maertens, Moser, Schotte and all the rest. It's a sport with a beautiful history.

 

[papercorn2000]

And the bit players in those great races - most of them class riders in their own rights... Mottet, Bernard, Herrera, Bauer, Anderson the list goes on...

 

[Hilldodger]

Marshall 'Major' Taylor, the first international cycling superstar and the first internationally famous black sportsman.