Favourite Rider of All Time?

suspectdevice

Fondriest, met him once at the Leeds Classic, top bloke and super smooth on a bike.

mandie

Robert Millar

deejay

Favorite well ok -- Fausto Coppi, il campionissimo .... (the Locomotive passes by)
.
Ferdi Kubler & Raphael Geminiani
.
Eddy Merckx - Roger De Vlaeminck - Rik Van Looy - Rik Van Steenbergen
.
Gino Bartali - Felice Gimondi - Gilberto Simmoni - Marco Pantani - Paolo Bettini - Giani Bugno
.
Bernard Hinault - Laurent Fignon - Reeechard Virenque - Laurent Jalabert
.
Frederico Bahamontes - Miguel Indurain - Oscar Freire
.
Charley Gaul - Tony Rominger - Alex Zulle
.
Joop Zoetemelk - Stephen Rooks - Jan Raas - Michael Boogard
.
Tom Simpson - Sean Kelly - Brian Robinson - George Hincapie

They all have GUTS and go for it.
There are a few more favorites and these have given me SO much pleasure.

timoid.

Sean Kelly

Certainly

Manaru

Favourite is Lance Armstrong but Jens Voigt is a very close second

ms_tree

Pantani per sempre
Bettini

capilinconnemara

Sean Kelly
Stepen Roche. Being patriotic but its all their fault I have any intrest in the bike
Robert Millar
L Fignon
Mig Indurain

blu3cat

+1 (again) for Pantani. Just memories of him destoying to competition in the mountains in the TDF when I was younger.

Ljaydee

Eddy Merckx

timdanaher

Fignon.

moray_gub

this has to be split into two
best ever going by what i have read and watched and what others have said about him

Fausto Coppi but for the 2nd world waar nobobody would call Eddy Merckyx the greatest

modern day without a shadow of doubt Lance Armstrong to win 7 TDFs is an amazing feat

BaildonBob

Luis Herrera

Moomaloid

Greg Lemond
Laurent Jalabert


Cancellara has gotta be my fave right now...

sampras38

Too young to appreciate Merckx in his heyday and only really got into it in indurain's day. So for me I'm a huge fan of him, Pantani for his climbing, Lance for his all round ability and sheer bloody-mindededness and Ulrich for never knowing what shape he's going to be in.

paulcuthbert

Lance

gabriel959

It has to be Indurain and probably a close second Pantani.

Contador my favourite of the new millenium.

BigSpecs

Have given this much thought. Was gonna go for a top five but instead have plumped for a three category roll call...

All time favourite : Lemond (Z Peugeot/ World Champs/ Yellow Jersey...awesome)

All time UK favourite : Malcolm Elliott (in the steel frame, hairnet helmet, Milk Race days...)

Most inspirational : Lance Armstrong (after my joining the one ball club in '99)

Food for thought if nothing else.

Cheers,

Col.

sampras38

gabriel959 wrote:

It has to be Indurain and probably a close second Pantani.

Contador my favourite of the new millenium.

Contador is awesome on a bike but I can't get passsed the fact he seems like a bit of a girl.. :P

keith57

What about Beryl Burton, won almost everything she entered and held the women's 12 hour record for few years that was faster than the mens... Nicole Cooke is pretty good too.

Graculus

I am just reading Matt Redell's book on Pantani, and it has made me go back and look up all his clips on youtube to remind myself what he was like.
The TdF organisers were disappointed by the Mont Ventoux stage this year - when you look at Pantani you realise why!

I have a great soft spot for Mercxx, although I'm really too young to remember his performances. But when I was little EVERYONE knew his name, even if they weren't interested in cycling.

emadden

Sean Kelly


Certaintly.... (speaking of which, anyone notice that he has stopped saying "certainly/certaintly" during the Vuelta coverage??)

dave_1

Laurent Fignon.... when was the last rider to win Milan San Remo, podium in Paris Roubaix in space of 3 weeks and win/podium in Giro/TDF in the same 12-14 month period? Fignon 1988-89...a true all rounder...Lemond and Kelly could do one specialism, not the other. Kelly classics...TDF too hard, Lemond TDF but classics not...Fignon excelled in both. Jalabert and Zabel don't have the TDF GC/Giro wins to go aside their classics unlike Fignon. Fignon hands down

teagar

Boonen

shinyhelmut

Thomas "Hell on wheels" Helriegel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hellriegel

Faris al Sultan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faris_Al-Sultan

I don't have a thing for Germans cycling in bikinis honest!

donrhummy

I can't really choose just one. But the one that first gave me my love for cycling is Greg Lemond. As a cyclist (not after that) he's definitely right up there in my top two or three all time.


My list:


* Greg Lemond
* Lance Armstrong
* Robbie McEwen
* Andy Hampsten
* Gilberto Simoni
* Eddy Merckx (from stories and videos)

and guys moving themselves towards that list:

* Andy Schleck
* Mark Cavendish
* Fabian Cancellara
* Ed Hagen
* Bradley Wiggins
* Tyler Farrar
* Taylor Phinney

Dgh

5 in no particular order;

Lemond - 3 Tours, 2 Worlds, clean.

Gino Bartali - 2 tours, either side of WW2, 3 giri, helped save jews in the war. Clean. Top Bloke.

Binda - one of the greats.

Freire - would love to see him win the Wolds again & spend his final season int eh ranbow jersey.

Fignon - Panache personified.

Find it puzzling to see people vote for Pantani, more a chemical than a sporting phenomenon. And Roche's reaction to A Rough Ride showed a huge lack of class.

Dgh

We're all talking road, and most of us men. Nicole Cooke deserves a mention, as does Chris Hoy.

mbt1967

Charly Mottet

clean

RichN95.

mbt1967 wrote:

Charly Mottet

clean

I remember as a teenager, seeing a photo of him on his way to winning Lombardy in his Systeme U kit and shades and thinking no man could look cooler on a bike. I never seen the photo since, but no-one's looked so cool.