Best Athletic performances of 2009
given the circumstances, height, weight, age...competition...which were the best athletic performances of 2009? Not so much who won the biggest races...but how theyw ere won, by how much, circumstances of the win and so on...
Contador's prologue at Paris Nice and TDF TT win
Armstrong's 3rd at TDF
Cavendish's kick across to Hassuler in the last 200m
Contador's prologue at Paris Nice and TDF TT win
Armstrong's 3rd at TDF
Cavendish's kick across to Hassuler in the last 200m
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Brice Fellieu at Andorra, holding off the pack to win as an unfancied neo-pro in his first GT summit finish, a huge step up.
Boonen Vs Pozzato at Paris Roubaix as well, with Boonen's prowess on the cobbles allowing him to build a slim advantage and then the two of them hammering at each other but the gap holding steady to the finish.
@gietvangent
I enjoyed Evans' win at World's
Astana's TTT win @ TdF was also quite awesome (as was Garmin's efforts). Sure, the TTT killed off a lot of riders' hopes, but to see 9 riders working like that was great.
Andy Schleck at L-B-L with his attack from 20 kilometres out that held off a high quality chasing group.
Pip Gilbert at Lombardy, everyone knew he was in form and would attack but no-one, with the exception of Samuel Sanchez, could do anything about it when it came.
Cadel Evans at the Worlds, he used his head to get into a position to launch a solo attack and then timed that attack to perfection. He increased his lead all the way to the line.
Otherwise, my ideas are already taken! +1 to Cav at San Remo and +1 to Cancellara at the World's TT. I'm not sure we'll see a performance like that again for a while.
bertie's verbier stage wasn't exactly short of "superlatives" either for watts/vam/ performance etc etc....
LA "for his age" thing is ok but he hardly lit the world on fire with a single devastating performance.. working wiggins over on the Romme/colombiere was a willy piece of roadcraft but does that count as athleticism?
+1 I still find the overhead of that catch somewhat remarkable... Haussler was in a different country when Cavendish started sprinting
I think it was the performance of the year
garmins ttt with just 5 guys which despite not being a win is worth a minor mention
north west of england.
anything that Gilbert does....clearly a great end of season campaign.
(honourable mention to Chav for his climbing ability in managing to haul himself up the step ladder in order to reach up to his new Italian piece of fluff)
I'd agree. Coming 3rd in the Tour isn't a brilliant display of athleticism like the other things mentioned in this thread. It only because interesting when you put the whole story around it.
very true.... (i must use that saying some day when someone takes it upon themself to shell me out the back on a saturday morning spin)
If you look at it in the context of 1) It being well into the 3rd week of a Grand Tour and 2) It having a 5km climb in the middle of it, it's less baffling to me.
@gietvangent
we don't know how tired the field were relative to Contador that day. I pick it out as verbier was no surprise to anyone... I'd say the gap Cav closed down to Haussler was something never seen before
anyway, getting sucked in, you are wrong to say that "noone" would have predicted his TT dominance. Lots of people did - just have a look at our very own PTP thread from the time: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... &start=800
lots of people predicted it. you just weren't taking any notice!
he's a tiny little climber...it's amazing output for someone of that size. And yes, I am trying to start an arguement-about best performance...getting away from who won the biggest races of the year and instead look at the best wins of the year, not so much the name of the race. Valverde won the Vuelta..Evans was unlucky, Evans win the worlds...neither stood out for me... Contador and Cav did...am not hinting at drugs.
I must say this does not work for me....the nervous energy that is expended in watching moves during the day and the probably stress of watching who stabs you in the back at night etc.. should have left him tired. or at the very least it should have left him tired enough for Cancellera to have won. Cancellera had a relatively comfortable run in to the TT and I think he was suprised as anyone not to have won.
I find this performance very baffling, in the same way as I find Hears putting in a super time trial in the last 2 days of the 2004 vuelta to finsh the stage 4th and take yellow (even though a rider i resepct sastre finsihed 3rd on the day) or Pantani knocking out several a top ten places in the time trials in the GT's. all very baffling.....
cancellara saying contador paced the motorcycles which probably was the difference between 1st adn 2nd, cavs kick was awesome, you have to respect wiggins change from olympic track champ to world class gt rider in a year too
Oh go on then. I'm just talking about the stuff I've seen that made the best watching for me.
Giro (unfortunately DDL stole a lot of the limelight)
Sastre's well timed attack to send Armstrong back to "help Levi"
Wiggins climbing (who knew?)
Pelizzotti showing Basso how to climb
Dauphine
Evans attacking (who knew?)
Tour
Hushovd climbing for sprint points
Columbia on the Champs Elysee
Wiggins climbing (OK we'd had some warning by then)
Haussler's stage win (There was something in my eye, OK)
Armstrong for being a wily old fox
Worlds
Cancellara being awesome
Evans for good timing
I think the 26.12 I did 4 weeks later was better...