Proper hard men.

disgruntledgoat

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

I've never heard that story before. Please enlighten me.

It really sounds like the sort of thing a commentator might want to remind his viewers of, say, every single time the race passes within the general area of the incident.

Richmond Racer

disgruntledgoat wrote:

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

I've never heard that story before. Please enlighten me.

It really sounds like the sort of thing a commentator might want to remind his viewers of, say, every single time the race passes within the general area of the incident.

'tis true

Matt Rendell on the subject:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/ja ... g.features

LutherB

Damn you Harmon, yes he killed the tale but the rider's still a hard geezer

deejay

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

The story I heard years ago was that he did the repair and was later disqualified, because a young lad worked the bellows for the fire and heat.
The rules at that time being a rider could not have any assistance what so ever and should carry his own spares.

Hard Men & Women
I give you Michele Bartoli and the finishers of 1999 Fleche Wallonne with high winds and freezing cold as they passed over the Muur with 80 Km's to go the snow started. (Boardman climbed off before the muur)
Where I was at 60 Km's to go, a full Blizzard was falling as M.B.passed with Martin Den Bakker working with him and later Oscar Camenzind came through as I yelled "Go Oscar only 2 minutes down". (he had been dropped)
What I didn't know was, he had tried to put a cape on and it had got entangled with his crash hat so he rode with it blowing in the wind to 4th place.
Previously the Ladies had come through with the snow starting to fall and many girls went crashing on the bends because their hands were too frozen to apply the brakes. (the service cars were busy)
Yvonne McGregor 7th @ 21 secs and Caroline Alexander 10th @ 30 secs.

mididoctors

disgruntledgoat wrote:

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

I've never heard that story before. Please enlighten me.

It really sounds like the sort of thing a commentator might want to remind his viewers of, say, every single time the race passes within the general area of the incident.

well I never neither have I

inseine

Christophe was a hardman in an era when just finishing the Tour guaranteed your status as a hardman of the top order. Afterall, the first stage of the first ever Tour was a 467k haul from paris to Lyon, on an 18kg single speed...infact the average stage length was over 400k.
Christophe actually broke hiw forks in 3 Tours, and after the final incident he had to walk down the whole of the Galibier before he could change them.
Like I said, they were all hard men. 1920 winner Barthélemy suffered many crashes, suffering a broken wrist in one, a dislocated shoulder in another, then to top it all he lost an eye! He still finished the race.

frenchfighter

deejay wrote:

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

The story I heard years ago was that he did the repair and was later disqualified, because a young lad worked the bellows for the fire and heat.
The rules at that time being a rider could not have any assistance what so ever and should carry his own spares.

Hard Men & Women
I give you Michele Bartoli and the finishers of 1999 Fleche Wallonne with high winds and freezing cold as they passed over the Muur with 80 Km's to go the snow started. (Boardman climbed off before the muur)
Where I was at 60 Km's to go, a full Blizzard was falling as M.B.passed with Martin Den Bakker working with him and later Oscar Camenzind came through as I yelled "Go Oscar only 2 minutes down". (he had been dropped)
What I didn't know was, he had tried to put a cape on and it had got entangled with his crash hat so he rode with it blowing in the wind to 4th place.
Previously the Ladies had come through with the snow starting to fall and many girls went crashing on the bends because their hands were too frozen to apply the brakes. (the service cars were busy)
Yvonne McGregor 7th @ 21 secs and Caroline Alexander 10th @ 30 secs.

Nice read, thanks for posting.

jimmythecuckoo

Joey McGloughlin if we are doing UK pros.

Garry H

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

To add to that; he was also the owner of the company that made the one time ubiquitous "Christophe" toe straps.

You guys need to read some books. The fork tale is arguably one of the most famous stories in Tour history!

takethehighroad

The story of Cristophe in the (I think) 1910 Milan San Remo is an epic as well.

It was similar weather to this year's race, and Cristophe ignored people calling into bars to warm up and rest, and ended up winning (one of only 10 men to finish) by a considerable distance, even for those days.

He then suffered for months after with hypothermia and it pretty much cost him his 1910 season.

Someone with more gumption could probably find a link somewhere, or at least flesh out the details

rubertoe

Epic M - S - R

timoid.

Nobody mentioned Peter Van Petegem? Hewn from granite. Captain caveman with form.

But in fairness this debate was over as soon as someone mentioned Sean Kelly.

Certaintly.

rick_chasey

Anyone who finished the first Tour and plenty of those who didn't were so hard as nails they definitely had about 5 screws loose.

knedlicky

Timoid. wrote:

Nobody mentioned Peter Van Petegem? Hewn from granite. Captain caveman with form.

Ah, Van Petegem! But from what FF has posted in the Paris-Roubaix Spoiler thread, Van Petegem doesn’t meet Rick’s criteria to be a ‘proper hard man’ because he was under 75 kg.

Van Petegem was DQ-ed in the 2006 edition of Paris-Roubaix, along with Gusev and Hoste (the three of them taking 2nd-4th spots until DQ-ed), for crossing a railway line as the barrier came down. 5th placed Boonen, 26 secs farther back, was given 2nd place.
If Boonen hadn't have been promoted, he and Cancellara would each now have 5 podiums at Paris-Roubaix, but because of that promotion Boonen leads 6-5.

Had it been 50 years earlier, Van Petegem might have got away with it.
In the mid-50s it wasn’t forbidden in France to sneak under a closing barrier, and even in places where it then was forbidden (Belgium), race officials sometimes turned a blind eye.
Llike when Bobet, Koblet, Van Steenbergen and Gauthier went through one in the 1955 Tour of Flanders. They finished in that order and 5th placed de Baere, 22 secs back, wasn’t promoted to winner but stayed 5th.

At the time Bobet and Van Steenbergen were at their peak, Koblet and Gauthier past theirs but well-known, and that probably played a role in their not-being-DQ-ed. De Gaere was a pretty successful rider in small Belgian races but never made it big and probably carried not enough weight to force a DQ of the others.

deejay

andyp wrote:

Hinault, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, 1980, 80 km solo break in a snowstorm, an effort which has left him with a problem with the fingers in one hand ever since. Nails.

Maybe this is the year for a good snow storm in the Ardennes.
Mention of which I think Vinokourov would count but not on the Pave.

mike6

iainf72 wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

And brain.

+1

I don't want to appear down on JH, but no one else makes me shake my head at futile efforts like him.

True. But an effort is only futile in retrospect. If it sticks its brilliant and truly hard.

My understanding is that the only way a "hard man" can win is with a long solo break. As they are not climbers or sprinters. Hence the definition. I believe there is also the category "Super hard man" for guys that pull of the feat, or attempt to, regularly.

Kelly would be right up there, despite the fact he was also a good sprinter. Jens Voigt was always a hard men in my book. Since his face plant in the Tour, and comeback, even more so.

tailwindhome

Jure Robic RIP.

Crozza

deejay wrote:

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

The story I heard years ago was that he did the repair and was later disqualified, because a young lad worked the bellows for the fire and heat.
The rules at that time being a rider could not have any assistance what so ever and should carry his own spares.

inrng says (http://inrng.com/2013/04/the-hardest-ra ... test-ride/):

"Legend has it that Eugene Christophe was disqualified from the 1913 Tour de France after he repaired his forks in a blacksmiths at the foot of the Col du Tourmalet. The rules said riders had to make their own repairs but as Christophe worked the iron forks a boy pumped the bellows for the furnace, and this outside help broke the rules. All this is a myth. Instead Christophe was only penalised a few minutes for the extra help, he lost a lot more time walking down the mountain with his broken bike and it’s said he took a detour to avoid being spotted for fear the press picked up on his “faulty” bike and made trouble for his sponsors."

doesn't exactly dampen his hard man status though (with extra kudos for protecting his sponsors!)

deejay

Crozza wrote:

deejay wrote:

LutherB wrote:

From way way back, how about Eugène Christophe? Any rider from back then were truly hard, but having to become a blacksmith in the middle of a TdF stage to repair your broken forks costing 5 hours in total, back on your bike for 2 more climbs to finish is summat else. He finished the tour 7th overall.

The story I heard years ago was that he did the repair and was later disqualified, because a young lad worked the bellows for the fire and heat.
The rules at that time being a rider could not have any assistance what so ever and should carry his own spares.

inrng says (http://inrng.com/2013/04/the-hardest-ra ... test-ride/):

"Legend has it that Eugene Christophe was disqualified from the 1913 Tour de France after he repaired his forks in a blacksmiths at the foot of the Col du Tourmalet. The rules said riders had to make their own repairs but as Christophe worked the iron forks a boy pumped the bellows for the furnace, and this outside help broke the rules. All this is a myth. Instead Christophe was only penalised a few minutes for the extra help, he lost a lot more time walking down the mountain with his broken bike and it’s said he took a detour to avoid being spotted for fear the press picked up on his “faulty” bike and made trouble for his sponsors."

doesn't exactly dampen his hard man status though (with extra kudos for protecting his sponsors!)

Thanks for putting the record straight as I thought my memory was going.

Rick Chasey wrote:

Anyone who finished the first Tour and plenty of those who didn't were so hard as nails they definitely had about 5 screws loose.

They all were, who took up cycle racing on Dirt and Pave roads which continued through the 1950's.
The "Hell of the North" gained it's name because they rode through devastated areas on unmade roads.

Perhaps the thread should be named Hard Men in the Modern Era.

vs

Reid Anderton Hard as nails I should think :!:

Anonymous

I'd be inclined to say Iain Stannard.

esafosfina1

Perhaps not the hardest of the hard but I'll give a shout to Matt White (pre his 'indiscretions' )... we were out for a 6 hour ride heading through the National Park south of Sydney and had about 80km to go when he snapped his saddle clean off... instead of jumping the train back to Cronulla, he just chucked the broken saddle into the bush and rode back out of the seat! He later complained that his legs hurt for days afterwards... ffs!

esafosfina1

Worth mentioning a couple of old team-mates from the Tulip days... Pieper was one of the hardest there was. I spent two weeks living and training with him back in 1991 and I have never trained so hard in my life, sweet-jesus he could dig deep.

We also had an ex-East German on the squad, guy called Olaf Jentsch... hard as nails. We had a 6 hour training ride planned together but woke to torrential rain, hail, and typical Flemish winds... I bailed, as did Lilholt, Holm, and a couple of others. Olaf took some persuading not to go out in the crappy weather, so instead set up his rollers and jumped on... after a couple of hours I went out to see if he was still on them and sure enough he was. I asked him how long he was staying on for... and with typical Teutonic stoicism he says: "Six hours..." :shock: "My schedule says I ride my bike for six hours today"... No radio, no TV to watch, his only concession was he asked me to re-fill his bidons so he didn't have to get off! Nutter...

DeadCalm

Fabulous stories esafosfina1. Thanks.

Clements753

Nigel Dean,

Had a group of punks take the piss out of him whilst coming back from a training ride in his lycra.

He flattened them all in his cleated shoes and ended up in court charged with GBH

Rode a ten and he was my couple of minute man - came flying past me in a huge gear rocking and rolling stamping on the peddles sucking in air. You could tell it was hurting him bit so fast, I learnt that night.

The hardest of all of them - Merckx - I met him at Eastway he gave me a look and shook my hand - just from that handshake you knew here was man who would not bend or give in. BTW he was massive dwarfed me just such a hero.

No_Ta_Doctor

Thanks for sharing, esafosfina, great reading!

knedlicky

esafosfina1 wrote:

We also had an ex-East German on the squad, guy called Olaf Jentsch... hard as nails.

Olaf Jentzsch belongs to that generation of East German cyclists like Mario Kummer, Jens Heppner and Falk Boden, who were successful in East Germany and central European amateur races (Jentzsch was 2nd in the Peace Race one year and won the Tour of Austria when it was just amateurs), and, although not good enough to be as successful in the West, were still gladly taken on by professional GT teams because, as Jan Gisbers DS of PDM once explained, “they subordinate themselves and work hard”.

Jentzsch's name re-appeared in 2011, in a German cycling magazine as part of a report about the 7-stage sportive "Tour-Transalp". This was because, for a while he and Swiss top amateur cyclist Judith Huonder were leading the mixed category of the sportive. The 2011 edition had 22 passes, 917 Km and 19.553 m climbing, about 600 two-person teams participated, and, in the end, Jentzsch and Huonder finished third of 85 teams in the mixed category, with a time of 32 hrs 12 mins 55 secs.

Here’s the link to 2013 edition: http://www.tour-transalp.de/en/route/broute-totalb/
(As it's all booked out for this year, anyone registering now goes on a waiting list, currently about 60 names long)

frenchfighter

Classics season so this thread could do with a bump.

Some superb photos here:
http://stephanvanfleteren.com/en/portfo ... /flandrien

(You will recognize FJS' avatar there!)

frenchfighter

Can someone translate this?

"E Flandrien attakeert va mitte datn kan en e gift nôois op"

frenchfighter