Is Roger Hammond underated?
Comments
-
Yes I am pretty sure - I put 'road race' victories i.e. not time trials. I think you will find that nearly all of those stages he won were time trials.
As far as I can remember he only won two pro road races i.e. those ones where you all start together and the winner is the one who crosses the line first.0 -
Should 3 mile prologue TTs be counted as road wins? Boardman has one Pro Tour level mass start road race win-Dauphine road stage in 94 or 95.
Note to Iainf, riding 10 mile TTs for a decade and then hoping to go in and win in the road racing component of grand tours off that was also a bit unrealistic , it wasn't only cause they were EPOd up that CB didn't win so many RRs. Hammond has better palmares in rmass start pro tour level road racing than CB0 -
Why compare these two riders, they are both very different. One had the track background and the other did the full move-to-belgium-sleep-on-the-floor-and-ride-kermesses thing. You can celebrate both.
Boardman wore the yellow jersey and also broke the hour record, his work with Peter Keen was the foundation for British Cycling's success and Team Sky. Arguably if Keen and Boardman had not met then the whole state of cycling in Britain would be very different.0 -
I think Andyp and Iainf refer to Boardman's road palmares and I am just checking how we distinguish RRs from prologues. I think you are compaing boardman's TT palmares with Hammond not comparing their RR palmares otherwise RH comes out well ahead.0
-
I'm referring to Boardman's road palmares. He won 41 times on the road, including time trials, to Hammond's 11 wins. He was on the podium in the Dauphine Libere and Paris-Nice and led the Tour on three occasions.
Hammond's only real result of note was his third place finish in Paris-Roubaix. I bet none of you can name a big race he's won, mainly because he never has. Whilst Hammond is a solid rider, he's simply not in Boardman's league in my opinion.
Jeremy Hunt has a far superior palmares to Hammond, should we not be singing his praises?0 -
Interesting how this has become a Boardman v Hammond debate?!
Personally, if we're talking about perfromances in top-level road races across Europe, then Hammond has proven himself over a long period of time. For my money, Boardman was limited to being a specialist in short TTs - the very definition of a one-trick-pony (as good a trick as it was).0 -
Hammond has what 7th place in Olympic RR, 2nd in Ghent Wevelgem, 3rd Paris Roubaix...Hammond has some wins at like Tour of Qatar level. Hunt has not broken top 6 in one day events like monuments,
Boardman mostly lead stage races off prologue time trials not by road race stage wins. The 41 road race wins are not pro tour events in the main, nor are they mass start road wins , but they are TTs. To count short TTs as Road Wins is...discuss...
CB has a 3rd in Paris Nice and 2nd in the Dauphine so you could argue I suppose those show he was a roadman. But I though Paris Roubaix was considered one of the biggest races in the world..well well above a prolgue TTs at Tour of Murcia + 1 day in leader jersey. Hunt hasn't got placings in the one days like Hammond.0 -
going to back track slightly, not wanting to sound overly critical of CB..watching him catch and pass ass like a pin cushion Festina riders is still good entertainment. I presume LL was full to the gills like all. I did race with CB at Girvan 3 day in breaks followed him downhills, in bunches...he was nervous in bunches. Infact I think i even have the pic of us leading the break in Girvan, Cycling Weekly circa 92-I was sitting 6th on GC to Chris :-)
good clip of that prologue
http://www.lunt.demon.co.uk/boardman.htm0 -
He did a talk and Question/Answer session for us once.
This was when he was more off-road based.
Really nice guy, no edge on him, down to earth bloke.
Doesn't get the credit for some strong rides though...shame.0 -
Yes , very underated I'd say . He did it the hard way , got himself to Belgium and rode for some pretty small teamsThe UCI are Clowns and Fools0
