Best Cyclist who never won the TDF - Your View

kingrollo
kingrollo Posts: 3,198
edited July 2010 in Pro race
Whose the best cyclist never to win the Tour De France ? - The guys who always looked likley but it never quite happened - Heres Mine

Gianni Bugno - Tried so hard but could never quite crack Big Mig

Tony Rominger - I so much wanted him to win because of his attacking style - seemed blighted by bad luck ..and it never happened

Alex Zulle - Never quite grew into the rider he once promised

Any thoughts ?
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Comments

  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    Sean Kelly

    Also Raymond Poulidor and Alfredo Binda
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,821
    Joseba Beloki's a shout, just when he looked like he could mount a challenge his career ended.

    Andy Schleck, though obviously that could change one day.

    Ivan Basso, who would have probably won in 2006
  • shockedsoshocked
    shockedsoshocked Posts: 4,021
    Kloeden.
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • gethmetal
    gethmetal Posts: 208
    Gert Jan Theunisse, a fantastic combative rider.
  • greasedscotsman
    greasedscotsman Posts: 6,962
    Floyd Landis :D
  • garrynolan
    garrynolan Posts: 560
    +1 Sean Kelly.
    Visit Ireland - all of it! Cycle in Dublin and know fear!!
    exercise.png
  • Bernardus
    Bernardus Posts: 136
    Hennie Kuiper

    His career started by winning the Olympic Road Race in 1972 and he became world champion 3 years later. Despite those wins in one-day races, he was convinced he could win the Tour. He finished 2nd in 1977 behind Thevenet, 2nd in 1980 behind Zoetemelk and crashed in 1978 during a Landis-like escape. He won two stages on the "Dutch Mountain", Alpe d'Huez.

    During his "second" career he focussed on one-day races. He won all monuments except LBL, where he finished 2nd behind Hinault (the neige-bastogne-neige edition).
  • donrhummy
    donrhummy Posts: 2,329
    Poulidor easily. The guy place top 3 14 years apart as well as numerous time in between (and 2nd place three times). He just got unlucky to be riding against Anquetil AND Merckx. He also won Paris-Nice multiple times over Merckx, the Dauphine and silver and three times bronze in the World Championships.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Bernardus wrote:
    Hennie Kuiper

    His career started by winning the Olympic Road Race in 1972 and he became world champion 3 years later. Despite those wins in one-day races, he was convinced he could win the Tour. He finished 2nd in 1977 behind Thevenet, 2nd in 1980 behind Zoetemelk and crashed in 1978 during a Landis-like escape. He won two stages on the "Dutch Mountain", Alpe d'Huez.

    During his "second" career he focussed on one-day races. He won all monuments except LBL, where he finished 2nd behind Hinault (the neige-bastogne-neige edition).

    Yes
    _
  • rajMAN
    rajMAN Posts: 429
    I agree, Bugno PURE class on a bike, Rominger was class, but both came up against Big Mig. Zulle, well, should have gone to Specsavers!! :)
  • Homer J
    Homer J Posts: 920
    Steve Peat
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,908
    Chris Boardman
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • schlepcycling
    schlepcycling Posts: 1,614
    Claudio Chiappucci
    'Hello to Jason Isaacs'
  • sampras38
    sampras38 Posts: 1,917
    mididoctors wrote:
    Chris Boardman

    You're joking, right?

    He can TT but that's about it.
  • fearby
    fearby Posts: 245
    schlepcycling wrote:
    Claudio Chiappucci

    Can't agree there. Was he not one of the early adopters of the current pharmaceutical flavour of the month amongst the pro ranks?
  • Determination
    Determination Posts: 45
    Robert Millar.
    “To understand me, you have to meet me and be around me. And then only if I'm in a good mood - don't meet me in a bad mood.”
  • bwfcmullet
    bwfcmullet Posts: 45
    Millar

    no not David, Robert
  • micron
    micron Posts: 1,843
    Poulidor, Kelly, would have liked to see Breukink fulfil his potential at the Tour (though not a greatest rider) + many more
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Moser? Won the Giro (and came 2nd three times), worlds, multiple classics, held the hour record... only ever started the Tour on one occasion.
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    Some of these are great cyclists but arguably not great Grand Tour cyclists - Moser for example, even Kelly - you'd say they did well to win a GT rather than a Tour win being a notable omission on their palmares.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • moray_gub
    moray_gub Posts: 3,328
    mididoctors wrote:
    Chris Boardman

    Your taking the pi ss here arent you ?
    Gasping - but somehow still alive !
  • dave_1
    dave_1 Posts: 9,512
    Moray Gub wrote:
    mididoctors wrote:
    Chris Boardman

    Your taking the pi ss here arent you ?

    midi is making a joke i think :lol:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBacb2V ... ata_player
  • dreamlx10
    dreamlx10 Posts: 235
    Bugno PURE class on a bike

    Not according to Laurent Fignon in his biography !
  • chriskempton
    chriskempton Posts: 1,245
    Not really answering the question, but the rider I most wanted to win the tour who didn't was Charly Mottet. Had the class, but not the resilience, he always got sick in the second week.
  • SpaceJunk
    SpaceJunk Posts: 1,157
    Tom Danielson. And although he hasn't retired, I reckon he has run out of chances.
  • jonginge
    jonginge Posts: 5,945
    Fabio Parra. A nearly man for several years. Always will remember him trying to attack on the Alpe but being blocked by the motorcycles...
    FCN 2-4 "Shut up legs", Jens Voigt
    Planet-x Scott
    Rides
  • timoid.
    timoid. Posts: 3,133
    Bugno, Rominger, Chiapucci were only good as they were ahead of the game regarding EPO.

    Zulle and JaJa I dismiss as Saiz dopers.

    Kelly was great, but not as great as others in terms of the Tour.


    I think the best that really should of won it but didn't are Poulidor and Kuiper.
    It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,908
    sampras38 wrote:
    mididoctors wrote:
    Chris Boardman

    You're joking, right?

    He can TT but that's about it.

    just didn't prepare right

    thats all
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • knedlicky
    knedlicky Posts: 3,097
    Timoid. wrote:
    Bugno, Rominger, Chiapucci were only good as they were ahead of the game regarding EPO.
    Zulle and JaJa I dismiss as Saiz dopers.
    Never really thought of Jalabert as a doper (was he ever caught/rumoured?), so he’d be one of my nominations, with Poulidor, Guiseppe Saronni and, given his limitations, Kelly.

    I heard Rominger was often full to the brim, and wonder if that’s why, to me, his style often appeared ponderous (as if he could go on forever a bit faster than others, but was incapable of properly attacking).

    Of those who never won a Tour because of Indurain (Bugno and Rominger are mentioned above), my sympathy goes more to Piotr Ugrumov, who was also foiled by Indurain (and by Rominger) in the Giro.

    I would have also liked to have seen one of the early 2000s Giro winners (Savoldelli, Simoni, Garzelli) carry his form into the Tour, but like Saronni, they never did.
  • dreamlx10
    dreamlx10 Posts: 235
    Tom Danielson

    You said that with a straight face as well, nice one.

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