The best domestiques

retired_protegee

OK, hypothetical situation. You're a GC rider going in to the Tour and can select 8 domestiques from throughout history, who do you pick and why?

Rules: don't go naming riders that are GC contenders/winners in their own right (e.g. no Merckx, Hinault etc) unless they served a long time as a domestique (Kloden, Vinokorouv)
if you can't name 8 just name ones that come in to your head.

I'll name a few of my favourites to get us started:
Jens Voigt
Fabian Cancellara
George Hincapie
Sean Yates

rick_chasey

Piere Rolland.

AO1504

George Hincapie
Stuart O'Grady
Jens Voigt
Chechu Rubiera
Vjatchelsav Ekimov

and from a wee bit further back
Sean Yates
Raul Alcala
José Luis Arrieta

RichN95.

The one who made the most sacrifice for his leader was probably Apo Lazarides (Google his name +Rene Vietto +toe).

George Hincapie must have the best palmares (races he's helped to win, not won himself) of anyone since the days of Merckx.

One I remember from my formative years as a cycling fan was Eddy Schepers, Stephen Roche's right hand man.

Five more:

Bernard Eisel (aka Mrs Cavendish)
Jose Azevedo
Stuart O'Grady
Miguel Indurain (1990). That's cheating isn't it?
Sean Yates

(An Anglophone bias, but that's because I hear about them more)

ascurrell

Miguel Indurain
Before his own success he was tremendous for Pedro Delgado.

Geraint Thomas
to me he's already shown he's a great domestique and will also mgo on to great things

takethehighroad

Vin Denson, just 'cos he seems a nice guy

peterst6906

Stuart O'Grady
Andrea Carrea
Jose Luis Arrieta
George Hincapie

Just those 4 would do me, so the rest of the team could e anyone as long as I had those ones.

mz__jo

Robert Millar should be in there. Probably Rene Vietto also.

Possibly Sean Yates and Phil Sherwen.
I think that the Italian teams of the 40's and 50's would throw up some serious contenders

Pross

Tiralongo
Cancellara
Alcala
Rooks
Voigt
Yates
Miller
Hincapie

fastercyclist

Team Captain: Faster Cyclist
Lieutenants: Vinokourov
Cancellara
Domestiques: Voight
Navarro
T.Martin
Hincapie
Hagen

paulcuthbert

Rick Chasey wrote:

Piere Rolland.

+1

cal_stewart

good thread a few people have sat down in the mess and watched the tour with me. the amount of people who don't know its a team sport and the role of dom's is around 95%. domestiquesare's are the unsong heros in my book

LangerDan

Kelly's domestique, Ronan "Ronny" Onghena. A bit like Kevin Hulsmans riding for Boonen - perhaps not strong in the way that a Hincapie or Voigt is, but a hard-working rider whose main job was to help his leader keep his spirits up and the pressure off.

petejuk

A good topic....
Hincapie and Voigt are the standout domestiques for me. Rolland has been amazing this year and agree that Geraint Thomas is a true teamworker. I'd also say Navarro but he hasn't really been that good in this year's tour.

Echo et les Boniments

Yeah, Voigt, Navarro, Hincapie... You definitely want people like that on your team. OK, here are 8 unsung heroes from the past:

-Eddy Schepers (Roche's life insurance)

-Niki Ruttimann (earned no less than Hinault's respect)

-Jens Heppner (Team Telekom's workhorse)

-François Lemarchand (Robert Millar's caretaker at Fagor and Z)

-Theo DeRooy (Panasonic's finest)

Thomas Wegmuller (Sean Kelly's spare diesel engine)

-Neil Stephens (atta grafter)

-Dag Otto Lauritzen (a real team player)

ms_tree

Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta - missed his 'smiling' face this year.
Shame Hulsmans moved on from Quickstep 'cos he was another one to look out for riding for miles on the front of the peloton.
'Big' (sorry!) Bert Grabsch too.

mididoctors

Gerard Rue..

Pierre Roland for this tour


stuart O grady did a lot of pulling....

rick_chasey

OK, of the current peloton, if I was a tour contender I'd have:

Cancellara - there's a reason Andy didn't get caught up in the 1st week crashes and it's not to do with Andy, and he's pretty useful if you get caught up on some sh!tty flat stage and need to chase back.

Navarro & Szmyd - obviously, for when the road points upwards.

I'd have Tosatto (though maybe the Tosatto for a few years back) since a) he can race Italian roads, b) he moves through the peloton very well and c) he's perfect for the donkey work in the first 100km which you don't see on TV.

Millar - you need at least 2 TTers incase they throw in some rubbish TTT.

Vansummeren - was a scandal he wasn't in the Tour - strong as an Ox and is OK when it points upwards too.

Tankink - for morale...

mididoctors

yeah chinny kept those boys in the race week 1

knedlicky

Guy Nulens, 1980-1994.

Hincapie has only this year surpassed Nulens as 'domestique with the most Tour appearances', Hincapie 16, Nulens 15.
If you're not much good as a domestique, you don't get into double figures in Tour appearances, because of when it comes to team selection.

Other names not in the list so far: Didier Rous and, especially, Udo Bölts.

donrhummy

Definitely Yates and Hincapie at the top of the list. Maybe Philippe Leleu.

Worst ever? Damiano Cunego. John Gadret.

rick_chasey

donrhummy wrote:

Definitely Yates and Hincapie at the top of the list. Maybe Philippe Leleu.

Worst ever? Damiano Cunego. John Gadret.

Armstrong.

FJS

Fairly random 8:

Marc Wauters
Wilfried Peeters
Johan van der Velde
Andrea Tafi
Giovanni Lombardi
Eddy Schepers
Jens Voigt
George Hincapie

Echo et les Boniments

FJS wrote:

Fairly random 8:

Marc Wauters
Wilfried Peeters
Johan van der Velde
Andrea Tafi
Giovanni Lombardi
Eddy Schepers
Jens Voigt
George Hincapie

It's funny you should mention Johan Van Der Velde. Could you be possibly referring to the 1980 Tour de France, when he worked for Joop Zoetemelk? Or maybe at the WC with the Dutch team? Yeah, he could be a team player at times but other than that, Van Der Velde was anything but a domestique. At Ti-Raleigh he was Peter Post's blue-eyed boy and, basically, would only do what he wanted to do. He also spent 5 seasons racing for Italian teams and let me tell you that down there he was seen as the leader (I mean an old school kind of leader) and would only act accordingly.

ddraver

Rick Chasey wrote:

donrhummy wrote:

Definitely Yates and Hincapie at the top of the list. Maybe Philippe Leleu.

Worst ever? Damiano Cunego. John Gadret.

Armstrong.

If you were unscrupulous, Armstrong would be good for his...connections...

FJS

Echo et les Boniments wrote:

It's funny you should mention Johan Van Der Velde. Could you be possibly referring to the 1980 Tour de France, when he worked for Joop Zoetemelk? Or maybe at the WC with the Dutch team? Yeah, he could be a team player at times but other than that, Van Der Velde was anything but a domestique. At Ti-Raleigh he was Peter Post's blue-eyed boy and, basically, would only do what he wanted to do. He also spent 5 seasons racing for Italian teams and let me tell you that down there he was seen as the leader (I mean an old school kind of leader) and would only act accordingly.

Yes, I thaught of his Zoetemelk-supporting years as an early example of the super-domestique copied later in Lemond, Vino, Kloden, etc

SpaceJunk

I would say O'Grady would be up there, plus he is a pretty honest guy.

In our local paper here in South Aust, O'Grady spoke about the Tour. He is quoted as telling the Schlecks that Evans perfectly suited the time trial course and that he would get 2 mins on them. And this was before they even rolled down the start ramp.

Gee, no wonder the Schlecks were pooping themselves!!

Quote: “That was a really tough time trial. As soon as I rode it in the morning, I told the Schelcks that it was made for Cadel. He was always going to rip a couple of minutes out of them.”

Here's the link: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/tour-de-france/stuart-ogrady-told-the-schleck-bros-cadel-was-too-good/story-fn947x03-1226101113590

mz__jo

Eros Poli is another possible.
What about Indurain, in his early days supporting Delgado?