Favourite Pro Riders?

Lichtblick

(since there's not much going on..........)

Do you have any favourite Pro riders, for any reason or even no particular reason? Past or present?

Some of mine are, in no particular order:

Thomas Voeckler
Luis León Sánchez
Sammy Sanchez
Daniel Navarro
Philippe Gilbert
Alexander Vinokourov
Jurgen Van Den Broeck
George Hincapie
Lars Boom
Richie Porte
Pierrick Fedrigo
Alberto Contador
Christian Knees
Christian Vande Velde
and
Peter Sagan <

---

Way more interesting than Cav. IMO.

I may have left a few out.

junglist_matty

Easy..... George Hincapie, a true trooper

nweststeyn

Bernie Eisel... Mega man crush.

nweststeyn

He's just so handsome...

nweststeyn

SHUT UP!

roypsb

Bernie Eisel for me too. Just seems like a really decent bloke, always got a smile on his face and time for people.

Lichtblick

How stupid of me :!: STUPID STUPID STUPID

I left out

Fabian Cancellara
Thor Hushovd
Kurt-Asle Arvesen
Federico Bahamontes
Andre Greipel

......blame poor broadband connection earlier...........

Turfle

Eisel, obviously.

But also Nordhaug, Lagutin (don't know why), Stetina, Cam Meyer. And almost all the Brits.

Ride hard

Lichtblick wrote:

How stupid of me :!: STUPID STUPID STUPID

I left out

Fabian Cancellara
Thor Hushovd
Kurt-Asle Arvesen
Federico Bahamontes
Andre Greipel

......blame poor broadband connection earlier...........

And Jens!!!!!

A consumate professional, funny as, and seems like a really decent dude.

Out of the new crop coming through I'm there with you on Sagan. I loved his short pre-stage interview on Eurosport during this year's Tour de France when he turned up with a bell on his bike and explained that due to all of the crashes in the previous days he wanted to make sure people got out of his way! A lot of other pro's would have been worrying about how many more watts they would have to put out with the extra weight of the bell, but he didn't give two hoots. A good sense of humour that the pro ranks needs somethings methinks.

Gazzetta67

Lichtblick wrote:

(since there's not much going on..........)

Do you have any favourite Pro riders, for any reason or even no particular reason? Past or present?

Some of mine are, in no particular order:

Thomas Voeckler
Luis León Sánchez
Sammy Sanchez
Daniel Navarro
Philippe Gilbert
Alexander Vinokourov
Jurgen Van Den Broeck
George Hincapie
Lars Boom
Richie Porte
Pierrick Fedrigo
Alberto Contador
Christian Knees
Christian Vande Velde
and
Peter Sagan <

---

Way more interesting than Cav. IMO.

I may have left a few out.

Have you started shaving yet - Where are all the 70s 80s riders ??

ok here's my list

Fav all time rider has to be Sean Kelly then Maertens,Hinault,Fignon,Van Der Poel,Delgado,Saronni,Millar,Bontempi,Fondriest,

disgruntledgoat

Gilberto Simoni is my all time favourite... some other notables are
Eddy Merckx
David Millar
Robert Millar
Laurent Fignon
Marco Pantani
Johan Museeuw

And of the current crop...

Laurens Ten Dam
VDB
Johann Van Summeran
Martijn Maaskant
Ryder Hesjedal

Yellow Peril

Cipollini, he's got it in spades,

greasedscotsman

Emma Pooley. Obviously!

Lichtblick

Ride hard wrote:

And Jens!!!!!

A consumate professional, funny as, and seems like a really decent dude.

Jens Voigt, of course! What a man, you have to love him, brilliant bloke.
<doh-gif>

Out of the new crop coming through I'm there with you on Sagan. I loved his short pre-stage interview on Eurosport during this year's Tour de France when he turned up with a bell on his bike and explained that due to all of the crashes in the previous days he wanted to make sure people got out of his way! A lot of other pro's would have been worrying about how many more watts they would have to put out with the extra weight of the bell, but he didn't give two hoots. A good sense of humour that the pro ranks needs somethings methinks.

Sagan is WAY more interesting than Cavendish. Less intense, much funnier, great to watch. He'll get the Green Jersey one day, mark my words.

Lichtblick

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Have you started shaving yet - Where are all the 70s 80s riders ??

I did include Bahamontes. :P

dylanfernley

Yellow Peril wrote:

Cipollini, he's got it in spades,

don't you mean bags?

tailwindhome

Sagan

As Sean Kelly said "Now *that's* a racer"

frosty99

Luis Leon Sanchez, albasini and all the brits

alihisgreat

LL Sanchez
Wiggo
Sagan
Voeckler
David Millar
Cav
Eisel
Geriant Thomas
Uran Uran
Kristian House
Basso
Purito
Bertie (only after this year's Vuelta though)
Gilbert
Cuddles

specialgueststar

S Chavanel . Came through from forward thinking Bonjour team and stuck at it!

D Moncoutie all those Vuelta KOM's under difficult conditions

andyjr

Going back a few years, used to really enjoy watching Virenque. Currently:

Millar
Kiryenka
Wiggins
Cav
Van den Broeck
Voeckler
Nibali
Valverde
Jelle Vanendert
Pinot
Chavanel
Sergio Henao

Pross

Current crop:-

J Rod
G
Nordhaug
Henao
Canc
Wiggo

Favourite I've seen in my time is Pantani regardless of the obvious flaws. I also liked Chiapucci at the time. Others would be Kelly, Robert Millar and Cippo.

rick_chasey

Boonen.

---

Cancellara
Terpstra
Chav
Andy Schleck
Tankink
Jonny

Off the top of my head.

squired

Rujano - despite him only showing up once every year or two I think it is great that a guy his size can achieve anything in the sport and is one of the great things about cycling (i.e. that people of all sizes can be successful).

Lizzie Armistead - the first time I ever saw her was in Manchester Velodrome and she was just superb despite still being in her teens at that point (I think). Extremely aggressive and attacking riding.

Chris Froome - for a while I really didn't like him, but over the course of the Vuelta he has really grown on me. Needs to ditch his girlfriend though!

Other notables:

Phil Gilbert
Dan Martin
Nicolas Roche
Ian Stannard
JTL
EBH

dsoutar

My list has constantly revised over the last 20 years due to the various shennanigans people get up to. This is just off the top of my head. Note that some of these I admire more than like (like McEwan, Cav etc - not wild about them as a person but respect as a pro-rider)

Retired:
Millar
Badger
Kelly
Lemond
Cippo
McEwan

Current:
Sagan (sort of grown on me)
Porte
Eisel
Moncoutie
Cav (grudglingly)

Tom BB

Cav, Canc, Wiggo (this year, not so much in previous years) Millar, Sagan, Gilbert, Purito, G, Kristian House, TV Tommy, Cuddles, Jens, EBH. All the obvious ones I guess :oops:

TMR

Well, like, Duh!

George Hincapie

Obviously!

And if I have to pick some others then:

Cav (I still scream like a girl when he sprints)
Tommy Voeckler (Consummate actor)
Peter Sagan (Stupidly amazing 1st TdF)
All of Orica GreenEdge (For their 'Call me maybe' cover - Legends!)
Jens Voight (Just because he's Jens)

DeadCalm

Peter Sagan
Chris Anker Sörensen
Laurens Ten Dam
Romain Bardet
Thibaut Pinot
Bradley Wiggins
Mark Cavendish
David Millar
Taylor Phinney
Andrew Talansky

chrisday

In no particular order (and some retired):
Cipo
Zabel
Fignon (as a kid I loved that a cyclist wore glasses like me)
Boonen
Cav
Dave Millar
Jens, obviously
Sagan
Cancellara
Moncoutié
Stannard
PVP
G
Pip Giblet
Tankink
Nibs
Basso
Simoni
Rog Hammond

And at the risk of derailing the thread, riders who seem to be everyone else's favourites who I can't stand:
TV Tommy
Virenque
Actually, no, just those two

Leeuw

Ok, for being generally good bods, and not necessarily for their biking expolits;

Andrea Tafi
Jean Paul van Poppel
Sean Kelly
Dave Millar

Prob some more too, but these are the "core"

BelgianBeerGeek

Geraint
Nico Roche
Moncoutie
Thor Hushovd