Merkcx

RichN95.

TheBigBean wrote:

So, of the current riders, who do you think would be able to win all 5 monuments? I think Sagan might be able to, but that's it.

Gilbert would be your best bet. He's won Liege and Lombardy and been on the podium of MSR and Flanders. He's never really bothered with Roubaix though.

TheBigBean

RichN95 wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

So, of the current riders, who do you think would be able to win all 5 monuments? I think Sagan might be able to, but that's it.

Gilbert would be your best bet. He's won Liege and Lombardy and been on the podium of MSR and Flanders. He's never really bothered with Roubaix though.

I think that's a good call, but I can't see him winning (anything at the moment to be frank) P-R under any circumstances.

mike6

RichN95 wrote:

mike6 wrote:

Merckx? best pro cyclist ever, so far. His palmares will probably never be beaten. As for the remark that he was riding against weak opposition, get real. How many real GT contenders are there today?
If you take into consideration he raced for almost 12 months of the year, usually rode at least 2 GTs, all the classics and monuments, the Worlds and then the 6 day track at the end of the year, he is incomparable.

Also he rode every event to win, none of your poncey "Im doing this for training". If he pinned on a number he was there to be beaten. Most of his wins were gained after his debilitating crash that displaced his pelvis, leaving him in constant pain on the bike. He was a marked man in every race and still pulled out a win almost every third event he rode. Comparing the opposition of that time to women's racing now is disrespectful and just plaid wrong. It was harder then. For a lot of young guys in France, Belgium, Holland, Spain and Italy it was the route out of subsistence farming and the competition for a contract was fierce, so every rider rode hard, or got kicked out.

So if we took the current peloton then excluded all the riders who don't come the big five nations, slash wages so it's a less attractive career, reduce team budgets so they only have one star rider each and then regionialise the calendar more so all but half a dozen teams rarely ride outside their own country, then you think the standard would somehow go up? Why? Because you've bought into some overblown nostalgic prose?

Eh?????????? I was answering a post that said the opposition was weaker back in Merckx's day because only the big 5 cycling nations were involved. The point I was making was that the competition for pro team places was tougher then than it is now. What point were you making? :roll:

ademort

For me Eddy Merckx was the greatest cyclist of all time by a country mile. They didnt nickname him "the Cannibal" for nothing. As some have said he raced almost the whole year.If there was a race to HELL he would have entered.Yes it was a different era but to say he wouldnt win as many races now i think he would have. He was that good.His palmares will never be beaten.

RichN95.

mike6 wrote:

Eh?????????? I was answering a post that said the opposition was weaker back in Merckx's day because only the big 5 cycling nations were involved. The point I was making was that the competition for pro team places was tougher then than it is now. What point were you making? :roll:

My point is that you are wrong. The competition for places was not tougher back then because there were less riders to choose from. Increasing the talent pool increases the standard. If you are a rider trying to get a contract, then it's easier to get a contract if there are no Eastern Europeans, Colombians, Australians, Brits, Germans and Americans to compete with than if there are.

gpreeves

Abdoujaparov wrote:

clanton wrote:

Ok - Marianne Vos is probably fairly close but the level of competition I think is not comparable.

If she has a weakness relative to Merckx isn't it in her stage racing GC palmares? She's only 26 though.

This really surprised me. I'd never noticed her age before, and probably would have assumed she was early 30s. Largely because her first (senior) rainbow jersey was several years ago now.

vinnymarsden

IMHO...the GREATEST rider that has ever lived..then and now......no one comes remotely close...it's like any other sport now...all plastic faces,looking for big money for a short but lucrative career, and I don't just mean cycling!!

I used to pretend I was Eddy Merckx....and strangely enough even at over 50 I still smile when I think of the races me and my mates had all wanting to be Eddy!!!

iainf72

Coppi was greatest ever. If it wasn't for the war and all that rot.

thomthom

...

Abdoujaparov

iainf72 wrote:

Coppi was greatest ever. If it wasn't for the war and all that rot.

One look at Merckx suggests he wasn't a man for the high mountains, but he won 11 grand tours. That is genuinely freaky - the sort of athlete who redefines what's required to be good in a sport, like Usain Bolt or Jonah Lomu.

durhamwasp

Macaloon wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Macaloon wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

In the last two years, monuments and grand tours have been won by riders from Australia, Germany, Britain, Kenya, Ireland, Canada, USA, Switzerland and Kazakhstan (as well as Italy, Belgium and Spain).

Well it is where he actually comes from, which for the sake of my argument is more pertinant than the flag he has chosen to rider under.

Completely agree. And as soon as he comes out with it the better for those who admire his talent regardless of his passport. In the real world, the convoluted funding of Sky, BC and the Olympian quest for Brit winners means his inner-Kenyan* may remain caged till retirement. Which would be a shame since it's probably a much more interesting tale than someone brought through the BC ranks.

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxdxk0RpBQg
Early Super8 of the Froome family compound

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, from my personal similar situation, I would agree with Froome that he is British, what with having 1 (arguably 2) British parents. My 2 girls were born in UK but I would class them every bit as Finnish as they are British - of course its up to them how they feel.

No_Ta_Doctor

iainf72 wrote:

Coppi was greatest ever. If it wasn't for the war and all that rot.

Coppi was just 20 when the war started, and entering his prime when it finished.

Bartali, on the other hand, lost his prime years to the rise of fascism in Italy and the 2nd world war .Y et he won two tours, ten years apart (38 and 48).

Took a few Milan-Sanremos and Lombardias as well.

Oh, and smuggled documents for Jews hiding in Italy.

OK, he might not have been the best, but he was bloody good and a war hero to boot.

thomthom

Yeh, one would argue that Bartali actually didn't lose his prime years due to the war but had his prime years during the war.

rick_chasey

Such a great gif.

Doesn't get used enough

No_Ta_Doctor

Rick Chasey wrote:

Such a great gif.

Doesn't get used enough

It's doing my head in. Which I guess is the point....

mike6

What sets Merckx apart is not just his palmares but his attitude to racing. He could be many minutes ahead on GC, have the overall in the bag, and still launch a long solo break, simply because he felt good, loved racing and loved winning.

To paraphrase his wife, If he has to be away from his bike for two days he is miserable.

vinnymarsden

How does a thread about Eddy Merckx have someone commenting on Froome's nationality..or am I missing something!!

salsiccia1

ThomThom wrote:

Yeh, one would argue that Bartali actually didn't lose his prime years due to the war but had his prime years during the war.

Beautifully put.

deejay

VinnyMarsden wrote:

How does a thread about Eddy Merckx have someone commenting on Froome's nationality..or am I missing something!!

I agree as he doesn't have a place here with the greats who won races for more than a decade.

One season of Stage racing is not the making of a Great that would last very long as a thread.

Macaloon

VinnyMarsden wrote:

How does a thread about Eddy Merckx have someone commenting on Froome's nationality..or am I missing something!!

Inadvertent derail. Sorry. As you were.

MartinB2444

He could time trial like Wiggins and get up the big mountains easily as well whilst at the same time having explosive ability and panache for classics. Oh and his descending was second to none. It's folly but fun trying to compare different eras but it is difficult to think of someone with the same all round winning attributes as Eddy. He didn't do "gifts" and didn't give a fig about what rest of the peloton thought. The worse the conditions the better he got.

RideOnTime

RichN95 wrote:

Macaloon wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

In the last two years, monuments and grand tours have been won by riders from Australia, Germany, Britain, Kenya, Ireland, Canada, USA, Switzerland and Kazakhstan (as well as Italy, Belgium and Spain).

Well it is where he actually comes from, which for the sake of my argument is more pertinant than the flag he has chosen to rider under.

Only MTBing in Kenya.

FocusZing

Greg LeMond, built like a climber and has one of the highest vo/2 max tests. He could have won more if he wasn't out for 2 years. He didn't win or do all the Tours though.

He also stood up against........Granted it was probably because he was p1ssed at his Trek partnership residing.