Joining the Van Looy, Merckx and De Vlaeminck club

2

Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,732
    Kiwa won't win Flanders unless they change the route and don't have the Kwaremont in such an important position.
    _
  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    `
    A rider I did think might qualify to join the club but his mistake was to stay too long at Quickstep and act as the No 1 Domestic in RVV and Roubaix.
    Paolo Bettini could easily have won both RVV & Roubaix at some time with another Team. ?

    `
    Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 1972
  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,648
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Kiwa won't win Flanders unless they change the route and don't have the Kwaremont in such an important position.

    You've been listening to Daniel Friebe/Michel Wuyts too much (or not enough...)
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,268
    deejay wrote:
    `

    Paolo Bettini could easily have won both RVV & Roubaix at some time with another Team. ?

    `

    No, but Bartoli before him could have won them all... in fact I think he only missed out on the Roubaix (which he never rode, I believe)

    EDIT: he actually did it once at the end of his career and finished a respectable 21st... Bartoli was the real deal!

    http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/classics/pa ... r2004.html
    left the forum March 2023
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    deejay wrote:
    `
    A rider I did think might qualify to join the club but his mistake was to stay too long at Quickstep and act as the No 1 Domestic in RVV and Roubaix.
    Paolo Bettini could easily have won both RVV & Roubaix at some time with another Team. ?

    `

    Bettini a good shout for Flanders, he was a little hamstrung by being in the same squad as Museeuw and latterly Boonen in that regard. Roubaix, I reckon he'd have been too lightweight. Hell of a rider though.

    Part of the last Gregario dynasty too. Bartoli trained Bettini who trained Pippo who got a load of tattoos and lost the plot.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,268
    Argentin could have won the lot, but he never did Roubaix... it wasn't very popular back then, probably because they were riding 21 mm tubulars with stupid pressure
    left the forum March 2023
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    If we're going back in time then obviously Kelly was closest to joining the club.

    Won them all except Flanders where he was 2nd three times! Ouch.
  • ugo.santalucia
    ugo.santalucia Posts: 28,268
    Nibali has shown flare on the cobbles, but one thing is 4-5 sectors, another is 27... plus he doesn't care for these races and he's getting old... he'd be lucky to win LBL before he packs up.

    Only Kwia has all the right characteristics to join the club, that I can see.. problem is he has scored zero thus far
    left the forum March 2023
  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    ugo.santalucia wrote:
    deejay wrote:
    `
    Paolo Bettini could easily have won both RVV & Roubaix at some time with another Team. ?`
    No, but Bartoli before him could have won them all... in fact I think he only missed out on the Roubaix (which he never rode, I believe)
    Because of the snow this week at L-B-L, I will come in here to agree with you about Michele Bartoli and his great career being supported by his main domestic Paolo Bettini.
    This partnership came to an end in the 1999 Deutschland Tour when Bartoli was smashed to the ground during a Gale Force windy Storm in that Time Trial as the advertising barriers carried him away and he was taken to hospital (and from memory) he didn't race for a year or so.
    Paolo Bettini was now free to conduct his own career and the next year I won money on him winning Liege-Bastogne as he continued to make history which caused friction between them as team leaders.

    I agree that Michele Bartoli could have won them all (and probably would) except for that nasty accident because Bartoli IMO was a more attacking rider.
    The SNOW, oh yes the snow. Again 1999 in Flèche Wallonne a freezing blizzard hit the race and I caught up with 80 Km's to go and Bartoli out on his own covered in snow being chased by Oscar Camenzind (who I thought was catching him) but no they rode solo to the finish.
    I watched Ladies with fingers so cold for their brakes that they missed the turning and the course or they just crashed into ditches or the back of team cars.

    The TV commentators don't seem to know that Snow was a regular item in the Ardennes in April but not so this century.
    Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 1972
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,640
    YorkshireRaw wrote:

    Possibly the best all-rounder (who you could see being up there to contend in all 5) is Greg Van Avermaet.

    Just noticed that he has finished top 12 in all of them. Is that the best of the current crop?
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    Now that he has won Paris Roubaix (which was arguably the hardest for him to win) I think he has joined Sagan and Gilbert as the rider most likely to do it.

    Still very unlikely though considering he is 31 already.
  • thegibdog
    thegibdog Posts: 2,106
    thegibdog wrote:
    Maybe a more pertinent question is who will be next to win 3 different monuments? I think we currently have Degenkolb, Gerrans, Kristoff & Gilbert on 2 - will Sagan beat them all to 3?
    The answer was a suprising 'no'.
    TheBigBean wrote:
    YorkshireRaw wrote:
    Possibly the best all-rounder (who you could see being up there to contend in all 5) is Greg Van Avermaet.
    Just noticed that he has finished top 12 in all of them. Is that the best of the current crop?
    Can't see him winning all 5 though.
    https://gibworth.mypixieset.com
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,640
    Thought this thread could do with a bump. Gilbert is clearly the answer.
  • amrushton
    amrushton Posts: 1,253
    Gilbert seems to have been hampered at BMC but his move to DQS really paid off for him and DQS. Interesting to look at this as it shows how one move/team can pay dividends. But if he stopped now he is still in an exclusive club of 4 monument winners.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,640
    4 different monuments wins plus a 3rd which is presumably only bettered by Kelly (4 plus a 2nd) and the three who have the full set.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,732
    Gilbert also has a worlds which kelly never got
    _
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,640
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Gilbert also has a worlds which kelly never got

    Yes, but Kelly won the four different monuments at least twice and finished second three times in Flanders which I think beats one WC, but maybe that depends on the question being asked.
  • johnboy183
    johnboy183 Posts: 832
    How about our two recent CX world champions?
  • m.r.m.
    m.r.m. Posts: 3,342
    If he keeps winning at his current rate (which he shouldn't be able to), MvdP will be the greatest cyclist to ever live. He may get that title anyway.
    PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 2023
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    M.R.M. wrote:
    If he keeps winning at his current rate (which he shouldn't be able to), MvdP will be the greatest cyclist to ever live. He may get that title anyway.
    People said the same about Sagan at that age. He currently has the same number of monuments as Simon Gerrans.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • m.r.m.
    m.r.m. Posts: 3,342
    And Alexander Kristoff which is equally crazy if you think about it.
    PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 2023
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,732
    RichN95 wrote:
    M.R.M. wrote:
    If he keeps winning at his current rate (which he shouldn't be able to), MvdP will be the greatest cyclist to ever live. He may get that title anyway.
    People said the same about Sagan at that age. He currently has the same number of monuments as Simon Gerrans.

    Gerrans is criminally underrated (since it came up)
    _
  • ocdupalais
    ocdupalais Posts: 4,233
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    RichN95 wrote:
    M.R.M. wrote:
    If he keeps winning at his current rate (which he shouldn't be able to), MvdP will be the greatest cyclist to ever live. He may get that title anyway.
    People said the same about Sagan at that age. He currently has the same number of monuments as Simon Gerrans.

    Gerrans is criminally underrated (since it came up)

    Was underrated.
    MVDP only gets to be called overrated when it turns out he was overrated.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    RichN95 wrote:
    M.R.M. wrote:
    If he keeps winning at his current rate (which he shouldn't be able to), MvdP will be the greatest cyclist to ever live. He may get that title anyway.
    People said the same about Sagan at that age. He currently has the same number of monuments as Simon Gerrans.

    Gerrans is criminally underrated (since it came up)
    I agree. A textbook example of a rider who squeezed everything out of his abilities. And what Sagan has in legs, Gerrans had in brains.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 20,640
    Time for a bump with the new kids on the block. MvdP is now on three along with Pogacar.

    MvdP presumably can't win LBL or Lombardy.

    Pogacar seems determined to win MSR, but hasn't tried P-R for perhaps good reason.

    WvA has a podium in 4 of them and has not tried Lombardy. He needs to work out how to win though.



  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,732
    MvdP can win win LBL but I can’t see him winning Lombardi.
    _
  • andyrac
    andyrac Posts: 1,132
    MvdP is more likely to win 3 different World Champs than all 5 Monuments......
    All Road/ Gravel: tbcWinter: tbcMTB: tbcRoad: tbc"Look at the time...." "he's fallen like an old lady on a cruise ship..."
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,157
    edited April 2023
    Lombardia and LBL often change their routes and finishes, so who knows what the future holds. Van der Poel has shown he can finish top ten in both it's possible. I think he may need Pogacar and Evenepoel to be absent though.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,583
    TheBigBean said:

    Time for a bump with the new kids on the block. MvdP is now on three along with Pogacar.

    MvdP presumably can't win LBL or Lombardy.

    Pogacar seems determined to win MSR, but hasn't tried P-R for perhaps good reason.

    WvA has a podium in 4 of them and has not tried Lombardy. He needs to work out how to win though.



    Pog suggested after RVV that he might give P-R a go but I suspect he’d have to sacrifice the Tour if he ever does. He said himself he’d need to gain weight (and toughen up his hands).
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,732
    RichN95. said:

    Lombardia and LBL often change their routes and finishes, so who knows what the future holds. Van der Poel has shown he can finish top ten in both it's possible. I think he may need Pogacar and Evenepoel to be absent though.

    His Lombardi top 10 shouldn’t really count as it was the rona one and he was miles off the pace.
    _

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