Best climbers in history?

[jordan5000]

First let me clarify: a rider does not have to be a pure climber to make this list. My criteria is: time gains they achieved when attacking, distance of attacks (ie an attack going from 100km out and crossing two HC climbs is more impressive than attacking with 10km left on the final climb), stage victories in the mountains and for early years maybe the KOM, but it has lost significance over the years.

My list would be: Gaul, Merckx, Coppi, Bartali, Armstrong in no particular order.

 

[happychappy]

Landis!!!!

 

[jordan5000]

I hope you`re kidding.

 

[Arnout]

Pantani.

I will never forget 2006 stage 17 though, after all the Mayo disappointments that's what got me hooked again.

 

[hughmoore]

Sir Edmund Hillary

 

[Swede1]

Kenny van Hummel!!

He climbs faster than Contador.................... When he is hanging onto a motorcycle!

 

[Mambo95]

Sir Edmund Hillary

Pah!

He was a wheelsucker. Tenzing Norgay had all the panache. He put in a lot of attacks but the Kiwi bee botherer just hung in their and nipped ahead of him at the end due to team politics.

(Note: Not actually true)

Seriously, add Bahamontes and Herrera to the list.

 

[Moncoutie]

Bahamontes, Fuentes, Moncoutie.

 

[Thomsena]

Landis!!!!

Yeah, Landis it is.What a rider.

 

[The Hitch]

1 Alberto Contador
2 Marco Pantani
3 Lance Armstrong
4 Eddy Mercx
5 Sylwester Szmyd.

 

[greenedge]

Contadorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Nuff said. Needs a poll.

 

[Race Radio]

Coppi rode up Alp d'huez in 1952, on a 25 pound bike, in 45 minutes....oh, and the road was dirt then

http://youtu.be/LWZA_tTeAQg

 

[Forunculo]

Chicken Rasmussen

 

[Rechtschreibfehler]

1 Alberto Contador
2 Marco Pantani
3 Lance Armstrong
4 Eddy Mercx
5 Sylwester Szmyd.

You are truely disappointing me.
(exept for Smyd of course, but the rest is realy disappointing me indeed! seriously!)

 

[rgmerk]

Gaul

"Best" is anyone's guess, but Gaul must have been quite the hardman.

Check out this video of Gaul's solo win on a brute of a stage, in awful conditions, finishing on the Monte Bondone (Wikipedia article here).

 

[Dancing On The Pedals]

In no particular order...
Contador
Pantani
Robert Millar
Van Impe
Bahamontes
Gaul
Coppi
Bartali

 

[El Pistolero]

Contador

And for the reason why I'm going to quote Igor Anton:

"I think one of the reason why I struggled is that I didn't recover 100 percent after riding the Giro d'Italia. I did the same things as I did last year but cycling isn't an exact science. I just didn’t have the same form and didn't feel good."

Yet Contador won the Giro with more than 6 minutes advantage and came fifth in the Tour after crashing a lot and losing a minute and a half on stage 1.

 

[Shardi]

You are truely disappointing me.
(exept for Smyd of course, but the rest is realy disappointing me indeed! seriously!)

Why? The first three have the record times up all the famous GT-climbs.

If that doesn't define the criteria for the "best climber?" question, I don't know what does.

 

[El Pistolero]

I think we can all agree that having set record times up famous climbs is a bad criteria for best climber

 

[Descender]

In no particular order:

Coppi
Contador
Pantani
Merckx
Bartali
Armstrong
Bahamontes
Gaul
2011 Cancellara

 

[Hugo Koblet]

2011 Cancellara

You know something we dont?

 

[Descender]

You know something we dont?

Have you seen him pace his leaders at the Tour and the Vuelta, dropping everybody off the back a là US Postal army soldiers??







Just kidding of course.

 

[Magnus]

Fausto Coppi

 

[LaFlorecita]

Contador. Duh.

 

[La Canaja]

"Best" is anyone's guess, but Gaul must have been quite the hardman.

Check out this video of Gaul's solo win on a brute of a stage, in awful conditions, finishing on the Monte Bondone (Wikipedia article here).

Wow what an epic win And the comment was epic too.

I'm going with Bahamontes, Gaul, Coppi, Pantani, Contador, Mercks, Van Impe.
And Gibo Simoni