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Best Time Trial Rider of All Time

This came up on the Wiggins thread, and I didn't want to pollute that discussion. I did a quick search, and couldn't find a thread like this before. Apologies if it has been done to death and/or I am opening up old wounds.

So who is the greatest ITT rider of all time? I have only followed cycling since the late 80's, but I have a rudimentary knowledge of cycling history. However, if a great time trial rider pre-1990 that is better than my list below, but wasn't winning Grand Tours, I will have omitted him due to my ingorance...not due to a pre-meditated slight on the rider in question.

Effectively, I have narrowed it down to one rider:

Exhibit A - Jacques Anquetil.....9 x winner of the Grand Prix des Nations, Hour record, over 10 Tour time trials, time trial wins in the Giro, Vuelta, and lots of other stage races.

I rest my case.
 
Aug 12, 2010
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I'd say Indurain.

I don't know how many he won exactly, but he used to completely destroy all his opponents, even if they were called Rominger, who was also a great time trial rider.
 
May 26, 2009
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I'd say Anquetil and Indurain, with as runner up Hinault.

As they are from different era's it's tough to pick between Jacques and Miguel.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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Echoes said:
Greatest TT specialist has to be the greatest rider. So Merckx.

His long solo rides in Paris-Roubaix are time-trials in their own right ...

mother-of-god.jpg
 
Aug 12, 2010
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barmaher said:
Anquetil won numerous Grand Prix des Nations by more than 3 minutes.

You could have some doubts about the level of the competition in the fifties.

I think Anquetil was the first one to truly specialize in time trials, a real trendsetter. So he is certainly the "father" of great time trial riders, but that would also make it quite easy to crush the opposition, since they were just allrounders, not specialists.

And if you had given Indurain time trials of 140 kilometers, he would have won some of those by 7 to 10 minutes.
 
Apr 8, 2010
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Ryo Hazuki said:
indurain no doubt. the gaps he made were insane! 3 mintues to number 2 and 5 minutes to number 3 were the norm for him
In TdF 91-95 his biggest gap to number two in a tt was 3 minutes in Luxembourg. And a lot of them was with less than 1 minute gap.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Poulidor was on TV today and talked about Anquetil's insane talent. He said he first noticed Anquetil when the latter won a 140k TT. He incidentally did it without a bidon cage, only taking a bottle of sugared water at the 70k mark... he was 18 years old at the time.

Another comment about Anquetil came from Mangeas, who said he was one of the most elegant riders he'd ever seen.
 
Aug 16, 2011
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King Of The Wolds said:
It's really difficult to have this debate anywhere but the Clinic.

Really? Because this discussion didn't seem to have any clinic problems in the other who is the best TTer thread.
 
Mar 31, 2010
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King Of The Wolds said:
I don't think anybody can post on behalf of the entire forum, but you least of all, I'd have thought.

yes I can. no clinic talk here. on behalf of the entire forum here. you have your own part here on cn.com where you can tell each other as much bas as you like :eek:
 
May 11, 2009
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barmaher said:
.....................................

Effectively, I have narrowed it down to one rider:

Exhibit A - Jacques Anquetil.....9 x winner of the Grand Prix des Nations, Hour record, over 10 Tour time trials, time trial wins in the Giro, Vuelta, and lots of other stage races.

I rest my case.

I agree - the Grand Prix des Nations was a very prestigous event back in the 1950s and 1960s (and I believe one of the few pro TTs back then).
 

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