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Raphaël Géminiani said of Coppi's domination:
When Fausto won and you wanted to check the time gap to the man in second place, you didn't need a Swiss stopwatch. The bell of the church clock tower would do the job just as well. Paris–Roubaix? Milan – San Remo? Lombardy? We're talking 10 minutes to a quarter of an hour. That's how Fausto Coppi was
Dedelou said:It seems that the question itself leads to people expressing more "who they like" rather than admitting that attempt at compering ITT performances without objective measurement tools across decades is really not very productive.
Equipment, road surface, clothing, nutrition and preparation are so different over time. I remember a computer simulation that once attempted to visualy compare two very famous boxing legends. It would take some sort of program to compare the efforts and output of an Anquetil, Merckx with the current champions and even that would not be a very accurate rendering
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.
Hugo Koblet said:<snip>
Here are the results of Anquetil. I've only done them for those five years he won as that corresponds with researching the five years Indurain won.
<snip>
Anquetil won 11/12 time trials in his winning years. His worst result was finishing third in the 1962 mountain time trial.
Comparing Indurain and Anquetil, you find that Indurain rode a total of 578 kilometres time trialing, beating the second placed rider by a total of 328 seconds (adding the win margins and subtracting the loss margins). That's an average of 0.57 seconds per kilometre.
Similarly, Anquetil rode a total of 478.2 kilometres of time trialing, beating the best second placed rider by a total of 784 seconds, putting an average of 1.64 seconds into his best opponent per kilometre.
Edit: In his five years of domination, Merckx rode no less than 17 time trials and won 14 of those. The time trials were, on average, way shorter back then, as Merckx only did 349,7 kilometres of time trialing in total. He beat the second placed rider by a total of 441 seconds, putting an average of 1.26 seconds into his best opponent per kilometer.
tx for the numbers. The tour de france is not the only place where Anquetil showed his Time trialing abilities. Having won 8 grand tours on his TT talents in spite of being inferior to his climbers adversaries. he also did great in GP des Nations TT, the hour record and even in TT on grand tour he did not win: "Anquetil was also 3rd in the Tour de France once, 2nd in the Giro d'Italia twice, and 3rd in the Giro d'Italia twice. " All total I still agree with Ryo that it is hard to actually compare Indurain and Jacques because the time quoted not only reflect his performnce but also that of the competition and that does not even take into consideration the issue of "equipment, preparation and clothing which is so critical in Time trialing.Hugo Koblet said:I have no idea why Ryo would say that a such comparison is pointless.
First of all, the time trials in the era of Anquetil were not longer than those in the days of Indurain. It is ignorance to say such a thing.
Second, I don't buy the whole specialization argument. There were a lot of riders specialized in time trialing back in the 60's and even if they weren't specialized as we know today, neither was Anquetil. Looking at the riders he competed against, they were not bad time trialers by any means. Poulidor, Baldini and Bracke, for instance, all won the Grand Prix des Nations.
Here are the results of Anquetil. I've only done them for those five years he won as that corresponds with researching the five years Indurain won.
1957
Stage 15B: Friday, July 12, Montjuich 9.8 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 14min 29sec
2. Jean Forestier @ 12sec
3. Jésus Lorono @ 25sec
4. Gilbert Bauvin @ 32sec
5. Wim Van Est @ 36sec
Stage 20: Thursday, July 18, Bordeaux - Libourne 66 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 1hr 32min 17sec
2. Nino Defilippis @ 2min 11sec
3. Wim Van Est @ 2min 56sec
4. Jésus Lorono @ 3min 14sec
5. Jean Forestier @ 4min 3sec
1961
Stage 1B: Sunday, June 25, Versailles 28.5 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 39min 43sec
2. Albert Bouvet @ 2min 32sec
3. Graziano Battistini @ 2min 39sec
4. Henry Anglade @ 2min 43sec
5. Charly Gaul @ 2min 55sec
Stage 19: Friday, July 14, Bergerac - Périgueux 74.5 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 1hr 42min 32sec
2. Charly Gaul @ 2min 59sec
3. Guido Carlesi @ 3min 37sec
4. Hans Junkermann @ 3min 41sec
5. Jean Gainche @ 3min 47sec
1962
Stage 8B: Sunday, July 1, Luçon - La Rochelle 43 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 54min 4sec
2. Ercole Baldini @ 22sec
3. Rudi Altig @ 46sec
4. Jozef Planckaert @ 1min 7sec
5. Antonio Suarez @ 1min 25sec
Stage 13: Friday, July 6, Luchon - Superbagnères 18.5 km (mountain ITT):
1. Federico Bahamontes: 47min 23sec
2. Jozef Planckaert @ 1min 25sec
3. Jacques Anquetil @ 1min 28sec
4. Charly Gaul @ 1min 29sec
5. Hans Junkermann @ 2min 31sec
Stage 20: Friday, July 13, Bourgoin - Lyon 68 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 1hr 33min 35sec
2. Ercole Baldini @ 2min 59sec
3. Raymond Poulidor @ 5min 1sec
4. Jozef Planckaert @ 5min 19sec
5. Gilbert Desmet @ 6min 6sec
1963
Stage 6B: Friday, June 28, Angers 24.5 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 31min 58sec
2. Raymond Poulidor @ 45sec
3. Gilbert Desmet @ 55sec
4. Jozef Planckaert @ 1min 3sec
5. Ferdi Bracke @ 1min 9sec
Stage 19: Friday, July 12, Arbois - Besançon, 54.5 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 1hr 12min 20sec
2. Ferdi Bracke @ 1min 4sec
3. Federico Bahamontes @ 2min 7sec
4. Miguel Pacheco @ 2min 15sec
5. Jean-Claude Lebaube @ 2min 20sec
1964
Stage 10B: Wednesday, July 1, Hyères - Toulon 20.8 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 27min 52sec
2. Raymond Poulidor @ 36sec
3. Rudi Altig @ 54sec
4. Ferdi Bracke @ 1min 7sec
5. Vittorio Adorni @ 1min 31sec
Stage 17: Thursday, July 9, Peyrehorade - Bayonne 42.6 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 1hr 1min 53sec
2. Raymond Poulidor @ 37sec
3. Rudi Altig @ 1min 19sec
4. Henry Anglade @ 2min 2sec
5. Vittorio Adorni @ 2min 43sec
Stage 22B: Tuesday, July 14, Versailles - Paris 27.5 km:
1. Jacques Anquetil: 37min 10sec
2. Rudi Altig @ 15sec
3. Raymond Poulidor @ 21sec
4. Vittorio Adorni @ 1min 18sec
5. Gilbert Desmet @ 1min 32sec
Anquetil won 11/12 time trials in his winning years. His worst result was finishing third in the 1962 mountain time trial.
Comparing Indurain and Anquetil, you find that Indurain rode a total of 578 kilometres time trialing, beating the second placed rider by a total of 328 seconds (adding the win margins and subtracting the loss margins). That's an average of 0.57 seconds per kilometre.
Similarly, Anquetil rode a total of 478.2 kilometres of time trialing, beating the best second placed rider by a total of 784 seconds, putting an average of 1.64 seconds into his best opponent per kilometre.
Edit:
In his five years of domination, Merckx rode no less than 17 time trials and won 14 of those. The time trials were, on average, way shorter back then, as Merckx only did 349,7 kilometres of time trialing in total. He beat the second placed rider by a total of 441 seconds, putting an average of 1.26 seconds into his best opponent per kilometer.
This is including prologues, though, which Indurains results aren't. However, I don't think it matters much as there were time trials in the Merckx years that were shorter than the prologues. For instance, in 1969 the prologue was 10.4 kilometres while the time trial on stage 6 was 8.8 kilometres. Similarly, in 1970 the prologue was 7.4 kilometres while three of the other 4(!) time trials were respectively 7.25, 9.3 and 8.25 kilometres.
In both 1972 and 1974 the prologue was a little more than 7 kilometres while a 12 kilometre time trial also was included both years. In 1971 there was no prologue.
If that is the case you won't ever be able to compare riders from different eras, hence you won't be able to decide who the best rider ever has been, and I agree that that is hard to do.Dedelou said:All total I still agree with Ryo that it is hard to actually compare Indurain and Jacques because the time quoted not only reflect his performnce but also that of the competition and that does not even take into consideration the issue of "equipment, preparation and clothing which is so critical in Time trialing.
You guys certainly do a great job with the numbers you provided and I am thankful for that. As for me, I will be satisfied that all those mentioned were indeed great ITT riders and revere Indurain since I saw him performing live and remember Anquetil as Master Jacques who thrilled my childhood and won a mountain stage of the 50th edition of the tour in my home town when i was just 18. Can't believe we are now going to see the 100th edition possibly decided in the final TTHugo Koblet said:If that is the case you won't ever be able to compare riders from different eras, hence you won't be able to decide who the best rider ever has been, and I agree that that is hard to do.
The only objective way to do so, is to look at the results and numbers which is what I've done, of course not exhaustive though.
runninboy said:In the early part of the 20th Century alot of racing was Long time trials on single speed bikes. Considering the conditions these riders have to be some of the best at riding solo. Victor Morice Hopkins from Iowa is in the US bicycling Hall of Fame and was pretty extraordinary. In 1924 he pedaled his one speed bike 217 miles to Milwaukee to compete in the Olympic trial which itself was 116 miles to Chicago.There he came in second and qualified for the finals in New Jersey. He pedaled home where people raised money for his expenses for his trip to NJ .He road his one speed all the way to NJ on dirt roads and over the Appalachians a distance of roughly one thousand miles. There he won the six hour time trial to qualify for the Paris Olympics. In Paris he was in 3rd place when he crashed out of contention.
I think since hundred mile time trials were the norm back in the 1920's some recognition should be given to these men who had to be some of the hardest riders to ever sit a bike.
Dedelou said:................. Can't believe we are now going to see the 100th edition possibly decided in the final TT
winkybiker said:"Stage 13: Friday, July 6, Luchon - Superbagnères 18.5 km (mountain ITT):
1. Federico Bahamontes: 47min 23sec
2. Jozef Planckaert @ 1min 25sec
3. Jacques Anquetil @ 1min 28sec
4. Charly Gaul @ 1min 29sec
5. Hans Junkermann @ 2min 31sec"
Having ridden Superbagneres a couple of times, I can imagine the suffering behind these numbers (just a little bit). Ouch!