Jamie Burrow won Ronde de l'Izard, 1999. He took down Pantani's record of Paleau de Belle I believe, and I think he still holds the record for the climb. Rode for an Italian team. In the same race, he beats the reigning u23 TT World Champ, Thor Hushovd, in the chrono. So on those capacities, he has GC GT rider all over him as of then. Then he goes to USPS. He lost his preparatore at the Italian amateur team, and goes off his program, and becomes a nobody journeyman.
Thor put in suspiciously good performances in the climbing stages too.
I still think he is Great Britains best hope for a Tour de France title, going on his performance ten years back, when on the program. Wigans is damn good on the program, but does not hold any mtn climb records.