• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Desert Island DVDs: Races You Love

I’m sure if I dug around on these boards I’d find a best races you’ve
ever seen thread, but this is a little more personal than that. I just
went digging through an old box of tapes and found a VHS labeled
Paris-Roubaix 99. I have no idea who won, I’m not even sure I watched
the race, yet bizarrely I’ve watched my WCP tape of the 97
Paris-Roubaix almost to death. Everybody loves an underdog, but with
no disrespect to Frederic Guesdon’s 97 win, I can’t help but imagine
the 99 edition was probably slightly more satisfying in that I expect
whoever won it (Museeuw? Tchmil?) was probably a more fitting victor.

Sorry, this is a long winded way of saying that the best races aren’t
always the ones that you find most affecting. I loved Marco Pantani,
but the 1998 Tour wouldn’t go on my list of Desert Island Cycling
DVDs, but while I have no particular fondness for Bjarne Riis, the
1996 Tour would. On top of that, my intermittent relationship with
satellite TV down the years means that there are some races I only
ever experienced through the pages of a magazine-they may be greats,
but they’ll never be on my desert island list.

Anyway, I thought I’d choose the five races that I’d take with me to a
Desert Island, to follow in half a mo, and wondered what everyone
else’s would be?
 
1996 Tour De France
Ok, 1994 I discovered cycling and everything was new to me, 1995 was
the first year I had the knowledge to appreciate the race, but by 1996
the feeling was one of “OK, I’ve got to grips with this now, can we
have a new winner to celebrate my arrival?” (Sorry Miguel). Say what
you like about his scary eyes and scarier haematocrit, Bjarne Riis
destroying the cream of cycling (as I recall, that years Tour
included, Indurain, Rominger, Zulle, Pantani, Olano, Virenque, Berzin,
Gotti Tonkov, Luttenberger, Jimenez etc) was cracking. People talk about the ‘look’ Arstrong gave Ullrich, but for me cycling’s definitive evil eye was
dished out by Riis on the road to Hautacam when he rolled back down
that line, checked everyone’s faces, then tore off the front three
times until they’d all fallen away.

1994 Paris Roubaix
I’ve had this on tape for years and it gets me everytime. The almost
indecipherable chaos on the early section of cobbles, Poor
Duclos-Lasalle and his puncture and the seemingly endless wait for a
service car, and that Museeuw chap, chasing chasing chasing. Ok, he
never caught Tchmil, but the effort alone let you know he’d be one to
watch.

1996 Giro D’Italia
Ok, so the first two weeks were good, but no better or worse than any
other Grand Tour, but that final week, with the battles in the
mountains and Olano suddenly pulling himself into the Maglia Rosa by a
single second to set the stage for a showdown with Tonkov in those
last two mountain stages. Breathtaking stuff.

2010 Vuelta a Espana
Bit of a wildcard entry, I’ll admit, but I’d started to cool down on
cycling ever so slightly, and this year's Vuelta really fired me up
again. Stage wins for Gilbert, Cav’s first Jersey, the misty chase up
Bola del Mundo and those bloody great ramps masquerading as stage
finishes in the first week? This race had it all.

1995 Tour de France
Another hugely eventful Grand Tour. There was the nailbiting time
trial duel between Riis and Indurain. Jalabert’s hard as nails solo
break to Bastille Day victory at Mende (I was so chuffed to hear Mende
referred to as Mont Jalabert this year) and Alex Zulle’s bid for glory
up La Plagne. Another Tour that had it all, not all of it happy.


Actually, while thinking about all this, its also occurred to me that
there’s a race I’d happily never watch again-I have bizarre grudge
against the 2002 Tour. Watching Armstrong near as dammit win the race
in a single day simply by sitting on Heras’s wheel and letting
Roberto destroy everyone but Beloki for him really leaves a sour taste
in my mouth. (I should stress, before this gets flametastic, I’m not
having a crack at Armstrong’s achievements in general, just that
particular win. I’m not daft enough not to have noticed all those time
he crushed the opposition himself.)
 
My favorite is the first Liege-Bastogne-Liege won by Valverde, I believe it was 2006. In the final 10 km or so with relentless attacks by Bettini, Perdigruero (sp), Basso, Frank Schleck, and Sinkewitz, the action had you on the edge of your seat right down to the final stretch. Even the announcers were having difficulty keeping up with the action. I just recall the sincere excitement in Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin's voices was quite infectious.
 
Mar 10, 2009
504
0
0
Visit site
Two easy Desert Island picks for me:

2001 TdF:
NOT because of Armstrong, because of all this:
O'Grady resplendent in the maillot jaune on Stages 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 (with a 30 minute lead held to the finish!), and Stage 9.
Crédit Agricole's beautiful team time trial victory on Stage 5.
Jalabert's stage 7 victory on Bastille Day.
Beloki and the late, great ONCE team.
Ullrich and Telkom stomping on Postal to take 3rd in Team classification (behind Kelme and ONCE) while Postal settled for 6th.
Stage 10's ascent to l'Alpe d'Huez and duel between Ullrich and Armstrong.
Duel for maillot vert between O'Grady and Zabel culminating on the Champs.

1992 RvV: (is ANY year of this race EVER bad?)
Jacky Durand:
217km solo breakaway. Balls out. Suicidal. Victory. Epic.
 
Jan 22, 2010
60
0
0
Visit site
Tafi won 1999 Roubaix. He went from about 40km out. Sean Kelly kept saying how foolish it was to go from that far out, but said how relentless he was.
Great race and Tafi finally got his due.

I like the Tours from the '80 and some of Indurain's stretch, especially '93.

The first Tour Du Pont video was good. It was called, Hammer N Hell. Good editing and music, and even some funny subliminal comments thrown in.
 
May 11, 2009
1,301
0
0
Visit site
Two picks are from the past:
Bordeaux-Paris
Grand Prix Des Nations.

Current races:
Giro d'Italia
Chronos des Nations
World Championships (when ran on a interesting course).

Future Event I would like to see:
World Championship Hill Climb
 
Ewbles said:
People talk about the ‘look’ Arstrong gave Ullrich, but for me cycling’s definitive evil eye was
dished out by Riis on the road to Sestriere when he rolled back down
that line, checked everyone’s faces, then tore off the front three
times until they’d all fallen away.

it is nitpick time again, and while Riis did win into Sestriere (that was the first inkling of his possible domination of that race), the rollback/look/takeoff drama you evoke happened in the Pyrenees (Hautacam) that year.
 
Feb 28, 2010
1,661
0
0
Visit site
Ghent Wevelgem 2002 - I didn't see it, but read about it later. Hincapie, Van Dyck, and Rodriguez were away when horror of horrors Super Mario bridged up to them! Imagine riding into the finish with Cipolini on your wheel, knowing it was game over!
 
delgado said:
it is nitpick time again, and while Riis did win into Sestriere (that was the first inkling of his possible domination of that race), the rollback/look/takeoff drama you evoke happened in the Pyrenees (Hautacam) that year.

Ha ha, when I sat down to bash out that post I knew I was going to get something wrong, should have used it as an excuse to watch the videos again.
 
Hawkwood said:
Ghent Wevelgem 2002 - I didn't see it, but read about it later. Hincapie, Van Dyck, and Rodriguez were away when horror of horrors Super Mario bridged up to them! Imagine riding into the finish with Cipolini on your wheel, knowing it was game over!

I'm going to have to find that on YouTube just to see their faces!
 
Feb 28, 2010
1,661
0
0
Visit site
Ewbles said:
I'm going to have to find that on YouTube just to see their faces!

I read that they couldn't believe it when they heard from their team-cars that Cipo was coming up. Then when Cipo made contact he went through to the front saying something like `alright lads', a cheesy grin on his face.
 
Ewbles said:
I'm going to have to find that on YouTube just to see their faces!

It exist on a famous cycling torrent site. PM if not google does the work. It was a really fantastic attack of Cipolini if I remember rigth it was strong cross winds that made the attack even better. Not my favorit race but one of the best attacks ever.

Three races in my mind

Tour de France 2003 - Was a really nice race would have become epic if not beloki had fall.

Paris Roubaix 1994 - Fantastic race do not need too say more.

Ronde 1992 - Jacky Durand!
 

TRENDING THREADS