Favourite Rider

[Rice Daddy]

Davide Malacarne (Quick Step)

You gotta love somebody named "Bad Meat"!

 

[Irenaeus]

Favorite riders

Hi folks,

This is my first post in a CyclingNews forum. There are many riders I admire, and I don't think I'll exhaust my list now. I'm just a bit younger than Greg Lemond and am less familiar with riders older than he is.

I've long admired Miguel Indurain for his lack of an apparent ego despite his formidable palmares.

Andy Hampsten also impressed me with his humility. As I remember, he pulled for his teammate Alvaro Mejia, then placed third in the 1993 TDF (he finished fourth overall), while Hampsten was sixth (he finished eighth overall). Hampsten showed me how selfless cyclists can be.

Has no one mentioned Paolo Bettini thus far in this thread? I'll preface my comments about him by paraphrasing Mario Cipollini. Cipo once crowed that while he, Cipo, was not the best rider in the race, he certainly was the best looking. I think Bettini, after his first World Championship victory, in 2006, was the best dressed. He began showing up at races in the rainbow jersey with rainbow stripes on his helmet, whereas earlier he merely adorned himself in gold following his Olympic victory in Athens in 2004.

Oscar Freire's first World Championship victory, at Verona in 1999, was almost larcenous: Oscar Freire Campeon del Mundo (Verona, 1999).

Fabian Cancellara is a bull. His Stage 3 victory at the 2007 TDF was fantastic: Cycling: Tour de France 2007 Stage 3.

And I'll end with mentioning Dave Zabriskie. Surely a talented time trialist - can he progress into a much better non-trial rider than he usually shows?

Peace out,
Irenaeus