Great GT riders today

[FFWally]

So I'm tired of all the Lance bashing/loving.
(So... lets leave Lance out of this)

Lets look at the great tour riders, and given todays developments in training equipment where do they stack up in todays peleton?

The obvious ones:

Hinault
Indurain
Merckx
Anquetil
LeMond
Bartali
Thys
Bobet
Coppi

feel free to add others...

 

[Bagster]

So I'm tired of all the Lance bashing/loving.
(So... lets leave Lance out of this)

Lets look at the great tour riders, and given todays developments in training equipment where do they stack up in todays peleton?

The obvious ones:

Hinault
Indurain
Merckx
Anquetil
LeMond
Bartali
Thys
Bobet
Coppi

feel free to add others...

Lance

As to where they would stack up today, who knows, most of them very well I would imagine but personally I feel that there is little point in discussion around riders from different generations. Why not say they were the best of their era and leave it at that. Except Merckx of course who is just the best ever and has the palmares to prove it.

 

[marinoni]

Tough to Compare

I guess Indurain because he's the most recent but I'm not sure I get exactly what you mean. If you mean how would they stack up today as they were in their day, with all respect to these greats, they wouldn't stack up at all. With all the advances in training etc, most of these riders would be hard pressed to even make a pro team. The winner of the olympic long jump in 1948 probably wouldnt win a high school meet now, there's no reason to think cycling is any different. Or do I owe these men an apology?

 

[Ninety5rpm]

That's like asking which species living in the Paleocene would be most likely to thrive in Antartica today.

Idle speculation that can never be verified or clarified? Who cares?

 

[FFWally]

OK let me try this again.

Greg LeMond of 1985-1986
Now give him todays training programs, SRM, diet, support staff, and equipment.

How does he stack up against todays top GC riders.

I think he destroys all but the top 5, and those struggle to keep up.

He might have won as many as Lance without the shootings and giving '85 to Hinault.
(That and EPO coming on the scene in 90-91)

Now Eddy Merckx in his prime, with todays advantages would be unbeatable. What if Merckx concentrated on the Tour only...how many in a row does he win???

Todays riders are not better because there is this shift in physical abilites.

It is because they train for specific races, ala the Tour, versus racing entire seasons. They have a dedicated team of non riders looking at every number, and making sure they stick to their programs.
Riders count grams of food, and take supplements plus wattage and HRM training make huge differences.

Now...try and think of it that way.

 

[Anonymous]

trouble is its impossible to look at that list without seeing it as a "who would win" poll, or a "who is the greatest rider" poll, rather than a which rider is most suited to a tour with fewer mountain finishes and more time trials...

You could say which rider would win a tour de france raced entirely on beaches in the south on unicycles and the answer would still be merckx