moments that turned you into a cycling fan

[RedheadDane]

Okay... I am mean!!!
One of the things which really caught my interest (or rather re-caught it... I'd been watching a bit as a child... back in 96...) was the huge crash on the first stage of the 03 Tour. The one where Hamilton broke his collarbone.

Maybe I should add that it was just as much "OH! MY! GOD!! THIS GUY JUST BROKE HIS COLLARBONE AND HE CONTINUES!!"

 

[the student]

i dont know, i have always watched a lot of road racing when i was young. My father watched it a lot, told me a lot about it... but only until recently i thought about doing it myself

 

[sublimit]

I remember a guy from the Linda McCartney team (it was Linda right?) winning a stage of the Giro on a long solo break right after she had died. I think it was the first pro race I ever watched and just the emotion from the team and the rider, and just watching that guy look like death for what seemed like forever had me hooked for life.

Yeah that was Aussie rider David Mckenzie. He got away on his own for something like 160 K or so.

I got into cycling after watching city centre cycling on channel 4.. then proceeded to really get into it after watching Robert Millar, Sean Yates at the Tour etc.

 

[Izzy eviel]

The '98 Tour - All the drugs scandals & Then Pantini getting the yellow Jersey on 'that' stage.

The emergence of David Millar & Tyler Hamilton finishing 3rd in the Tour with a broken collarbone. That Impressed me.

Then they got busted & I lost interest for a few years. Then the 2005 Giro came along & all the odds were against Salvodelli. The 2006 Paris-Roubaix (the one with the train) also impressed me too.

And of course living in London for the 2007 Tour Grand Depart was a brilliant experience. To see the team presentation & the prologue up close was awesome. The first stage also went past close to my flat. The locals were quite bemused by it all but I loved it.

I've just started cycling again in the past few months. I have to say I was quite inspired by the Shlecks. Why it took me so long I have no idea.

 

[mikeNphilly]

Like many Americans my age my first exposure to cycling was ABC's Wide World of Sports, with the 30 min of highlights and LeMond riding and winning. I was caught up in the whole spectacle of the event. The mountains with fans running along side the riders and the towns packed with people.

Fast forward to the 90's, in West Virginia I lived close to the Tour Du Pont routes and the K-Mart classic went 12 miles from my house..so I got to enjoy those races live. When I was a student at Virginia Tech, I was bartending in the Mariott Hotel in Roanoke, Va...the race(Tour Du Pont) stayed at the hotel that night..so I got to meet alot of the racers..was very cool.

Now I live in Philly and get to enjoy the Philly race, West Chester Crit, Soderton races..alot of good cycling around here, and it all goes back to a TV using an antenna with a bad picture in the mountains of West Virigina watching an American guy win a bike race in France.

Edit**Forgot to add the Tour De Georgia, I have a great picture of myself pushing Cippo up Brasstown Bald..that was a fun week for me following the race around.

 

[Mr. Gipsy]

As a kid in the mid-1970s, my Father had subscriptions to two fantastic magazine: Cycling Weekly (UK) and Vélo (France). At that time, cycling coverage on TV was essentially non-existent in North America. My favourite issues were those covering the spring classics and the world championships (late Aug./early Sept.). Key pics turning me on to cycling?:
* Kneteman lunging over the line and beating Moser at the 78 Worlds
* Merckx winning his final MSR
* Finishing straight of 79 worlds with Raas, Battaglinn et al.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

1996 worlds. My first cycling memory...

I just realized I was only 7 at the time. The memory is very clear though...

 

[michaeld]

Hinault and Lemond.

 

[flicker]

Fellinis' Amarcord

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

1993, when we went to some cat 3 col in France to watch at a Tour de France stage.
From that moment on I followed TDF each year, and Amstel, then from 1998 all classics and grand tours. And since I discovered that Belgian TV broadcasted much more, around 2001 (same time Cycling Manager launched) I started following as much as is humanly possible after school/study/work

 

[TRDean]

The climbing of Louis Herrera!! Also, Jonathan Boyer was a big hero of mine.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

alpe dhuez 1995. pantani. I was watching as a little kid I was bored during vacation. it wa shot weather in netherland sbut most my friends were on holiday so I was out of pure boredom watching tour for few days. but I will never forget my memory of alpe dhuez 1995. they were approaching final climb when pantani flatted. panic everywhere and I had no idea who he was. then I saw him with his bald head going nuts after his flat tire he tovertook everyone attacked and won in the most impressive thing I;ve ever seen. from that mometn I was hooked and forever loved cycling and pantani

 

[Anonymous]

Watching Stu Thompsen carve up the SoCal BMX scene in the mid 1970's.

 

[Barrus]

alpe dhuez 1995. pantani. I was watching as a little kid I was bored during vacation. it wa shot weather in netherland sbut most my friends were on holiday so I was out of pure boredom watching tour for few days. but I will never forget my memory of alpe dhuez 1995. they were approaching final climb when pantani flatted. panic everywhere and I had no idea who he was. then I saw him with his bald head going nuts after his flat tire he tovertook everyone attacked and won in the most impressive thing I;ve ever seen. from that mometn I was hooked and forever loved cycling and pantani

I think outside of Italy perhaps the Netherlands have the largest percentage of Pantani fans, almost anyone I know who watches cycling is or was a fan of Pantani

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I think outside of Italy perhaps the Netherlands have the largest percentage of Pantani fans, almost anyone I know who watches cycling is or was a fan of Pantani

haha yes. I guess because pantani in cycling is what like netherlands was in football, beauty. we like hero's that perform with heart more than result. and yes I don't know any dutch cyclingfan who didn't like pantani

 

[Carlo Algatrensig]

Stephen Roche, La Plagne, 1987. Looked like Delgado was going to effectively win the tour on that stage until Roche appeared behind him coming round the last corner. Then the whole oxygen mask stuff.

I have to say thats what got me hooked.

Six years old watching that days thirty minutes highlights on TV and it finishing with

"just who is that rider coming up behind? Because that looks like Roche. That looks like Stephen Roche. Its Stephen Roche"

 

[Berzin]

Ah, the moment was Greg Lemond, Laurent Fignon and Pedro Delgado duking it out in the '89 Tour. Couldn't wait for that 90-minute coverage every Sunday on Wide World of Sports. I was 11 then, so it was very exiting.

Then I forgot about it and climbed back on the wagon in 1994. Started by buying all the World Cycling Productions video tapes, Cycling Weekly every week religiously, and Winning magazine (until they became a triathlete-only rag published 4 times a year) and CycleSport every month.

Been hooked ever since.

 

[Winterfold]

I used to ride loads at uni oop north in England but not be interested in the competitive side of the sport. I just used to head for the hills on my trusty Raleigh 531 - but then got into being a fan of the racing as a result of Obree/Boardman on the track then Boardman and Sean Yates in yellow. Channel 4's coverage of the Tour at that time was really good.

Then I drifted away from it (and all my other sports) due to lurve and partying.

I got pretty fat, but by accident ended up living somewhere in London where there wasnt an easy tube ride to get to work so I bought a hybrid and started riding, after a while I wanted a road bike again (turn of the century). I went into the bike shop and saw a Bianchi and fell in love with bikes again.

So I started watching Pantani, (and I am reluctant to say it, but have to admit it, LA) and started riding harder and doing some audax and randonnee kind of events.

I did OK, which motivated me and lost a ton of weight and there was a big upsurge in media coverage of cycling in the UK because the Olympic track team were doing so well, so I really got back into it. Both as rider and as a fan.

I did some 10 mile TTs this year, and went evens on my second go, which at 42, makes me wish i had taken it up a bit younger. I think I would have been an OK rouleur. I spent my teens playing rugby, which does not develop a great physique for bike riding up mountains (as I found out on a fun race up the Aple d'Huez this year where my *** was whupped by a load of 23 year old 55kg grimpeurs - it was fun though) but on the flat and around our short steep Surrey Hills stuff I can do OK, for an old guy.

Next year I want to do a 25 TT under the hour and do some Cat 4 racing.

Thanks Bianchi/Pantani!

 

[khardung la]

There was no specific moment for me, one is just a very small child and his family talks every now and then on cycling, on Bahamontes, Merckx or Ocana. With my father we watched TdF and Vuelta as far as I can remember...It is sad that I cannot remember the first time I enjoyed cycling. I don´t remember the first time I enjoyed football neither, I guess it was just there.

Anyway the first cyclists I could recall watching are Angel Arroyo, Hinault, Lucho Herrera and Vicente Belda

 

[ad9898]

For me La Plagne in 95 when Indurain just rode everyone off his wheel, no attack, just relentless power.

That, and Armstrong's attack on Hautacam in 2000, another amazing performance.

An honourable mention must go to Ullrich for his time trial at St Etienne in 97, putting 3 mins into everyone.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Merckx Roger De Vlaeminck Maertens etal. in the the most awesome Paris-Roubaix battles ever. OK probably what really made me a lifelong cycling fan was winning what was probably the 3rd or 4th race I ever entered in about 1972. I was hooked after that.

 

[ferryman]

1984 TDF, Robert Millar stage win to Guzet-Neige and KOM overall.

 

[Anonymous]

1984 TDF, Robert Millar stage win to Guzet-Neige and KOM overall.

Ditto. And sean Kelly. was hooked ever since.

 

[blutto]

Ditto. And sean Kelly. was hooked ever since.

...would have never guessed...thought you more like 14 or15...

...me...seeing, in 68 or 69, the Louis Malle doc on the TDF ...just managed to see it again...has some very interesting things to say that apply to today's cycling world..urge everyone here to give it a look...

Cheers

blutto

 

[Mambo95]

1986 Tour de France. Stage 14, I think. LeMond's win to Superbag after Hinault had launched a mad attack in yellow.

Confirmed by Roche in the '87 Tour and Winning magazine (particularly the photos).

By '88 I was somewhat of an obsessive.