Most impressive rides of all time?

[JosephD]

Ive always been impressed with Cavendish at the 09 Sanremo when the whole bunch was trying to drop him and he held on comfortably over the Cipressa-Poggio. He then produced one of his best sprints ever to overhaul Haussler at the line.

 

[BlurryVII]

Yes.
But Contador's De Ronde performances are truly epic. Don't you agree?

Alright, good to see the supposedly impartiality of the mods on this site

You don't remove the answer without removing the initial provocation as well

 

[sir fly]

Alright, good to see the supposedly impartiality of the mods on this site

You don't remove the answer without removing the initial provocation as well

Just keep it quoting.

 

[BlurryVII]

Just keep it quoting.

Just keep your mouth shut.

 

[hrotha]

Also the 97' Galibier Pantani in the pouring rain and fog, taking 9 minutes out of Ullrich and going into yellow.

(As Hitch said, that was in 1998)

Anyway, I don't consider it to be that special by Pantani's standards. People forget that Kelme did most of the work on that day, with Marcos Serrano putting on a beast of a performance for his leader, Escartín, who would probably have earned a spot on the podium that day if all the Spanish teams didn't abandon for reasons that shan't be discussed here.

 

[BlurryVII]

You didn't need to bother. I've already read Libertine's post.

Yeah, but I think you need to read things twice to understand. Still probably not enough

 

[ferryman]

Let's keep the personals out of this thread peeps. It's only cycling FFS

 

[BlurryVII]

Let's keep the personals out of this thread peeps. It's only cycling FFS

Oh! an Administrator!
That's a great political speech. Yeah let's keep it out of this thread without removing the initial provocating post

Makes so much sense! You doing a great job! Keep it up!

 

[HSNHSN]

There are a few rides that I've seen on tv and that have stuck. That doesn't make them most impressive rides of all time, but impressive rides I can remember, which seems to suffice for this thread so far.

Those are:
- 1998 Ballerini Paris-Roubaix (mentioned a few times before)
- 2006 Landis. Need I say more?
- 2004 Erik Dekker, Paris-Tours. For some reason, I like the editions of Paris-Tours that don't end in a sprint, but this particular one is extraordinary. From long before the finish, straight to the finish, Dekker's on the front. Sometimes alone, sometimes a matter of seconds before a rushing peloton, sometimes in a small group, but he remains in front and even manages to win in the end.
- 1995 Olano, WC. This entire WC RR was epic in almost every aspect and then, when there are only a handful of riders left in the race (twenty-something, if I recall correctly), when everyone expects Indurain to go in the attack, he brakes and lets his teammate Olano go for it. Not only is everyone surprised by this tactical masterstroke, there's even more epicness to come. In the final few km, Olano has a puncture, but if he'd change wheel or bike, Indurain and Pantani would overtake and have to sprint for the win. And so he drives on, the tube moving everywhere, flapping about. Somehow this doesn't cause any problem, Olano doesn't crash and he wins the race. Incredible

 

[contador977]

98 no?

For Pantani, I wanted to post that and the Mortirolo stage, which I've never seen but I hear he was the one what broke Indurain essentially.

Yes 98, I apologize.

94' Mortirolo here is a little clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpKYmvsqe8E

 

[LaFlorecita]

Oh! an Administrator!
That's a great political speech. Yeah let's keep it out of this thread without removing the initial provocating post

Makes so much sense! You doing a great job! Keep it up!

Classic CN moderation

 

[Red Rick]

Valverde, who else?

The final margin was ridiculous considering the epicness addressed to the performance.

Well, Purito lost moren than two and a half minutes and Froome lost five.

 

[ferryman]

Oh! an Administrator!
That's a great political speech. Yeah let's keep it out of this thread without removing the initial provocating post

Makes so much sense! You doing a great job! Keep it up!

Yep us all seeing all breathing admins are on top of everything. Direct me to the post YOU want deleted. Sarcasm is not your friend.

I'm sorry if my appeal to the best of most has let me down in your eyes.

 

[contador977]

You have to love the guys over here who always want to impress by looking back 50 years and more in time.


1996 Hautacam (Bjarne Riis)

2010 Paris-Roubaix (Fabian Cancellara)

Riis on Hautacam was so strong, those repeated attacks, that was a fun stage and polar opposite of watching the Sky or even US Postal train.

Cancellara going from 50km out, I remember watching thinking can he really stay away, incredible ride.

 

[ferryman]

Classic CN moderation

Et tu Flo.

 

[BlurryVII]

Yep us all seeing all breathing admins are on top of everything. Direct me to the post YOU want deleted. Sarcasm is not your friend.

I'm sorry if my appeal to the best of most has let me down in your eyes.

Your appeal seems inappropriate to me as all of my answers to initial provocating post were deleted but not that post itself:

Yes.
But Contador's De Ronde performances are truly epic. Don't you agree?

What does this have to do with the Fuente De discussion? 3 or 4 times did he bring out De Ronde mocking remarks because I stated a few weeks ago that AC could do well in that race? I still think so.

Good. I do appreciate sarcasm but certainly not coming from that birdbrained sir fly guy.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Et tu Flo.

Nothing personal

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Riis on Hautacam was so strong, those repeated attacks, that was a fun stage and polar opposite of watching the Sky or even US Postal train.

Cancellara going from 50km out, I remember watching thinking can he really stay away, incredible ride.

Cancellara's 2010 Roubaix I don't actually rate that highly as the chase was so badly organized, they just let him get a huge lead waiting for Boonen to do the work; I rate the 2010 Ronde win higher as he went a similar kind of distance out but with Boonen on his wheel (Molenberg iirc), destroying the rest of the field to build the lead, then riding Boonen away. I thought that more dramatic as not only did he drop all of the others just as at Roubaix a week later, but he went with the other best Classics rider of the generation, and beat him mano a mano on the Kapelmuur.

 

[ILovecycling]

Talansky?

We're talking best rides of all times. Couldn't even finish it off and win the stage. A legendary ride has got be concluded with the stage win at least.
Talansky wouldn't have moved an inch to protect his GC position if Contador had a team.

Even Quintana in the controvertial stelvio stage would be worth of mentioning instead of him.

It was a great tactics, he worked his *** out,thats why he didnt wint the stage.It was very impressive to beat AC like this.Of course big part is cuz of his team, but he was the leader of this team.For me it was an epic stage, and Talansky was the real winner.Thats why I wrote Talansky 2014.I know there are better rides before ninetees but I dont know them in detail,that why I write about this age.

 

[barmaher]

Boonen Roubaix 2012
Cancellara RVV 2010
I missed the pivotal attack in Fuente De, so I find it hard to put it too high.

Of those not yet mentioned:
Bettini's Lombardy win where he completely blew up the race repeatedly.
Kelly's descent in 1991??? MSR was a sight to behold.
Museeuw's third Roubaix.

 

[cineteq]

I missed the pivotal attack in Fuente De, so I find it hard to put it too high.

There were enough smart phones on the road to document the attack. If you have time, you should make an effort and give it a try. Hint: Youtube.

 

[fauniera]

Still no mention of this Merckx guy?

Rene Vietto's solo wins in the mountains of the 1934 Tour should be mentioned. Repeatedly winning by around three minutes, all alone against an elite group of riders and with the finish always in the valley, that has to be one of the best climbing performances ever.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Oh, another one: Peter Sagan, 2010 Tour Down Under stage 5.

Yes, it's only the Tour Down Under. But on the one challenging stage, four men were able to break away and make a bit of a difference to the race. Three of these four were in the top 20 of the UCI World Ranking the previous year. One was the reigning World Champion, another was a reigning GT winner. On CQ ranking they were 1st and 3rd for the year. The third was a known threat to win any medium-mountain type stage race, having won Paris-Nice the previous year.

The fourth was a 19-year-old neo-pro in his first professional event.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Boonen Roubaix 2012
Cancellara RVV 2010
I missed the pivotal attack in Fuente De, so I find it hard to put it too high.

Of those not yet mentioned:
Bettini's Lombardy win where he completely blew up the race repeatedly.
Kelly's descent in 1991??? MSR was a sight to behold.
Museeuw's third Roubaix.

I assume you mean Bettini in 2006 in the rainbow jersey. I nominated that. What a win.

 

[ciranda]

The stage Axel Merckx won in the Giro, not like all time GOAT of course but still nice. I don't remember what year. It was a 250k Appennini stage with a really hard profile. He was in the decisive break, crashed in a forest on the last descent ten kilometres from the finish and with the group of favorites maybe 50 seconds behind. Axel got back up, chased back to the group, attacked and won alone.

The one day where no one could say Eddy could have done better.