Most Prestigious Accomplishment

[SHAD0W93]

Which of these do you think is the most prestigious to win?
(excluding winning all 3 GTs in 1 year since everyone will pick that.)

 

[spalco]

I've got to say the 3 GTs, but except for the hour record the other options aren't far behind.

 

[just some guy]

Depends .

in the public eye GT are the biggest but I would say all monuments

 

[The Hitch]

Giro Tour double (in 1 year) is most impressive accomplishment, but I think from the list the triple crown is most prestigious.

5 monuments is the hardest though, and one that would impress me most.

 

[Midnightfright]

I went for all 5 monuments, all 5 in a year is unbelievable. I guess Phil could win all 5 by the end of his career but just can't see him winning PR. The mostly likely person to do it is for Sean Kelly to come back with Ans team as late replacement for his young protege who gets he chance to move his dream big money team but it means he has to give up spot to race in RVV on the day. Sean Kelly comes in and wins a sprint from a small group beating Cancellara and Devolder. If not that possibly Tony Martin also.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Winning all the monuments will be a monumental achievement

 

[Sophistic]

The 2nd option is the most prestigous but certainly not the toughest, that would be 6th(unless P-R and MSR change their course dramatically).

 

[Parera]

5 monuments is the hardest though, and one that would impress me most.

Agree. The skillset required to win all the monuments is extremely rare in a cyclist today. Even someone as consistently brilliant as Spartacus or Gilbert have been in the classics recently, winning all 5 to join a very exclusive club of cyclists (Merckx, Rik van Looy, and Roger De Vlaeminck) seems quite a ways off. Will be interesting to see if either man seriously considers pursuing all five monuments.

 

[42x16ss]

Agree. The skillset required to win all the monuments is extremely rare in a cyclist today. Even someone as consistently brilliant as Spartacus or Gilbert have been in the classics recently, winning all 5 to join a very exclusive club of cyclists (Merckx, Rik van Looy, and Roger De Vlaeminck) seems quite a ways off. Will be interesting to see if either man seriously considers pursuing all five monuments.

I must say I see Cancellara winning LBL and GdL before I see Gilbert winning Paris-Roubaix but both are young enough and too talented to rule it out. Peter Sagan or EBH may end up having a good crack at all 5 as well.

 

[spalco]

The 2nd option is the most prestigous but certainly not the toughest, that would be 6th(unless P-R and MSR change their course dramatically).

I don't think there's that much difference in "toughness" if you compare the list of people who accomplished it - Gimondi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Contador for GTs and Van Looy, Merckx, De Vlaeminck for the monuments. Of course you could say "3 vs 5" but I really think it's close.

[btw. for the record.
#2 has been done only by Merckx and Roche,
#3 has never been done as far as I can tell, but it's only even possible since 1996,
#4 I don't know if it means any cobbles&any Adrennes classic or all of them; if the former then, I don't know, I'm too lazy to compare the lists, but I think it's probably been done by a whole bunch of cyclists. If the latter it's also never been done I think.
#5 All 3, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne and LBL have only been won by Rebellin and Gilbert in the same year
and #6 the hour record used to have a very impressive palmares, but it's clearly lost a lot prestige lately imo. And the record has changed many times.]

 

[ingsve]

The realistic Grand Slam in cycling that has been achieved a couple times is the Giro+Tour+WC in one year. Other combinations in a single year are either virtually impossible or would rank below that tripple. The big question is whether it is still a realistic tripple.

 

[spalco]

The realistic Grand Slam in cycling that has been achieved a couple times is the Giro+Tour+WC in one year. Other combinations in a single year are either virtually impossible or would rank below that tripple. The big question is whether it is still a realistic tripple.

I think it's very unlikely. Contador might be able to do it if the WC is right for him, but he's lost some steam to do the Giro-Tour double and there's the CAS thing too. Other than that I don't see anybody in this generation of cyclists right now who would even have the balls to try it.

 

[Kvinto]

5 monuments in career is what impresses me most, the hardest challenge in cycling

 

[patterson_hood]

Anyone think Goss has a chance at the 5 monuments? I know he's a sprinter but he's young and could mature into a very good classics rider. Liege might be too much for him but I could see him winning the others if he can hang on to the right break.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

The Triple Crown and the five monuments are the big achievements. You can make a case for either being more impressive. If you do either you are both ridiculously good and had a bit of luck.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Giro Tour WC - shows you what a great all round rider someone truly is.

 

[The Hitch]

I don't think there's that much difference in "toughness" if you compare the list of people who accomplished it - Gimondi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Contador for GTs and Van Looy, Merckx, De Vlaeminck for the monuments. Of course you could say "3 vs 5" but I really think it's close.


#5 All 3, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne and LBL have only been won by Rebellin and Gilbert in the same year

Well Amstel Gold has only been around for 46 years compared to 66 editions of Vuelta (youngest gt) and 95 edtitions for Ronde (the youngest monument).

So there have been far less chances to do the Ardennes tripple.

It also shows that 3 gts are easier to accomplish because 5 people have done it in 66 years while 3 people have won all 5 monuments in 95. Though one has to take into account that in earlier days riders wouldnt try all the monuments, but rather races closer to home.

Also Amstel didnt always finish on the Cauberg, and it hasnt neccesarily always favoured Ardennes specialists, in the way that Fleche Wallone and Liege have. So again, far less years for an Ardennes tripple than for 5 monuments.

Especially since you are talking in the same year, and hence excluding people like Hinault who won all, but in different years.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Giro Tour WC - shows you what a great all round rider someone truly is.

Not necessarily. Pantani won the Giro and Tour double. Say, for instance, the WC had been a race with some mountains in that year, Pantani would have had a good chance at that, too. Would it have shown great consistency and levels of endurance? Absolutely. Was Pantani a great all round rider? No.

Assuming prestigious means which achievement is held in the highest regard, I went with the 5 Monuments. Now that can only be done by an incredible all rounder. Somebody who can climb mountains, hills, sprint (at least from a reduced bunch), ride cobbles and have the endurance to have plenty left after riding nearly 300kms. I certainly don't see Phil or Fabian completing the set. The only rider, in my eyes, who realistically has the skill set to win them all, in today's situation where riders specialise so much, is EBH.

If prestigious means worth to his team and publicity generated for sponsors, the Giro-Tour-WC treble would get my vote.

 

[Anonymous]

Its a tough one, 5 monuments would be very special, winning all three grand tours would be probably impossible.

In the end im tempted to go for Tour, Olympics, Worlds as these are the three that the greater public would have heard of, so these would probably carry more prestige in the eyes of the world. Plus, the olympics are only every four years.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

5 monuments is near impossible in modern day cycling.
so that would be something.

5 monuments + wc probably doable if your gonna win all 5 monuments also

 

[will10]

Anyone think Goss has a chance at the 5 monuments? I know he's a sprinter but he's young and could mature into a very good classics rider. Liege might be too much for him but I could see him winning the others if he can hang on to the right break.

He's a little too heavy for Liege and Lombardy I think. RVV and Flanders is a grey area for someone like Goss.

Someone like EBH is more likely for the 5 monuments.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I don't think there's that much difference in "toughness" if you compare the list of people who accomplished it - Gimondi, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault, Contador for GTs and Van Looy, Merckx, De Vlaeminck for the monuments. Of course you could say "3 vs 5" but I really think it's close.

[btw. for the record.
#2 has been done only by Merckx and Roche,
#3 has never been done as far as I can tell, but it's only even possible since 1996,
#4 I don't know if it means any cobbles&any Adrennes classic or all of them; if the former then, I don't know, I'm too lazy to compare the lists, but I think it's probably been done by a whole bunch of cyclists. If the latter it's also never been done I think.
#5 All 3, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallonne and LBL have only been won by Rebellin and Gilbert in the same year
and #6 the hour record used to have a very impressive palmares, but it's clearly lost a lot prestige lately imo. And the record has changed many times.]

I ment all of them done but I was tired when I did this and forgot to take Adrennes by itself out of the poll.

 

[Angliru]

I think it's very unlikely. Contador might be able to do it if the WC is right for him, but he's lost some steam to do the Giro-Tour double and there's the CAS thing too. Other than that I don't see anybody in this generation of cyclists right now who would even have the balls to try it.

Had Bruyneel been more adventurous and not so singularly focused on the Tour, I think Contador could've had a Giro-Tour double already under his belt.
It would've been possible with the stage racing depth that was available on the Discovery/Astana roster. In order for Contador to be able to do the Giro/Tour/WC triple he would need a strong team for both grand tours and then of course a mountainous WC parcours like the one in Colombia that Olano won. Contador's current Saxo roster is way too thin.

 

[Echoes]

Agree. The skillset required to win all the monuments is extremely rare in a cyclist today. Even someone as consistently brilliant as Spartacus or Gilbert have been in the classics recently, winning all 5 to join a very exclusive club of cyclists (Merckx, Rik van Looy, and Roger De Vlaeminck) seems quite a ways off.

Rik Van Looy's achievement is overrated.

Don't forget that he won Milan-Sanremo with no Poggio, Lombardy when the Ghisallo - as last climb - was some 60km from finish at Milan's Vigorelli, Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a very weak field because the best were rather interested in the Arrow or Paris-Brussels, Paris-Roubaix on the old course with the Mur de Doullens which had every year less and less cobbles and higher average speeds, and two Worlds on more or less flat courses, weak fields and a strong Belgian team around him to control everything.

The era was weak overall actually, and training methods archaic. Van Looy wouldn't have won so many major races if he were riding in the seventies.

However, Merckx's and De Vlaeminck's achievement were ... awesome.

Oh and the Vuelta was not a real GT before the 1990's. In the old days, 17 days of racing, raced in May between the classics and the Giro, and most of all, the standard of Spanish cycling was - I'm afraid to say - much weaker than it is now. Hence if a foreign team cared to go to Spain, usually, they would sweep everything away.

Gilbert does not have the abilities to win all major classics. He does not have a big motor, which means that, on flat sections, he can't consolidate the gap that he's created on the climb (see Flanders and Quebec). Cancellara has a better a shot at winning them all, if he ever cares to make it.

 

[Peccio89]

Giro-Tour double is the most prestigious one, although i think that winning all 5 monuments will be thougher.( i think that if Conti would have run the giro in 2009 he would have make the double; Basso with no puerto probably would have made it in 2006 too) so that's not so impossible if someone is brave enough to try.