Riders with the best back/home story?

[Caynn79]

If you were making a documentary about the current riders, who would you feature? Keep in mind it's not about wins and points, it's about who would appeal to the biggest audience with stories of overcoming obstacles or challenges in their personal life.

 

[El Pistolero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3gEMmUrsD8

 

[jens_attacks]

i'd make a documentary about the great riders from former soviet republics:abdoujaparov,vinokourov,ugrumov,konyshev,ekimov,rumsas,vladislav bobrik,tonkov or berzin.i don't know why but i think it would be absolutely awesome.

about the current riders:
carlos sastre.

 

[Michele]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5r6t27j3I

 

[El Pistolero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5r6t27j3I

How did I forget that?

 

[Cobblestoned]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne5r6t27j3I

Yes....yes. Without doubt.
VDB will always be "current".

 

[Ad Rock]

Svein Tuft would make an interesting story as well seeing as how he was nearly homeless, roaming nomadically on his bike for months and months at a time!

 

[The Hitch]

One of the saxo guys was a former model. Maybe Breschel.

 

[marinoni]

That's a tough one. I don't know if there are that many stories about current riders that would be all that compelling. Armstrong's cancer is an obvious exception but that story has been told a million times over. There are countless amazing stories of former riders, from Pantani to Stablinski who worked as a coal miner, or Coppi, who was a POW during the war. Most riders those days came from pretty humble beginnings. Welcome to the forum!

 

[The Hitch]

That's a tough one. I don't know if there are that many stories about current riders that would be all that compelling. There are countless amazing stories of former riders, from Pantani to Stablinski who worked as a coal miner, or Coppi, who was a POW during the war. Most riders those days came from pretty humble beginnings. Welcome to the forum!

Ah yes Bartali

 

[marinoni]

One of the saxo guys was a former model. Maybe Breschel.

Yep, Breschel. Cycle Sport did a profile, I think last month.

 

[Digger]

Maybe Fabian, and it could be a Moto GP documentary also.

Maria Jimenez.
Pantani.


But the best for me would be Ullrich. Great story even from his childhood.

 

[marinoni]

Ah yes Bartali

Anyone know his story during the war? Didn't he spend it hiding out in the Vatican or something? I personally love the story I read several years ago about him. He was working as a journalist on the Giro one year. The press room during one stage was a classroom in a boy's school. Bartali was seen writing a note and slipping it inside a kid's desk he was sitting in. After he left, another writer lifted up the desktop and saw that he had written " Young Man, while you were gone, Gino Bartali sat at this desk". A true class act.

 

[Bag_O_Wallet]

Svein Tuft would make an interesting story as well seeing as how he was nearly homeless, roaming nomadically on his bike for months and months at a time!

That's my vote too.

 

[Sanitiser]

Lance
Contador- brain hemorrhage
Millar - travelled around as kid, interesting person, coming back from doping etc.
Svein Tuft as others have pointed out.

 

[Caynn79]

Thanks ... and keep them coming

Thank you all for the quick replies ... and keep them coming.

If anything comes of this I will announce it here!!!

 

[The Hitch]

Anyone know his story during the war? Didn't he spend it hiding out in the Vatican or something? I personally love the story I read several years ago about him. He was working as a journalist on the Giro one year. The press room during one stage was a classroom in a boy's school. Bartali was seen writing a note and slipping it inside a kid's desk he was sitting in. After he left, another writer lifted up the desktop and saw that he had written " Young Man, while you were gone, Gino Bartali sat at this desk". A true class act.

Bartali hid a Jewish family in his cellar to save them from death. He also helped the anti fascist resistance by cycling messages to them.

 

[jae2460]

i'd make a documentary about the great riders from former soviet republics:abdoujaparov,vinokourov,ugrumov,konyshev,ekimov,rumsas,vladislav bobrik,tonkov or berzin.i don't know why but i think it would be absolutely awesome.

about the current riders:
carlos sastre.

Carlos Sastre? Are you kidding me? I'd rather watch fricken Bridges of Madison County again with my wife...

 

[jae2460]

Jens Voigt - The Movie

Jens Voigt. A movie about Jens Voigt should be made. It could have an all star cast and they could use the Austin Powers theme music.

 

[flatclimb]

I'd like to see a piece on Ullrich. He's been through a lot.

Winning the tour at a young age. Being the eternal second to Armstrong and his thoughts about competing against him. Getting busted for doping and his on going cases, burn out syndrome. Holy..could be a great watch.

 

[Martin318is]

Carlos Sastre? Are you kidding me? I'd rather watch fricken Bridges of Madison County again with my wife...

Yep - in "Overcoming" the Sastre parts were simply painful. To give him credit, i am sure he is better in his native Spanish

 

[Martin318is]

Jens Voigt. A movie about Jens Voigt should be made. It could have an all star cast and they could use the Austin Powers theme music.

Oh my god!

There HAVE to be movies made about Jens.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Xavier Tondó's backstory is quite whimsical, about him working in a tomato factory and chasing down a local amateur team in the mountains.

Eneritz Iturriagaetxebarría's story, where she was cajoled into riding because of being overweight and her family all being into it, is pretty cool too, though I admit I mostly mentioned her simply to type out her awesome name.

João Correia is a great story to follow too.

If we're going into the historical figures of the sport, then Gino Bartali above all else (by some considerable margin), then José Manuel Fuente and the Colombians of the 80s. Maybe some of the guys from the days of riding through opponents' home regions in disguise back in the early 20th century would make for an awesome film too.

 

[AntonioRossi]

i think evelyn stevens fits. It's not so much she had a bad life or anything, but becoming a pro at such late age while never really cycling before is pretty rare.

 

[The Hitch]

Pablo Escobar, the most succesful criminal in history, forced proffesional Colombian cyclists racing in europe to smuggle drugs into europe. , forcibly. Many of them ended up murdered.

A list of some of them, and a brief history of Colombian cycling can be found here
http://www.cyclinginquisition.com/2009/11/pablo-escobar-guerrillas-and-my-dream.html