The time of the new "pure Climber" resurgence

[Angliru]

he's primarily a TT'er than a consummate Climber-BUT I can argue that when I watch the 95 World's road in marvel on how impeccably he managed Pantani & the other climbers -almost as equal in ability

Excellent point! I'd forgotten that performance when evaluating Indurain. He controlled that race with surgical precision and seeming ease.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

On a good day he can handle those climbs, but how many times did we see him "fail" this year in GTs on not so hard climbs? He got his best form at the Dauphiné though, fail for him

Lacking in consistency is not only a common negative trait amongst pure climbers, but also you don't necessarily have to be the best climber to be a pure climber. David Moncoutié, for example, is not going to be doing any better than hanging on the coat tails of the heads of state when the road goes uphill if he's in that group, but he's most definitely a pure climber. So J-Rod got shelled by Wiggins one day. That's fine, another day he was podiuming Anglirú and finishing ahead of other pure climbers like Sastre and Mosquera. Similarly, Igor Antón could get dropped on Sierra Nevada, but another day he wins on a similarly gradual climb like Vallnord Sector Pal. That he won on Valdepeñas de Jaén does not preclude him being a pure climber when you look at his list of career wins.

 

[greenedge]

At least now you must be a very good climber to win whereas before you could just get in the break and take it. It means more of the nearly GC guys, such as Sanchez this year, attack on the mountains and make it a bit more interesting.

Charteau won the year before so i would not say it is consistent enough for that view.

 

[greenedge]

its right, but last year i think Cadel was the best climber! Not following "the little boss" in the Izoard was a mistake. Without that, he would never have lost time on him!

He did end up winning the TDF so you can't fault him for that and he also ended up reducing the gap.

 

[greenedge]

But they weren't fighting each other for the climbers jersey per se. Let's face it Soler wouldn't have won if Rasmussen had cared about the polka dot. He was dealing with that pesky Contador at the time.

He did get a breakaway where he was initially targeting just the KOM.

 

[greenedge]

I think your best hope in the future to give Contador a run for his money could be someone like Pierre Rolland.

+10000. However don't discount Andy, especially for 2013 which will probably be more mountain oriented.