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Top 10 rides ever

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Merckx's Hour record (Mexico 1972) is the most amazing cycling achievement, in my opinion.

Just imagine he started tests late september to check if he could adapt to high altitude, in Liège and Milan. But in the meantime, he still raced. Won the invitational climb race in Montjuich (break the race record in TT) on September 24th, won the GP Magne (a good race in the Ardennes) on Sep. 29th, won the Giro dell'Emilia on October 4th, won the Giro di Lombardia on Oct. 7th 1'27" ahead of Guimard and Gimondi. The very next day, he won another invitational climb race À travers Lausanne + the two stages, caught Ocaña in the TT. And in the evening of that same day, won a critérium in Sallanches (5 wins in just 2 days). He next won the Baracchi Trophy on the 11th (TT ridden by pairs) partnering Roger Swerts, with a 2'33 advantage over Gimondi and his mate.

Flew over to Mexico on the 20th (drank two whiskies in the plane ), while all the other riders have been on holiday. The attempt was on the 25th (had to be postponed because of the rain).

During this attempt, he started incredibly fast and ...

Broke the 10km World Record ! (even Boardman wasn't that fast after 10km)
Broke the 20km World Record !!
And set a new Hour mark at 49 431km (780km more than Ritter)

The next generations (Moser,...)would need supersonic bikes with aerodynamic frames and everything to break this record. It's just unbelievable. Boardman rode only 10km more 30 years later.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-U0gWRhIh4


Merckx - Ronde van Vlaanderen 1975

A masterpiece. He attacked on the Kwaremont with about 100 to go. Nobody thought he could go to finish but ... Frans Verbeeck. But Eddy took his share of the job much more often than Verbeeck did, attacked him with 5km to go. 30" ahead of Verbeeck and more than 5' ahead of Demeyer, 3rd. Frans' words just after are legendary "Goh Fred [De Bruyne] t'is ongelooflijk te rijden hoe dat hij rijdt. Ik ben formidabel afgezien. Hij rijdt 5 per uur te snel voor ons" (wow Fred it's unbelievable to ride the way he rides. I've wonderfully suffered. He rides 5kmh too fast for us).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnSVG_fjHH0

Merckx - 1st stage of the Giro di Sardegna 1968 Rome - Civitavecchia

This is a lesser known one but in 187km he finished 6'27" ahead of Luciano Armani. Roger Bastide said it was just out of proportion. In the GC he eventually had a 7'28 advantage over Bitossi.


Merckx - Mourenx 1969

Merckx - Paris- Roubaix 1970

5' advantage over De Vlaeminck despite puncture.


Merckx - Ronde van Vlaanderen 1969

Merckx - Tre Cime di Lavaredo 1968

Orcières-Marseille 1971 win for Luciano Armani

The Molteni attacked right from the start with Wagtmans (suspected for having attacked before the real start) and a group of a dozen rider resisted the peloton with Merckx and 2 team mates (Wagtmans & Huysmans) + Van der Vleuten, the others did not collaborate and yet Merckx could take 2' from Ocaña, bonuses included, despite the work of Ocaña's whole team + Guimard's team who wished to protect his Green Jersey + the Spanish teams who allied with Ocaña. Bruyère had a mechanical problem and was waited by 5 Molteni's, which meant that they could not break the chase of the peloton. Fuente finished out of the time limits that day and was shamefully let through. He went on to win 2 stages.

Coppi - Sestrière 1952

De Vlaeminck - Giro dell'Emilia 1976

This is a much lesser known one but that day De Vlaeminck attacked with 85km to go with team mate De Muynck but De Muynck could just hold the pace for 5km, which means De Vlaeminck made an 80km solo. Cribiori told him many times to let the peloton come back. But Roger wanted to get rid of all the frustration of not being selected for Ostuni and of a rotten season in which he didn't win a classic so far. He would actually next win the Agostoni and Lombardy, the 3 races in the same week.
 
Jan 18, 2010
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Jean Francois Bernard mountain ITT on the Ventoux 1987
Cav at the Milan- Sanremo 2009
Johan Museeuw Paris -Roubaix 2002
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Rudi Altig, 1962 Trofeo Baracchi:

Anquetil's most humiliating race was the Trofeo Baracchi in Italy in 1962, when he had to be pushed by his partner, Rudi Altig, and was so exhausted that he hit a pillar before reaching the track on which the race finished.

The Trofeo Baracchi was a 111 km race for two-man teams. Anquetil, the world's best time-triallist, and Altig, a powerful rider with a strong sprint, were favourites. But things soon went wrong. The writer René de Latour wrote:

"I got my stopwatch going again to check the length of each man's turn at the front. Generally in a race of the Baracchi type, the changes are very rapid, with stints of no more than 300 yards. Altig was at the front when I started the check - and he was still there a minute later. Something must be wrong. Altig wasn't even swinging aside to invite Anquetil through... Suddenly, on a flat road, Anquetil lost contact and a gap of three lengths appeared between the two partners. There followed one of the most sensational things I have ever seen in any form of cycle racing during my 35 years' association with the sport - something which I consider as great a physical performance as a world hour record or a classic road race win. Altig was riding at 30mph at the front - and had been doing so for 15 minutes. When Anquetil lost contact, he had to ease the pace, wait for his partner to go by, push him powerfully in the back, sprint to the front again after losing 10 yards in the process, and again settle down to a 30mph stint at the front. Altig did not this just once but dozens of times."

The pair reached the track on which the race finished. The timekeeper was at the entrance to the stadium, so Anquetil finished. But instead of turning on to the velodrome, he rode straight on and hit a pole. He was helped away with staring eyes and with blood streaming from a cut to his head. The couple nevertheless won by nine seconds.
 
Sep 21, 2009
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ak-zaaf said:
Mostly Merckx and still hard to disagree. Do that with anyone else and you'd be an obvious fanboy.
Oh man, Merckx...

Having a list with 1971 Orcières-Marseille but not the Grenoble-Orcières of the day before makes anyone an obvious fanboy :D
 
Mar 8, 2010
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Hard to say.
Should be something I saw live (on TV). Recorded rides don´t bring that much emotion and are hard to compare.
Sorry in advance, that I am so "young".
This sorry seems to be necessary, from what I saw in the Top 10 riders thread. :D


First thing that comes to my mind is:

Jan Ullrich @ Tour de France 1997 (Andorra)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCgKMKm_d3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kquStp9JZJE&feature=related


Without discussion (for me). He just smashed and humiliated them all. Horrible.
 
Jan 5, 2010
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I will have to think about a list but one thing I have noticed is Sean Kelly's time trial effort from Carrick on Suir to Clonmel 1985 Tour of Ireland. It was phenomenal
 
Although he is nowhere near as high profile as most of the names on this list, I'm partial to this year's KBK where Bobbie Traksel won and only 26 riders finished in truly appalling conditions. Of course, this wasn't that much different than what took place in 2003 where awful weather again limited the finishers to only 26 as Roy Sentjens took it that day. So I guess you can put them both on the list for me.
 
May 24, 2010
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7th and final stage of the 2007 Paris-Nice race.
Won by Alberto Contador, to snatch the title away from David Rebellin. After losing time on a critical stage earlier in the week, Contador tried all week to make that time up. On this final day he exhibited an awesome display of climbing earlier in the stage to set up a winning margin, and then Time trialed to the finish line. And as the finish line grew closer Rebellin and LL Sanchez were left looking at one another in frustration. That charge, on that last stage, helped Contador take the GC title, and the Young rider title as well. as I remember it, it was pretty damned exciting, and made me a fan, for good.
 
Seattleallstar said:
2004 stage 17 TDF Lance catching Kloden

agreed that the Lance entry into this ( usually its 1 performance per individual in lists like this) should be that stage (into grand bornard i think) where he catches kloeden on alpine stage, in the last 30 cm, in similar fashion to cav haussler msr 09.

Well that or the "greatest clean performance in cycling" *

* see wonderlance
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Kwibus said:
Was that the race where Boogerd came 2nd? If so then I fully agree.
Ofcourse I was rooting for Boogerd that day, but it was one hell of a thrilling race.

He cracked Bartoli mentally on Redoute (as he said he would) and destroyed Boogerd on an immense gear on St. Nicolas (at the spot where he said he would attack).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT_PCiT1jTU
 
Highlander said:
Although he is nowhere near as high profile as most of the names on this list, I'm partial to this year's KBK where Bobbie Traksel won and only 26 riders finished in truly appalling conditions. Of course, this wasn't that much different than what took place in 2003 where awful weather again limited the finishers to only 26 as Roy Sentjens took it that day. So I guess you can put them both on the list for me.

From there on I hoped that Bobbie Traksel would show more, but unfortunately he pretty much dissapeared after that race with poor results.
 
Jun 24, 2009
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I guess if we're including dopers you have to consider a couple of Tyler Hamiton's rides:

2002 Giro.......2nd place on GC with a cracked shoulder.
2003 TDF.....Stage 16 win going solo for 142km with a broken collarbone
2003 LBL........won with a long solo breakaway.

Doping issues aside, he was a pretty tough guy.
 
Jul 26, 2010
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The Hitch said:
agreed that the Lance entry into this ( usually its 1 performance per individual in lists like this) should be that stage (into grand bornard i think) where he catches kloeden on alpine stage, in the last 30 cm, in similar fashion to cav haussler msr 09.

Well that or the "greatest clean performance in cycling" *

* see wonderlance

The stage was raced odd to me, if you ask me the move of the race was Kloden's acceleration to break from the leading pack, it just seemed like Kloden got complacent and Lance grinded to that win
 
Seattleallstar said:
The stage was raced odd to me, if you ask me the move of the race was Kloden's acceleration to break from the leading pack, it just seemed like Kloden got complacent and Lance grinded to that win

I think Lance may have been fresher as he had Floyd put in what would surely be on the top 10 superdomestique rides of all time list in that stage. Kloeden had Ullrich but the former winner was obviously not working for Kloeden.

Kloedens move did look decisive and P&P both said the stage was over at about 100m to go. I believe the words were along the lines of "thats how you win a race". Kloeden didnt get complacent, he just cracked. he saw Lance coming back and resigned to his fate, as he knew he had nothing left.
 
Jul 10, 2009
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Most of the ones I'd put on my list have already been mentioned, but I don't think these were.

'06 Bettini attack at the end of the Giro di Lombardia. I lost track of how many times he almost crashed descending to the finish. He knew he had to win for his brother that day. Incredible.*

'64 Anquetil beats Poulidor on the Puy de Dome. I've only ever read about it, but it was a clash of titans, and Anquetil came out on top. It was one for the ages.

*OK so it was mentioned before.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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The_Z_man said:
Most of the ones I'd put on my list have already been mentioned, but I don't think these were.

'06 Bettini attack at the end of the Giro di Lombardia. I lost track of how many times he almost crashed descending to the finish. He knew he had to win for his brother that day. Incredible.*

'64 Anquetil beats Poulidor on the Puy de Dome. I've only ever read about it, but it was a clash of titans, and Anquetil came out on top. It was one for the ages.

*OK so it was mentioned before.

Anquetil didn't beat Poulidor on Puy de Dome but he did win the race there.
Anquetil was totally wasted on that climb and knew that if Poulidor would attack he would lose the yellow jersey (afterwards he claimed he would have quit the race if that would have happened).
Anquetil took his last bit of energy and rode next to Poulidor as to say 'You're not going anywhere'. (creating one of the classic cycling pics that way)
Pouldior only dared to attack in the last 2km and immediately got away but missed out on yellow by 15 seconds or so.

/edit:
Indeed one of the great Anquetil performances. I thought I put in a reply about that day in the 'famous quotes' thread and it came up in the search :)

Tour de France 1964. Anquetil vs. Poulidor. Stage 20, finish at Puy du Dome. At the beginning of the final climb Anquetil, in yellow, felt he was wrecked, but also knew Poulidor. So he bluffed and stayed in front of him almost the entire climb. With only 800 meters to go Poulidor finally dared to attack and in that short attack took a whoppin 42 seconds back on Anquetil, who was stil in yellow.

After the finish Anquetil was rushed to the backseat of his teamcar where Belgian journalist Robert Janssens managed/had the balls to take place next to him and close the doors.

He quoted Anquetils rant (freely translated):

"That *******. I hate him. Giving paws to people, that's what he does. But making a race...that's too much for him. Ah, he hurt me. Everywhere. He shouldn't come to shake hands. I'll beat the **** out of him. Does he really think he's ever going to win the Tour? .....You *******. Today you might beat me. But in Paris? Never, never, never."


A few minutes later Anquetil was on the podium with a big smile shaking hands with Poulidor.

sorry for the tl;dr :)