wasted talents

[Andre.J]

http://www.cyclinghalloffame.com/riders/rider_bio.asp?rider_id=692

Monsere

 

[issoisso]

Love it!!!

He was an immense talent.

...Until he himself became immense

The original "bowling ball" man. By 2004 it was amazing how fat he'd become.

 

[anubisza]

VDB definitely.

 

[pmcg76]

Christophe Rinero, winner of the KOM at the 98 Tour, 98 Tour de L'Avenir and since then, has disappeared of the planet. Is he retired now?

 

[anubisza]

According to wikipedia, Rinero is riding for Agritubel. He won a stage at the 2002 Tour du Limousin, that's been about it. I'm always slightly hesitant when I see guys winning in that era, then nothing subsequently. Just the cynic in me.

 

[_frost]

Jukka Vastaranta. Finished second in the junior world championships in 2002 and was creating a nice professional career at Rabobank but then got one nasty disease that made him so bad he couldn't even ride at one point but he's getting back now.

On my list too. There was a huge expectation to get the first finnish top level road cyclist.

 

[Sheltowee]

Eddy Merckx would have to be the biggest disappointment of all because he didn't come out of retirement after 3 years and win #20 more races and the Tour.

 

[Sheltowee]

Dave Stoller. Had one huge win and then completely dropped off the map.

Dave came out of retirment and rode the Little 500 last year.

 

[TRDean]

Probably one of the biggest was Beloki after his accident. I guess he gave up the dope after that.

Jose Rujano: 3rd in Giro 2005. Good for nothing since then

Aitor Gonzalez: Vuelta winner 2002. Good for nothing since then

Jose Enrique Gutierrez Giro 2nd Place 2006. What's has he done since?

Damiano Cunego: 2004 Winner: Almost unbeatable then. Unable to compete in any Grand tour since.

The amount of talent you would need to achieve a podium in any of these races would be immense. So why haven't they done much since then? Perhaps they are one of the good one's who actually gave up or reduced doping. What other explaination is there? You don't lose that talent (other than through accident like Beloki).

Wow, Cunego? That is amazing...he is a heck of a rider. Why basing success on grand tours alone? He has one of those and numerous classics too!! And I agree with the other poster...look for him at the 09 WC!!

 

[TRDean]

Tyler Hamilton anyone?? I mean after his LBL victory, that is. But, of course, he did it to himself, right?

Floyd Landis? Great domestic record, but again, he did it to himself...

And what about:
Tadej Valjavec
Roman Kreuziger
and if not for the his win in Flanders: Stijn Devolder

Dude, 2/3 of you list is totally insane!! Devolder is a stud...a flanders back to back!!! Are you kidding? Secondly, Kreuziger? Isn't he a little young to call a wast of talent? Give him time...some guys are really hard to please!

 

[indurain666]

Christophe Rinero, winner of the KOM at the 98 Tour, 98 Tour de L'Avenir and since then, has disappeared of the planet. Is he retired now?

Yeah, still remember the guy climbing at 30-50 rpm for hours and hours. I remember that next year (99) guy was riding in the autobus (heck he almost won the lanter rouge that year after finishing 4th in 98) when a spectator called him a doper or something, guy was ****ed and he chased the spectator up a col.

My choices:

-Hincapie..what a waste of one day race talent
-Ulrich: he never ever reached his 97 form
-Armstrong: TDF and thats it..he could have done 5 Tours and something else..
-Petrov
-Pantani: If only the doctor could have tuned him up to a 49.9% hc instead of 50.1% chances are he would still be alive (before you start flaming rememember this thread is if could have should have would have silliness)
-Hamilton
-Heras
-Perez Cuapio
-Rujano
-VDB
-Boonen
-Mercado
-Beloki
-Scanlon
-Thorsten Hieckmann: Junior world champ IIRC
-Alexei Markov: 4:25 pursuit rider at age 17..4th place in Atlanta 96, mot much after that

 

[Old Derailleur-in-the-mist]

Svein Tuft has pretty much disappeared for the last month or two. Anyone heard if he's still over in Eu.
Having had a head injury a few years back I can relate to the difficulty.

 

[samb01]

Tom Boonen.

Sure, he has a great palmares, but how much better could it be if he wasn't a coke snorting binge drinking lying drunk driver "somebody spiked my drink" whiner off the bike?

One might suspect that Boonen's coke addiction is not entirely unrelated to how he has been able to achieve such success on the bike.

 

[mambo#5]

Svein Tuft has pretty much disappeared for the last month or two. Anyone heard if he's still over in Eu.
Having had a head injury a few years back I can relate to the difficulty.

well, he is just as famous for how he became a cyclist. The dude needs to disappear from civilization and go into woods every year to keep his sanity.

 

[Velo Dude]

Dave came out of retirment and rode the Little 500 last year.

Awesome. Go Cutters!!

 

[joe_papp]

Two Rare Finds from the Archives

Hope this is of interest to you guys...[and apologies if the copied-and-pasted-text shows weird formatting]

Wasted talent for me is talent that could have been, but WASN'T, exercised at the pro level over the course of a real career. It is worth saying that these guys may have found they had other talents besides riding a bike and been able to find fulfillment in totally different fields.

I've named Jeff Evanshine, the last US Junior World Champion in the men's road race (I believe; Pate was U-23 TT champ - any other US junior world road champions?). He was amazing, but he joined the Army! I believe the story goes he thought he was going to get to ride in the Army as a fully-supported athlete but it didn't pan-out that way!

He did get out though, and rode a few years w/ Saturn but it seemed like the motivation was gone. Now I'm not going back and checking the chronology, so if I'm wrong on the dates and there is no gap between when he won world's and his entry into the pro ranks, for goodness sake - house me!

Wasted talent for me isn't someone like Beloki, who made it to the Tour but couldn't beat Armstrong. It's guys who never built careers, never 'did whatever it took' to earn an ROI from the bike and their abilities - for whatever reason.

Anyway, I'd like to propose two others:

Heath Sandall

I'll tell you now that he's an awesome photographer, but he was also a world-class bike racer. Here's his photo business site.

And I'll paste-in an excerpt from a random news article he appears in...but give him some Google-time. Include the keyword "Ecuador." Realize what happens when coaching goes bad and talent is exploited by old men.

"...At the Junior Worlds last month, Grieco won three silver medals, one in the road race. Mueller took fourth in that race but today will be riding in front of a hometown crowd.

There were three mishaps in Saturday's qualifying races, held only for the 15-16 and 17-18 boys. Two occurred some 50 yards in front of the finish line in each of the 15-16 heats.


Some blamed the course for the accidents, saying it wasn't challenging enough and that too many riders were still in a lead pack at the end.
But many riders and coaches blamed the accidents on inexperience.


"There are so many people here who aren't used to riding in packs," said Steven Meilicke of Santa Rosa, winner of the first heat. "And it was so tight at the end, people were getting kind of squirrelly."


Added Sam Guzman of [color=#008000 ! important][color=#008000 ! important]Richmond[/color][/color], Va.: "People were just jamming together. Everybody wants to do as well as they can so they can get to the final."


Concluded Rene Wenzel, national team coach, "This course in Europe would be no problem at all--they're so used to it (riding in packs) over there."


There were three heats for the 17-18 boys, and in only one did a single rider go for a breakaway. That came in the second heat, when Bennie Ray of Columbus, [color=#008000 ! important][color=#008000 ! important]Ohio[/color][/color], finished some 30 seconds in front.


"I don't like pack sprints," Ray said. "I just wanted to give myself a wide-enough gap."


Cycling Notes
There were three Junior National records set at the time trials in Borrego Springs Friday. Jessica Grieco (29:41) bettered the old 20-kilometer mark of 31:48 for girls 16-17, Heath Sandall (27:59) beat the old mark of 28:47 for boys 13-14 and Susan George (30:38) lowered the old record of 31:48 for girls 13-15."

another waste of bike talent was:

Rob Acciavatti

Rob and I grew-up racing together as Juniors and were together a couple of years in the NCL and on elite amateur teams. We never really became friends, though, so I don't know so many details. I believe he's a physical therapist now, perhaps married with a family.

Invited to the OTC when that still meant something, and headed to Spain back in the 1990's before the Internet was big and WAY before the common cycling fan associated Spain with Mengel-esque doping. Well, Rob's dad was an entomologist (@ WVU?) and his mom was...nice, but I don't remember the details. He came from solid stock and a good home. Matt Eaton was "Rob A's" mentor and he recognized the boy's talent ... I don't know if he helped him get to Spain, but Rob managed a year with the Scott-BiKyle pro team (Steve Larsen, RIP, was his teammate there in 1995), confirmed his talent and headed to the Continent.

My understanding is that, unlike me, Rob had a perspective that looked beyond just the next 24 hours, and he had a family life and sense of self that meant he didn't need the bike to feel good about himself. I don't know this for a fact...but I suspect it.

So when he realized just what it meant to ride pro in Spain from a pharma perspective, he walked away.

While getting his degree (and nearly a 4.0), however, he came back to the bike and won a national championship at the collegiate level, but walked away just as easily.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

These are unfair, or tragic:

Gilles Delion had a very promising career taken away by (others) doping.

A real American talent who likely met the same fate was Andy Bishop.

Dave Stoller. Had one huge win and then completely dropped off the map.

That's nothing compared to David Summers. Won the 1983 Hell of the West in the first big race he entered, then died a year later.

Which leads me to my top (serious) pick:

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

It's hard to say if this is just tragic, or a waste, or both, but here's another pick:

 

[usedtobefast]

yeah, jeff evanshine was a gem. he is a socal local. he was always out on his bike. we all hoped he was going to be the "guy".

 

[Izoard]

It's hard to say if this is just tragic, or a waste, or both, but here's another pick:

What a talent he was , man he had some bad luck! I think he works for L'Equipe now.

 

[ak-zaaf]

What a talent he was , man he had some bad luck! I think he works for L'Equipe now.

is this your way of bashing l'equipe?

 

[Izoard]

is this your way of bashing l'equipe?

Not at all, more just a statement of his possible current status. He did have considerable bad luck with that crash and then his knee problem.

 

[Eva Maria]

Not at all, more just a statement of his possible current status. He did have considerable bad luck with that crash and then his knee problem.

He is dead

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_María_Jiménez

 

[Nastyy]

Not at all, more just a statement of his possible current status. He did have considerable bad luck with that crash and then his knee problem.

Is this supposed to be a joke? Jose Maria Jimenez is dead.

 

[Izoard]

Is this supposed to be a joke? Jose Maria Jimenez is dead.

Oh man, for some reason I thought that was JF Bernard! That will teach me for not double checking my memory with actually looking at old photos!! My apologies all