wasted talents

[Berzin]

Vladislav Bobrik. Was Berzin's tag team partner in the early '90s when they did well at the Tour DuPont. Won the Giro Di Lombardia in 1994 when the Gewiss crew were rocking the house, and quickly faded away from the scene.

Anyone know what happened to him?

 

[Michele]

Jukka Vastaranta.

Second in the 2002 WC Junior RR. Won the 2001 Junior MTB European Champs and was one of the top male mountain bikers in Finland already as a junior.
Turned pro with Rabobank and had good results like stage win at the Star Elektrotoer, Third overall in Tour of Luxembourg and good stage placings, TOP-10 in Scheldeprijs and Etoile des Besseges.

Unfortunately he had a serious back injury that took him off the bike for year 2 years and now he's slowly making a comeback.

There was so much talking about that guy and then got that back injury.
Did he do anything good so far?

 

[El Imbatido]

I think there was some dude way back that was called Eddy........can't remember his last name i think it started with M and ended in X. He was a serious talent but never won anything big............I think he eventually just retired and then got his own bike brand.........and help set up a few races like the Tour Of Oman and Tour Of Qatar.....................Man that kid could have been something..........I think he could have possibly won the Tour de France and Giro about 5 times each + just about every monument multiple times + a couple of world Championships too. I think this bloke was also gonna have a go at the hour record...............that is how good he could have been. Just needed a little focus and he could have been something

 

[Barnaby]

Joey McLoughlin. Won the Milk Race and the Tour of Britain, went to Z-Peugeot but couldn't hack it with the First Division. Now breeds horses I believe.

 

[Oldman]

Vladislav Bobrik. Was Berzin's tag team partner in the early '90s when they did well at the Tour DuPont. Won the Giro Di Lombardia in 1994 when the Gewiss crew were rocking the house, and quickly faded away from the scene.

Anyone know what happened to him?

He went the way the rest of them did when it was too obvious that they were all on something strong. Really, really strong. Wasn't there several early season races where Geweiss swept the podium. Even the most slavenly press **** would have to ask the DS how that happened.

 

[Martinello]

Vainstains, the Latvian hardman.

Had a really good 2000 season with a 3rd in RVV and San Sebastian and naturally the Worlds in Plouay.
2001 wasn't exactly disastrous as he chalked up some podiums and top-10s in most of the spring classics.
From 2002 it was a steady decline although he still managed some fairly good placings in the classics.

His professional career wasn't long, starting in 1998 (Kross) and ending in 2004 (Lampre)

 

[issoisso]

He went the way the rest of them did when it was too obvious that they were all on something strong. Really, really strong. Wasn't there several early season races where Geweiss swept the podium. Even the most slavenly press **** would have to ask the DS how that happened.

At the Flèche, they literally rode the entire peloton off their wheel without attacking and proceeded to ride a 3 man TTT agains the entire peloton.

They won by a large margin.

 

[Escarabajo]

I think there was some dude way back that was called Eddy........can't remember his last name i think it started with M and ended in X. He was a serious talent but never won anything big............I think he eventually just retired and then got his own bike brand.........and help set up a few races like the Tour Of Oman and Tour Of Qatar.....................Man that kid could have been something..........I think he could have possibly won the Tour de France and Giro about 5 times each + just about every monument multiple times + a couple of world Championships too. I think this bloke was also gonna have a go at the hour record...............that is how good he could have been. Just needed a little focus and he could have been something

The only problem was that he was born in the nineties. We never could really find out his true potential in the GT.

 

[Michele]

Vainstains, the Latvian hardman.

Had a really good 2000 season with a 3rd in RVV and San Sebastian and naturally the Worlds in Plouay.
2001 wasn't exactly disastrous as he chalked up some podiums and top-10s in most of the spring classics.
From 2002 it was a steady decline although he still managed some fairly good placings in the classics.

His professional career wasn't long, starting in 1998 (Kross) and ending in 2004 (Lampre)

Beside the poor performance since his "decline", I've heard from one of his former DS that it was his wife asking him to quit road cycling (the wife was daughter of Vini Caldirola's owner).

 

[SpartacusRox]

Because he refused to take Testosterone?

Umm...no, more likely beacuse he got sick of crashing

 

[Nastyy]

There was so much talking about that guy and then got that back injury.
Did he do anything good so far?

After the injury you mean? In 2008 he raced MTB in southern Europe and had good results. He won the MTB National champs last year and pretty much dominated the national MTB scene.

He still has muscle problems and is now trying to make a comeback to the pro scene. Last few years he was working in a bike shop and training at the same time. Now he has quit the job and trains full time, I think. Rides for a continental team SB Tableware - Gatsoulis Bike. Started the Route Adelie but didn't finish. CN made a news about that too I think.

He still has muscle problems and goes to the masseur few times a week. He had issias but it took a really long time to discover it. All the doctors from his teams just said it's all in his head. Then he found this masseur Leo Saari who discovered it the first time they saw and they're still working on it to get 100%.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Andreas Kloden
Jan Ullrich
Tom Danielson
Sylvain Chavanel
Wim Van Huffel
Frank Vandenbroucke
I think Cunego got of the dope
George Hincapie ==> always had to be a domestique

 

[Roninho]

George Hincapie ==> always had to be a domestique

I don't get that one. He was a domestique at the Tour, but he had a protected role at a lot of other events, especially the belgian races.
Hincapie was teamleader @ roubaix & flanders for years. He has between 10 and 15 top ten finishes @ roubaix & flanders (including some podium finishes).

I don't think there has ever been a team interested in giving him a protected role at the Tour (that's for sprinters or GQ-guys. He was neither).

He has had a good career, wins @ TDF, belgian classics, dauphine, tour of california, and some podiums at the big classics.

So i'm curious, where should/could he had better opportunities cq not race as a domestique that would have resulted in a way more succesfull career?

 

[santacruz]

me.. I showed lots of promise on the commute to work, drafting cars and passing roadies on my touring bike with panniers... but then i fizzled out, maybe it was the drugs and the women?? perhaps i got started on the bike 10 years too late.

 

[ludwig]

Does anyone else find threads like this positively infuriating when it is plain as day that there is a doping culture in cycling and the riders who push the envelope the most are the ones most likely to succeed?

I guess if I was gonna add a legitimate name to the list I'd say Chad Gerlach.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Bump! This a great thread and I feel like reviving it, How about...

Vladimir Karpets-no need for a description there
Marcus Fothen-to a lesser extent, but seemed like a GT threat a few years ago
Iban Mayo-Could have been something special
Jose Angel Gomez Marchante-Often labeled as a contender at the vuelta, but everything's really gone downhill since the breakout performance in 2004
Christophe Moreau-Was supposed to win the tour
Yaroslav Popyvych-"Lance's Replacement" still an excellent domestique these days
Michael Rogers-so many injuries
Thomas Dekker

 

[Michele]

I wouldnt call Popovych as "Lance's replacement"; during his U23 days he was nicknamed Eddy Merckx in Italy.

 

[L'arriviste]

Jose Rujano: 3rd in Giro 2005. Good for nothing since then
...
Damiano Cunego: 2004 Winner: Almost unbeatable then. Unable to compete in any Grand tour since.

Tadej Valjavec took July off to hang out with his new born child, that's the sort of thing that impresses rather than disappoints me...

Kreuziger is still in the rapid learning curve part of his career, he'll only enter the disappointment list if he doesn't improve from here.

And Devolder won Flanders, enough said.

Currently the most wasted talent still riding is Michael Rodgers,Triple world time trial champion then nothing else.....

Resurrecting the great ak-zaaf's excellent thread, to dust off some of last year's opinions.

Some bright spots in 2011: Rujano turned in a very good Giro, Cunego is clearly flying again now (it was later argued that he was never "wasted" anyway)

Dark spots are that Valjavec is banned, with Rogers and Devolder still not showing for reasons off illness and bereavement.

I'm going to add Maxime Monfort to the list of "wasted" talent because I clearly remember how, when HTC did occasionally let him work for himself such as at Suisse last year, he was really flying. This year he's been flogging himself terribly for the cause at Leopard-Trek. For me and probably for the good citizens of the pretty village of Nadrin, that's sad.

 

[ElChingon]

Everyone is forgetting any rider on USPS/Disco/Astana and to some extent RadioShack that could of been an outright leader on any other team but instead worked for Lance. Minus Heras and il Falcon who were allowed to win a GT on their own. Any rider who showed promise and individuality was shipped off to another team (not resigned), Boonen.

Tommy D. I think was just major hype, as the saying goes "that's why they actually race the races", many riders test or do well at their local races but to make it to the Pro's you have to race them as well. I wonder how long his climbing record (some mountain near his home) will stand if they actually had a ProTour race up it? Not long. I'm surprised he still hasn't been shipped off to race on a Conti team, he's still eating up a spot on a ProTour team many other riders could at least TRY to make it on.

 

[maltiv]

Tommy D. I think was just major hype, as the saying goes "that's why they actually race the races", many riders test or do well at their local races but to make it to the Pro's you have to race them as well. I wonder how long his climbing record (some mountain near his home) will stand if they actually had a ProTour race up it? Not long. I'm surprised he still hasn't been shipped off to race on a Conti team, he's still eating up a spot on a ProTour team many other riders could at least TRY to make it on.

Wow. You clearly didn't watch TdS this week. Or the Vuelta the last few years.

 

[ElChingon]

Wow. You clearly didn't watch TdS this week. Or the Vuelta the last few years.

One stage, I guess we can sit him up next to Merckx now

 

[greenedge]

Levi as the next American hope. Probably Millar. Cadel if he does not go well this yr/next.

 

[El Pistolero]

Andy Schleck

 

[gatete]

Andy Schleck

Yes sir, AS definitely
no ganas

 

[Oldman]

Levi as the next American hope. Probably Millar. Cadel if he does not go well this yr/next.

That's not good news for Americans knowing the pedigree of that gelding.