wasted talents

[Berzin]

I've never completely bought that whole thing about Ullrich's superhuman talent. For sure winning a Tour at age 23 is impressive but that wasn't the strongest field that year. When the biggest obstacle to winning the Tour is beating Ricky Virenque, life is pretty sweet. Armstrong constantly billed Ullrich as being more talented but there are pretty obvious competitive/mind game reasons for saying that.

I don't want to take this into "The Clinic", but please bare with me-I believe this is pertinent to why Ullrich never won another Tour.

The Year Ullrich won the Tour, that was the first year the 50% hematocrit limit was set.

During the first mountain stage of that Tour, Riis resembled a cadaver-hollow eyes, pale complexion-he looked like he was totally beyond his limits.

Meanwhile Ullrich, riding just in front of him, looked as though he was on a Sunday club run with the gents. Riis and many others benefited mightily from EPO abuse until the limit was set. So with the limit set at 50%, the more naturally talented riders rose to the top.

1998 came along, and his preparation was not what it should have been. He had one bad day at the Tour, but that was enough for Pantani to nail him.

Then came the "Cyclism", and that was all she wrote. A combination of bad management by the Telokom boys and no discipline pretty much put paid to anything he would ever do at the Tour.

 

[L'arriviste]

Van Hooydonck said that in his days, many Belgians went away to Italy because here in Belgium they couldn't do it.

I saw the old beast being interviewed by Sporza at the top of the Muur on Ronde Day this year. It was a shock, because I remember him as a bit of a stick insect and now he looks more like a nightclub doorman.

 

[Echoes]

Exactly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y40UjVlRAWg

He was still rather sharp, four years ago, though.

 

[Escarabajo]

Not sure if he's already appeared in the thread but what about Juan Miguel Mercado? Comes 5th in the vuelta at the age of 23, career goes downhill and then there doesnt seem to be any record of him in the last few years.

+1. I was going to ask about him also.

A lot of these wasted talents from the 90's and 2000's come from relation with doping. Changes in doping programs and regulations, so it would actually be very difficult to say who is actually a wasted talent.

Having said that, if Cadel is as clean as people say he is, then he would be the sacrificial lamb from the 2000's.

Some of this stuff probably belongs in the clinic, but it is highly related to the topic IMHO.

 

[Berzin]

Isidro Nozal.

David Etxebarria-talk about a dude who fell of the face of the Earth. Originator of the absolute worst victory salute ever.

Jeremy Hunt-very highly regarded by Cyclingnews magazine when he hit the scene a few years ago, never heard from him since.

 

[BroDeal]

Isidro Nozal.

Not unexpected. How would you like to be on a team with a rider who does not believe in showering during a grand tour? The whole peloton is undoubtedly glad that he disappeared.

 

[yetanothergreenworld]

Jean Francois Bernard

I think of Bernard as the Andreas Kloden of the '80s. Both had some big early successes, and were seen as their countries' next major cyclists. But both turned out to be too fragile and unreliable, and eventually decided that they were more comfortable working as super-domestiques for someone else (Indurain, Armstrong).

Also, they kind of look alike.

 

[TomasC]

Who is the Saeco guy in the photo?

Dario Pieri

http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.nsf/PhotosTest/03roubaix-009000

 

[TomasC]

Anyway, no disrespect to any of the previous picks, but the biggest wasted talent by a rural kilometer (I'd say a country mile, but I'm european ) has to be Valentino China.

Do you have any details on Valentino China? I only was able to find that he was the junior world champion in 1995 and was riding for Saeco 1998-2000. Why has he no more results since 1995? Why did he quit cycling, perhaps what does he do now?

 

[syringelessss]

there have been a lot of riders who made a very promising start, but got lost along the way for various reasons.

the obvious names are riviere, ullrich, vandenbroucke... maybe berzin


what riders do you think could have gotten a massive palmares if it didn't go wrong somewhere down the line?

Definitely Andreas Kloden, apparently for mental reasons.

Better than Ullrich in the mid 2000s, but rode second fiddle.

Outclimbed and out TTed Armstrong at the 2009 TDF, but supported Armstrong.

Already with a 2nd and a 3rd in previous TDFs, in 2009, Kloden would have finished 3rd just behind Andy Schleck had tactically-impaired El Pistolero Contador not dropped him in a ridiculous attack on Le Grand-Bornand when Kloden was riding (heroically to me) at his limit.

Kloden is an incredible climber, outclassed now only by El Pistolero and Andy Schleck, and one of the top 5 time trialers.

 

[42x16ss]

More of a lost talent than a wasted talent, but what about Andrei Kivilev?

 

[Frosty]

Christophe Rinero? Winner of the tour de l'avenir in 1998 and then went on to finish 4th in the tour that year, taking the mountains jersey along the way. Ok, so it was a weak field with all the withdrawals but he never seemed to feature at the front of the finish of a race again. As Escarabajo mentions earlier, it is difficult to untangle some of these from doping/clinic material but still would have expected something more?

 

[Roland Rat]

So what we are basically saying is:

Every clean rider/rider who quit as they didn't want to dope from say 1991 to 2005 = unfulfilled potential.

That's simply a tragedy.

 

[SpartacusRox]

Do I need to even post the name "Tommy D." or is it just somethign that is understood without being mentioned?

I still have hopes for him at the Vuelta... He did manage to finish the Giro this year, so he is hitting a high note.

Has had a bad run of injuries and illness but also I think he lack a bit of mental toughness (or maybe to be kinder, self belief). A real natural talent though

 

[SpartacusRox]

Chris Boardman...as a roadie

 

[craig1985]

He was probably thinking that the sooner he got to the finish line the sooner he got to have some pie.

 

[Nick777]

Will Walker, through no fault of his own.
The highest Vo2 max ever recorded (94) at the Aus institute of sport (beating Cadel Evan's record).
Age 18 - Winner of the Melbourne to Warrnambool (299kms mind you) & a stage of the Herald Sun Tour
National Champion & runner up in World U23 road race age 20
Retired late last year (aged 24) due to ongoing heart problems that started when he was 21.

When he was 18, a certain international cycling commentator said that when he retires, Walker's career will make Stuart O'Grady's look pedestrian. Sadly, it was not to be.

 

[42x16ss]

Will Walker, through no fault of his own.

Retired late last year (aged 24) due to ongoing heart problems that started when he was 21.

When he was 18, a certain international cycling commentator said that when he retires, Walker's career will make Stuart O'Grady's look pedestrian. Sadly, it was not to be.

Shame, he was a real talent. He suffers from ventricular tachycardia, making his heart rate go through the roof randomly. Apparently during a training ride he hit 300bpm!

He's doing ok now though, working as a rep for Nalini and is engaged to Aldo Sassi's daughter.

 

[Berzin]

Already with a 2nd and a 3rd in previous TDFs, in 2009, Kloden would have finished 3rd just behind Andy Schleck had tactically-impaired El Pistolero Contador not dropped him in a ridiculous attack on Le Grand-Bornand when Kloden was riding (heroically to me) at his limit.

Kloden is an incredible climber, outclassed now only by El Pistolero and Andy Schleck, and one of the top 5 time trialers.

Yeah, way to read those race tactics there. The yellow jersey needs to protect HIS domestiques in a grand tour since when?

If Kloden was so strong he would have won a grand tour by now. He's had his chances. That is no one's fault but his own. Just like Leipheimer.

Both solid domestiques with overrated amounts of individual ability.

 

[craig1985]

Will Walker, through no fault of his own.
The highest Vo2 max ever recorded (94) at the Aus institute of sport (beating Cadel Evan's record).
Age 18 - Winner of the Melbourne to Warrnambool (299kms mind you) & a stage of the Herald Sun Tour
National Champion & runner up in World U23 road race age 20
Retired late last year (aged 24) due to ongoing heart problems that started when he was 21.

When he was 18, a certain international cycling commentator said that when he retires, Walker's career will make Stuart O'Grady's look pedestrian. Sadly, it was not to be.

Shame, he was a real talent. He suffers from ventricular tachycardia, making his heart rate go through the roof randomly. Apparently during a training ride he hit 300bpm!

He's doing ok now though, working as a rep for Nalini and is engaged to Aldo Sassi's daughter.

Is that the same problem that Nicolas Portal suffered from?

 

[issoisso]

Yeah, way to read those race tactics there. The yellow jersey needs to protect HIS domestiques in a grand tour since when?

If Kloden was so strong he would have won a grand tour by now. He's had his chances. That is no one's fault but his own. Just like Leipheimer.

Both solid domestiques with overrated amounts of individual ability.

Whether he's overrated is debatable. The fact is that (and he's said it himself many times) he doesn't want, nor has ever wanted, to lead a GT team. Ever. He doesn't want the pressure.

 

[Ferminal]

Chris Boardman...as a roadie

Because he refused to take Testosterone?

 

[Nastyy]

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.

 

[Avoriaz]

Mikel Zarrabeitia - 2nd in the Vuelta in 1994. Talked up as the next Indurain. Think he went on to have lots of injuries...

 

[Oscarcycle]

Baden Cooke - the latest in Bjarne Riis's line of you've wasted your talent, come ride for me for nothing crew.