DFA123 said:
And how many Grand Tours have Cancellara and Tony Martin got close to winning?
It's not just the specialization though; the domestiques are so much stronger now, because the level of professionalism in cycling goes much deeper. You can't win races in the same way now as previous generations could. Nowadays it is easier for a weaker rider to win a race because they are kept together for longer, but it is much harder for a stronger rider to dominate - to the extent where it is impossible to sucessfully specialize across all different disciplines.
edit... by the way, I meant to add that I enjoyed reading your post, some really good analysis and interesting details.
(thanks for the compliment in your edit
)
Okay, so since when are GT's alone the benchmark in cycling?
Cancellara and Martin have been the best time-trialists of the past ten years, so they are the best riders of their generation, period. They have the biggest engine. ITT's are the ultimate test in cycling. You cannot cheat in ITT's, you can't draft wheels. Look at all the all-time great champions of this sport, what do they all have in common? ITT skills. Whether they be stage race specialists or classic specialists. And the better they are in ITT's the better riders they are. That's why I should rate Gimondi or Moser above De Vlaeminck, talent wise, even though De Vlaeminck could race against the clock too but he was no Gimondi.
I've already said why current GT's are charades. Ridiculously short on time trials, ridiculously high amount of MTF's with sometimes very steep gradient. Everything is made to favour featherweight climbers and to exclude the heavier complete riders. You can't win a GT if you are 70+kg nowadays. Neither can you win Liège-Bastogne or Amstel Gold because it's all about explosiveness in the final climbs and no longer about stamina. Cancellara is 81kg in his form weight. Obviously he can't win any of those races in their present-day routes. Even in their old route it would be hard. Merckx was 72kg in top form, so it's also obvious that he climbed better than Cancellara. So he was better than the best currently active rider, QED.
There are many reasons for the levelling of the peloton today. Main reason as I said, can't be discussed on this section. Then you have lighter & more efficient bikes, better asphalt, better kits, shorter races altogether, better pays, shorter race distances in semi-classics, etc. It's easier to race today than it used to be.
However I'm not convinced that training methods significantly improved for the past 40 years. Equipment-wise, it sure is but the methods as such are still the same, I think (though I'm not a specialist). In the mid-sixties, they all already trained on intervals, did power-training, fitness to enhance suppleness, winter team training sessions, etc. Training in terms of volume was long gone. Coppi modernised the sport a lot. What still was pretty amateurish was the diet but even that quickly evolved in the course of the 1970's.
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