Question Which professional cyclist has the biggest come back story?

[SHaines]

Hi there, cycling fans!

For our latest question of the week we want to look back through the history of pro cycling and find your favorite comeback stories.

They can be from any era, we'd just love to hear stories of cyclist people had counted out, but who came back to accomplish something great.

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well, let's have Vino coming back from his horror leg injury to win Olympic gold too then.

How about Annemiek van Vleuten fracturing her spine losing a likely Olympic gold in the most dramatic of fashions, and winning a race in Belgium just 30 days later?

Or Movistar finishing 5th in the UCI Team Ranking (and 4th on CQ) in 2012, after a 2011 season which included Andrey Amador being mugged and left for dead in a Costa Rican riverbed, Rubén Plaza shearing his leg almost in half, Juan Mauricio Soler being put in a coma and his career ended, and Xavier Tondó dying in a freak accident in teammate Beñat Intxausti's arms?

 

[Breezy1985]

Well, let's have Vino coming back from his horror leg injury to win Olympic gold too then.

How about Annemiek van Vleuten fracturing her spine losing a likely Olympic gold in the most dramatic of fashions, and winning a race in Belgium just 30 days later?

Or Movistar finishing 5th in the UCI Team Ranking (and 4th on CQ) in 2012, after a 2011 season which included Andrey Amador being mugged and left for dead in a Costa Rican riverbed, Rubén Plaza shearing his leg almost in half, Juan Mauricio Soler being put in a coma and his career ended, and Xavier Tondó dying in a freak accident in teammate Beñat Intxausti's arms?

Wow I never realized all that happened to Movi in 1 year

 

[RedheadDane]

Or Movistar finishing 5th in the UCI Team Ranking (and 4th on CQ) in 2012, after a 2011 season which included Andrey Amador being mugged and left for dead in a Costa Rican riverbed, Rubén Plaza shearing his leg almost in half, Juan Mauricio Soler being put in a coma and his career ended, and Xavier Tondó dying in a freak accident in teammate Beñat Intxausti's arms?

That was a thing that happened as well? Guess I just never heard about it... probably because it's rather tame next to all the other stuff.

 

[del1962]

Well, let's have Vino coming back from his horror leg injury to win Olympic gold too then.

How about Annemiek van Vleuten fracturing her spine losing a likely Olympic gold in the most dramatic of fashions, and winning a race in Belgium just 30 days later?

Or Movistar finishing 5th in the UCI Team Ranking (and 4th on CQ) in 2012, after a 2011 season which included Andrey Amador being mugged and left for dead in a Costa Rican riverbed, Rubén Plaza shearing his leg almost in half, Juan Mauricio Soler being put in a coma and his career ended, and Xavier Tondó dying in a freak accident in teammate Beñat Intxausti's arms?

And Valverde returning from suspension

 

[RedheadDane]

And Valverde returning from suspension

That happened on the first page. And not in 2011.

 

[tobydawq]

You can see why they are reluctant to let Valverde end his career when going through that list of things happening to the team the year he didn't ride for them...

 

[del1962]

He improved their results from 2011 (when he wasn't able to ride) to 2012, increasing their ranking

 

[roundabout]

Well, let's have Vino coming back from his horror leg injury to win Olympic gold too then.

How about Annemiek van Vleuten fracturing her spine losing a likely Olympic gold in the most dramatic of fashions, and winning a race in Belgium just 30 days later?

Or Movistar finishing 5th in the UCI Team Ranking (and 4th on CQ) in 2012, after a 2011 season which included Andrey Amador being mugged and left for dead in a Costa Rican riverbed, Rubén Plaza shearing his leg almost in half, Juan Mauricio Soler being put in a coma and his career ended, and Xavier Tondó dying in a freak accident in teammate Beñat Intxausti's arms?

https://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/team.asp?year=2012&teamcode=MOV

Looking at columns B and D I think 16 of the 28 riders (trainee excluded) had a worse 2012 than 2011 so a comeback had more to do with transfers.

 

[Koronin]

And also Valverde coming back from a doping ban in 2012, 18 months without racing, winning right away on Willunga Hill.

He does have two impressive comeback stories.

 

[Invicituz]

Greg Lemond's comeback was nothing short of spectacular. The 1989 edition, of the Tour de France, was perhaps, the most enthralling Grand Tour, in history.

 

[Forever The Best]

He did not win, but Delgado was almost 7 and a half minutes behind Fignon after a prologue and 2 stages. At the end, he was 3 and a half minutes behind the race winner LeMond. From what I read and understand, he was attacking all the time and was completely exhausted at the end of the race. Perhaps Libertine can give more info about this.

 

[rick james]

He does have two impressive comeback stories.

Nothing impressive about coming back from a doping ban, your blind loyalty to this man is hilarious

 

[Blanco]

Nothing impressive about coming back from a doping ban, your blind loyalty to this man is hilarious

Nothing impressive about coming back from a doping ban, your blind loyalty to this man is hilarious

No? Check out others who come back from a doping ban and tell me who came back winning straight away, who came back at the same level, or arguably even higher level then before ban.

 

[ice&fire]

No? Check out others who come back from a doping ban and tell me who came back winning straight away, who came back at the same level, or arguably even higher level then before ban.

The man who beat him at the 2012 come back Vuelta also has a few health, injury and doping ban related come back stories.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

No? Check out others who come back from a doping ban and tell me who came back winning straight away, who came back at the same level, or arguably even higher level then before ban.

Ilnur Zakarin, Magno Prado, Ilaria Sanguineti and a few others who got busted when they were very young and could feasibly have got legitimately stronger afterward. I believe there's a suspension somewhere in José Rujano's youth before the 2005 Giro too, but details on that are sketchy. Also some of the Asia Tour dominators like Mirsamad Pourseyedi, Rahim Emami and co. who probably shouldn't be discussed in this part of the forum, but Pourseyedi came back after being a domestique at Tabriz Petrochemical Team, won at Qinghai Lake on his third race day back, won the GC, then went on to be a leader at the same team he had left as a domestique before his suspension.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Maybe this year should play out, so that we can add Froome to the mix, before this thread makes sense?

 

[perico]

He did not win, but Delgado was almost 7 and a half minutes behind Fignon after a prologue and 2 stages. At the end, he was 3 and a half minutes behind the race winner LeMond. From what I read and understand, he was attacking all the time and was completely exhausted at the end of the race. Perhaps Libertine can give more info about this.

Delgado indeed was 7 1/2 minutes back after the stage 2 TTT. The coverage in those days don’t do justice to the attacks that he put in and the pressure he put LeMond and Fignon, at least the English-Anglo centric coverage.

One of Perico’s strengths was his explosiveness. He could accelerate on steep terrain in a way that I’ve only seen in matched by a GC rider Contador. There was one stage where Delgado attacked (either the stage to Cauteret or Superbagneres) where LeMond tried to follow Delgado’s acceleration. Only Lucho could follow Perico when he went ballistic in those days. His weakness on the other hand, was recovery from his attacks which were never strategically in the best places. The year before, he was the unrivaled favorite to win the Tour, and he still attacked with Rooks with two climbs still to go before AdH, and faltered then and allowed the chasers to catch him in the end- the same thing that happened the prior year at La Plagne.

Anyway- Delgado’s gap on yellow actually was less than 2 minutes before the final TT, which he phoned in and was almost caught by LeMond at 2 minutes on the final day.

 

[42x16ss]

Nothing impressive about coming back from a doping ban, your blind loyalty to this man is hilarious

https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OGC.c4ca9d4edd533b24e09eff27f1fc26e0&pid=Api&rurl=https%3a%2f%2fmedia.giphy.com%2fmedia%2f3o84UfVLcV3hpRSuSQ%2fgiphy.gif&ehk=gb8MUQwswWTfpUv%2byMDMZbsXr0pcwIE%2bwk6LQodSX4Y%3d

 

[rick james]

https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OGC.c4ca9d4edd533b24e09eff27f1fc26e0&pid=Api&rurl=https%3a%2f%2fmedia.giphy.com%2fmedia%2f3o84UfVLcV3hpRSuSQ%2fgiphy.gif&ehk=gb8MUQwswWTfpUv%2byMDMZbsXr0pcwIE%2bwk6LQodSX4Y%3d

I will post if for you

 

[42x16ss]

I will post if for you

 

[Scarponi]

Contador seizure to 9 time GT winner is big

 

[Mayomaniac]

Gianni Motta in 1965, run over by a car in the Tour de Romandie (went over his knee), suffers a bad knee injury and has to skip the Giro, his knee is in a cast. Comes back after the Giro, finished 3rd in the Tour and wins 3 Valli durning the same season

 

[Escarabajo]

Greg Lemond.

 

[Bonimenier]

Surprised that noone has mentioned Armstrong yet. We know he didn't really play the game fair, but it's still impressive what he archieved after overcoming a severe cancer with little chance of surviving.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I mentioned Armstrong before:

Surely Greg LeMond's 1989 Tour has to be the jumping-off point for this as a concept? I mean, now that Lance is consigned to the cesspit of history and all.