Teams & Riders Who are The Top 10 Climbers of All Time

[tobydawq]

Yeah, I was just about to ask the Alpe d'Huez question. 1 minute? 2 minutes?

Btw, anyone not having Merckx on their list of the top 10 climbers are out of their mind. You don't win 11 Grand Tours if you're not one of the 10 best climbers of all time. Simple as that.

I'm plenty within my mind.

 

[pihi42]

No, sorry, english isn't my first language.

Neither is mine. Looks like both our countries have our heros/legends now.
I've watched Pantani ride. I started with Indurain and stopped during the Armstrong era - too much going on in life - but I continued in 2009 because of Brajkovič.
This year going to see TDF live, stages 19/20/21, for the first time. I've seen a Giro stage last year.
It's a pity I never saw the legends live, only on TV.

 

[Bolder]

It makes his Legend more tragic, and tragic legends are often the best to tell. But in fact his premature death was only such a big deal exactly because he was such a legend, not the other way around.

I still remember the excitement around us very well when Ullrich exploded in 98, we were in rome, I was very young and we watched it on some TV in a fast food restaurant. I think we stayed longer because I wanted to watch (my grandparents had introduced me to it maybe a year or two before, and ofc Ullrich was the defending champion).

I have mixed feelings about Pantani, like a lot of people.if he were still alive he could be e either a Riis or a Virenque, ostracized or still in the warm embrace of cycling fans. As a climber he was unparalleled but with a huge asterisk.

 

[The Hegelian]

I don't want to be rude but what make Pantani so legendary was his premature death.

It's part of his legend for sure, also the very tragic manner of his passing.

If one was to see Jimi Hendrix on Youtube as a Grandpa, talking about his new Vegan diet, his rock star pathos would become very diluted compared to how he lives in our imagination now.

Pantani as a 35 year old climbing domestique, doing a long turn for some GC leader and then coming in 15mins down....that would have diluted the romance for sure.

 

[franic]

I have mixed feelings about Pantani, like a lot of people.if he were still alive he could be e either a Riis or a Virenque, ostracized or still in the warm embrace of cycling fans. As a climber he was unparalleled but with a huge asterisk.

Indeed. The most enjoyable climber for sure, but hard to consider people like him, Armstrong, Froome and Vingegaard given the huge asterisks.

 

[Bombarolo]

Indeed. The most enjoyable climber for sure, but hard to consider people like him, Armstrong, Froome and Vingegaard given the huge asterisks.

They are all insane talents.

 

[snipeheem]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2LaUl7t_M

 

[Peyroteo94]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f_2LaUl7t_M

Putting Almeida, Landa, Yates, etc above Contador and LA? Right... and I'm not even talking about Remco.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Judging best climbers ever is hard as one has to take into account two factors:
1) Climbing level (which is affected by (let's call them) technological advancements).
2) Level relative to his rivals (i.e. consistency, number of victories, dominance etc)

I don't doubt that Pantani, Pogacar and Vingegaard are in God tier. I'm temped to say they are top3 of all time. Anyone else in this tier? Maybe some ancient champions (like Coppi) as well as modern (Contador, Armstrong?).

 

[snipeheem]

Judging best climbers ever is hard as one has to take into account two factors:
1) Climbing level (which is affected by (let's call them) technological advancements).
2) Level relative to his rivals (i.e. consistency, number of victories, dominance etc)

I don't doubt that Pantani, Pogacar and Vingegaard are in God tier. I'm temped to say they are top3 of all time. Anyone else in this tier? Maybe some ancient champions (like Coppi) as well as modern (Contador, Armstrong?).

Gaul?Bahamontes?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Gaul?Bahamontes?

Bartali, Trueba, Fuente, Poulidor, van Impe... really the list could go on for a long time. Cycling really did not favour the grimpeur back in the day, with so much time won and lost in flat stages, and many of the climbs of today not being available. Those 100km solo moves weren't a stylistic choice, they were their only way to win.

Comparing racing back then to today and saying that today's riders are better climbers is like looking at F1 in recent years and saying Lewis Hamilton is a better driver than Juan Manuel Fangio. He may be, he may not be, the sport is so different now as to be almost unrecognisable from what it was in Fangio's day that it's just impossible to say with any accuracy; Hamilton doesn't have to deal with death as a constant spectre, 25km circuits on public roads with hay bales the only thing protecting you from slamming into trees or hopeless part-time gentleman driver entries that get lapped a dozen times a race. But on the flip side, he can't commandeer a teammate's car if his breaks or skip a number of non-championship rounds either. Or comparing Messi or Ronaldo to Pelé or Puskas. Yes, the players of today have much better technical skills, but we'll never know if they could have replicated them on the pitches of the 50s and 60s, with the heavy balls and boots of yesteryear, and with defenders able to get away with what was allowed back then, and likewise we'll never know what wondergoals those heroes of yesteryear could have scored if defenders were barely allowed to touch them and they could have balls that zip around like today's.

 

[Extinction]

I am surprised people still forget Marco or don't know.

As for Roglic, what about Purito? I think even Valverde was arguably better finisher of MTFs than Roglic in this regard?

I wasn't around to see Bohamantes or Gall, too young to see Ocana, but Pantani seemed to take us back to a mythical cycling. He would launch an attack and then inexorably keep the preasure on, relaunching the very moment a bold rival caught his breath, until he broke the last of the brave. He had strange moments when he just didn't have the stuff, but when he was on his game it was like watching a raging bull run up a mountain (Mortirolo 94 Giro was just such a case). Every mountain stage Pantani rode of the Giro and Tour was rife with tense and excited expectation. When would Pantani attack? And then, with a certain inevitability, the timebomb went off, boom! After Hinault, Lemond, Fignon, Delgado, all of a sudden there arrived this awkward little, shy, trouble, rebellious Italian sacred Monster in the mountains, who Indurain had to be very, very careful with, a most dangerous new rival. As fast as Pogacar and Vingegaard have been, they just don't have the pathos that accompanied Pantani when he soloed up a maintain to victory. There was something at once melancholy and beautiful about his style, which transcended the technically "perfect" performance feats of today. His records may be broken, but the climbing class has not. Clinical stuff not withstanding, the guy had huge natural talent for riding up mountains accompanied by something ineffable that was just compelling to watch. Maybe that's what ultimately killed him. You had a sense of the tragic in the existential desperation, like he was trying to flee from demons, behind his victories that followed him to the grave.

 

[Andre]

Luis Ocaña... I always liked him

 

[Extinction]

No, sorry, english isn't my first language.

For me, Pantani is the best climber. Of course, Pogacar and Vingegaard can become better if they will keep delivering Plateau de Beille like performance.

Pantani became so mythical because he was more than "just" an amazing cyclist. Sometimes you get these guys that mix both insane talent and personalities like Senna, Rossi, Ali, etc. Pantani was something similar, at least in Italy. Cycling almost reached football like popularity, which was something never seen before for this sport.

Another thing that I feel many people don't remember is that Pantani was always the underdog. There were an insane amount of TT kms back in the 90s and Pantani was always forced to launch insane attacks, even 40-50km from the finish line. Then you have his incredible style while climbing, which was simply unbelievable.

Personally, i've never seen a stage like Mont Ventoux 2000 for example. Pantani was again not as his best and dropped from the leading group (with Lance, etc.), but instead of giving up he was able to come back during the Vantoux climb. And then he started attacking like there was no tomorrow despite the massive wind, with no teammates, against everyone, knowing that Armstrong was extremely strong. He dropped everyone outside Lance himself, which then tried everything to drop him (he gifted him the win though), but Pantani never gave up and went over his limit to keep up.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bMBTRqctF0&pp=ygUZUGFudGFuaSBtb250IHZlbnRvdXggMjAwMA%3D%3D


This is why people liked him so much.

Pantani was bloated in the face, efficiency wasn't there, nothing like 98.