Who's made the most out of limited talent?

[ferryman]

Cavendish.

 

[lukinox]

Basso would have done if he didn't get caught. He still did anyway to a certain extent, but he would have won a TdF also.

 

[El Pistolero]

Ludo Dierckxsens. A cyclist who was mediocre at best but picked up a national championship and a Tour de France stage by being too stupid to realise when the péloton were taking it easy. And who voluntarily busted himself for doping only for the tests at the time to come back negative.

Kidding right? The guy turned pro when he was 30 years old. As for him being stupid, he's not. He's an honest and kind person.

 

[Sofía_]

i just mess up threaths

 

[The Hitch]

it was provacting...

Contador is a very talented champion, but his palmares is "flatteur"
He has already 6 GT with 3Tdf (due partially of the fact many GT contenders have been "executed" by UCI/WADA last years) If he continue at the same pace, he will beat the Mercx record of 11GT with maybe 6 or 7 TdF..


But Contador is not Mercx, nor Hinault, nor Armstrong.
He is not a super super champion, best in mountain and best in time trial. He is a very stong climbeur, good time trialist, who has a small marge in GC over the riders who havent been suspended yet.

I find he has optimized his potential very well and... its was the question of the topic.


Voeckler, also, is among its kind of riders!!

Hes gone into a gt as favourite 5 times and won all 5.

He goes into every stage race he does as favourite and wins 60% of the time and podiums about 35%

Even if he doesnt always win by 5 minutes, theres talent in being able to win when the expectation is there, again and again and again.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

lol @ ac not being the champion that armstrong was.

 

[The Hitch]

Frank Schleck. A podium at the Tour. Gets called a major TDF contender because commentators find it easier to just lump him together with Andy as "the Schleck brothers".

 

[Michielveedeebee]

lol @ ac not being the champion that armstrong was.

He's like, you know, waaaaaaay better, nicer, just alround greater

 

[Magnus]

Frank Schleck. A podium at the Tour. Gets called a major TDF contender because commentators find it easier to just lump him together with Andy as "the Schleck brothers".

Getting called a major contender is hardly making the most out of limited talent imo.
And as far as Fränk getting the podium:

I think Frank could podium.

Called it

 

[Ryaguas]

But Contador is not Mercx, nor Hinault, nor Armstrong.
He is not a super super champion, best in mountain and best in time trial. He is a very stong climbeur, good time trialist, who has a small marge in GC over the riders who havent been suspended yet.

Grimpeur I think you want to say?

He's like, you know, waaaaaaay better, nicer, just alround greater

Also He fights cancer... that's why Lance >>>>> Alberto...

 

[Squire]

George Hincapie.

He's been in the sport about 20 years, ridden 16 Tours, supported lots of winners, has his own clothing brand and married a podium girl and I'm not really sure if he has ever been particularly talented.

I thought about Hincapie as well. He's a much bigger name than his abilities should merit, but that may be due to his association with Armstrong.

Sastre, as mentioned by jens_attacks, also crossed my mind.

How can we define talent?

As jens_attacks said, natural hematocrit, VO2 max etc.
I also think the ability to put in devastating accelrations and also the ability to recover could be described as talent. I guess Sastre could be regarded as naturally gifted in that respect.

I don't know much about physiological numbers and who has a high VO2 max and so on, so some posts here are quite interesting. Stories like Olano's low VO2 max was the kind of things I was looking for when I started the thread.

It always had me wondering, in my early days of following cycling, when Ullrich was described as the most talented rider in the Tour de France.

 

[Ryaguas]

My personal pick... Vino...

Nah... now seriously... Sastre et Frank are the names that come right now to my head...

 

[The Hitch]

Getting called a major contender is hardly making the most out of limited talent imo.
And as far as Fränk getting the podium:


Called it

He made the podium because every rider that could have beaten him crashed. Voeckler Cunego, Tommy D and Peraud were the next riders

 

[boardhanger]

......all these 'big name stars' how about the underdogs who won Flanders like Jackie Durrand in '92. Or Guedon at Paris Roubaix. Or TDF stage winners like Cedric Vassuer. Or Guys like Abdoujaparov or Tchmil who came from the back end of the Soviet Union. Whats is talent?? pedaling perfectly or being able to come from nowhere and compete while living outa a dark and damp 1 room apartment/or hatchback car like Phil Anderson etc during the 80's....

p.s need I mention riders who fought in WorldWar I & II coming back from concentration camps and watnot.....competing in the G.T's back then??

 

[orangerider]

Cavendish deserves a nomination. Porky build with short legs make him totally unsuitable for grand tours yet he's proven everyone wrong. Anaerobic wattage at the top of a club level sprinter, but not that of world class sprinters. No matter what one says about him, he certainly works hard and uses his head to win races. Gotta admire that.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Talent is such a silly thing to quantify.

The "natural talent" of being great from an early age is as much of a talent as a being responsive to training, or the talented mind for tactics and race decisions. It takes talent to stay healthy, both in terms of handling training stress and staying upright/avoiding crashes.

Its not enough to say someone was more or less talented than another; the sport is too complicated to boil down so many factors into "talent"

 

[Boeing]

Jens Voigt?

 

[the asian]

Contador.

Protected by UCI. Not more talented than Beloki

Take it to the Clinic.

 

[the asian]

Jens Voigt?

He doesn't have the most impressive palmares.

 

[the asian]

it was provacting...

Contador is a very talented champion, but his palmares is "flatteur"
He has already 6 GT with 3Tdf (due partially of the fact many GT contenders have been "executed" by UCI/WADA last years) If he continue at the same pace, he will beat the Mercx record of 11GT with maybe 6 or 7 TdF..


But Contador is not Mercx, nor Hinault, nor Armstrong.
He is not a super super champion, best in mountain and best in time trial. He is a very stong climbeur, good time trialist, who has a small marge in GC over the riders who havent been suspended yet.

I find he has optimized his potential very well and... its was the question of the topic.


Voeckler, also, is among its kind of riders!!

Of Course Contador is no Armstrong.
He races to win during the whole year and has won all 3 Gts including a Giro-Vuelta Double! He also doesn't rely on super domestiques to pace him up the mountains.

 

[skidmark]

Not that he's not talented, but Freire has always struck me as being able to win more bike races with smarts (plus skill, of course) than anyone I've seen in the last ten years. There are guys that had 'lucky' wins (even last year, with Nuyens, Van Summeren, Zaugg and Cobo springing to mind), but I would think of 'making the most' as a continual thing.

 

[ultimobici]

......all these 'big name stars' how about the underdogs who won Flanders like Jackie Durrand in '92. Or Guedon at Paris Roubaix. Or TDF stage winners like Cedric Vassuer. Or Guys like Abdoujaparov or Tchmil who came from the back end of the Soviet Union. Whats is talent?? pedaling perfectly or being able to come from nowhere and compete while living outa a dark and damp 1 room apartment/or hatchback car like Phil Anderson etc during the 80's....

p.s need I mention riders who fought in WorldWar I & II coming back from concentration camps and watnot.....competing in the G.T's back then??

Ah, Jacky Durand! The man who made grown men in Flanders cry openly in the street.

 

[woodie]

He doesn't have the most impressive palmares.

Exactly, but he's made the most out of what he's got

 

[gregrowlerson]

It's not limited, but Sastre for all of his high GT GC results. And Menchov for winning 3 GT's (or 2 if you don't scrap Heras' win). I don't think he is much more talented, if at all, then Sanchez, Kloden, Scarponi and Leipheimer; all of which have won 0 GT's.

 

[Eshnar]

I also think you can make a case for Savoldelli. Granted, his descending ability cannot be taught, but he has won two Giros against notably better climbers and TTers (though I have to admit I haven't seen the 2002 Giro).

This is bad
Basically this was the whole Giro of that year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbQvlkO-di8