Foils of the Great Ones

Merckx and Ocana

"Scribe2b" skrev i en meddelelse
...
to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of
enormous talent against which to try themselves.
like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)
lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

"Scribe2b" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of
enormous talent against which to try themselves.
like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)

more like Anquetil & Poulidor

lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

--
Ron

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 04:13:54 +0000, Scribe2b wrote:

to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of enormous talent against which to try themselves. like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)
lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

Indurain - Tony Rominger

"Lars Mikkelsen" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 04:13:54 +0000, Scribe2b wrote:

to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of enormous talent against which to try themselves. like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)
lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

Indurain - Tony Rominger




Rominger gave it his best, but never was really much of a threat to win. He
lost by 5+ minutes every time.

IMO, Indurain didn't have a single great rival.

"Kurgan Gringioni" wrote in
message t...

"Lars Mikkelsen" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 04:13:54 +0000, Scribe2b wrote:

to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of enormous talent against which to try themselves. like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)
lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

Indurain - Tony Rominger




Rominger gave it his best, but never was really much of a threat to win.
He
lost by 5+ minutes every time.

IMO, Indurain didn't have a single great rival.

I think he only got close in the '93 Tour. Rominger was a great stage racer
that only started winning Tours when his allergies became less of an
intrusion in the summer months. Early in his career he had some great wins
in the early and late season races. The 1993 Tour was a great one for Tony
since he won 3 stages and the KOM jersey. He lost time in the TTT, the early
ITT (where his poor TTT result forced him to ride in bad weather since he
was buried on GC) but one of those three stage victories was in the last
ITT. He was never again on the podium and only cracked the top 10 2 more
times. The press had him as the only real challenger to Indurain but as I
said, that only really happened once.

Chiappucci was also billed as a challenger because of his audacious tactics
that allowed him to take of the great mountain exploits of his generation as
he won the 13th stage in the 1992 Tour. Again, although he made it to the
podium 3 times, nobody ever really thought he had a chance to beat Indurain.
He was greatly appreciated as the man that kept the races interesting since
the other Italian challenger was considered a bit to timid.

Bugno was the "Ullrich" of his generation and by that I mean that he was
considered to rarely race to his potential. His complete domination of the
1990 Giro was supposed to be a precursor of great victories, but they never
quite filled the ultra high expectation heaped on him by the tifosi. He did
go on to win the World's road race twice, won 4 stages (including 2 wins at
Alp d'Huez) on the way to placing on the TDF podium twice.

Riis wanted to be the great foil to Indurain and was sad when Big Mig
crumbled while attempting his 6th consecutive win. Riis spent most of his
career as a domestique, initially working for Fignon and then changing over
to Italians teams up until he finally won the Tour for Telekom. His best
result prior to his win in the 1996 Tour was 3rd place and that was
considered and anomaly considering his career to date. Riis considered it
part of his planned ascension to the top of the podium since he had place
5th in the 1993 Tour.

I don't believe I have forgotten anyone. In summary, there were great racers
in the Indurain years but nobody up to his caliber, I have to agree that
Indurain did not have a single rival that could be considered near his
equal. All great racers in their own right, but Mig was in a class of his
own.

Nick Burns wrote:

Riis wanted to be the great foil to Indurain and was sad when Big Mig
crumbled while attempting his 6th consecutive win. Riis spent most of his
career as a domestique, initially working for Fignon and then changing over
to Italians teams up until he finally won the Tour for Telekom. His best
result prior to his win in the 1996 Tour was 3rd place and that was
considered and anomaly considering his career to date. Riis considered it
part of his planned ascension to the top of the podium since he had place
5th in the 1993 Tour.

Some people consider his Tour victory to be an anomaly.

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 16:40:59 GMT, "Nick Burns"
wrote:


"Kurgan Gringioni" wrote in
message t...

"Lars Mikkelsen" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 04:13:54 +0000, Scribe2b wrote:

to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of enormous talent against which to try themselves. like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)
lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

Indurain - Tony Rominger




Rominger gave it his best, but never was really much of a threat to win.
He
lost by 5+ minutes every time.

IMO, Indurain didn't have a single great rival.

I think he only got close in the '93 Tour. Rominger was a great stage racer
that only started winning Tours when his allergies became less of an
intrusion in the summer months. Early in his career he had some great wins
in the early and late season races. The 1993 Tour was a great one for Tony
since he won 3 stages and the KOM jersey. He lost time in the TTT, the early
ITT (where his poor TTT result forced him to ride in bad weather since he
was buried on GC) but one of those three stage victories was in the last
ITT. He was never again on the podium and only cracked the top 10 2 more
times. The press had him as the only real challenger to Indurain but as I
said, that only really happened once.

Chiappucci was also billed as a challenger because of his audacious tactics
that allowed him to take of the great mountain exploits of his generation as
he won the 13th stage in the 1992 Tour. Again, although he made it to the
podium 3 times, nobody ever really thought he had a chance to beat Indurain.
He was greatly appreciated as the man that kept the races interesting since
the other Italian challenger was considered a bit to timid.

Bugno was the "Ullrich" of his generation and by that I mean that he was
considered to rarely race to his potential. His complete domination of the
1990 Giro was supposed to be a precursor of great victories, but they never
quite filled the ultra high expectation heaped on him by the tifosi. He did
go on to win the World's road race twice, won 4 stages (including 2 wins at
Alp d'Huez) on the way to placing on the TDF podium twice.

Riis wanted to be the great foil to Indurain and was sad when Big Mig
crumbled while attempting his 6th consecutive win. Riis spent most of his
career as a domestique, initially working for Fignon and then changing over
to Italians teams up until he finally won the Tour for Telekom. His best
result prior to his win in the 1996 Tour was 3rd place and that was
considered and anomaly considering his career to date. Riis considered it
part of his planned ascension to the top of the podium since he had place
5th in the 1993 Tour.

I don't believe I have forgotten anyone.

Olano.


Regards!
Stephen

"Ron D." wrote in news:3f1e3828$0$16692
:

"Scribe2b" a écrit dans le message de news:
...
to achieve legends by drama, all heroes need their very near rivalsm
racers of
enormous talent against which to try themselves.
like...
coppi and bartali
anquetil and guillmard (???)

more like Anquetil & Poulidor

lemond and fignon
armstrong and ullrich
any others????

--
Ron



don't forget Merckx and Poulidor too (a 2nd place, 2 3rds and a 7th when
Merckx won)