James P. Spooner wrote:

"k.j.papai" wrote in message
1968-1975 is not 1991 - 2004.
Athletes are in twice the shape now and the top 100 now could probably
beat *anyone* back then all things being the same.

All things being the same take a look at the absolute hour record from the
general time period:

http://townsleyb.members.beeb.net/procycle/HOUR1.HTM

and compare it to Chris Boardman's current record. I would like to see
Lance take on this record sometime. I think there's more depth today but
the top guys aren't that much different.

Compare the year Merckx had in 1972 with the year Boardman had
in 2000. Merckx won everything in sight, Boardman was invisible.

Boardman got the record because he had health issues that were
flushing his regular road career down the tubes. That allowed
him to focus on the hour record, he wasn't giving anything
else up to do it. If he was one of the top guys he never would
have taken the hour record because he would have been too busy
doing other things to prepare properly for it.

Bob Schwartz