rank these climbers.

cyclingheroes

Pantani! But Coppi should be on that list as well.

Before I started to race, we organised our Tour de France (as I was ... I don't know I guess I was about 7 or 8 years old. I lived in the Netherlands at that time and we rode 'wild' races with about 30 - 40 kids from our neighbourhoud. My mother was always upset as I was dreaming of being Lucien van Impe and flying on those mountains (at our Tour de France the mountains were the bridges, in the Netherlands we don't have mountains...). So I won the polk dot jersey several times and had to draw red circles on my white t-shirts... The rhine bridge in Arnhem was Alpe d'Huez

Later I enjoyed looking to Theunisse and Delgado. Especially Delgado. I raced myself and loved Indurain. Although he was somehow boring... his way to sit on a bike. Just perfect. Than I lost interest a little bit and just rode my bike without really following cycling. And Than Pantani came and later Ullrich. In 1999 VDB came up. Yes he was doped but he also had this perfect style like Indurain had (by the way I joined him in January for a litlle ride and he still has this perfect techniquie, even as he didn't had any results the last couple of years... strong body, perfect technique, nice person, weak mind... psycho...)

Of course as I am professionally follwing cycling since 2002 I kept following it but I lost a my interest a bit when Armstrong showed up in 1999 ( I was still interested, but not that enthousiastic). I don't want to start the next LA bashing. I just thought it was boring. Doped or not, it was a great thing he achieved from 1999 until 2005. You don't only achieve that by going to the right doctor. I think Ullrich's physical abilities were much better (although climbing wasn't his specail thing) but LA won not just because he has a better 'programm' (which he definitly had) but also because he was mentally stronger (but therefore Jan is a person I really like.. and it has definitly something to do with that). The thing is that LA was racing like a machine (with his team). It wasn't fun to watch (for me!). It wasn't like Pantani shows up and you know something is going to happen.

Of course that's all very personal. For the classics I really like Boogerd. He didn't win much but he is a nice guy to speak with, to work with and to watch. Even if he didn't win much, you knew he would attack. Clever or not: an Ardennes classic with Boogerd was nerver boring. Often on the podium, almost never on the top spot. With Ullrich ot was the same, both are very nice guys to talk with and I don't think its a coincedence. I like Dekker as well, but watching him at a race will never be as entertaining as watching Boogerd.

I hoped it would be more exiting again after Armstrong but than the 2006 Tour came and everybody knows what happened. The 2007 Tour was a disaster as well. I hope things will get better and this years Paris - nice seems to be an indictaion that it really is getting better (I have to admit that I didn't believe in it but its the best stage race that I have seen for years).

Back to the climbers: Is it a coincedence that a lot of climbers ended in a tragic way? I don't think so. These guys have a 'different' character and are used to suffer. Jiminez, Pantani and Coppi ended in a tragic way. I would really like to know if there is something in their soul which make them so special and what makes them an easy target for the 'hard' business of pro cycling.

It may sound pathethic. But there is no Giro without a short visit to Pantani's graveyard for me. I don't stay long. Maybe 5 minutes - but there is something inside of me that really force me to go there. After that a good ride along the coast from Cesenatico to Rimin and a few smaller climbs away from the coast I really feel well and sad at the same time. Maybe it is because I knew Marco was in deep shit before he died and I was in Italy (for a holiday) at the time he did. I really felt bad and our holiday was ruined. I had the feeling I did not do anything for him although I knew that the wolves decided that they could sell a lot of material with a Pantani in trouble (colleagues told me the cynical number that Pantani was finished anyway and it would bring sold copies and quotes).

Maybe that's the reason that I often try to support the riders nowadays. I know that the riders are not the problem, its the system.

Oh yes... favourite climbers: Pantani and Van Impe. and: Luis Herrera (the Condor).

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Crankyfeet

Wow. Nice personal story CH...

I'm with you on the system.

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cyclingheroes

It had to be personal... I started following cycling as a kid because of the climbers...
Its still fascinating

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fscyclist

My favorite climber that I've seen is Indurain. We rarely got to see his true capability, but when he showed it, it was amazing. He was graceful, powerful, and ultra-smooth; true class.

One of my favorite stages of the Tour remains his ride to La Plagne in '95. Zulle is up the road and Indurain realizes he has to catch him. Seemingly without effort, he just rolls up the pace, never even gets out of the saddle and sheds the best 'climbers' in the business. I love watching that video of Indurain on the front, smooth as ever, and see Chiappuci, Rominger, Virenque, Tonkov all suffer then explode. What makes him a champion of the sport is he could have done this more frequently but didn't.

Crankyfeet

I think I might go to your part of the Netherlands to attempt some of those Alps climbs... . I might make it to the top of those bridges. I bet you just powered up the d'Huez when you were a kid...

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nonameboy

thanks .youre the only one who did what i asked.

Tonto

Lucho Herrera. A true angel of the skies with a face made for suffering. He accelerated like Pantani, but in more innocent times for both cycling and for me, those accelerations are imbued with more romance than Marco's could ever be.

vitamin s

lucho herrera was the man. gert thieunisse was also an exciting guy to watch back in the day, on the juice or not.

The Double Zero

Marco Pantani
Mikael Rasmussen
Richard Virenque
Gilberto Simoni
Leonardo Piepoli
Fernando Escartin
Ivan Gotti
Roberto Heras
Claudio Chiapucci
Luc Leblanc
Jose Maria Jimenez
Francesco Casagrande

This is my first post in about 6 months, I had given up on this forum as it turned into a farce with all the crap that was going on with hijacking every thread. It looks like now I can come back and actualyy talk about cycling!

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vitamin s

dont have many problems with bro deals rankings.

the thing i think should be noted is that guys like rasmussen may be better climbers, but chiapucci and leblanc were 2 of the best tacticians in the game. they didnt have the physical capabilities of a pantani or ras by any stretch of the imagination, but they knew how to race in the mountains as well as anybody.

nonameboy

cheers

classic1

Oh no, another doping apologist.

limerickman

I was fortunate to be at the 1995 TDF - and to see Indurain climbing at Alp D'Huez stage and the Guize Neige stage.
Superb stuff it was too ; Pantani had flown and Indurain was doing his damndest to minimise the time loss to MP.

Baking hot days.......Indurain passed by, Banesto jersey stuck to his back, you could see his lungs expanding/contracting under his sweat soaked jersey, hands on the drops, pedalling like a metronome.
Superb.

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.."But finally the last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. [I]I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles. You should believe in these athletes, and you should believe in these people. I'll be a fan of the Tour de France for as long as I live. And there are no secrets" - this is a hard sporting event and hard work wins it - Armstrong 2005 TDF
morelike hypocrisy.

bigpedaler

1-9. Fausto Coppi !!!
10. Charly Gaul
13. Pantani
14. Escartin
15. Jimenez
16. Heras
17. Rasmussen
18. Casagrande
19. Gotti
20. Virenque
21. Simoni

no opinion on the others....

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