It's Eddy Merckx not Lance!
Lance Armstrong recently won his seventh consecutive tour de france, a phenomenal achievement! yet he isn’t regarded as the greatest-ever cyclist! Great cyclists such as Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain say Lance Armstrong is not necessarily the greatest cyclist ever. Hinault won the Tour five times while Indurain won the Tour each year from 1991 to 1995.
So now who is regarded as the greatest cyclist of all time? the answer is Eddy Merckx.
In his Tour de France debut in 1969, Merckx won the yellow jersey (overall leader), the green jersey (best sprinter) and the red polka-dotted jersey ("King of the Mountains" - best climber in the mountain stages). No other cyclist has achieved this trifecta in the Tour de France, and only Laurent Jalabert has been able to match this feat at the grand tours level, in the 1995 Vuelta a Espana. If the young riders' white jersey (for best rider in the Tour that is under 25 years of age) had existed at that time, Merckx would have won that as well, as he had only just turned 24.
Eddy Merckx, has 525 pro victories that include four world championships , five Tours de France, five Tours of Italy (Giro d'Italia), a Vuelta a España and the hour record, cycling’s most hallowed benchmark. And he did all this in about 1,500 starts. With 34 Tour de France stage wins and 96 days in the yellow jersey — both records — King Eddy’s dominance is unquestionable. The fact that even Armstrong can’t eclipse the Merckx record for days in yellow (despite riding in 11 Tours versus 7 by Merckx) makes Merckx a Tour giant. The Belgian is still the only man to win the maillot jaune, King of the Mountains and sprint jerseys in a single year — and he did it at his first-ever Tour, which he won by a crushing 18 minutes.
Lance’s singular focus on the Tour, and only the Tour, is why he isn’t the greatest-ever cyclist despite those seven titles. No racer in history has enjoyed that kind of advantage. There have been other racers who built their seasons around the Tour, like Jacques Anquetil and Greg LeMond. But Armstrong is the only competitor to have an entire team built around him for the express purpose of riding into Paris in yellow.
In beating cancer, he’s an inspiration. But in beating cancer and conquering the Tour, he’s larger than life and where do I place Lance, Among the greatest sportsmen of all time.
So now who is regarded as the greatest cyclist of all time? the answer is Eddy Merckx.
In his Tour de France debut in 1969, Merckx won the yellow jersey (overall leader), the green jersey (best sprinter) and the red polka-dotted jersey ("King of the Mountains" - best climber in the mountain stages). No other cyclist has achieved this trifecta in the Tour de France, and only Laurent Jalabert has been able to match this feat at the grand tours level, in the 1995 Vuelta a Espana. If the young riders' white jersey (for best rider in the Tour that is under 25 years of age) had existed at that time, Merckx would have won that as well, as he had only just turned 24.
Eddy Merckx, has 525 pro victories that include four world championships , five Tours de France, five Tours of Italy (Giro d'Italia), a Vuelta a España and the hour record, cycling’s most hallowed benchmark. And he did all this in about 1,500 starts. With 34 Tour de France stage wins and 96 days in the yellow jersey — both records — King Eddy’s dominance is unquestionable. The fact that even Armstrong can’t eclipse the Merckx record for days in yellow (despite riding in 11 Tours versus 7 by Merckx) makes Merckx a Tour giant. The Belgian is still the only man to win the maillot jaune, King of the Mountains and sprint jerseys in a single year — and he did it at his first-ever Tour, which he won by a crushing 18 minutes.
Lance’s singular focus on the Tour, and only the Tour, is why he isn’t the greatest-ever cyclist despite those seven titles. No racer in history has enjoyed that kind of advantage. There have been other racers who built their seasons around the Tour, like Jacques Anquetil and Greg LeMond. But Armstrong is the only competitor to have an entire team built around him for the express purpose of riding into Paris in yellow.
In beating cancer, he’s an inspiration. But in beating cancer and conquering the Tour, he’s larger than life and where do I place Lance, Among the greatest sportsmen of all time.
posted by GS at 12:05 AM
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