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#1
03-28-2004, 08:08 AM
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So who is the greatest of all time?
Spinning off the tail of another thread:
Who do you think the greatest cyclist of all time is (besides me) is? If you answer, please justify the choice. And the jerk doesn't count either!! 
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#2
03-28-2004, 08:17 AM
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Imho....
These guys are in the same group:
1) Munson 2) Merckx 3) Hinault 4) Fignon* 5) Coppi 6) the jerk * yes, Fignon, he's won a number of races that others have not!
__________________
"Serotta fellowship is a good thing..." PBWrench
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#4
03-28-2004, 09:23 AM
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Merckx !
Dave
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#5
03-28-2004, 09:59 AM
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There can really be no debate.
Merckx is clearly head and shoulders above the rest.
After that is clear, it is possible to talk about others being careful to not mix generations. Big names include (in no particular order) Hinault Kelly Lemond Coppi Bartali Indurain Anquetil Fignon I am sure I am missing some great ones here too. But these guys come right to mind. Lance Armstrong must also be included here. His mastery of the TdF is not to be discounted. He has won it 5 times and has won other significant races. I would like to see him to more, but who am I to argue with 5 TdF wins. But even if he wins 6 Tours he will not be the greatest. Merckx won, for example, 5 Giri d'Italia, Milano-San Remo 7 times, P-R, L-B-L, and on and on and on. Nobody else even comes close to Mr. Eddy Merckx. To top it off he is a nice guy. I met him once and he could have simply not taken the time to meet with a nobody racer from the US, but he met me in his factory and it was cool. Great racer and great guy.
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#7
03-28-2004, 10:55 AM
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i am the master of my driveway. i have never been beat between the door and the street. (of course, i've never been raced either, but that's beside the point. i'm still my driveway champion.)
ohh, do you mean outside my little reclusive world? the obvious answer to make the crowd cheer is merckx. i think an interesting addition to this thread is to ask, who is the most inspiring cyclist? my answer to that question is lemond. when i was a kid, he inspired me to ride. he was beyond cool. i even had his black and yellow giro helmet.
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#8
03-28-2004, 11:36 AM
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gt6267a, you are right!
I think gt6267a statement is right.... I rather see great riders as inspirational riders. Merckx has achieved just too much to be inspirational, he is almost like a cycling God.
I do agree about Greg LeMond as my most inspirational rider. I just can not put him on the same achievement level as Hinault or Fignon... Perhaps he is out there with Indurain, Roche, and others I don't remember. IMHO, Hinault and Fignon won sereral Classics and other Tours, which LeMond never entered or finished. A lot f credit goes to him for coming from the USA to Europe.... But....
__________________
"Serotta fellowship is a good thing..." PBWrench
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#9
03-28-2004, 12:27 PM
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Merckx.
Kevin
__________________
"Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill" - Fausto Coppi "Never use your face as a brake pad" - Jake Watson "You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you are having a good day." - Daniel Behrman
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#10
03-28-2004, 12:33 PM
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some guy named eddy.
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#11
03-28-2004, 01:14 PM
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As Krsna says in the Bhagavadgita, "Of mountains, I am the Himalayas; of rivers, I am the Ganga; of cyclists, I am Merckx..."
Well, maybe that last one isn't in there but it makes the point. I am too old to have been inspired by LeMond though he is redoutable. For me as a shop rat kid in 1969 there was only Eddy...a bit like being a mariner who once saw Nelson on the quarterdeck as a mere reefer midshipman. dbrk
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#12
03-28-2004, 01:47 PM
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Munson, Merckx , Hinault
1) Munson
2) Merckx 3) Hinault after that the list becomes difficult or even meaningless because we end up arguing about stuff like....."Armstrong only does the Tdf" "Kelly and Zoetemelk (sp?) had loads of second places" "Bahamontes was the best in the mountains" ....hair splitting..... and anyway there are more urgent things to argue about like how many angels you can get on the point of a needle etc etc.. AF
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#13
03-28-2004, 01:52 PM
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Clearly Eddy is in the lead...
but can I put my vote in for Sandy? He's clearly won the heart of everyone in this forum.
Why, I can't imagine. 
__________________
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#14
03-28-2004, 02:01 PM
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Why!
I didn't say why I chose Munson, Merckx and Hinault....but it is obvious...isn't it?
Anyway Mr Munson who is second and third on your list and why? A
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#15
03-28-2004, 02:24 PM
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Eddy Merckx without a doubt. When I was a wee lad living in Germany one of our German neighbors was a huge cycling fan. He loved Merkckx. He also loved beer. Bitburger by the way.
My family would go to Liege to the open air market maybe once a month, and I'd be looking for Eddy out on the roads. This was '74 - '76 and to an eight year old it was entirely possible.
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