jamesdak 

I see them differently. Bolt at least is built and mechanically looks like he should be fast. When he get's serious in a race you see the form tighten up with the speed. Froome is one of the most awkward looking things on a bike. Floppy around all over the place, head down, weaving, no efficiency and he rides away. One makes sense (to a degree), one doesn't.....

dirtydozen

Lance Armstrong, Robbie Mc Ewen, Alexander Vinokourov

bruce19

Gino Bartali...for his humanity.

Gino Bartali: The cyclist who saved Jews in wartime Italy - BBC News

merlinextraligh

Did a training camp that he ran. He was way more interested in establishing that he was John Howard and could still drop you, than he was in coaching his paying clients.

Scarbo

^^^^
Gent sounds like a "serious" cyclist.

cold turtle

Rusty Woods

Hiro11

Hinault. Because he became Le Patron at age 24, won five Tours, rode with old school panache and attacked because he felt like it, had some sweet Ray-Bans, ****ed with Lemond because he could and wore the two best kits in racing history (Renault and La Vie Claire). He won Paris-Roubaix even though he thought it was a race was for "idiots", he won L-B-L in the middle of a snowstorm with no gloves and summer clothes and permanently damaged his hands in doing so. He is the very definition of a tough, no excuses Breton. As a rider, he had no fear of anyone and never backed off. He'd crash and get back on the damned bike and ride harder than ever.

Hinault was a prima donna and has many skeletons of the doping variety in his closet. He's also a unrepentant jerk on par with Armstrong. However, he was one of the last, old school heroic riders before EPO, radios and power meters turned everyone into robots. He could back up his bravado on the road.

bruce19

What he did with LeMond was the essence of French chauvinism. I'm not a fan. LeMond let him win no. 5 on team orders. Then he won, was shot and missed two years and came back. I'll go with Greg every time.

Hiro11

You're focusing entirely on the '86 Tour. The man was in the twilight of his career that year. The whole Lemond/Hinault saga was really a small part of his overall career.

As I said previously, Hinault is a jerk of the first order. I'd argue that most champions are. I won't argue about his personality. However, I will argue with the idea that Lemond was entirely the victim and Hinault entirely the villain of this story.

Overall, I get the "Slaying the Badger" argument that Hinault "owed" Lemond. I've both read Moore's book and seen the ESPN 30:30 episode. Clearly, Lemond and Moore have some good points about a partisan peloton, a partisan race organization and a clearly two faced La Vie Claire team leadership. However, there are several issues that Moore minimizes that are in fact major counterpoints to his overall story. For example, it was hardly clear that Lemond was stronger than Hinault in '86. After all, Hinault won both TTs and Lemond failed to drop Hinault in the climbs. Also, Hinault rode an aggressive, attacking race while Lemond followed the wheel. Hinault animated the race while Lemond expected it to fall his way. Also, Moore and the documentary play Koechli's idea to put Hinault in the break as some sort of betrayal when in fact that's a standard race tactic: you put a strong rider into the break to take the pressure off of your GC guy and team. Is it Hinault's fault that LVC (who had a ridiculously powerful set of domestiques that year) often failed to catch him? I'd argue no. Overall, Hinault always wanted to win and was arguably the stronger rider. You can't really fault him for that.

gsindela

Why not much love for Froome?

Dan333SP

A few reasons. The way he's won his tours (with the exception of that attacking descent last year) have been pretty boring. He rides with the Sky train and makes up tons of time in TTs, which is fine, but it doesn't make for much drama, especially when the other overall contenders have nowhere near the team firepower.

He's also always going to be surrounded by doping allegations because of Sky and the fallout about Wiggins in the past year.

I also think that some purists think he "looks bad" on the bike with his strange gangly pedaling style and habit of staring at his stem. Don't underestimate the power aesthetics play in who people pick as their favorite rider. I don't think Sagan would have as many fans if he looked as awkward on the bike as Froome.

Beyond all that, he's a TdF specialist these days. That's great for the team, but if you're a keen cycling fan you'll likely prefer an all-rounder.

cold turtle

I've never understood the reasoning behind those first two points. Shouldn't we blame the 2nd - 5th place riders for not creating any drama, rather than blaming the winner. And many of the riders listed on this thread have been convicted/admitted to doping, yet that doesn't keep them from having fans.

Dan333SP

I don't disagree. I like Froome. I saw a documentary on his life and found him to be very personable and wry. I just think any time a single team controls the race to the extent that Sky has during their run, it frustrates people. They want to see the gung ho solo attack against the odds rather than the 6 teammates pulling back the attacks over and over with the overall margin largely dictated by TT dominance.

topflightpro

I'd have to go with my wife.

bruce19

Just to clarify, I have always thought that the team ordered LeMond to back off in the '85 TdF when he wanted to attack. At least that's what I read.

Fox Farm

That was unfortunate of him. I guess he does not have the right personality for training others in groups.

merlinextraligh

That was my experience. He may have mellowed with age, as he's gotten further away from his own glory days.

dirtydozen

To me there's a huge difference between eras.

Armstrong got busted yeah, but at his time everyone was on drugs. EPO golden era. If everybody cheats the same way, it cancels it out doesn't it ?

Now to me, it looks like Froomey is cheating but the others look clean. And that's not fair. I respect your opinion if you think he doesn't cheat, but that's how i see things

Scarbo

Fausto Coppi.

Argon_18

For me, it's a tossup between Jens Voight and Super Mario.

Doge

Me too (my wife, not yours).

diphthong

ullrich, hampsten, jose maria jimenez and vinokourov (the latter for sheer chutzpah and animation of races).

Clipped_in

That beard cost him some serious wattage! I hope he shaves his leg or he may as well go home...

dksix

My favorite is Matt Stevens but Daniel and Simon are pretty good too.

Nachoman

I guess my dad. This is a jersey he gave to me, after he crashed and never got back on his bike again.
I remember being a kid, when he came home with an Austro Daimler, Vent Noir, with top of the line campy, that he paid about a thousand dollars for.
We all thought he was nuts. So did the neighbors.
He probably pedaled two or three times a week for a couple decades.