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The Decade
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| Deadpool |
Posted on 28-12-2009 00:35
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Now I know the decade doesn't technically end until January 1st, 2011, but as everyone else seems to be jumping the gun and declaring this the end of the decade, I don't see why we can't. At the end of every year we normally have a "review" where people post what they thought of the previous year, so I suppose we should have one for the decade.
Here's a general list of things as a template, but feel free to add anything. I've written in mine, although I must note they will be more weighted to the second half of the decade, and that is when I really became a cycling fan. Any event from 2000-2009 is eligible.
Best Rider: Boonen - 3 Paris - Roubaix's, World Champs, loads of sprint victories (Zabel 2 and Valverde 3)
Biggest Disappointment: Beloki - Really terrible his career was destroyed the way it was
Biggest Surprise: Evans - Yeah he hasn't reached the top step, but no one expected him to be this good coming over from mountain bikes (Cav 2)
Best Team: CSC - I hate Riis, but always there year in and year out, and always with a good group of riders
Best Race: Stage 16, 2004 Tour de France - Great idea for a stage, 1 million people on the Alpe, just priceless.
Most Disappointing Race: 06 Tour in general - no big guns, it was just a dumb race with everyone focused on Puerto
Best Moment: Museeuw pointing at his leg - The one he almost lost to gangrene, after winning the 2000 Paris-Roubaix
Worst Moment: Lance's "gift" to Pantani on Ventoux - Everything that is wrong about Lance in that moment.
Moment You'll Always Remember: Seems strange, but Cancellara lying on the ground at the end of the 09 World Champs. That moment just sums up bike racing for me.
Biggest Story: Doping, and everything with it, so this includes say, The Chicken and the 07 Tour
Best Story: Cycling's popularity worldwide becomes bigger and bigger
Worst Story: Doping, again including everything with it
I've probably forgotten a bunch, but there are mine, so post your answers. |
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| ruben |
Posted on 28-12-2009 02:23
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BIG LOL at Boonen
Compare that to Bettini from early 2000 to when he quit (2008)
LBL x2
Tour stages x1
Giro stages x2
Vuelta stages x5
Zürich x2
Giro del Lazio
Winner World Cup x3
Clasica San Sebastian
Milan San Remo
HEW Cyclassics
Tirreno-Adriatico
Tour of Lombardy x2
World Champion x2
Olympic Games
Italian champion x2
+tons of smaller stagewins, one day races and even general classifications of small tours
How the heck does Boonen even compare against that?
Bettini >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Boonen over the past decade bro
Edited by ruben on 28-12-2009 02:23
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| Ad Bot |
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| Deadpool |
Posted on 28-12-2009 03:37
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thats your opinion
now answer the rest of the questions |
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| issoisso |
Posted on 28-12-2009 08:44
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Best Rider: Paolo Bettini - One of the biggest a-holes the sport has ever seen. His ego and self-righteousness have no limits. But god could he ride a bike earlier in the decade.
Biggest Disappointment: Popovych - Merckx-like domination of the youth categories.....only to be nowhere near that level as a pro. But hey, he's a nice guy, so that's a plus
Biggest Surprise: Frank Schleck - He was a crappy little rider in youths. How has he done this well? (Fuentes payments aside)
Best Team: Riis Cycling - Under its various names, they've been consistently up there in a sport where teams disappear by the minute.
Best Race: 2001 Vuelta - Can there be any doubt? Each day someone different was either in the lead or looking to be strongest. I lost count at the number of different people who looked like winning it.
And of course it went to the wire, to be won on the final day, out of nowhere, by a guy who hasn't done much else in his career
Just pure win.
Most Disappointing Race: Tour de France, most years - Way too controlled and boring with nothing much happening.
Best Moment: This - I'm going off-course here a bit. My personal favorite was Cuapio at the 07 Giro taking the Devil's pitchfork and stabbing Piepoli in the ass with it for no reason other than for a laugh, on the Passo Giau, during a tense moment in the middle of a stage that was putting the entire Giro on the line.
Worst Moment: Chicken taking his shirt off - Nobody wanted to see that
Moment You'll Always Remember: Flecha's stage win celebration in 2003 - It was a stupid pun on his last name, yet somehow it was awesome
Biggest Story: I don't feel like I can pick one
Best Story: I still love cycling as much as I did before - To me that's the best thing 
The preceding post is ISSO 9001 certified
"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
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| Xavier |
Posted on 28-12-2009 10:33
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ruben wrote:
BIG LOL at Boonen
Compare that to Bettini from early 2000 to when he quit (2008)
LBL x2
Tour stages x1
Giro stages x2
Vuelta stages x5
Zürich x2
Giro del Lazio
Winner World Cup x3
Clasica San Sebastian
Milan San Remo
HEW Cyclassics
Tirreno-Adriatico
Tour of Lombardy x2
World Champion x2
Olympic Games
Italian champion x2
+tons of smaller stagewins, one day races and even general classifications of small tours
How the heck does Boonen even compare against that?
Bettini >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Boonen over the past decade bro
this his how Boonen compares to that:
Paris-Roubaix x3
Ronde van Vlaanderen x2
Tour stages x6
Green Jersey + couple of days in yellow
Vuelta stages 2
World Championship
Belgian Championship
Paris-Nice 5 stages
E3-Prijs x3
Gent-Wevelgem
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne x2
Dwars door Vlaanderen
+ tons of smaller stagewins & bla bla bla
I'm not saying Boonen was better than Bettini last decade, or that Boonen is the best rider of the past decade.
I just think his palmares does matches up to Bettinis palmares in terms of quantity/quality wins over the past decade. There isnt that much diff imo. |
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| Xavier |
Posted on 28-12-2009 10:42
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Best Rider: Paolo Bettini
Biggest Disappointment: Beloki crashing in that tdf / Mayo owning Armstrong in Dauphine and then having to be pushed up the climbs by team mates in the tour / spains attitude towards doping in general
Biggest Surprise: Valverde not getting caught / Sastre winning the tour
Best Team: Team Bruyneel, won 8 tdfs out of 10 the past decade
Best Race: Giro d'Italia has been great last couple of years, WC this year, PR & RVV each year, etc
Most Disappointing Race: Tour de France, the parcours sucks compared to other big tours, and I don't like how they try to influence the race pattern, by putting big climbs on 30km of the finnish
Best Moment: too difficult to pick
Worst Moment: Ullrich crashing in that TT when he was riding for Bianchi and pushing Armstrong all the way, Pantani & Vandenbroucke dieing, Beloki crashing
Biggest Story: too difficult to pick
Best Story: too difficult to pick  |
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| mrlol |
Posted on 28-12-2009 10:46
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So you guys are arguing between Boonen and Bettini. Ok.
I remeber a while ago there was this discussion wheter Armstrong or Merckx was the best cyclist ever, and now Armstong is unmentioned?
My turn then;
6x Tour de France
20x TDF stage (of which 4 TTT's)
Tour de Suisse + 2 stages
2x Dauphine Libere + 3 stages
And a bunch of minor stuff.
Bettini and Boonen are peanuts compared to this. (although they managed it in a lot more different races) |
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| Xavier |
Posted on 28-12-2009 10:54
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I'm not argueing over who is better, I just think its a bit unfair of Ruben to say that Boonens palmares doesnt compare to Bettinis palmares.
I agree @ Armstrong
Edited by Xavier on 28-12-2009 10:54
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| Guido Mukk |
Posted on 28-12-2009 11:00
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Hole dcade..
Best Rider: I hate Bettini..but he has been the Best (even worse candidate was Valverde)
Biggest Disappointment: I am kind of rookie in cycling. But I have seen this ...Beloki crash. This was a great rider career killer.
Biggest Surprise: Wiggins can climb
Best Team: This is between CSC and T-Mobile-Highroad-Columbia
Best Race: Can not forget ..was it 2007? Giro and Zoncolan climb. This was special cycling..and stage.
Most Disappointing Race: 09 tour...How borning one of the biggest race profile can be?
Best Moment: All realy happy and deserved stage winner faces
Worst Moment: All around Ullrich. 2006 Puerto, 2003 TT crash.
Moment You'll Always Remember: Totaly empty Cancellara after Peking TT
Biggest Story: There has been lots of it
Best Story: I am still cycling fan
Worst Story: Doping..doping..doping
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| Guido Mukk |
Posted on 28-12-2009 11:06
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he is talking about decade.. |
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| issoisso |
Posted on 28-12-2009 11:45
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mrlol wrote:
Bettini and Boonen are peanuts compared to this.
Edited by issoisso on 28-12-2009 11:52
The preceding post is ISSO 9001 certified
"I love him, I think he's great. He's transformed the sport in so many ways. Every person in cycling has benefitted from Lance Armstrong, perhaps not financially but in some sense" - Bradley Wiggins on Lance Armstrong
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 28-12-2009 11:49
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I don't feel like I can answer this thread as I've only watched cycling since the 2007 Giro. Missing 7 years of having an opinion would kinda neglect having a decades view on the sport.
EDIT: Other than the tour of course, which I've watched since Armstrong's first win.
Edited by rjc_43 on 28-12-2009 11:49
[url=cleavercycling.co.uk]  [/url] |
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| Guido Mukk |
Posted on 28-12-2009 16:12
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rjc_43 wrote:
I don't feel like I can answer this thread as I've only watched cycling since the 2007 Giro. Missing 7 years of having an opinion would kinda neglect having a decades view on the sport.
EDIT: Other than the tour of course, which I've watched since Armstrong's first win.
This is enough..I started 2006. And then watched lot of historical races.. |
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 28-12-2009 16:49
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Best Rider: Lance Armstrong. For me, ignoring personality traits and whatever anyone thinks he has or hasn't taken, Armstrong was THE only rider to compare yourself to. The Tour being the pinnacle of a riders career, whether it's a stage win, or just to finish the race, for Lance to win 7 of them. Yeah, that's big.
Biggest Disappointment: Oleg Tinkov being basically kicked out of his own team. He did for Russia what Sky has done for Britain. Given Russian's their own team, and the sport a big boost in interest in the country.
Biggest Surprise: I'm not really surprised by anything. I don't have any pre-conceptions on riders. When a rider does well, I put it down to drugs, and when someone does "badly" compared to previous performances it's due to being off the dope. So in that area, I guess Cunego was a surprise? A giro winner, and since then, bugger all - in comparison.
Best Team: Telekom/T-Mobile/Columbia-HTC/Whatever their name/form has been in. From eternal runner up, through a drugs scandal, T-Mobile has been there or there abouts at the top of the sport for the few years I've followed. Not to mention in their current format, they're the most successful team for the last two years.
Best Race: Giro 2007. First race I watched as a fan. Made me a bigger fan of cycling than I was already. Loved to see Tinkoff Credit Systems ride like idiots as well. Amazing times.
Most Disappointing Race: The Tour de France's. Since Lance last won one. Those days they seemed mystical to me. A new adventure. Plus I only watched the ITV highlight shows, which makes the boring stages interesting. Nowadays I watch the majority of the stages, which are boring as. Noone seems to attack like the do at the end of Vuelta or Giro stages. Try your hand lads! Give it a go, it might work! If not, you've just made hundreds more fans!
Best Moment: Pavel Brutt winning an 08 Giro Stage.
Worst Moment: Valverde winning a Vuelta when he's supposed to be banned from riding. Farce or what?!
Moment You'll Always Remember: Two Tinkoff riders attacking 10km out from the end of a flat Giro 07 stage. No hope of staying away, but that didn't stop them trying!
Biggest Story: Lance Armstong's returning to cycling in 2009! Anyone see it coming? I certainly didn't. Done wonders for American interest again.
Best Story: Team Sky exists.
Worst Story: There are so many badly quoted, misreferenced stories on cyclingnews, I can't just list one.
[url=cleavercycling.co.uk] [/url] |
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| ruben |
Posted on 28-12-2009 17:33
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Deadpool wrote:
thats your opinion
now answer the rest of the questions you answer my question first.
How does Boonen even rate up against Bettini?
He simply doesn't |
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| ruben |
Posted on 28-12-2009 17:43
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Oh and Xavier, Gent-Wevelgem, Kuurne, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen and Dwars door Vlaanderen are laughable races internationally compared to what Lombardy, LBL, Zurich, etc are
The fact you even name them and see them as comparable with Tour of Lombardy etc shows again how amazingly biased Flemish people are. It's insane. You can't name those races as compared to Bettini's classic wins..lol 
Here is the rest of my list btw:
Biggest Disappointment: Thomas Dekker - A two-faced bastard he is. Nice to people he needs at the moment, but you'll never hear from him when he's in shit. What an asshat. Stay away!
Biggest Surprise: Bradley Wiggins - Track rider who turns out to be a world class stage-race specialist. Wow. Didn't see that coming at all!
Best Team: US Postal/Astana w/Bruyneel: Got to give them credit for their advanced 'program' and the fact they keep getting away with it.
Best Race: 2001 Vuelta - Cannot go wrong there. See Isso's description
Most Disappointing Race: Tour de France - the fact that we expect so much of it usually makes it dissapointing.
Best Moment: Ullrich attacking Armstrong in the Tour 2003.. we had been waiting for years to see that
Worst Moment: When Kivilev died
Moment You'll Always Remember: Cancellara's efforts at the world championship in mendrisio. What a beast!
Biggest Story: Lance Armstrong coming back. WTF!
Best Story: No favoritism here. A lot of good stories.
Worst story: all the doping hysteria |
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| kumazan |
Posted on 28-12-2009 18:44
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Best Rider: Paolo Bettini. This seems to be an a$$hole fight, and one of the bigger of them is the winner. He was just the best one day rider of the decade.
Biggest Disappointment: Iban Mayo. Not the positive, but his unbelievable incapability to resist at least 100m in the TdF climbs. He was my big hope to defeat Armstrong (despite his lack of TT skills). 
Biggest Surprise: Johnny Hoogerland. I don't know if that's because I've this fresh and recent, but the way he has come of nowhere has shocked me even more than Wiggo.
Best Team: Both Riis Cycling and whatever the team the Hog is in. Maybe Riis Cycling a little better.
Best Race: This is the hardest, sure, and even more with my short term memory Still, my vote is for the Giro 2007.
Most Disappointing Race: This year's TdF. Were there really a race behind that Armstrong v Contador soap opera?
Best Moment: Erik Zabel celebrating way too soon his Milan-San Remo win in 2004.
Worst Moment: Armstrong and co. chasing Simeoni in 2004.
Moment You'll Always Remember: Manolo Saiz arrested, finally.
Biggest Story: OP.
Best Story: I couldn't pick just one.
Worst story: Doping in general. Not exclusive of this decade though. |
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| rycadinho |
Posted on 28-12-2009 18:47
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Best Rider: Lance Armstrong...Coming back from cancer to win 7 TDF's is something that no one will accomplish!
Biggest Disappointment: Landis! Christ wtf didn't you just face your loss after your crappy stage in tdf 2006 that cost you everything....instead you took a lot of dope and ended with nothing except the SHAME!
Biggest Surprise: Pereiro....All right TDF 2006 was a mess but this dude made things even more messed up 
Best Team: CSC/Saxo are for me the best team without any doubt in the last decade - triumphs in so many big races every year demands respect!
Best Race: TDF 2003 Luz Ardiden! Lance in crisis, Ullrich better than ever, Lance crashing with Mayo and finally Lance beating everyone to take a brilliant stage win!
Most Disappointing Race: TDF 2007...Rasmussen was the real winner.(TDF 2006 and 09 sucked too)
Best Moment: Frank Schleck winning the queen stage from this years tour! Without doubt the best stage in a very crappy route.
Worst Moment: Operation Puerto and it stills shows it's ugly face around
Moment You'll Always Remember: Sastres Celebration in TDF 2003 when he won his first stage in a grand tour
Biggest Story: Armstrongs comeback.
Best Story: Evans explosions in TDF 2008 Don't feel safe when that guy is around!
Worst Story: That guys like Basso can be in a great pro tour team while Rasmussen, who never have been caught for dope, can't even find a continental team to race for...
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| ursul |
Posted on 28-12-2009 19:00
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Biggest disapointment: Doping, how many great hope, promising young have been caugth?
Biggest surprise: Cavendish, so yougn, so strong
Best team: Csc, Saxo...
Best race: 2001 vuelta, simply the best.
Most dispointing race: le tour, boring, boring, boring...
best moment: Cancellara at Medrioso
worst moment: Puerto
Moment I will alway remember: Ullrich waiting for Armstrong in 2003 tdf
Biggest story: Astana in 09 tour
best story: the whole 2003 tdf, where ullrich have been so close...
worst story: doping, of course
When Nothing goes rigth, go left...
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| Guido Mukk |
Posted on 28-12-2009 20:15
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hm...
you are talking about..where I can get a video from 2001 Vuelta |
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