Ahhh now I see. Cancer definitely made lance a better Tour rider.
My humble opinion...not that it means anything: LeMond was probably the cleanest. Merckx was greatest overall rider ever. Hinault was the best French rider ever. Armstrong was the best Tour rider ever.
Deadpool wrote:
He had a testicle removed during his bout with cancer.
The hormonal difference this made could have actually contributed to his victories, but a friend of mine attributes his victories to the "streamlined profile" it made.
getting your nut lopped off does not give you an advantage. And if it did he certainly wouldn't have wanted his ball chopped off anyways.
Deadpool wrote:
Eddy may have been on the dope, but that was not as effective as the drugs they use now, and I believe that it was less of an advantage. So he still gets my vote for best rider, if not cleanest.
That's about right. Before EPO and Growth Hormons were introduced into cycling, people used to say that dope allowed riders to use 100% of their bodies. EPO and Growth Hormons created new men, allowing them to break all human limits.
Why? well, for one, he didn't rest. He rode all the classics, cobbles, hills, whatever, then he rode the stage races, Giro, sometimes Vuelta, Tour de France, all the stage races in between, then the end of season classics, then the six-day races on the track in the winter, then on to the next season, over and over again.
Yes, this (plus the crash) and his "ride as fast as possible at all times" style burnt him out by age 30. But for about 6 years he was quite unbelievable.
He won a gigantic multitude of important races, including 19 total editions of the 5 major classics, 3 world championships, one vuelta, 5 giros, 5 tours (could easily have been more), 64 Grand Tour stages, and several hour records that even Chris Boardman could only beat by 10 meters despite training specifically for it for a whole season (Merckx did it after a whole season of racing)
And let's look at his Tour de France performances, shall we?
1969: Won by 17:54. Won 6 stages. Also won the mountains, sprints, combativity and combination classifications. If the young riders' classification existed, he'd have won it as well
from here on, he was affected by a life-threatning crash and was never the same again. He was always in constant pain and his riding suffered a lot because of it. And yes, that IS quite unbelievable
1970: won by 12:41. Won 8 stages. Plus the mountains jersey. was second in the points by a very small margin
1971: won by 9:51. plus 4 stages and the points' jersey
1972: won by 10:41. plus the points. plus 6 stages. You can argue he wouldn't have won if Ocaña hadn't crashed. You'd be right. But I could counter-argue that Ocaña only got away because he attacked when Merckx was changing bike after a mechanical failure.
1973: decided to race the Vuelta instead
1974: won by 8:04. plus 8 stages, despite a broken tailbone and constantly bleeding from the surgery on it (the surgery was 5 days before the tour)
1975: Was leading when a spectator punched him in the liver. A few stages later he crashed. Rode 3 mountain stages and a time trial while vomiting every half hour or so because of internal liver hemorrage and did the last mountain stage and timetrial with a broken jaw that meant he couldn't drink, only eat. Still finished second at 2:47. Won 2 stages, one of them with both the broken jaw and the liver problems.
1976: didn't ride due to multiple injuries that required surgery.
1977: finished sixth overall despite riding the last week with disentery. yes, DISENTERY.
Merckx proved that with unbelievable talent, it's possible to win with no tactical sense whatsoever. As a person, he was hated by most for being a megalomaniac and just simply dumb as a door. But there's no denying his physical skills and his unbelievable mental strength.
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"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
