A few years back an American sportswriter named Bill Simmons (who is amazing, by the way. For any American sports fans, check him out at grantland.com) published 'The Book of Basketball', obviously about the eponymous game. A couple of months back I decided to try and apply his Hall of Fame Pyramid idea from the book to cycling, but the task was a little too big. However, re-reading the book recently gave me the idea of adapting his 'Wine Cellar Team' idea, and I've been obsessed with it ever since.
The idea is basically this. An alien race descends on earth and challenges us to a game of basketball. If we win, they leave, if they win, the earth is destroyed. Using a time machine that allows you to select any player in history, what team do you choose? As an additional wrinkle, because you have to get the player from a certain point in time, what specific year (hence the wine cellar, where it isn't just the wine, but the vintage of wine that matters) do you get them from.
Here is my cycling version (and it is impossibly stupid, but that's not the point). Humanity is asked to join an intergalactic Grand Tour, for which we have the same ability to select any rider from history. If we do well we get an amazing prize, and if we do badly we get destroyed. It is a modern style race, so 21 stages over 23 days, with the stage lengths, climbs, etc., that one of the Tour, Vuelta, or Giro have. We are told nothing of the specific course though, except that one stage will have a TTT. Other than that we know nothing. In addition, to make it so every team competes for everything, the points system they will use for total team success isn't known to us. As such, we have no idea how much the GC is worth vs. Sprint vs. KOM vs. stage wins.
Couple notes:
1) We're using modern technology, although Sean Kelly can still use toe clips if he wants and you pick him. As an added bonus, if you even want you can choose the team gear. I'd go Cervelo R5CA and Specialized Venge road bikes, Trek Speed Concept TT bikes, Campy Super Record, and Zipp wheels.
2) There will be no doping controls at the race. If you don't want to choose dopers it is up to you, but they aren't being ruled out.
3) This is the big one. You can't just choose the best 9 riders of all time for your team. You have to choose riders that will understand their roles and work together. Keep this in mind.
4) You are getting the rider in the peak of their form for the given year. So if a rider had a lackluster season other than one race they absolutely dominated, that is a valid reason to select them.
5) GC, Points, and KOM are the only jerseys in play.
6) I'm giving my selections, my thought process, and my alternates. Obviously this detail isn't required. Also, in case it wasn't obvious, the number of each different type of rider is your own.
Anywhere, here is my team, and I'm itching to learn all of yours.
1 - Team Leader: '70 Eddy Merckx, aka The Greatest of All Time was the only option for team leader, and the 1970 vintage, winner of the Giro and Tour (8 stage wins in the latter), plus Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Roubaix, and La Fleche Wallone, with podiums at RVV and LBL, is the clear choice.
2 - Alternate Leader: The obvious choices were Coppi and Hinault, and I went back and forth on them for a while (settling on Coppi) before realizing that under no circumstances were either of them yielding to Merckx, and we couldn't risk a Hinault-attempting-to-submarine-Lemond-type scenario. As such, we're giving it to '37 Bartali. I seriously considered sending '42 Bartali, because although he wasn't racing at the time it would have been his physical peak, but we'll have to settle for the rider who won the Giro and MSR, and who after an awful start had stormed back to lead the Tour before getting crashed out by a teammate. Bartali might have been competitive, but he was such a character guy there is no way he is putting his ego ahead of humanity's survival, plus we're getting around 95% of Hinault and Coppi's abilities. EDIT: Worth noting I did consider Armstrong here as well, but discarded him pretty quickly as compared to Hinault and Coppi. He gets disqualified for the exact same reason as those two, BTW.
3 - Sprinter: '09 Cavendish, with 6 Tour wins, 3 Giro wins, and MSR is our clear winner. Because (as you'll see) we won't be sending a full sprint train I briefly considered Zabel (probably not as fast, but better all-round rider) or McEwen (best without a train) but decided to stay with Cavendish, who I think has established himself as the fastest road sprinter ever.
4 - All-Rounder/Stage Hunter: Toyed around with Simpson (better climber) or De Vlaeminck (also a lead-out man), but ultimately decided against them due to Simpson's lack of experience and that De Vlaeminck wouldn't yield to Cavendish and wouldn't work for Merckx, and so I ended up where I started, with '84 Kelly. His best season overall, and his 5th in the Tour proves he can be very helpful in the mountains. Mainly we have him though to go for the medium mountain stages (as well as the cobble stages if there are any), and he can also help Cavendish in the sprints if need be.
5/6 - Non-Mountain Domestiques: Two extremely obvious choices (for me anyway) in '09 Fabian Cancellara (not his best overall year, but the form he was in for the Worlds is the best I've ever seen him) and the Jens-Voigt-before-Jens-Voigt, '62 Rudi Altig. Both can challenge for ITT's, are going to be our main powerhouses for the TTT, and can do anything we need, chase breaks, help if/when we see cobbles, and be of at least some assistance in the mountains. Two do-everything riders.
7 - KOM Hunter/Mountain Domestique: Initially thought I'd go Bahamontes here, but decided against him because we couldn't send him out ahead of the last climb, otherwise he'd lose any and all advantage on the descents. His replacement isn't great going downhill, but we probably won't run into him eating ice cream at the side of the road. As such, '98 Pantani is our selection for this role, which is basically that we send him up the road early in the climbs of every mountain stage, to a) pick up KOM points and target the jersey, b) make it so we don't have to work, and c) help out Merckx if the Belgian reaches him (think Monfort for Schleck on stage 18 of the 2011 Tour).
8/9 - Mountain Domestiques: Lots of options here, but we're going '07 Rassmussen (as good a climber as any other pre-suspension Rassmussen vintage, and less of a TTT liability) and '75 Van Impe here. Those two shouldn't have any issues keeping up in the mountains.
Also, for shits, we're selecting '09 Bruyneel as our director, because of his experience and his at least capable job of managing the huge egos on that Astana squad.
Final Roster:
'70 Eddy Merckx
'37 Gino Bartali
'09 Mark Cavendish
'84 Sean Kelly
'09 Fabian Cancellara
'62 Rudi Altig
'98 Marco Pantani
'07 Michael Rassmussen
'75 Lucien Van Impe
So Merckx for the overall with Bartali in place to help/take over if he falters. Cavendish for the sprints, where although he won't have a train per se Kelly, Cancellara, and Altig and can all help him get in position. Merckx, Cancellara, and Altig will power the team during the TTT and can all challenge for the individual TT's, while Kelly will hunt stages and Pantani will go for the KOM and possibly a mountain top finish or two. Plus, I think the roles are pretty clearly differentiated, and we shouldn't have to worry about internal strife that much,
So let me here what you all think. There are a million different possible combinations for this, and I'm interested to see what people come up with.
Edited by Deadpool on 22-05-2012 01:41
Team Leader '04 Lance Armstrong - Lance will forever be at least mentioned with doping, but I don't think his 7 TdF wins will ever be matched and in '04 his stretch of winning 5 stages in 8 days was done in such form that no one could really even challenge him. In those 8 days he won 5 times; 3 times on mountain finishes and 2 individual time trials, one being the climb up Alp d'Huez.
Co-Leader '69 Eddy Merckx - Not having Mercx as the team leader is going to upset many people, not having him at least co-leader though would simply get my list laughed at. In 69 Mercx became the only person to ever win the overall, points, and mountain classification of the tour, he would dominate the best riders creating time gaps of upwards of 8 minutes over the other favorites.
Sprinter '11/Current Mark Cavendish - I'm not sure there has ever been a more dominating sprinter. Hype up how much chance these other riders have, but unless someone wrecks him, he wins. His win totals in the TdF in '11 were stunning, and I wouldn't expect '12 to be any different. I thought a new team might cause a problem because of just how dominate the HTC-Highroad leadout train was, but he is showing now that even with a new team the result is the same - Wins.
Lead Out '84 Sean Kelly - Multi-talented, capable of doing everything, but still largely considered a sprinter that struggle to win stages. The primary role of lead-out though allows him to put his great sprinting skillset to use without worry of winning the race. Sprinting isn't everything for Kelly either, his climbing is very solid as proven by his 5th overall in TdF and just in case cobbles come into question, he won Paris-Roubaix 7 times in a row.
Time Trialist '11 Tony Martin - The world championships saw Martin win by a 1'15" over Wiggens and 1'20" over heavily favored Fabian Cancellara. He would also prove his resourcefulness elsewhere though in winning Volta ao Algarve over Alberto Contador, and Paris - Nice over a handful of rivals that excel in stage races. In both the time-trial set him apart but he held close enough on the climbs to not lose time.
Workman '05 Jens Voigt - I think Voigt has singlehandedly pulled back more breakaways than anyone in history. The terrain doesn't really seem to matter, need a climber pulled back over some mountains, Voigt leads the peloton...need a breakaway pulled back so your sprinter has a chance a the end, Voigt leads the peloton. Even better is the attitude he brings to the team. I dare anyone to go find an article where Voigt had a negative attitude.
Climber '94 Tony Rominger - When creating an all-time type team adding someone who doesn't do everything well and something great would be impossible, so even though I call this spot a climber, Rominger did everything, including set the HourRecord in 1994 (twice actually, he beat his own distance in a second attempt). His performance at the Vuelta was so dominating that after his win on stage 6 everyone knew they were only fighting for 2nd place and he would later add over 2 minutes to his lead in a time-trial at Benidorm and he would add on another 2 wins on the mountains later in the Vuelta.
Climber '27 Alfredo Binda - This man redefined the prototypical stage race champion, his unique ability to ride the one day monuments, a dominating individual time-trial and elite climbing. In 1927 Binda won 12 of the 15 stages in the Giro d'Italia, along with the World Championship and Giro di Lombardia and a 2nd place in Milan-San Remo.
All-Rounder '86 Greg Lemond - This is my sanity pick, with both Armstrong and Merckx being fiercely competitive adding the extra American should make Armstrong's position even stronger, and Lemond's 1986 TdF victory was probably the most obvious example of a dysfunctional team with both Hinault and Lemond fighting for the overall lead. Hopefully his experience with these leadership issues we can keep everything under control.
Edited by Kentaurus on 22-05-2012 03:52
Merckx, the rest doesn't matter because the Aliens haven't got a chance anyway. Maybe Freddy Maertens for a couple of stage wins, especially if we're riding the Vuelta against the aliens.
Leader: '70 Edddy Merckx
Co Leader: 04 Lance Armstrong
Sprinter: '02-'06 Robbie McEwen
Leadout Man: '09 Mark Renshaw
Time Trialist: '08 Fabian Cancellara
Workman: '05 Jen Voigt
Climbers: '98 Marco Pantani '09 David Moncoutie (for KOM)
Cobbles: '12 Tom Boonen '75 Roger De Vlaeminck
Obviously someone gets cut, probably a cobbles rider for GTs. I'm just preparing for a Roubaix TDF stage win.
I'd use a Cannondale Evo.
So time to amp up a database and find out who wins? A new man game? Edited by baseballlover312 on 27-05-2012 19:05
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
