VeloArchive
Professional cycle racing palmarès page
Welcome to these pages, in which I am aiming to chronicle the history of men's professional cycle road racing from the "heroic era" of the last century right up to today's slickly high-tech sport. The pages fall into four main groups. Firstly, a listing of all the riders who have won at least one of the Sport's great races, from Paolo Magretti, winner of Milan - Turin in 1876 to the winners of today's races - over 2200 riders at the last count. Secondly, I have lists of winners of all the races organised race by race, with details of which riders have the best overall records in each race, what have been the notable British performances, and topographic details of some of these races. Thirdly, the exploits series - stories of epic races from the past. And finally a miscellany of other information, including the ever-popular riders' nicknames page. Dip in and look around!
8 January 2006
Not withstanding my previous comments about updates, I've done a major update of the lists to get them complete up to the end of 2005.
It is not an entirely simple process however. For example, Roberto Heras failed a test for EPO, and so Denis Menchov became the winner of the Vuelta. However, since Heras had previously won stages and passed the necessary dope testing, those stages stand to his name - or so I believe.
More problematic is the failure in 2004 of Tyler Hamilton in the Vuelta. He failed after winning a stage; does the stage win therefore pass to Victor Hugo Peña? In this list at least it does, but I am willing to be corrected.
A lot else has happened in two years, much of it farcical - step forward ProTour, you know who you are. From a pure statistics point of view, the retirement of Lance Armstrong is clearly the most significant thing; his seven straight wins in the Tour de France surpasses Merckx, Hinault, Anquetil and Indurain. At least on paper that is the case, but I would still rank him - even as a Tour rider - after Merckx and Hinault, if only because he won fewer stages than either and never won one of the subsidiary jersies.
Amongst other retirements in the last two years:
- Mario Cipollini, 2002 World champion and Giro stage win record holder
- Johan Museeuw, 1996 World champion and the best clasics rider of his generation
- Laurent Jalabert, probably the best all rounder of the last decade
- Richard Virenque, the Tour KoM record holder, but with a record tarnished by the Festina affair
It's hard to spot the up-and-coming riders until they have up'ed and come; but honourable mentions should go to
- Tom Boonen, the current World Champion at just 24
- Damiano Cunego, winner of the Giro and Tour of Lombardy and just 23
- Mick Rogers, yet another rider from the Australian production line, and triple time trial world champion
- Alejandro Valverde, who for all round talent could be the new Jalabert
along with Paolo Bettini, Davide Rebellin, Danilo Di Luca and Alexandre Vinokourov who have all confirmed their early promise over the last few seasons to become the current crop of dominant riders.
Finally the saddest news; amongst those who died must rank Charly Gaul, a climber who made Virenque look like a pedestrian. RIP.
