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80s legends for me.
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Beryl Burton
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Jan - new talent at a time when I started following Le Tour
Il Pirata - flawed, but when he took off uphill, it was awesome
Reading "Uphill Battle" at the moment - cyclings great climbers. Good stuff
Anquetil had style.
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Tomac. Palmer. Whitehead.
Indurain
Started watching the Tour when he was at his peak.
Merckx
Jason McRoy
Shaun Palmer
another vote for Graeme
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[url= http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2632239/DIY-cycling-champion-Graeme-Obree-goes-full-cycle.html?print=yes ]http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2632239/DIY-cycling-champion-Graeme-Obree-goes-full-cycle.html?print=yes[/url]
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Alf Engers, the bad boy of time trialling.
He passed me in my first ever 25 and gave me a big grin and a shout of "come on young un, dig in".
I thought he was cooler than any pop star.
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JMC.
IIRC there was a rather attractive brunette that rode for Specialised in the early nineties. Bumped into her when Jesus Jones were DJing at the Malverns (92?) - she was so pissed she got on her bike and fell straight off the other side...
John Tomac, used to have a signed MBUK poster of him in my room when I was young.
These two ladies
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millar, delgado, pantani
Harold "H" Nelson. 80-odd years old and coaching more riders than ever - he's one of the early innovators of training by heart rate, power and intervals. His somewhat old fashioned attitudes on race are a little harder to recommend.
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[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_%22H%22_Nelson ]Wiki link[/url]
jruk - Elladee Brown. Cutie 2nd from the RHS here.
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http://www.muddbunnies.com/founding-sisters-of-freeride-part-one-elladee-brown/
Eddie Fiola
.
Kevin Keegan
Sean Kelly for being "Kelly" and I raced against him too.
Sean Yates for taking the Yellow Jersey and doing everything for others and spending one day on his own and gets yellow.
Chris Boardman for taking the track and TT to a new level.
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Joe Murray. Not only a great 'do everything' racer, but he was one of the first guys to take an active role in designing bikes that I remember.
King Kelly for being frickin nails....
Tim Gould
John Tomac and Missy Giove off road or Eddy Mercx on the road.
www.bigringriding.com
My hero was Francesco Moser, Kelly was more of an inspiration. Sadly I missed the Merckx thing as I was a bit too young.
I had a 'real life' hero as well, the man that got me racing, John 'Gino' Goddard.
Ian Hibell - Into the Remote Places is quite a read.
As a kid, Andy Ruffell
MTB'ing, Jason McRoy and Tim Gould. I always thought Shaun Palmer was a big headed tw*t 🙂
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Rode on atraining camp with Henrik Djernis a few years back, he rode the legs off most of the WCPP riders then.
He was just about ready to retire then.
Preferred him when he was on Ritchey with the awesome Thomas Frish. Class riders, class bikes
The lady from the US who completed some crazy endurance race minus her saddle after it broke about 5 miles in. Respect. Wish I could remember her name; anyone help?
Anquetil, Motta, Yates, Kelly, Millar
Peat, Palmer, Tomac
Tinker Juarez
The lady from the US who completed some crazy endurance race minus her saddle after it broke about 5 miles in. Respect. Wish I could remember her name; anyone help?
cindy whitehead
+1 Sean Yates, was local to me as a lad. My Dad explained his role to me as "the one all does all the ****ing hard work whilst the others goal hang". Chalked his name on my garage floor as though it was a French B road.
cav strutt and andy ruffle. eddie merykx dan cowan (not so retro)
Yeah andy Rufel was the man when I first got into bikes properly BMX rather than just owning one. Indurain was the first road cyclist I admired.
Overall though ad as retro as they come
Tommy Godwin, (1912–1975) was an English cyclist who holds the world cycling records for miles covered in a year (75,065 miles / 120,805 kilometres) and the fastest completion of 100,000 mi (160,000 km).
In May 1940 after 500 days' riding he secured the 100,000-mile (160,000 km) record as well. Godwin dismounted and spent weeks learning how to walk before going to war in the RAF.
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Take yer pick. Sideburn posse, reprazent.
Tim Gould all the way 🙂
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Gotta be these guys...
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Cheers cows_in_cars!
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I concur
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Miguel Indurain
Robert Millar
They don't get much more retro or much more heroic than Honore Barthelemy.
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Honore Barthelemy crashed on stage 9 of the 1920 Tour De France, damaging his back badly enough to necessitate flipping his bars over so he could carry on riding. Once he'd got back on his bike, he realised that he couldn't see properly, and on investigation (presumably still on the bike) he discovered that he'd got a flint [i]stuck in his eyeball[/i]. Being a true pro, he [s]waited for the team car[/s] pulled that mother****er out and carried on riding to the finish, where it transpired that he also had a dislocated wrist and a broken shoulder. Naturally he [s]abandonned the Tour[/s] carried on riding with one eye and a seriously knackered upper body, and rode into Paris in 8th overall. Badass.
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Gotta be these guys...
You are 'aving a laugh Stuartie. Retro amateurs.
Off road: Ned, Tomac, Tinker, Missy and who was the guy that went a bit, er, mental, rode for Schwin.
On the road: merckx, hinault, Kelly and, because the 87 Tour win was what made me fall in love with cycling, Stephen Roche. Oh and I still have a soft spot for the Kaizer... 😳
Yup - Stephen Roche for this:
And for his wit when asked if he was OK after he was revived - "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite"
Stuartie: you got it exactly. From that moment on I was hooked. Phil Ligget shouting as Roche appears round the corner. Epic.
LOL @ Barnacle etc.
Stuartie C is that not now accepted as a pure set-up?
Zak Tempest
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PS do NOT do a Google image search for 'zak tempest brant richards' or look at images 10 and 11, m'kay.
Stuartie C is that not now accepted as a pure set-up?
No way! Ruined it for me now Al.
Steve Behr for taking the photos that made me want to ride.
Who is the Aussie track cyclist???
Wookster - Member
Who is the Aussie track cyclist???
Sean Eadie
It's Robert Millar for me. Awesome guy. Dour, miserable, agressive, completely mental. Everything you expect from your roadie hero's. Funny too. He got screwed by the Europeans, big time. Especially the Spanish. Cheating buggers. Straight as a die, no drugs. Yeah, proper hero.
I quite like the badger too. He was a nasty piece of work but it doesn't matter. Hard as nails. Seriously. Chose which races to win and left the rest to the others.
'What's that you dockers? You'd like a punch up during the race, fine by me. Now, lets go on and win the stage.
It's Robert Millar for me. Awesome guy. Dour, miserable, agressive, completely mental. Everything you expect from your roadie hero's. Funny too. He got screwed by the Europeans, big time. Especially the Spanish. Cheating buggers. Straight as a die, no drugs. Yeah, proper hero.
Errr...
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Laurant Brochards mullet was my hero
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Harry Leary and Timmy Judge for mid 80s style
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David Baker
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Thanks Margin 😳
downshep - are you suggesting we can't possibly like robert millar because he is now a she? or is there some subtle point you are making that i've missed?
oh, and i guess my retro heroes are JMC, missy (remember her on yoof show Passenger?) and from the road, Indurain. I also used to like to read about hans rey's exploits.
Francis Birtles
JMC
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Dzhanar-Aliyev Magomed-Ali.look him up.not retro.but he is.bike too.
apo lazarides.for putting up with vietto.
wim van est
eugene christophe.
alfredo binda
ottavio bottecchia
or that east german persecuted by the stasi in the 70s..can't remember the name.
always liked gibo.gilberto simoni.not retro though.
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The lovely Susan DeMattei.
And Keith Bontrager, for building my favourite bike ever.
Neither of 'em especially retro, but even so...
samuri - Member
Straight as a die, no drugs. Yeah, proper hero.
you need to read the Graeme Obree autobiography and the short time he was in Le Groupment
personnally I like Millar, the book "in search of..." was expolitative
rewatched old video's of the 92 tour, lots of class on show
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[i]you need to read the Graeme Obree autobiography and the short time he was in Le Groupment[/i]
I have, I've not seen any reference to Millar taking drugs... He was very anti. His doctor was keen on boosting which is different fromn doping....
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Dunno if they even rode pushbikes but for me heroes (as in who I looked up to when I rode my bike) it has to be Evel Kneivel and Eddy Kid.
Not massively surprised at the amount of you citing roadies as your heroes, don't get me wrong I like roadriding (always have) and did follow roadracing for years but I'm not in the slightest interested in roadies as heroes at all. when I read Lance's book and was bored to tears. Cully on the other hand I could listen to all day.
if you can spare the time have a listen for yourselves..
http://www.daleholmes.com/?p=1610
the hardnut Belgians of the 70's, Merckx ,de Vlaeminck,Maertens,de Mayer and Tomac ,Frishy.Mc Roy and Paolo Pezzo for Mtbing
Straight as a die, no drugs
Robert Millar failed a drug test in '92.
Heard him talk at a coaching weekend many years ago, and he didn't come across as dour or miserable at all. Very funny and engaging speaker.
I remember going to bike 97 maybe 98 at olypmia and getting missy giove , rob warners , dave hemming and steve peats autograph . Then going across the road where jo guest was upstairs in a pub at the launch of MBR magazine !!
And rob warners brother because he was doing the same downhill race as me at newton abbot in devon while he was riding for mbuk ( was it rich ? )
It was Rich.
Can people put names as well as photos please?