Best Tour de France winner ever?

Question

Who, in your opinion, is the best tour winner (or rider) ever? What did they achieve, why are they so special and why do they get your vote? I'm going Lance Armstrong, for winning 7 tour de france's after battling testicular cancer. It's an amazing feat, and despite many critics, he is an amazing athlete.

Answer 1

Win or winner?

Overall, I'm going with Eddy Merckx.  In his first TdF win, he went out on a breakaway on a day when he already had a substantial lead.  Simply crushed everyone.

But that win of Greg LeMond in the final TT when he used the Scott aerobars for the first time and Laurent Fignon didn't wear a helmet because he figured there was no way he was going to lose?  That is the most impressive to me.

But there are so many other stories.  Thomas Voeckler holding the maillot jaune for so many days in 2004, for one.  Those are the heart and soul of the Tour.

Answer 2

No question LA's accomplishments were amazing. But, his tour wins tended to be pretty dull from a historic perspective. If you judge by win total then it's Lance. If you judge by drama, passion, excitement, and emotion, the things that make bike racing great, a lot of other names come up.

- Greg Lemond won in 1989 by 8 seconds on the last day.

- Bernard Hinault won 5 times including crushing his teammate and supposed friend Lemond, once finishing a stage with a broken nose and blood covered face.

- Miguel Indurain won 5 times by being the best time trialist on the planet (pretty dull though).

- Jacques Anquetil won 5 times while partying to 2am between stages and fathered children with his step-daughter and daughter-in-law (probably not during the race though).

- Roger Walkowiak is the only winner to have never won a stage.

The list goes on...

Answer 3

Eddy Merckx is the greatest winner ever of the Tour de France, he won it five times without the protection of the modern team structure and their benefit of radio linkage.

He also rode and won many races every year, in 1971 he won 54 of the 120 races he entered, between 1969 and 1973 he won 250 races out of 650 starts.

In just over 9 weeks during 1973 starting on 3rd.April, he won 4 major classics in 19 days : Ghent-Wevelgem. Amstel Gold. Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Baston-Liege. He had a four day break and then won the Vuelta Espana, including 6 stage wins. Another 4 day break and he then won the Giro de Italia, leading from start to finish, again with 6 stage wins. The following year was much the same story including wins in the Giro, Tour of Switzerland and the Tour de France, including, at that time, a record 8 stage wins. He broke the World hour record in Mexico City in 1972 after a full seasons racing.

"The Cannibal" Has never, and will never be equalled, no cyclist has ever, or will ever compete in so many races each year with such an incredible win rate. He had 34 stage wins and spent 96 days in yellow in the Tour de France, in the 1969 Tour he not only won overall but also took the green points jersey and the polka-dot climbers jersey. Over his entire 10 year professional career he had 445 wins in 1,582 races plus 87 time-trial wins.

He truly is the greatest ever racing cyclist !

Answer 4

Eddy Merckx is the greatest cyclist of all time, and therefore the greatest winner of the TDF.

Merckx has 525 career victories. He won everything, the Tour, the Giro, the Vuelta, the great Classics. He won on the track too. Merckx won the tour 5 times and he won 34 tour stages (Armstrong won 7 tours and 22 stages). Merckx was unbelievable dominate. He would have won many more tours if his career had not been cut short from being attacked by a fan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merckx

Bernard Hinault is second most career victories, he has over 250 career victories. (That also shows you how great Merckx was).

http://www.cyclinghalloffame.com/riders/...

I think the argument can be made that Armstrong is the greatest racer of the TDF.

Answer 5

Tough choice, but due to his overwhelming 7 wins I'll go with Lance Armstrong for best TDF rider.

But best overall cyclist is still Eddy Merckx, hands down.  No one else even comes close, and even Lance will say so.