Agreed, but the cobbled classics define the sport of one day road racing in Europe so nobody could be legendary without winning them so it's a moot point.

I wasn't really restricting it to just one day racing. Lemond, Armstrong, Indurain, and really lots of others are legends without winning cobbled classics. Actually I'd love to know who has won the most Monuments without a Flanders or PR.

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Styrrell

I am not saying he did but I do agree with Jack; why would they hired a team doctor with such a reputation...?

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

Because there are roughly 50 pro road cycling teams, a bunch of mtb teams, lots or national federations, plenty of independant coaching and medical practices and not many great Drs that specialize in cycling.

I think Drs and DS and owners should be banned when they have been deemed to be in charge of "out of control" programs. But until they are banned, its hard to blame a team from hiring someone with a blotch on their record. look at how quickly Garmin went from originally stating zero tolerance, to accepting riders who had doped previously. Its just not possible to field a competitive Pro tour team with a zero tolerance approach.

Heck in the US at least Dr Lim is considered to be an authority and a "clean" advocate, yet he was fooled by Landis (not the brightest or most sophisticated guy out there). Sould Lim be unemployable because one of his riders tested positive?

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Styrrell

Don't go calling Sean Kelly "the english commentator", even if you just mean the language. The man is Irish, not English, and he'd take fierce issue with being called english...

Yes, Sean Kelly should be so lucky to be an Englishman, sadly, he'll just have to settle for being a Brit ;-)

I think the attributions got a little messed up here, because that's exactly what I was getting at when I said

"There's a good chance he would be offended by being called English ..."

I looked it up...

http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Classic_cycle_races

...and the answer is Costante Girardengo with 9 total (tied for 3rd overall behind Eddy w/ 19 and R.dV w/ 11), although his wins were from 1918-28. Somewhat more recently is Bartali w/ 7, mostly in the 1940s. In 'modern' times (since I've been old enough to remember, early '80s), it's Paolo Bettini, w/ 5.

Thanks 9 is a lot, I think that back then a lot of riders didn't travel as much, so he may not have ridden the cobbled classics much.

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Styrrell

Sorry, guess I missed that...

Just saw this from the Omega Pharma-Quick Step cycling team's YT channel.

Great viewpoints and commentary...enjoy!


Episode 7: Paris Roubaix

Warning: that video will make you *think* you can attack your Thursday night group ride from 52km out and ride solo.

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________________________________________________________
Ben Waite | Zipp Senior Design Engineer | The Power of Bicycles: Please contribute to World Bicycle Relief | Zipp | SRAM | Quarq |

You can buy the F1 PR now in very limited quantities. They are in stock and shipping (in North America only) now.



-SD

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https://www.kickstarter.com/...bike-for-the-new-era