Mark Cavendish, the best UK cyclist?

I think they should downgrade communication technology, and just have every team car with speakers on the roof, all of them shouting at the peloton at the same time. Or even do away with speakers, and just get a bloke to yell out the window.

Lemond may have been the only really 'clean' winner for a long time.

Starting with him:

Delgado - a known doper
Roche - probably
Hinault - used the 'never tested positive' defence
Fignon - Renault had a remarkable Tour in 84, suspicious
Zootemelk - tested positive a number of times

and that's going back all the way to 78.

BMMF - were you not at Crystal Palace for the ToB prologue last year? The DS of a Spanish team was a man after your own heart! ;)

@ BB - Lemond was an aero-bar cheater ;)

@andyp - no, missed that one; pity as the DS sounds more entertaining than the riders.

I think they should downgrade communication technology, and just have every team car with speakers on the roof, all of them shouting at the peloton at the same time. Or even do away with speakers, and just get a bloke to yell out the window.

Just an old woman with a whistle ala Triplets :)

If anyone's interested Greg Lemond gave a couple of interviews, one to David Walsh, one to a web radio station in the States, which explain why EPO made such a difference to riders like Indurain, Riis and Armstrong, who should not have been able to generate the power to move their bodies up-hill as fast as they did in the 90s and 00s.

There was a good feature in January's Cycling Plus about Greg Lemond where he talked a good deal about doping and race radios, etc. He also seemed to suggest that there wasn't much point in training for more than an hour at a time.

He also seemed to suggest that there wasn't much point in training for more than an hour at a time.

An hours sounds like overkill to me.

he gets my vote. for dude points alone.

no it would be a medical miracle to father a child age 2. and i have never met the guy.
but if you are going to discuss the best british cyclists it's hard to ignore his achievements.

met him riding Wisley trails yyeaaarrss ago... him and Rob Warner were doing something for MBUK.... nice guys :)

Back to Cav, being the most "winningest" (awful Americanism) doesn't necessarily mean the best, some riders who are more suited to other styles of riding or disciplines get less chances of victory...sprinters get many, plus they are massively helped by their team, in order to become a great sprinter you need a huge palmares to get recognition....like the Rollapaluza hero Cipollini, a stage racer or climber for example only needs to win one or two majors to go down in history. Robert Millar probably won less races in his entire career than Cav has already won in the last two years....but what a great rider.

I vote for John Woodburn

1961 National 25 mile tt champion
1963 Peace Race 14th place
1978 BBAR winner
1982 Lands End to John O Groats record 45 hours 3 minutes 16 seconds
3rd May 2008 22.11 for a 10 mile tt
4th May 2008 56.43 for a 25 mile tt

He also seemed to suggest that there wasn't much point in training for more than an hour at a time.

Yeah, he said something similar in the interview on US web radio.

But this is a guy who could ride 70 km/h behind a scooter for hours at a time. As Robert Millar said about him, different class to the rest.

Was Le Mond "clean"?
Is "Cav" clean?
What new shit are these boys on?
The peleton is usually ahead of the testers.
But not as far ahead as the track and field cats...
And the other sports? Golf...(Gary Player) Association Football...(one club.. Juventus) Lawn Tennis...(100mph serves) Rugby Football..(knew a pro; loads of 'supplements')

I think that a lot of the antipathy to drugs and newfangled technology in cycling is down to the idea that it is an 'everyman' sport in which anyone with talent could potentially succeed. Many of the decisions by the governing bodies seem designed to maintain an idealisation of the sports roots in which early 20thC French 'sportifs' could have a crack at a time trial or a race on their normal bike. I seem to remember reading something similar on Moulton's blog about a guy 'twiddling' (aka spinning) hard on a time trial in the UK on his bike, and how the gear inches were limited on the trial. It all seemed designed to prevent the arms races that dominate so many other sports, which have the inevitable effect of taking them out of the reach of anyone without the money to fund such a competition. The drugs thing I think only became taboo after the drugs used started being quite expensive, complex things requiring doctor's intervention, rather than booze and amphetamines/coke (which, after all, weren't actually illegal until relatively recently).

slightly on topic.
the Athertons are a cycling family. 2 brothers and a sister. between the three of them they have just won the mens four cross (like big bmx with suspension) mens downhill and womans downhill at the Andorran round of the cycling world cup.
not bad considering a couple of years ago they couldn't get any sponsorship.

hurricane run; I can't speak for all sports people and its true that many do use drugs to fuel their success; but I had to comment on the tennis analogy you made, "100 mph serves". Back in the 80s there was a tennis player called Roger Smith, and he was from the Bahamas. I've known him since his teens, when we were at the same school in Florida. He didn't need to take drugs to enhance his performance. Not only was he the No.1 ranked in Florida at high school level, but went on to be the USA university champion also (representing Ohio). Then, when all thought he'd turn pro in tennis, he turned pro in basketball - the NBA. He wasn't successful as he thought, so went back to tennis. That year he was serving 125 mph at Wimbledon, and all the papers remarked on this feat. Except, I wasn't impressed. I'd seen Roger serve like that since high school. Certain people are given sporting talents above others. They don't need the injected boosts, but their opponents might.

it's millar time
YouTube - Robert Millar - Tour de France 1983 Stage 10

legend.

more Mark Cavendish Guardian 26 May 09

"the cycling correspondent of L'Equipe christened him "le Mozart du onze-dents". Those words translate into something rather less poetic: the Mozart of the 11-tooth sprocket"

Wiggins for me, now he's turned into a climber, the whole mod thing and the haircut, and he's from Kilburn (albeit via Begium) no contest!

But the Isle of Man is not a part of the UK, it's a Crown Dependency, that's why my passport says "British Islands, Isle of Man" PLATINITRUFAX

Cav also has full British Citizenship.

Best (dead) UK cyclist? How aobut Tommy Godwin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Godwin_(cyclist_born_1912)

Holds the record for the most miles covered in a year: 75,065 miles.

Yes. 75065 miles. That's an average of 205 miles a day, every day for a year.

Not happy with that, he carried on to get the record for the fastest 100,000 miles by continuing on until May 1940. Then what did he do?

"
Godwin dismounted and spent weeks learning how to walk before going to war in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF.
"

That's proper HTFU.

But the Isle of Man is not a part of the UK, it's a Crown Dependency, that's why my passport says "British Islands, Isle of Man" PLATINITRUFAX

Cav also has full British Citizenship.

Best (dead) UK cyclist? How aobut Tommy Godwin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Godwin_(cyclist_born_1912)

Holds the record for the most miles covered in a year: 75,065 miles.

Yes. 75065 miles. That's an average of 205 miles a day, every day for a year.

Not happy with that, he carried on to get the record for the fastest 100,000 miles by continuing on until May 1940. Then what did he do?

"
Godwin dismounted and spent weeks learning how to walk before going to war in the RAF.
"

That's proper HTFU.

Chopper would be proud.

How about Beryl Burton, OBE ?

And I'm not sure that Lemond is as nice or as clean as driven snow as he seems?

She was awesome in her day but how many of the forum have heard of her? 5%?