Senior_AP

I would have loved to have seen these to both in the Tour together.

Yes yes yes I know they were in the tour together but you know what I mean.

Any ideas as to who may be the victor??

After being involved in Cycling for nearly a decade I'll go for Indurain. Just interested to see what others think.

anc-sti

Armstrong he is the complete package, great tt'er as was Indurain, but Lance is also a strong climber and can go on the attack. Indurain was more of a defensive rider in the mountains mainly because he was a big guy.

Greatest ever would have to be between Merckx and Armstrong, and Merckx would get my vote as he won 5 tours but also the giro and other classics, a record which is unlikely to be ever bettered due to specialisation within cycling. Although Armstrong is still active so who knows!! Giro in 2006 after he knocks up his seventh next year?

Senior_AP

Indurain won the tour five times, the Vuelta twice and the Giro twice. He won the World championship time trial and a few classics including the San Sebastian.

I'm still confident that Indurains pure strength would have done the trick. He was an invincible machine.

anc-sti

Like Lance is now, different riders from different decades are impossible to compare really so who knows.

Merckx would still whip them both, greatest rider ever, even Indurain and Armstrong agree on that one.

Senior_AP

Indurain and Lance are close enough to be compared a bit. I remember watching the Tour in 94. Indurain was sitting in the pack then broke. 8 riders went with him and by the end of the climb (this was Pyrenees btw) only Luc Leblanc could say with him. Leblanc won the stage cos Indurain wasn't really bothered....he almost looked not bothered about winning the Tour overall!!

Its Chiapucci and Bugno I felt sorry for. lol.

anc-sti

He was very strong but his race weight was over 70kg's so he was never a great climber sure he had great days we all do. Lance as a by product of his cancer managed to sustain a weight which made him one of the greatest hill climbers, couple of years ago when he supposably was having a bad day he attacked on Alps duez and destroyed the field left Ulrich (similar rider to Indurain) for dead and set a unofficial record for climbing this legendary mountain. If they competed together today I would say TT Indurain Mountains Armstrong.

Cycling is also a team sport and there has never been a stronger cycling team than USPS, so if they both brought their teams of the time to the party, Lance would take it due to superior support.

SomeDude

Senior... you aren't listening.

Do some reading up on Merckx. (not that I'm biased )

Daz34

He didn't look invincible in 1997, the year that Bjarne Riis broke him. I remember that mountain stage when Riis kept breaking away putting pressure on the Big Mig. He then rode alongside him, saw the pain on his usually expressionless face & then left him for dust.
The tour went through Indurain's home that year as well & again he was left behind on that stage.
IIRC he quit after that.

Darren

TelBoy

LOL, noooooooooo, surely not?

SomeDude

Well, they are *his* ears

DR Motorsport

Easy one this, Indurain.

As Senior AP says, he won a more complete range of events - World Championships, Giro's etc. Rather than just concentrate on the Tour as Armstrong has done.

Also the Banesto team wasn't always the strongest team for support, whereas the USPostal has been.

I'm not old enough to remember Merckx, so can't compare him or his era.

Someone can correct me here, was it Indurain who had huge lungs and a heart beat of 30bpm at rest.


David

SomeDude

I read an interview with Indurain a few weeks ago, and he disspelled the myth that his heartbeat rate was out of the ordinary for a sportsman of his caliber.

Merckx... he won all that other stuff too, and still has more etappe wins than anyone else.

In fact, he even disagreed (2 weeks ago) with the idea that this could not be done anymore today.
The poor bloke missed one tour because they asked him not to participate as he made the sport "boring".

His son is also to be applauded: he doesn't have that "extra" of his dad, he still ended 21st (or 22nd ?) in the last tour.

Merckx missed his 6th tour win because someone in the crowd thought it to be a good idea to punch him in the liver when going up Alpe D...

Not to say he is "better", I do think things have changed/moved on, and drugs or not, to do what Armstrong has done, deserves respect from a sports POV. Talk about stamina...

Me, I'd be banging Cheryl all day and throw the bike out of the window

anc-sti

Lance was the youngest ever winner other the world RR champs, and had a great deal of success in the classics earlier in his career also and held the world hour record briefly. He is still going and will eclipse Indurain there is no one who can beat him in the grand tours and will baring disaster take a seventh next year. He has also stated he would like to concentrate on other races after that.

So comparing career results while one of the other riders is still active is somewhat flawed. Soz

Armstrong is far more accomplished in the mountains and that’s were the real time gains are made, Indurain was always defensive in the mountains. Both can TT, Indurain might have the edge but that’s it he wouldn't take a lot of time.

So on the balance of that Armstrong would win, bring MERCKX into the equation and the answer is different.

At that level the difference between winning and losing is all in the mind, so it would probably come down to who had the psychological edge, now that’s a difficult one to call.

PeeOne

Its a question I suppose that will never be answered. All three are awesome riders, but i would back armstrong if they were all somehow put back to the peak of their physical prowess. I just think that mentally and physically he is the complete package. I race in ironman triathlons, and i believe its 10% training and 90% mental. Once the mind goes and you want to stop then thats it, game over. Reading lance's book made me realise what a nutter he is both in training and during the race. He never says never and isn't afraid to go off the front, as he did in the tour just gone. Legend...