Now I don't know a lot about road racing, but

following on from old Jens' video:
I always like watching him race – and before him, Jacky(?) Durand

I reckon Cancellara's in there too (but a bit too successful for an unsung "star")

Anyone else spring to mind ? Voeckler ?

hincapie has to be there ….

not to mention his previous but this week

falls , hurt …next day

commentator

"we think he has broken his collar bone but he wont go to get it xrayed but he is certainly not letting it get to him in this individual time trial ! hes just strapped it up and got on with it "

Hinault

Sean Kelly. Probably one of the hardest men on a bike ever.

1.Hincapie
2.Hincapie
3.Hincapie

The guys a legend! Domestique superior!

Dougal – Member
Sean Kelly. Probably one of the hardest men on a bike ever.

CertainTly !!

Was it Hincapie that snapped his steerer in P-roubaix ??

Never really warmed to Hinault, I must admit – Mercx, though (if he wasn't so good I'd put him in here)

Edwig Van Hooydonck, the inventor of the 3/4 length tight.
Andrei Tchmil.
Johan Museeuw.
Ludo Diericksens.

All drugged up to buggery, but watching them hammer it on through the mud; hard as **** nails.

i know what happened later to his career later but still impressive.

pain

No mention of Sean Yates!

[quoteWas it Hincapie that snapped his steerer in P-roubaix ??[/quote]

Indeed it was – leg end has it that Trek engineers spoke to 'a n other' team and asked why their carbon forks had snapped. The reply came 'You use carbon on cobbles?!!!'

So the story goes. 🙂

The steerer Hincape snapped was alloy. A Bontrager branded commuter fork, which had been swapped in for a little extra mud clearance.

Did Museeuw ever ride the TDF?

O'Grady not mentioned yet, such a hard worker for Saxo these days.

Did Museeuw ever ride the TDF?

Indeed he did, several times. Also won some stages IIRC (back in the early days when he was more of a pure sprinter). Not that the TdF was a big thing for him later on – is your query about that because you're a once-a-year expert?

Nah! Doesn't cut it for Hincapie in my book….

There's quite an easy way to answer this question though. The following are all hard men of cycling:
Boonen
O'Grady
Cancellara
Backstedt
Van Petegem
Museew
Servais Knaven
Tafi
Ballerini
Frederic Guesdon
Tchmil
Gilbo Duclos Lassalle
Marc Madiot
Eddy Planckaert
…

My query was because I had no recollection of it. Makes sense, since his two stage wins were in 1990. I was 5yo.

Pic of Hincapie's broken steerer: http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/apr06/roubaix06/?id=/tech/2006/features/roubaix_postbikes

Makes sense, since his two stage wins were in 1990. I was 5yo.

Given your immaturity, I'm kind of surprised you were even born then.

Tchmil and Knaven, definitely.

who was it that wore his teeth out in le tour a couple or three years ago in the tour? riding on with a duff shoulder for about a week and literally grinding his teeth the whole way from the pain – went from the finish to the dentist for surgery IIRC

needs a place on the list.

tyler hamilton.

i 2nd sean yates.
awesome domestique, huge engine of a bloke

did you see hinault push that bloke off the podium? great, still a hard man and legend of the sport.

no one has mentioned Jens Voigt…….. Legend

Jens who ??

you know, Jens Voigt. The one mentioned in the first post of the thread…;)

How about the Tashkent Terminator;

A man so hard he has a rock bank named after him!

oh aye…..sorry.

Abdou? No way. Yes he stuck his elbows out but did very little else. Therest of the riders all had "super domestique" qualities that let them do all sorts of different roles. Abdoujaparov was a one trick pony.

Laurent Jalabert was always a favourite of mine, had a horendous crash while he was a sprinter. Then transformed into more of a lone break specialist.

Given nobody seems to have made the connection, I should point out that all of my list have something in common besides being hard men of cycling. Something which made compiling my list quite easy.

Cobbles, aracer?

aracer – because of your unwarranted comments?

Gert Jan Theunisse
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Rink/1947/uk/medisch.htm

Aracer, would that be a list of Paris-Roubaix winners?

You are Peter Post and I claim my Five Euros.

Can't believe Eddy Merckx hasn't been mentioned. He broke his pelvis early on in his career and it never healed properly. He rode in constant pain because of it.

I did mention his cousin earlier, you know, Mercx ? 😳

who was it that wore his teeth out in le tour a couple or three years ago in the tour? riding on with a duff shoulder for about a week and literally grinding his teeth the whole way from the pain – went from the finish to the dentist for surgery IIRC

Actually, it was not in the Tour that Hamilton ground his teeth down, it was in the previous years Giro, which he also rode with a broken collar bone.

Well done crikey – though I think CFH had already got there. Slightly disappointed nobody spotted the connection without the hint.

Seemed an obvious place to find hard men, and I don't think there's anybody in that list you'd dispute being one.

i dont know enough about cycling to comment, i enjoy watching the tour but i wish eurosport would get rid of sean (boring) kelly…. christ you could set fireworks off under his commentary seat and he wouldnt change tone.

maybe its me

Does anyone actually have the volume up on the Eurosport coverage then?

I remember watching his Tour De France videos he narrated a few years ago and I could not think of a worse person to place in front of a camera, its a shame as he was a great cyclist but as a commentator he is very lacking!

I still say George Hincapie wins

ghincapieGot some bad news this am. X ray confirmed my collar bone is broken.22 minutes ago from HTC Peep

So that's ride with a broken collar bone for 3.5/4 stages of the Tour and deliver Cav over the line in Paris

Amazing