Sheldon Brown, a lifetime devoted to cycling of one form or another, and even towards the end of his life when illness threatened his raison d’etre he still maintained a positive outlook.
Top bloke, I was in email communication with him till 2 weeks before he died as my wife has secondary progressive MS (poor sod had primary progressive)
In a cycle sport hero way it would have to be a 3 way split between Bernard Hinault, Sean Kelly & Sean Yates. All who I have met during their “hero years” and were like supermen!