Saturday, January 06, 2007

Iban: a pure climber


The days of Federico Bahamontes, Charly Gaul, Lucien Van Impe, Chaba Jimenez, Marco Pantani, just to name a few, were the days of the pure climbers. The riders that could take you out of your seat with their stunning accelerations over and over again, the riders that would win on any mountain top, the riders that made cycling such an incredible sport to watch. Now, well into the 21st century, I start to wonder where they`ve all gone.

A "pure climber" needs to have all the qualities mentioned above, as well as not being too good on the flats or on the small hills. There used to be many more of them earlier, but in the last 10 years the number has steadily decreased. Now, there`s only a handful of them left in the peloton I reckon. Leonardo Piepoli of Saunier, Michael Rasmussen of Rabobank, José Rujano of Unibet, Gilberto Simoni of Saunier, and in my opinion, our very own Iban Mayo. These are the riders capable of producing the most stunning performances in the mountains. These are the riders that make cycling such a spectacle when a race reaches the mountains. But why don`t they shine as often as the previous climbers did? After all, Rasmussen, Piepoli, Simoni, Rujano and Iban don`t win 10 races a year; only a couple in fact. There are numerous reasons for this as I see it; doping has brought the sprinters, rouleurs and TTists closer to the mountain goats. Fewer mountain fests in the GTs than ever must certainly be taken into consideration. But probably the biggest reason is that the overall contenders in GTs have got an entire team to ride for them, so that the speed on the flats are much higher than they used to be, something that makes the climbers much more exhausted than the overall contenders come the mountains. This weren`t the case in the 80s or early 90s, when the climbers excelled and took the spectators by storm. Cycling has become much more of a tactical game than a the-strongest-man-wins game. That`s a shame, as there`s not many more beautiful sights than seeing Iban, Leonardo, Gilberto and the rest dancing their way up a steep ascent, hoping to one day touch the sky.

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