On 7/17/05, Kenneth Waller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Frank, he's simply amazing. > He has to be on the list of all time greatest athletes.
Hard to compare him with Mercx - different eras, different training techniques, different strategies. Eddy won more races (but back then they didn't train to peak at the Tour like they do now; Lance doesn't ~want~ to win at the Spring Classics - they're just training rides for him). Eddy had more days in the Yellow Jersey (but nowadays, all that matters is who wears the Yellow on the Champs Elysee). Eddy had more stage wins in the Tour, but again, all Lance cares about is his overall time - witness the way he sportingly let Basso finish ahead of him today, knowing that they'd both have the same time - he doesn't care about stage wins, at least not all the time. It's said Eddy raced every race (including individual stages of the Tour) to win. That's probably true, but if he did that today, he'd never win the Tour - it's just too grueling, and there are too many specialists in climbing, sprinting, etc. Eddy's records are those of a bygone era, so it's not fair to say that he's better than Lance because of them. But, Lance won 6 in a row to Eddy's five (not in a row, IIRC). Lance will win this year to make it 7 in a row. That's a record in my mind, like DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak in 1941. Until Lance, I thought it was the only unbreakable record in sports. Now one must add Lance's 7 (or even 6 if the unthinkable happens and Lance doesn't win this year) as another unbreakable sports record. Lance and Eddy were the best of their generations, and the two of them are certainly the best of all time in the sport of road cycling. I admire them both immensely cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
