Originally Posted By: Doug Hillary
Hi,
dailydriver - So you raced too? Please tell us all some more!!!
No, I can't recall any pure pursuiter winning the TdF
There has been some "suspect" winners however - those that were inglorious in the process. Lucien Aimar was but one - he was an instrument of the French system and the Jacques Anquetil dramas as they unfolded
My TdF hero was Fausto Coppi and his climbs up the old gravelled Col du Tourmalet and etc. I've been over the Tourmalet in its old form - what a task Coppi and the others had with punctures etc!! Coppi (and others of course) used an old Simplex gear system that required a back pedal to shift gears - imagine that when climbing a mountain pass. They also carried their own spare tyres...........and changed them and pumped them up of course
My nickname in Europe was Coppi but only because I rode Coppi bikes under sponsorship - not modelled on his talent!!
Yes Wiggins - well we will see now, into the future......
Yes, I remember those old pics of Coppi, Bartali, et al grinding up those gravelled climbs with their spare sew-ups slung over their shoulders and across their chests 'bandolero' style, bar mounted water bottles, and wool jersies (replete with front buttoned pockets and all!) and wool shorts.
I was nothing great, but decent locally in my intermediate age group (13-14 years old) when I first started in 1970, as I was almost always in the top 3 in local crits and road races.
That same year I was 7th in the road national championships in NYC's Central Park, and qualified for all of the track omnium events (massed-start scratch races at various distances) at Kissena Park Velodrome in Flushing, N.Y. (probably the BUMPIEST tarmac track on the planet!).
'Gibby' Hatton was the odds-on favorite in those age group track races, and won most everything as the omnium champion.
You may know him as the first U.S. (or
ANY non-Japanese???) citizen to be invited to go to Japan and compete in the Kierin events there. He also later got a bronze at the '83 Worlds (in Zurich) in that event behind Urs Freuler, and your own Danny Clark.
It's funny how even though they invented the event (as an alterative to parimutuel equine betting), the Japanese have only won ONE gold medal in it since it's been a World Championship event.