There isn’t a lot about a climb several kilometers long ending in a sustained 20% cobbled gradient that communicates ‘Attack’ and/or ‘Respond’. Certainly not when it comes after 240 kilometers with only 20 left to race. Nope, I’ve double-checked the calibration and used a control-case: the only reading I’m getting on the Pain Gauge is the needle dropping all the way over to and past ‘Survival’.
Here we have Roger De Vlaeminck containing a vicious attack from Freddy Maertens on the hardest bit of the climb, giving more than a little bit of insight into why we refer to these guys as Hardmen. On an unrelated note, I find it to be a crime beyond articulation that the Kapelmuur won’t feature in this year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen; but that won’t stop us from riding it during the Keepers’ Tour; we’re all about history and tradition. I want to keep seeing this scene repeat itself over and over. After all, if a joke is funny once, it should be funny a thousand times.
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View Comments
@Netraam
The article has them both in lowest gear as well, or I'm blind.
@DerHoggz
Yeah, you're right. My bad. It looked like these hardmen where both in the big ring.
@wiscot
I'm pretty amazed by that fact actually. Ever since I watched A Sunday in Hell I figured he was a decent classics rider, and looking at his wiki page for results shows the guy was a great cyclist. But he has so many good results without a monument win.
Top 5 performances in the monuments:
Milan san Remo:
5th - 1977
Giro di Lombardia:
5th - 1975
Ronde van Vlaanderen:
2nd - 1973
5th - 1976
Paris Roubaix:
5th - 1973
3rd - 1972
4th - 1978
Leige:
2nd - 1976
5th - 1973
Major One Day Race Wins:
Gent Wevelgem - 1975,1976
Paris Brussels - 1975
Paris Tours - 1975
Amstel Gold Race - 1976
Rund um den Heneninger Term - 1976
Züri-Metzgete - 1976
Omloop "Het Volk" - 1977,1978
Grote Scheldeprijs - 1973
World Championship Road Race - 1976,1981
Belgium National Amateur Road Race Championship - 1971
National Road Race Championship - 1976
Belgium National Derny Championship - 1977
Satges in all 3 Grand Tours - Various Years
Important Stage Race Classification Wins:
Vuelta a España Overall - 1977
Paris Nice Overall - 1977
Tour de France Points - 1976,1978,1981
@wiscot
No kidding? I did not realize that he never won a "Monument". Won a WC or two and some green jerseys, but non monuments. Hell, I'd take it!
@King Clydesdale
Hey man, simu-posting! Your post is a much better post than mine!
Getting ready for the 200-on-100??? :)
@Marko
My bad, Freddy not Eddy. I know there's no excuse as I did read the post but I've been up all night and called in sick today for baby duty, my wife is sick and I'm out of it. When mom goes down we all go down. Thanks for pointing that out.
@wiscot
Fuck, I can't even hit the "reply" function of the correct poster.
@Buck Rogers
Yup, it's really unfortunate when your career coincides with the likes of Merckx, de Vlaeminck, Kuiper, de Meyer, Raas, and Moser. Those guys didn't leave a lot of crumbs!
When Freddy was on (and remember, long before Cav had the HTC train, Freddy had the red train of Flandria, inc Kelly for a few years) he won the following:
75 Dauphine 7 stages inc prologue
76 Paris-Nice 6 stages inc prologue
76 Tour 8 stages inc prologue
77 Vuelta 13 stages inc prologue
77 Giro 7 stages inc prologue
Can you imagine that kind of record today? Cav's good, but not that good!
@Netraam
I think you're allowed to be in the lowest gear on the Kapelmuur, right?
@wiscot
I love it, you've got these guys who have such bad luck - or are they just not quite good enough? Zoetemelk first overlapped with Merckx, then with Hinault...bad luck. Poulidor first with Anquetil, then Merckx. Yikes. Then, of course, theres Ole Ritter who held the second, third, and I think fourth fasted Hours for a while, while Merckx sat on top.
Fronk- you suck. Stop torturing me with these images of roads that I dream about, but can't ride! Well, I guess I could miss the kids spring break and Easter...