Who was the last pure climber

[Squaggles]

Yes , Herrera seems to be reflecting the comments of LeMond about the early 90's when he was surprised that he was in great shape but just wasn't competitive . The early 90's was the start of the EPO era .

 

[Bianchi Dave]

Contador? Edit - Forgot about Nibali also

 

[Bianchi Dave]

haha, just looked at the date of this thread, Holy thread resurrection Batman?

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I would like to see a situation where the pure climber start to win the KOM
rather than the GC people always winning it as they always win the summit finishes

which means that pure climbers have no real target the KOM jersey always ends up with someone at the top of the GC - and to be up there you have to also be a good TT person

The sprinters have a jersey - but it seems like the pure climbers so not

 

[Lanterne Rogue]

Possibly a controversial take, but "pure climbers" increasingly look to have gone the way of fixed gears and drinking wine on your way up - it's simply no longer the fastest way of getting up a mountain, and possibly never was. A historic mistake, in fact.

To put it another way, it's funny that people worry about the GC lads displacing supposedly "pure" climbers and not about the best climbers - exactly the same GC lads - displacing "pure" TT specialists...

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Messner.

What?

 

[M.R.M]

Nairo

 

[Webbo2]

Messner.

What?

I think you are about 40 years out of date.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I think you are about 40 years out of date.

I'm used to it by now

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Possibly a controversial take, but "pure climbers" increasingly look to have gone the way of fixed gears and drinking wine on your way up - it's simply no longer the fastest way of getting up a mountain, and possibly never was. A historic mistake, in fact.

To put it another way, it's funny that people worry about the GC lads displacing supposedly "pure" climbers and not about the best climbers - exactly the same GC lads - displacing "pure" TT specialists...

Yes.

And more to the point - any "pure climber" that can hang with Jonas and Pog (the best climbers in the peloton) on an HC climb should be straight down to the wind tunnel to find out how to get aero on a TT bike.

 

[Jameshow]

Yates
Vinnguard.
Pidcock
Robert Millar of course!
Bernal

 

[phreak]

Yes.

And more to the point - any "pure climber" that can hang with Jonas and Pog (the best climbers in the peloton) on an HC climb should be straight down to the wind tunnel to find out how to get aero on a TT bike.

It always feels a bit of a misnomer to talk about "pure climber" as though we mean a small guy, with the assumption that this means they're rubbish in time trials. Both Remco and Vingegaard are kind of the same build as Pantani in terms of height and weight, yet both seem extremely good at time trialling. It feels like those two are almost dispelling a myth around smaller riders being great on climbs but not so good on the flat. Someone like Egan Bernal is perhaps more of the archetype, as while he could pull out a decent TT (as could Pantani), his norm was around 20th place.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

WHen I started watching cycling on the telly ths concept of a "pure climber" seemed to be the small thin rider who whould bounce on the pedals
and probably accelerate in bursts

at some point someone seemed to realise that you could climb faster overall by staying on the saddle and increasing power up to a limit you knew you could maintain on that slope

I remember watching Indurain on a hill towards the end of the TdF one year fighting against FIgnon (I think)
he mostly just kept the rev up and increased them until he caught up with each short burst from Fignon

he just kept his effort under control until he felt one more increase in speed would break his rival as Fignon needed to recover from a short burst

That was also the time when the top riders stopped "cracking" suddenly due to better nutrition and hydration

so we went from the "bouncing" and riding in bursts to riding up the hills at a constant pace

not as exciting and far more controlled

but even proper climbers work that way nowadays as that is the way to get to the top fastest


probably - I mostly go from what they say on the highlights shows and I have never raced or even ridden ina group so I know naff all really

but that is how it looked to me

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

haha, just looked at the date of this thread, Holy thread resurrection Batman?

Yes I was reading the first page and liked a few posts... Until I saw the date.

I do wonder what the all - time record is. Not done deliberately I mean.
@Moderators, do we know?

I think you are about 40 years out of date.

With the rider or the thread?

 

[wakemalcolm]

The thing that gets me about 'pure climbers' is that most of them don't seem to win many mountain stages. The majority of them get blown away by GC contenders unless they've been let off the leash to get a head start.
Ok, for some of them, they're there to service a GC rider but for a lot of them, climbing seems to be the thing they're least worst at.