how good was hampsten?

vitamin s said:

he was my favorite rider as a kid and i just watched a copy of the 88 tour.

do you think he could have won the tour de france if he stayed with la vie claire? was 7-11 just incapable of supplying him with a top tier program?

was his career hampered because of all the dopers of his era (peter winnen, steven rooks, thieunisse, pdm, kelme, delgado...jesus, the list is long), or was he just not good enough at the time trials?

discuss!

Well, as I'm sure Flyer will point out, there's no evidence to indicate that Hampsten didn't dope. In fact, he gained quite a bit a muscle mass, or at least it appeared that way, in the years he became competitive in the GTs. I've met Hampsten once at Interbike. He was hanging briefly with Hincapie and Rodriguez. These two guys were dressed like rock stars replete with an entourage in tow, but Hampsten had a backpack and was wearing a t-shirt and cut-off shorts.

Anyway, I'd say you have a point in that 7-Eleven wasn't as powerful a team as PDM and the like and the others we likely dabbling in blood doping, but it's not really an excuse. Whether he didn't have access to drugs or just decided to draw the line, it's hard to tell. To me blood doping seems over the top. Maybe he thought so too.

I'll tell you this though, he is beloved in Italy, where he still lives.

Personally, I don't think doping should be considered when comparing great riders. Every generation has it's handful of greats (Mikhail Ignatiev seems to be the next great: Olympic points race champion at 18 and now soloing to wins on the Pro Tour). The fact is, Hampsten must be considered in the pantheon, near the top, but not at the top. But, he was class rider.

helmutRoole2 said:

Well, as I'm sure Flyer will point out, there's no evidence to indicate that Hampsten didn't dope. In fact, he gained quite a bit a muscle mass, or at least it appeared that way, in the years he became competitive in the GTs. I've met Hampsten once at Interbike. He was hanging briefly with Hincapie and Rodriguez. These two guys were dressed like rock stars replete with an entourage in tow, but Hampsten had a backpack and was wearing a t-shirt and cut-off shorts.

Anyway, I'd say you have a point in that 7-Eleven wasn't as powerful a team as PDM and the like and the others we likely dabbling in blood doping, but it's not really an excuse. Whether he didn't have access to drugs or just decided to draw the line, it's hard to tell. To me blood doping seems over the top. Maybe he thought so too.

I'll tell you this though, he is beloved in Italy, where he still lives.

Personally, I don't think doping should be considered when comparing great riders. Every generation has it's handful of greats (Mikhail Ignatiev seems to be the next great: Olympic points race champion at 18 and now soloing to wins on the Pro Tour). The fact is, Hampsten must be considered in the pantheon, near the top, but not at the top. But, he was class rider.

He lives in Boulder. I was around when AHampsten first started riding and was getting known...... He was strong..When he rode with SRC Raleigh Levi, many of my friends rode with him. {I did twice]} The SCR team was based out of my local bike shop....The few times I was around him I always questioned as to how such a nice guy could win a GT????? He was a nice guy......Far nicer then the other American GT winner from that period...... At least at races.....

If there ever was a clean rider that won a GT , it had to be AndyH...

wolfix said:

He lives in Boulder. I was around when AHampsten first started riding and was getting known...... He was strong..When he rode with SRC Raleigh Levi, many of my friends rode with him. {I did twice]} The SCR team was based out of my local bike shop....The few times I was around him I always questioned as to how such a nice guy could win a GT????? He was a nice guy......Far nicer then the other American GT winner from that period...... At least at races.....

If there ever was a clean rider that won a GT , it had to be AndyH...

Nice guys dope.
Mean guys dope.
Tough guys dope.
Fools dope.
Cowards dope.
Addicts dope.

It means nothing.

wolfix said:

He lives in Boulder. I was around when AHampsten first started riding and was getting known...... He was strong..When he rode with SRC Raleigh Levi, many of my friends rode with him. {I did twice]} The SCR team was based out of my local bike shop....The few times I was around him I always questioned as to how such a nice guy could win a GT????? He was a nice guy......Far nicer then the other American GT winner from that period...... At least at races.....

If there ever was a clean rider that won a GT , it had to be AndyH...

I agree and I would like to add that AH had probably the best cycling action, I've ever seen on a bike.
Roche is about the only one who comes close to having as smooth an action.
If you see any footage of AH, his body is rock steady.
Great action.

Quoted post said:

but Hampsten had a backpack and was wearing a t-shirt and cut-off shorts.

That is very cool, a real person.

yeah, just from the television he seemed like a cool dude. gotta love that 80's hair he was sporting back then too.

i always thought he would magically improve his time trials and be a contender, but it never happened. i dont understand how he was able to win the time trials in the tour de suisse at the start of his career and then lose huge minutes at the peak of his career.

the other dude from that era who was a lot of class but never materialized was jean francois bernard. what happened to that dude? he had the stuff to win the tour in 87, then we never saw him again. wow, that 86 la vie claire team had some studs. niki ruttiman, steve bauer, lemond, hinault, bernard, hampsten...were they better than the teams that armstrong brought to the tour?

I believe that Hampsten was one of the guys who got screwed by EPO, much like Edwig Van Hooyndonck. I think there were a segment of riders in the 90 - 93 time frame who did not make the jump to EPO and were robbed of the successes they should have had. I tend to think that there is a fairly high chance that Lemond also falls into that category.

Hampsten was known as a rider who was anti dope. I remember reading about how he would get depressed at his performance in the beginning of the season and his soigner would try to cheer him up by telling him that the drugs the others were using worked best in colder weather and he would do better once it warmed up.

I think he would have done better to have concentrated on races other than the Tour. The time trialing there was always going to make success a long shot. He got screwed out of victory in the 89 Giro. Perhaps if would have concentrated on the Giro and Vuelta between 89 and 92 he could have won another GT. With the Vuelta held early season back then, his proven ability to perform in adverse conditions, and some Spanish riders aversion to cold weather, he would have had a good shot at winning the Vuelta.

I also firmly believe the three riders ahead of him in the '92 Tour were doped to the eyeballs with EPO.

Hampsten is the real deal. Anyone who thinks otherwise can go [censored] themselves. Especially FF. By the way, he's back living in Boulder, even though he still does the tours in Italy.

Bro Deal said:

I believe that Hampsten was one of the guys who got screwed by EPO, much like Edwig Van Hooyndonck. I think there were a segment of riders in the 90 - 93 time frame who did not make the jump to EPO and were robbed of the successes they should have had. I tend to think that there is a fairly high chance that Lemond also falls into that category.

Hampsten was known as a rider who was anti dope. I remember reading about how he would get depressed at his performance in the beginning of the season and his soigner would try to cheer him up by telling him that the drugs the others were using worked best in colder weather and he would do better once it warmed up.

I think he would have done better to have concentrated on races other than the Tour. The time trialing there was always going to make success a long shot. He got screwed out of victory in the 89 Giro. Perhaps if would have concentrated on the Giro and Vuelta between 89 and 92 he could have won another GT. With the Vuelta held early season back then, his proven ability to perform in adverse conditions, and some Spanish riders aversion to cold weather, he would have had a good shot at winning the Vuelta.

I also firmly believe the three riders ahead of him in the '92 Tour were doped to the eyeballs with EPO.

bro deal is correct. refresh my memory. the 89 giro was the one that fignon won? what happened in that edition?

vitamin s said:

bro deal is correct. refresh my memory. the 89 giro was the one that fignon won? what happened in that edition?

A critical mountain stage was cancelled. Fignon had knee problems since 1985 and they caused him trouble in the cold. Hampsten would have killed him.

For Fignon it might be seen as justice since the Giro organizers robbed him in a similar way when they cancelled a climb that would have destroyed Moser. If that was not enough they used helicopters to aid Moser and hinder him in a time trial.

Bro Deal said:

A critical mountain stage was cancelled. Fignon had knee problems since 1985 and they caused him trouble in the cold. Hampsten would have killed him.

For Fignon it might be seen as justice since the Giro organizers robbed him in a similar way when they cancelled a climb that would have destroyed Moser. If that was not enough they used helicopters to aid Moser and hinder him in a time trial.

ha! i remember that giro with moser. moser was handed that race. backroom politics if there ever was such a thing. moser took over 2 minutes on a short course if i remember correctly. he had helicopters helping him the whole way.

vitamin s said:

he was my favorite rider as a kid and i just watched a copy of the 88 tour.

do you think he could have won the tour de france if he stayed with la vie claire? was 7-11 just incapable of supplying him with a top tier program?

was his career hampered because of all the dopers of his era (peter winnen, steven rooks, thieunisse, pdm, kelme, delgado...jesus, the list is long), or was he just not good enough at the time trials?

discuss!

He was a sexual-dynamo in bed.......

whiteboytrash said:

He was a sexual-dynamo in bed.......

you are a dingleberry at life. go ride and get hit by a bus

vitamin s said:

you are a dingleberry at life. go ride and get hit by a bus

Mate there is more moral integrity in being hit by a bus than spunking over a ill-fitting 7-Elven jersey in your mother basement... but thats another story....

I will say that Hampsten suffered what all non-dopers called "the great unavelling" in the third week of a GT. Charley Mottet had the same the issue and is well documented by [censored] Voet in Breaking the chain. PED's are not just for performance but to stop you from falling to pieces.

WBT out.

I hate to even make a "doping" post, but I have been watching my old VHS tapes of the lemond and Hampsten era and I am now aware of the amazing performance of guys like Chiappuci and Indurain in time trials all of a sudden and watching guys like Hampsten and Lemond struggle day after day and just fall apart as the tour went on, while others just kept attacking and getting stronger.

rayhuang said:

I hate to even make a "doping" post, but I have been watching my old VHS tapes of the lemond and Hampsten era and I am now aware of the amazing performance of guys like Chiappuci and Indurain in time trials all of a sudden and watching guys like Hampsten and Lemond struggle day after day and just fall apart as the tour went on, while others just kept attacking and getting stronger.

But if you were watching Greg and Indurain in the same race, you have to realize Greg was on the downside with that strenght zapping medical problem..... Remember how he could not hardly finish the Giro and a month later he rode a epic TDF??? And just a few years before that, Greg rode a TT that Indurain never came close to riding in his career..........When comparing, a person must compare ridrs at their top game. And Indurain would not have dominated the TDF if Greg was at his top game. Even Eddy was beatable at the end...
And AndyH was never a TT'er...... A great climber, but his skills ended there...
I'm sure EPO played a role, but let's not put Andy H in with Indurain. Andy would have never won a TDF....