Rider with worst luck

Havent been in cycling long, but Ulrich was damn good this year, thought he really should have beaten Armstrong. Shame about the rain on the last TT, what a final stage it might have been!!

Oh Yeah, by the way, Ulrich was a drug cheat..............!! OH Well maybe not so unlucky after all!!

:p

How about Tyler Hamilton & Cadel Evans for the efforts at finding out how hard collarbones (etc) really are?

Yeah, I certainly should have remembered Tyler Hamilton but to me, he was a winner of a stage as well.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by rutamike
Yeah, I certainly should have remembered Tyler Hamilton but to me, he was a winner of a stage as well.

Cadel Evans gets my vote. What's it been, three broken collar bones in the last year...that sucks 🙁

Career-long winner must be Raymond Poulidor, the only true tour contender never once to be maillot jaune.

To take just one year, 1964, a year to match 89 or 03 for excitement.

He lost the tour by 55 sec.

-knocked off by his own mechanic in TT, losing 1st place and the time bonus 20sec
-sprinted a lap too soon at Andorra, lost the 1m bonus which Anquetil took
-on the now famous Envelira stage, Anquetil regained the 6min lost on the climb by a suicidal descent (in fog; he braked only when he saw brake lights of the team cars....) linking with maillot jaune Groussard and his Pelforth team (team winners that year) who brought him back to the front. Compare Poulidor who, near the finish, again gets pushed over by his own mechanic during a routine wheel change and loses 2 min
-if you recalcuate without time bonuses (in those days still 1min for all stages except TTs) he was still the winner!

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Roy Gardiner
Career-long winner must be Raymond Poulidor, the only true tour contender never once to be maillot jaune.

My vote as well.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride ..........

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Daremo
My vote as well.

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride ..........

Tyler has my vote, withour the fractured clavicle he would have been on the podium this year. Vino was good, but just watching Tylers face was enough to show you he had what it took to podium. Worse luck. Well there's always next year

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Broom-wagon
Tyler has my vote, ... Well there's always next year

He's a good candidate; but Mr Poulidor rode the 1962 Tour with a wrist in plaster for the first 3/4 of the race. As bad luck went, he had every bit of it, something new every year.

All the best for Tyler next year, boy he should rip their legs off.

How about cyclists Tom Simpson, Jose Maria Jeminez, Marco Pantani, Denis Zenetti, Stive Vermaut, Geert de Walle, Bert Osterbosch, Connie Meijer, Joachin Halupczok, Tim Pawvels, Fabrice Salanson, Marco Rusconi, Michel Zanoli et al....??

They all died by age 35, most in their twenties.

That's real bad luck.

Maybe Tyler was lucky, not unlucky to get busted for peculiar blood.

You all forget : Alex Zulle.
Consistently fell off or crashed when in a leading position.
Wore glasses and always blamed his bad eyesight.

My nomination : Alex Zulle.

LeMond was very unlucky to get shot. He may have won several more Tours. I think some of the lead frome the shotgun blast may have caused brain damage judging from some of the quotes he gives about Armstrong.

patch70 said:

How about Tyler Hamilton & Cadel Evans for the efforts at finding out how hard collarbones (etc) really are?

My votes! Tyler in general (falls and doping affair) and of course Evans` collarbones (3 times in one season if I`m right:eek::eek::eek🙂!

What unluck has to do to get busted doped? Maybe he was lucky enough with the B sample from the Olympics so he can retains (a useless, though) his medal.

Quoted post said:

I think some of the lead frome the shotgun blast may have caused brain damage judging from some of the quotes he gives about Armstrong.

And what about LA's behaviour towards, say Simeoni? What had gone bad with his brain? Chemotherapy? 😠

Dimos said:

What unluck has to do to get busted doped? Maybe he was lucky enough with the B sample from the Olympics so he can retains (a useless, though) his medal.

I agree, its an example of good luck 😉 I wonder what the od's are of a B sample getting destroyed?

cheers

Dimos said:

What unluck has to do to get busted doped? Maybe he was lucky enough with the B sample from the Olympics so he can retains (a useless, though) his medal.

I think he didn`t foresee they will catch him! Of course it`s unluck if you tested positive as he`s unlucky now! Or is it luck? Was it lucky for him? I don`t think so! It`ll be lucky if they wouldn`t get him!

rutamike said:

My vote for most snake bit rider is Canadian Steve Bauer.
He got plastic fouled in his derailler and lost the gold medal in 1984 road race to Alexi Grewal

I was at the finish line of that race and never saw any plastic or anything in Bauer's wheel. Where did you hear this? Alexi pulled the greatest sprint of his life out of his a$$ and beat Steve straight up as far as I know.

And Planckaert beat him fair and square; Steve didn't lose because of bad luck. Lots of races are decided by millimeters.

I always viewed Steve as a rider who was fortunate to be able to maximise his potential.

How about Eric Zabel 18(!!!) 2nd place finishes last year including the world championship and that famous Milan-San Remo finish.

Surely! Unlucky, but nothing stops him! The real professional!