Il daily ci illumina, mi è venuta voglia di fare la mia
Okay, so, let's have some ranking fun! List the most riduculous rides and riders within the last 10 years. There's been quite a few! From the top of my head: 1. Emanuelle Sella in the Giro 2008 Probably the most ridiculous ride ever to occur post-90's. I actually defended him after his first and second stage win but when he was then 2nd on Plan de Corones, it was just ludicrous - and when he even won the final mountain stage, all there was to do was just to take a bow and applause the show. 2. Chris Froome 2011-2013 We all know the story of Froome and those of us who followed him back in his U23-days will agree to the ridiculousness. The worst thing about him is that we - the spectators - have become so much smarter since the mid 00's. We know how to recognize a doper by now. 3. Santi' Perez in the Vuelta 2004 Perez had quite a few good results in his first professional seasons but absolutely no-one would have betted on the absolute ridiculousness of his riding against Roberto Heras in the 2004 Vuelta. It was fun watching and really a great race when I was still all too naive to suspect anything. 4. The CERA-gang of Saunier Duval, Schumacher and Kohl in the 2008 Tour We were smarter by then and we could all smell doping from far away. Only Kohl were we ready to give some benefit of the doubt, at least to some extent. But no. 5. Lance Armstrong, all the way to 2009 Yes, and 2009 TdF was just the icing on the cake 6. Haussler in 2009 This is more controversial, I am very aware of that - but seriously, what an explosion of power he was in the first half of 2009. Suddenly a super classics sprinter, super cobbler and so much else. The thing was, it almost looked like he was surprised at his own strength. Had he been better aware of it, he would have won a few classics that spring. Instead, he faded back to somewhat mediocrity but has had a very fine season this year. 7. Isidro Nozal 2003 (and 2004 to some extent) Boom! There he was! Boom! Gone forever. 8. Michael Rasmussen, Tour de France 2007 It was a wonderful summer being Danish but by the time he caught up with and overhauled Valverde on the ITT, well, it was just too obvious. 9. Hincapie on Pla-d'Adet Not much to say. Bumblebee learns to fly. 10. Ivan Basso, Giro d'Italia 2006 I remember sitting watching the ridiculousness, first in awe but by the time of Simoni's ET-comments, I was very much in doubt. It was just too much. 11. JEG Cataluña, Giro 2006 Same as Hincapie. Come on. 12. Landis... Yeah, it needs to be here somewhere. I don't actually think he was that suspicious in comparison to the rest of the 75 kg-guys climbing the fastest in the world back in 2006. Back then, it was all meh, today it was just a bunch of ridiculousness. 13. Di Luca - a whole career, especially Giro 2009 The Giro 2009 probably is the landmark of riduculousness of his career. He was an attacking-monster but a joy to watch. 2009 was a great Giro, much thanks to him. 14. Pecharroman I don't actually remember seeing this guy in action - I just started following cycling later that summer of 2003 - but he's become somewhat of an urban legend of the unlikely fluke. 15. Joaquim Rodriguez - constant top shape from late 2009 to the end of 2012. I don't get it. He even became one the absolute best climbers on all mountain-type stages and a decent TT'er along the way - how did he find the time when he's been riding all over Europe winning races and podium'ed from March to October every year? There are many more that would deserve a spot. Mosquera, Porte, Sky, the High-Road/Columbia team of 2008/2009, Zabriskie, Julich, Vinokourov/Kashechkin, US Postal and so on. The ranking ended up a bit arbitrary so don't put too much weight on it.