Ali is the greatest athlete in the history of mankind

[Easy-E]

and merckx is FAR better than armstrong! butterfly, he was a belgian cyclist in the 60's and 70's...he won the tour de france 5 times, the tour of italy five times, and won every other race on the calendar at least once..some of the classics he won several times..believe it or not, cycling is an even harder sport than boxing. boxing is a close second.

cycling is a harder sport, but merckx wasnt a better athelete than lance. remember that the tour changes each year.
lance had the cards stacked against hit, the race officials changed the course every year to make it harder for lance.
what that guy did was amazing

[steveharradine]

okay i took the bait...let me educate you a little...in merckx's career he won 445 races out of 1582, plus over 100 as an amateur and countless track races, including 5 tours de france, 5 tours of italy, and one tour of spain (he only rode it the once) plus all of the spring classics at least once..he won the world championship road race 3 times plus once as an amateur..

armstrong, since his cancer, has trained solely for the tour de france, the biggest and most prestigious of the races..he ducks the tours of italy and spain, and the spring classics, and bases himself around the tour de france..before his illness he won the world championship road race once..he has (i think) around 96 major wins to his name..i appreciate that his feats are incredible considering his illness, but he is in remission, and his illness is not the reason he doesnt ride many races, the basic fact is, if he rode the amount of races people like merckx did, its certain he wouldnt have won 7 tours, in fact its possible he wouldnt have won any at all..since the era of greg lemond in the 80's, the major contenders for the tour de france have had to train solely for that race to be in with a chance (because thats what all their rivals do)..in eddy's day, they rode pretty much every race..if armstrong did that, he wouldnt have the strength left to win the tour..you can argue that he would, so why doesnt he then? exactly. armstrong isnt even in the top 30 of all time, and just because he's the only cyclist you've heared of it doesnt make him the best.

[steveharradine]

cycling is a harder sport, but merckx wasnt a better athelete than lance. remember that the tour changes each year.
lance had the cards stacked against hit, the race officials changed the course every year to make it harder for lance.
what that guy did was amazing

lance has better roads, better equipment, and not the competition that merckx was up against. and what makes you think they didnt make the tours harder for eddy? it changes every year, but so what? this year there were only 3 mountain stages, whereas in years gone by there couldve been as many as 6.

[KidBlackie]

[[[[[lance has better roads, better equipment, and not the competition that merckx was up against. ]]]]
===============================

Dude, I appreciate you like Merckx and all, but neither he nor Lance would qualify for the best athlete ever. Nor would Ali who was just a boxer and really didn't dominate his division but for a few years in his prime.

The best athletes are guys like Jim Thorpe who not only dominated Olympic track and field like nobody ever had or ever will, but played pro football and baseball and was a HOF football player.

Or a guy like Babe Ruth who was a dominant pitcher who started to tie and break HR records before he ever became an everyday player. Babe changed the whole nature of the game like nobody had done before or since.

Now, as to Eddie, well, in his fashion Lance is every bit as good as Eddie. It's really two different eras and different styles and requirements. Merckx was a tough guy who was able to often go out on his own and teamwork was not as important then.

It's Lance who competes in the most competitive and global environment, not Eddie. Riders now come from Eastern Europe and N/S Americas and riders can't afford to smoke cigs like Eddie often did while riding. The bikes are much faster and the strategy of teamwork and drafting and training has been greatly advanced. The riders need more skills than in Eddie's day because of these advances. No rider will ever be able to gut it out solo like Eddie did again.

Moreover, few top riders compete in all the events Eddie did because of the limits of their huge contracts. Eddie would be just as limited by contract if he competed today.

[steveharradine]

babe ruth, jim thorpe, better athletes than merckx?? smoking cigs in training?? merckx had a good team and of course team work was important, but he COULD win on his own if he had to..he was capable of it and proved it time and time again..lance doesnt ride in this manner, his team does the majority of the work while he sits there eighth or ninth in line marking the dangermen, or letting his team mark them..its like a russian doll, when the shells are removed and his team mates drop off, lance is there to be unleashed...merckx controlled races himself, and didnt rely on his team as much as lance does...people like hinault for example were similar to eddy in that they won races from the front, they would attack when they didnt need to to put more time into the opposition...lance just watches his opponents and if they make a move, then he'll stick with them and make sure they dont put anymore time into him and thats been his tactic for the past 7 years. same with greg lemond....i defy you to find any pictures where lemond is on the front doing his share of the work..he's ALWAYS sitting on the wheel of his rival and that is NOT an honourable way to ride...its legal, but its not good sportsmanship..

i dont know where this idea of not being able to ride other races because of contractual obligation stems from..if lance wanted to ride the giro, the paris-roubaix, the vuelta, he could....he doesnt even ride the world championship road race anymore! and you're saying he's every bit as good as eddy? sorry dude, i appreciate armstrongs achievements for what they are, but its the equivalent of comparing ali to leon spinks for example, or saying david beckham is the best footballer (soccer player) of all time..babe ruth? heheheh

btw, just because lance is competing against a wider range of nationalities, it doesnt mean those cyclist are any better than the nationalities of the cyclists eddy was racing against..there is no one in the peleton of today (and im not counting lance here) whos even as good as people like moser, devlaeminck, poulidor, zoetemelk, kuiper, gimondi, maertens (off the top of my head)...plus, if he rode like lance and focused on the tour, he would have won it 12 times +, no problem.

[Easy-E]

lance has better roads, better equipment, and not the competition that merckx was up against. and what makes you think they didnt make the tours harder for eddy? it changes every year, but so what? this year there were only 3 mountain stages, whereas in years gone by there couldve been as many as 6.

the tour gets longer, and more challenging to create more exictement
plus, armstrong's competiton is great, he just blows everybody away.
its true that lance had better roads and better equiptment, but so does everybody else on the tour today
you cant compare times

[steveharradine]

no comment

[Heckler]

Athlete, I agree that Ali deserves it... whats harder is all subjective. Ali is a man that fought beyond his prime and defeated the best there was to beat, he was great MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY... He left everything in the ring, fought to the very brink of his bodies capability, biggest level of determination and heart of any athlete recorded and recognised i believe... he is the epitome of what an athlete should be.

[KidBlackie]

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[i appreciate armstrongs achievements for what they are, but its the equivalent of comparing ali to leon spinks for example]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
===========================

OK, I gave you much to much credit and respect for knowing something about Merckx. Apparently that's all you know and you're no different than those painted up half naked idiots screaming their drunken selves silly at football games.

[Gemini531]

I am the greatest athelte of all time forget Ali , Jordan and roy jones.