Eddy Merckx.
1971 he won 47% of the races he was in over a full season not the handful of races some of todays guys compete in.
Hour record 49.431km - Not broken on a normal non aerodynamic bike until after 2000.
Most career victories by a professional cyclist: 525.
Most victories in one season: 54.
Most stage victories in the Tour de France: 34.
Most stage victories in one Tour de France: 8, in 1970 and 1974 (shared with Charles Pélissier in 1930 and Freddy Maertens in 1976).
Most days with the yellow jersey in the Tour de France: 96.
The only cyclist to have won the general classification, points classification and mountains classification in the same Tour de France (1969).
Most victories in classics: 28.
Most victories in one single classic: 7 (in Milan – San Remo).
Most victories in Grand Tours: 11
Plus 80 wins as an amateur.
Or if you want older Major Taylor. Won nearly everything, forced out of competition in the US by racism. Went to Europe and beat 3 national champions. Also raced in Australia.
World records in the paced mile.
Plus at least once where the pacers decided to deliberately go slow so he'd lose. After a couple laps of yelling at them to speed up he simply went around them and won. It's nearly impossible to beat a paced rider while unpaced. Speeds at the time were typically around 40mph paced.
By 1898, he held seven world records at distances from .25 miles (0.40 km) to 2 miles (3.2 km)[5] and he placed first in 29 of 49 races in which he competed. No one else came close to that record. Taylor was entitled to recognition as national champion but formation of a new cycling league that year "clouded" his claim to the title.
In one six-week period in 1899, Taylor established seven world records.[3] These included the .25 miles (0.40 km), .33 miles (0.53 km), .5 miles (0.80 km), .66 miles (1.06 km), .75 miles (1.21 km), 1 mile (1.6 km) and the 2 miles (3.2 km). He did the mile from a standing start in 1:41, a record that stood for 28 years.
And in womens sports
Eileen Sheridan british cyclist
She set pretty much every record for women in timed distance events including some that are still unbroken since the 1950's.
Or Beryl Burton winner of the British all round cycling championship every year from 1959-1983 at speeds that were sometimes faster than the men.
In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles – a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969.[4] While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder. She is reputed to have given him a liquorice allsort as she passed him. Apparently, McNamara ate the sweet.
She also set about 50 new national records at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50 and 100-mile distances; her final 10, 25 and 50-mile records each lasted 20 years before being broken, her 100-mile record lasted 28 years, and her 12-hour record still stands today. Her prowess led to the rare distinction, for a woman, of an invitation to compete in the Grand Prix des Nations in 1967.
In 1982, with her daughter Denise, Burton set a British 10-mile record for women riding a tandem bicycle: 21 minutes, 25 seconds.
Last edited by steve B; 02-09-2013 at 05:27 PM.
Reason: fixed error
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