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tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Lance Armstrong (7 wins)","Lance Armstrong powers toward victory in the individual time trial in stage 20 of the 2004 Tour.","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/040721_lance_tt_vlrg_9a.hsmall.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Laurent Rebours", "AP", "273", "183", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
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Lance Armstrong’s story has been one of the greatest in sports history. His comeback from cancer in 1997 and subsequent Tour reign is the ultimate fairy tale.
Armstrong's seven-year dominance has been unique in many ways. Like Indurain, he was terrific in time trials. But unlike Indurain, he wasn’t been shy to stretch his legs and take solo stage wins in earlier races.
But it's Armstrong’s team that sets him apart. Other riders (Indurain, LeMond) also focused solely on the Tour, but they didn't have teams built expressly for them. Their teams were expected to show the sponsors’ colors by winning other events.
For Armstrong and Discovery Channel (formerly the U.S. Postal Service), all races were merely warm-ups for the final run on the Champs-Elysees.
Lance’s assault on a sixth Tour win in 2004 was more highly anticipated than Indurain’s attempt in 1996. Then, Indurain had never shown weakness, and it was almost a foregone conclusion he would win a sixth straight.
With Armstrong, whose 2003 victory was his most difficult, there were signs he also might falter in 2004. But the Armstrong and USPS were the strongest, most focused squad ever to toe the start line. Armstrong crushed his rivals in the mountains and won five stages.
In 2005, Armstrong announced before the race that he would retire afterward. As a result, some questioned whether he had the drive to win a seventh straight. He quickly proved those naysayers wrong by winning an early team time trial, and he showed his legendary power in the mountains again.
The final stages of the seventh Tour were a coronation for Armstrong, who said after the race he did intend to stay retired.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Miguel Indurain (5)","Miguel Indurain rides to victory in the 19th stage of the Tour de France cycling race at Vassiviere lake, central France in July 22, 1995. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Projects/tour_france/040622_indurain_tourapp.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Peter Dejong", "AP", "274", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1991-1995
Miguel Indurain was the first to claim five consecutive Tours, and he did it through sheer brute force. His strategy was simple: dominate time trials and limit losses in the mountains, and he had the power to pull it off.
Indurain’s strategy was conservative, but led him to his theretofore unprecedented streak. During his reign, the Spaniard did not win a single stage that wasn’t a time trial.
Indurain had the power to take stage victories, winning the hour record in 1994 and world time trial championship in 1995, but never took chances on overextending himself.
Indurain looked as if he'd win a sixth straight Tour in 1996. His team was never the strongest, but with his time trial dominance, it didn't have to be.
That weakness showed in 1996, when Telekom (now T-Mobile) steamrolled Indurain’s Banesto, putting Bjarne Riis in the yellow jersey and Jan Ullrich in second place.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Bernard Hinault (5)","Bernard Hinault, wears a rain jacket at the start of the Tour de France at Frankfurt, June 27, 1980. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Projects/tour_france/040622_hinault_tourapp.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "", "AP", "298", "196", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1978-79, 1981-82, 1985
Hinault's ferocity earned him the nickname \"The Badger,\" and he was fearsome indeed, attacking any perceived challengers, including teammates like a young Greg LeMond.
Hinault was a French hero, and a complete rider: a time trialist, sprinter and climber of extraordinary talent.
Besides Eddy Merckx, Hinault is the only cyclist to have earned the climber’s jersey, sprinter’s jersey overall leader's jersey at the Tour, though he didn't do it in a single year, like Merckx.
Hinault had to abandon the 1980 Tour because of a knee problem. His knee later required surgery, which caused him to miss the 1983 Tour as well.
In 1986, Hinault promised to help LeMond win, as his American teammate had done for Hinault in 1985. But the temptation to become the first six-time winner was almost too great. Hinault attacked LeMond repeatedly in the mountains, before finally relenting and fulfilling his promise.
Hinault later said he was testing his teammate, to see if he was worthy of becoming a Tour champion.
Hinault provides more fodder for playing the \"What if ...?\" game than any other racer. There are those 1980 and 1983 Tour absences, for one thing. And then there’s the question of whether he gave LeMond that 1986 victory, or whether he acquiesced when he saw that LeMond was the superior cyclist.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Eddy Merckx (5)","Belgium's Eddy Merckx races in the 1970 Tour de France on July 26, 1970. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Projects/tour_france/040622_merckx_tourapp.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "", "AP", "279", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1969-1972, 1974
Eddy Merckx is, without question, the greatest cyclist of all time. He was known as \"The Cannibal,\" for his insatiable appetite for wins: 525, a record that still stands.
Most racers’ training is orchestrated to peak for a specific part of the season, like the spring classics or summer events (a practice Lance Armstrong carries to the extreme, peaking solely for the Tour), but Merckx wasn’t content to win during a specific part of the season. He had to win everything.
Merckx won spring classics, all three grand tours (5 Tours, 5 Giros, 1 Vuelta) and four world road race championships. While most pros were taking the winter off, Merckx was winning six-day races. For the Cannibal, racing was a year-round pursuit.
Merckx humiliated his rivals the first time he entered the Tour, with a winning margin of 18 minutes. To add insult to injury, he also collected the green sprinter’s jersey and polka-dotted climber’s jersey -— a feat that has never been repeated.
Merckx would go on to win more than 30 Tour stages, and go virtually unchallenged in his five Tour victories.
In 1974, Merckx took cycling’s triple crown with victories at the Tour, the Giro d’Italia and the world championship road race -- a hat trick that has been equaled only once, by Ireland’s Stephen Roche in 1987.
It was said that at the height of the Merckx, era, when the Belgian won 35 percent of all races he entered, you could only win if he let you. He ruled the race with total control, in a way that has yet to be duplicated.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Jacques Anquetil (5)","Jacques Anquetil crosses the finish line at the Parc des Princes in Paris, to win the Tour de France, July 14 1964. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Projects/tour_france/040622_anquetil_tourapp.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "", "AP", "281", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1957, 1961-1964
Jacques Anquetil’s place in Tour history was secured in 1964, when he became the first five-time victor, an accomplishment that overshadows the rest of his resume.
Anquetil was the first to win all three grand tours, with two wins at the Giro d’Italia and one at the Vuelta a Espaņa, eclipsing Coppi’s record of seven.
Anquetil also won the Grand Prix des Nations a record nine times, set the world hour record, and became the first to win the Tour de France four consecutive times.
Anquetil was a calculating rider, carefully gauging his rivals’ abilities and riding against them. Despite his dominance in France’s greatest race, his somewhat cold personality didn’t endear him to his French countrymen, who chose to embrace Raymond Poulidor, the \"eternal second\" (he finished on the Tour podium eight times, but never on the top step).
While never adored like Poulidor, Anquetil’s record speaks for itself. A controversial figure (he set a new hour record in 1967, then refused to submit to dope testing and make the record official), Anquetil is not only one of the Tour’s greatest competitors, but one of history’s all-time best cyclists.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Greg LeMond (3)","Greg Lemond, center, races down the Champs Elysees in Paris, France, in the 23rd and last stage of the Tour de France, Sunday, July 27, 1986. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Projects/tour_france/040622_lemond_tourapp.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Lionel Cironneau", "AP", "232", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1986, 1989-1990
Greg LeMond was not the first U.S. cyclist to race the Tour (Jonathan Boyer was the first in 1981, and others may have competed in the pre-war period), but he was the first to make a podium appearance.
LeMond also was the first American to win, and also the first to fight back from a life-threatening condition. He suffered a shotgun blast to the chest in April 1987 in a hunting accident, and were it not for a police helicopter luckily being nearby to provide an airlift, he would have bled to death.
His lengthy recovery denied him the chance to compete in the 1987 Tour, while tendinitis sidelined him in 1988.
In 1989, LeMond made his comeback, and secured his place in Tour legend. That year’s final stage was a short, 15-mile time trial into Paris. LeMond was in second place, 50 seconds behind Frenchman Laurent Fignon. To win, LeMond would have to make up more than two seconds per kilometer -— seemingly an impossibility.
LeMond showed up on the line in an aerodynamic helmet, with then-new time trial handlebar extensions on his bike. While popular with triathletes because they allowed a sleek, aerodynamic tuck, the bars had yet to catch on in pro cycling.
LeMond’s ride would change all that, with the fastest time trial in Tour history -- 34 mph -- and the slimmest victory margin ever -- eight seconds.
LeMond’s 1990 win was controversial, because he won without taking a single stage. He wasn’t dominant, so much as he was tactically smart. But physically, he wasn’t the rider he was before his accident. Lead pellets he still carries in his heart lining may have triggered a degenerative muscle condition known as mitochondrial myopathy, which ultimately cut his career short.
LeMond’s influence extends well beyond the Tour de France itself. He was the first cyclist to command a million-dollar salary, which elevated bicycle racing from a near amateur-level pursuit to a big-name sport. And he modernized equipment, creating the first long-zip jerseys (previous zippers were a scant 3-4 inches long) and legitimizing time-trial handlebars.";
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tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1953-1955
Louison Bobet, a Frenchman, became the first competitor to show multi-year dominance of the Tour by winning three consecutive editions. He is one of only five cyclists to win three consecutive Tours.
At the time, Tour teams were organized along national boundaries, like the Olympics. But since so many riders were normally attached to professional trade teams, some of the composite teams were more fragmented than united, and such was the case with Bobet’s French squad.
In a moment that foreshadows modern Tour practice, Bobet imitated the Italians by promising to split the victor’s prize amongst his teammates if they would work for him. The strategy worked, and Bobet rolled into Paris triumphant.
Bobet owed his success not so much to natural talent but to hard work. Fausto Coppi said Bobet, of all cyclists, knew what it was to suffer on the bike. Bobet was a general threat -- he won the Grand Prix des Nations, the de facto world time trial championship, in 1952.
He could climb with the best, earning the King of the Mountains in the 1951 Giro d’Italia. And he was fast in one-day races as well as weeks-long tours, taking the professional world road race in 1954.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Philippe Thys (3)","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1913-1914, 1920
The Tour was still in its infancy when Belgian Philippe Thys won his first overall victory there in 1913. He repeated in 1914, but it was his ride in 1920 that secured his place among the Tour’s legendary figures.
In 1920, the race had not yet grown to today’s epic proportions. But with 15 stages it was still formidable, especially given the relatively primitive equipment of the day. Thys won the overall, becoming the Tour’s first three-time winner. But more significantly, he ruled the race with absolute dominance.
In 15 days, Thys never finished lower than fifth on any stage, and won four of the stages outright.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Fausto Coppi (2)","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1949, 1952
By the numbers, \"il Campionissimo\" (the Champion) doesn’t seem significant. But in racing’s big picture, Coppi may be the Tour's most dominant cyclist ever, winning twice in only three appearances.
Like his fellow Italian, Gino Bartali, Coppi lost some of his best cycling years to World War II. Had the race been held in 1940-'46, Coppi -— who turned 21 in 1940 and spent 18 months as a POW in Africa -— could have notched six or seven victories.
Coppi’s 1952 ride was incredible. He won by more than 28 minutes, and it’s said organizers hastily increased the purse for second and third places to liven things up. Coppi won five stages, and took the King of the Mountains prize as well as overall victory.
Like Lance Armstrong, Coppi was a time-trial specialist. But he was flamboyant with his powers, taking countless solo victories with long breakaways. His 1953 win at the world championships was epic -— a solo victory with a margin of more than 6 minutes, shattering the 70-man field (just 27 finished).
Coppi was also a supremely gifted climber, as evidenced by his two KoM jerseys from the Tour.
When he earned his first Tour win in 1949, Coppi became the first cyclist to win both the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in the same year.
His career included setting the hour record, cycling’s most coveted benchmark. Coppi’s cycling resume includes seven overall wins in the grand tours (comprised of the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espaņa), a record which stood until the arrival of Jacques Anquetil, le Tour’s first five-time champion.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Gino Bartali (2)","Gino Bartali, seen in this 1953 file picture, died Friday, May 5, 2000 following a heart attack. ","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Interactives/Projects/tour_france/040622_bartali_tourapp.vmedium.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "", "AP", "284", "198", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1938, 1948
Gino Bartali’s first Tour victory came when he was just 24. He did not compete in the race again for 10 years, when he absolutely destroyed the field to take his second victory and become the oldest rider to win the Tour in the post-World War II era.
The 10-year spread between the Italian’s victories is the longest span between wins for any rider, and makes Bartali the only rider to win before and after WWII (no Tours were held in 1940-1946).
Bartali lost his peak years to the war, and would have undoubtedly clinched more podium spots. Whether he would have won in those years is debatable, due to Fausto Coppi’s presence.
Legend has it Bartali’s 1948 victory was instrumental in saving Italy. The country was fragmented over an assassination attempt on the Secretary of the Communist Party, and it’s said daily reports of Bartali’s exploits in the Tour de France united the country.
Apocryphal perhaps, but what is certain is that Bartali’s 1948 record of three consecutive stage wins was not equaled until 1999.";
tour_greatest[i++] = new Array("","Luis Ocaña (1)","","","","", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "");
tour_greatest[i-1].body = "
1973
Luis Ocaña’s lone Tour win might seem like scant evidence for making the list of all-time greats, but it’s not his victory that secures his greatness -- it’s his epic ride in 1971.
From 1969 to 1975, Eddy Merckx ruled the pro ranks with an iron will, winning 35 percent of all races he entered. Every challenger to King Eddy’s throne came up short, and in cycling, where the intense suffering becomes a personal test of wills (Lance Armstrong’s coach, Chris Carmichael, has called it a knife fight), challenging Merckx and losing was publicly humiliating and personally demoralizing.
In 1971, Ocaña did the impossible, attacking Merckx on the steeps of the Col du Noyer and taking an astounding 8 minutes, 42 seconds out of the Belgian -- an eternity in bike racing. Merckx attacked relentlessly in subsequent stages, chipping away at Ocaña's lead.
Sadly, Ocaña crashed on a descent, and abandoned the race in tears. Merckx, in a sign of respect, refused to wear the yellow jersey the next day, saying he would have preferred second place to winning on account of Ocaña's bad luck.
Ocaña returned to win in 1973, a year in which Merckx was absent. To this day, the question of whether Ocaña could have held his lead against Merckx is one of cycling’s hottest barroom discussion topics.";
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// END editorial data