“I’m by no means happier than after I’m writing.”
~ Ed Hood, as spoken to Martin Williamson from the passenger seat, driving alongside a stage route on the Tour de France.

Pricey Readers – Our beloved colleague and buddy Ed Hood suffered a critical stroke in February.  We don’t count on Ed will make it again into our bunch, so we’ve began a GoFundMe web page to assist Ed together with his future.  Learn the total publish right here – and please take into account donating.

** Click on this hyperlink to donate to the GoFundMe web page to assist Ed **

We’ll be posting a choice of Ed’s work from the previous 16 years, as a result of nice story-telling by no means will get outdated.

Who was the most important Dangerous Ass: Biking has its fair proportion of exhausting bastards, which isn’t too shocking if you suppose what the riders put themselves via to win the world’s hardest races. However some riders take the time period ‘exhausting man’ too far. Ed Hood takes his choose of the 13 high ‘Dangerous Asses’ of the peloton.

Baldato didn’t make it

The British ‘Biking Weekly’ journal just lately ran a function itemizing their high 10, ‘Dangerous Asses’. Their phrases, not ours, however the gist was riders who’re/have been, controversial, robust or ‘exhausting’.

Their high 10 was:
1) Bernard Hinault
2) Sean Yates
3) Sean Kelly
4) Alberto Contador
5) Thomas De Gendt
6) Beryl Burton
7) Thor Hushovd
8) Jacques Anquetil
9) Octave Lapize
10) Alfonsina Strada

Not a nasty premise for a chunk we thought, so we had a suppose and right here’s OUR high 13 – to make use of a controversial quantity – in alphabetical order:

Joaquim Agostinho: fought for 3 years in Angola and Mozambique throughout Portugal’s colonial wars, earlier than turning professional. The legend is that his captain within the military ‘found’ him on account of his with the ability to trip 50 kilometres in two hours on a heavy military bike when delivering messages – his contemporaries taking 5 hours. When requested if the Tour de France was robust, Agostinho replied that it was a lot much less robust than sleeping within the jungle throughout a guerrilla battle. . .

Agostinho – Powerful as they arrive and a tragic finish

Jacques Anquetil: his private life would make a terrific film however we’ll go away that apart; Biking Weekly rightly focuses on his profitable the Dauphine Libere then flying direct to Bordeaux to trip and win the marathon partly Derny paced Bordeaux-Paris. An ‘exploit’ for certain. Englishman Vin Denson was certainly one of his key domestiques; certainly one of his important jobs if Jacques was using for the win? To ship Jacques his, ‘ending bidon’ – containing champagne and brandy. They don’t make them like Jacques anymore.

Anquetil – Clean rider, however exhausting

Lance Armstrong: yeah, we all know, however this can be a man who actually did come again from being near demise to win the Tour de France – the ‘kitting up?’ Have a wee have a look at the highest 10 of the Excursions he received. It will be faster to checklist those that didn’t get ‘performed’ than those that did; would he have received if everybody was ‘clear?’ That we’ll by no means know.

Armstrong – Very exhausting on ‘pals’

Danilo Di Luca: ‘The Killer’ was a pleasure to look at, aggressive to the max, and effectively revered by his crew mates. A winner of the Giro, Lombardia and Liège-Bastogne-Liège – after which he received ‘performed’ and suspended. Again he got here, aggressive as ever; and promptly received ‘performed’ once more – that’s ‘unhealthy ass’ for certain. The person broke my coronary heart.

Di Luca – Perhaps not the cleverest rider

Jackie Durand: within the Biking Weekly they checklist Thomas De Gendt for his lengthy, lone breaks – ‘respect’ for certain. However has he ever received a Monument? Nope – however Jackie did, the Ronde in 1992; and two French Skilled Street Race Championships, Paris-Excursions, the Tro Bro Leon, three Tour de France phases and a spell within the yellow jersey. Thomas has a option to go earlier than he can match the Frenchman as a tough man, ‘baroudeur’.

Durand – Flanders winner

Bernard Hinault: exhausting to argue with Biking Weekly’s inclusion of the Breton, he received nearly all the things there was to win together with one of the crucial savage World Skilled Street Race Championships ever, Sallanches in 1980. Then there was his 80 kilometre solo to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège in a snow storm, he nonetheless suffers from the frostbite in his fingers. He received the Tour with a damaged nostril after a ‘face plant’ crash at high pace and wasn’t averse to using into strikers protesting on the parcours at full pelt with fists flying. Not a person to mess with. And naturally, he challenged younger crew mate Greg LeMond all the best way to complete of the ’86 Tour de France after having pledged his help to the American. He defined that he was simply ensuring that LeMond’s win was a ‘worthy’ one. Proper, Bernard.

Hinault – Sure, exhausting

Sean Kelly: one other Biking Weekly choice now we have no quibble with; the ‘King of the Classics’ and a Vuelta winner, his dash battles with Eric Vanderaerden would have even Carlton Kirby misplaced for phrases and the commissaires reaching for the smelling salts.

Kelly – Head wound harm stitched with out anaesthetic

Johan Museeuw: Absolutely the ‘Recordman’ for the Ronde with eight podiums and thrice a winner of Paris-Roubaix the place a nasty crash in Arenberg Forest in 1998 nearly noticed him lose his leg as gangrene set in. Two years later he would cross the road within the Roubaix velodrome, triumphant with aforementioned knee raised to go away us in little doubt that he was again. Hardcore.

Museeuw – Practically misplaced a leg

Luis Ocaña: we’ve excluded Eddy Merckx from this checklist, it goes with out saying he was the ‘baaddest’ by any measure. Many stated that they weren’t fearful of Baron Edouard Louis in his 70’s prime however few truly put their cash the place their mouth was. Ocaña did, savaging Merckx within the mountains within the ’71 Tour de France till his notorious crash on the descent of the Col de Mente which noticed him must abandon with the maillot jaune on his again. Ocaña would win the Tour in ’73 however within the absence of Merckx who rode and received each the GC and factors classifications within the Vuelta and Giro that season. However Ocaña’s ’71 ‘failure’ is now a part of our sport’s archive of legends.

Ocaña – Unfortunate or a tragic life?

Tom Simpson: none more durable, a person who might trip himself into someplace past the pale – and on the Ventoux he simply went too far. The king of French biking journalism, Philippe Brunel known as him as a ‘genius’. I wouldn’t argue with that evaluation.

Simpson – He went too far

Rik Van Looy: together with Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck, Rik II is certainly one of solely three males to win all the monuments; more durable than exhausting and a person who’s phrase was value – effectively, not a lot. Englishman, Vin Denson rode for Van Looy and Jacques Anquetil and while the Norman’s phrase was his bond, Rik’s was something however. . .

Van Looy – Powerful and tough

Rik Van Steenbergen: one other man whose private life would make film with playing, medication, smuggling, police busts and. . . starring in a delicate porn film. There’s a faculty of thought says that had he raced much less – he’d usually race twice a day, anyplace the cash was sturdy – then he’s have received extra that his three World Skilled Street Race Championships and eight Classics.

Van Steenbergen – He led fairly a life

Sean Yates: a younger Russian rider who had simply had a tongue lashing from the ‘Huge Sean,’ rode as much as his crew captain, Evgeni Berzin asking who the Englishman thought he was? Berzin counselled the teenager that it could be greatest to chunk his lip, it wasn’t a good suggestion to tangle with Yates. A person even the younger, cocksure Lance Armstrong didn’t reply again – not referred to as, ‘The Animal’ for nothing.

Yates – Huge and exhausting

# And now we’re ready for the ‘hate mail . . . . #

Fiorenzo Magni didn’t make it in to the highest ‘Dangerous Ass’

Like PEZ? Why not subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter to obtain updates and reminders on what’s cool in street biking?