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Does anyone think any of these guys could ever return to their former glory? Or are they headed to the dust bin?
Remember how excited everyone was about Mayo two years ago? The Mont Ventoux climbing record? We used to talk about him as much as we do Valverde and Boonen today. He was the next "great one" in many minds.
Poor old Beloki looked like he was finally going to graduate from wheel sucking school when that awful disaster befell him in 2004. He probably would be hitting his peak maturity as a rider right now if that hadn't happened.
Yes, I know Simoni didn't exactly suck in last year's Giro but still it was a far far cry from his '01-'03 form. If the 2003 Simoni had shown up in 2005 everyone of those guys would have been clocked by a couple minutes at least. His bar is set a bit higher in my estimation. The others had the potential to be great. Simoni WAS great.
Remember how excited everyone was about Mayo two years ago? The Mont Ventoux climbing record? We used to talk about him as much as we do Valverde and Boonen today. He was the next "great one" in many minds.
Poor old Beloki looked like he was finally going to graduate from wheel sucking school when that awful disaster befell him in 2004. He probably would be hitting his peak maturity as a rider right now if that hadn't happened.
Yes, I know Simoni didn't exactly suck in last year's Giro but still it was a far far cry from his '01-'03 form. If the 2003 Simoni had shown up in 2005 everyone of those guys would have been clocked by a couple minutes at least. His bar is set a bit higher in my estimation. The others had the potential to be great. Simoni WAS great.