Hero Of The Day

Sep 6 2009

That would be Johnny Hoogerland. 169k out in the break, dropped by Moncoutie and swamped by a bevy of GC contenders 5k from the finish on one of the hardest stages this season.

How does that feel? I’m guessing not good:
CYCLING-VUELTA/
(REUTERS/Joseba Etxaburu via KOOSVUELTA_2009)

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9 Responses to “Hero Of The Day”

  1. erico vinicius September 6, 2009 at 7:00 pm #

    Great effort!!

  2. Sam September 6, 2009 at 7:40 pm #

    Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes…

    “A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I lose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself.” – Steve Prefontaine.

  3. Nick September 6, 2009 at 11:18 pm #

    This is why I race bikes.

  4. John September 7, 2009 at 2:32 am #

    embarassing that he didnt get the combativity award, at least as far as my understanding of spanish is, hinault got it instead which is a bit of a disgrace

  5. smaryka September 7, 2009 at 5:34 am #

    According to the Dutch press, Hoogerland has now been told by his team leader he can’t attack while he sits so high in the GC.

    http://bit.ly/VW7v2 for the English translation via Google (also the comments are interesting)

    http://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/5653/ for the original in Dutch.

  6. Sebastian September 7, 2009 at 10:42 am #

    Shouldn’t this be a picture of Moncoutie? Wasn’t he the last member of the break to be swallowed up?

  7. John September 7, 2009 at 1:37 pm #

    it’s not as impressive for a guy that has made his career on such moves like moncoutie

  8. rainbow September 9, 2009 at 4:45 pm #

    Come on guys this is what I look and feel like after every time I race! And I don’t have a radio in my ear blaring at me to go harder. These pro’s need to harden the *$^& up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y)
    Those guys need to get a real job, family, get old and overweight and go out and suffer every weekend, for longer, and harder, slower, trying to keep up with young whippets every time the road starts to go up hill.
    The road doesnt get easier, the lenght of suffering only increases.

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