Eddy Merckx
Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx, better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is widely seen as the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours, all of the five Monuments, three World Championships, the hour record, every major one-day race other than Paris–Tours, and extensive victories on the track.
Felice Gimondi
Felice Gimondi was an Italian professional racing cyclist. With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the second cyclist to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling: Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a España (1968). He is one of only seven cyclists to have done so.
Sprinter (cycling)
A sprinter is a road bicycle racer or track racer who can finish a race very explosively by accelerating quickly to a high speed, often using the slipstream of another cyclist or group of cyclists tactically to conserve energy.
Alessandro Petacchi
Alessandro Petacchi is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 1996 and 2015. A specialist sprinter, Petacchi has won 48 grand tour stages with wins of the points jersey in the Giro d'Italia in 2004, the Vuelta a España in 2005 and the Tour de France in 2010. He also won the classics Milan – San Remo in 2005 and Paris-Tours in 2007. His career spanned over 18 years during which he earned 183 victories.
Joop Zoetemelk
Hendrik Gerardus Joseph "Joop" Zoetemelk is a retired professional racing cyclist from the Netherlands. He started and finished the Tour de France 16 times, which were both records when he retired. His record number of starts in the Tour de France was surpassed when George Hincapie started for the 17th time in 2012, but Hincapie was disqualified in October 2012 from the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Tour de France for the use of performance-enhancing drugs, giving the number of starts record back to Zoetemelk. Nobody other than Zoetemelk achieved sixteen Tour de France finishes until Sylvain Chavanel did so in the 2018 Tour de France. Currently, three riders have had more than 16 starts in the Tour de France, but none of them has yet exceeded the record of finishing the event 16 times. He also holds the distance record in Tour de France history with 62,885 km ridden. He won the 1979 Vuelta a España, the 1980 Tour de France and also came eighth, fifth, fourth and second. He was the first rider to wear the Tour de France's Polka Dot Jersey as the King of the Mountains. He also won the World Professional Road Championship in 1985 at the age of 38, with a late attack surprising the favorites of Lemond, Roche, Argentin and Millar. He is, as of 2018, the oldest men's individual road race world champion. He retired from the sport to run a hotel at Meaux, France.
Rik Van Looy
Henri "Rik" Van Looy is a Belgian former professional cyclist of the post-war period, nicknamed the King of the Classics or Emperor of Herentals. He was twice world professional road race champion, and was the first cyclist to win all five 'Monuments': the most prestigious one-day classics – a feat since achieved by just two others. With 379 road victories he's second to Merckx only. He is ninth on the all-time list of Grand Tour stage winners with thirty-seven victories.
Erik Breukink
Erik Breukink is a former professional road racing cyclist. In 1988, Breukink won the youth competition in the Tour de France. In 1990, Breukink reached the podium in Paris, finishing 3rd in the 1990 Tour de France. Most recently, he served as the manager of the Rabobank team.
Abraham Olano
Abraham Olano Manzano is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist, who raced between 1992 and 2002. He won the World Road Championship in 1995, and the World Time Trial Championship in 1998, becoming the first and so far only male cyclist to win both.
Team Milram
Team Milram was a German pro cycling team, participating at the UCI ProTour.
Giovanni Battaglin
Giovanni Battaglin is an Italian professional road racing cyclist. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the 1981 Giro d'Italia. He also won the 1981 Vuelta a España.
Miguel Poblet
Miguel Poblet Orriols was a Spanish professional cyclist, who had over 200 professional victories from 1944 to 1962. He was the first Spanish rider to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, and in 1956 he became the first of only three riders to win stages in the three Grand Tours in the same year. He won the Milan–San Remo classic race on two occasions and took 26 stage wins in the three Grand Tours. His twenty-stage wins in the Giro d'Italia makes him the third most successful foreign rider in the "Giro" behind Eddy Merckx (25) and Roger De Vlaeminck (22). Poblet was of short stature who had great power, he was the first Spanish rider to be a specialist in one day races in an age when Spain only produced climbers. He had a lightning fast sprint, but could also climb well, taking the Spanish Mountain championships on three occasions and the mountainous Volta a Catalunya twice. His nickname whilst riding was "La Flecha Amarilla" due to the yellow kit of his Ignis team.
Renault (cycling team)
Renault was a French professional cycling team that existed from 1978 to 1985. The team cycled on and promoted Gitane racing bikes.
List of Vuelta a España general classification winners
The Vuelta a España is an annual road bicycle race. Established in 1935 by the Spanish newspaper Informaciones, the Vuelta is one of cycling's three "Grand Tours", along with the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. Initially, the race was held in April/May, but in 1995 it was moved to September. The race usually covers approximately 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi), although this has varied, passing through Spain and countries with a close proximity in Europe. The race is broken into day-long segments called stages. Individual finishing times for each stage are totalled to determine the overall winner at the end of the race. The course changes every year, but has traditionally finished in Madrid.
List of Grand Tour general classification winners
The Grand Tours are the three most prestigious multi-week stage races in professional road bicycle racing. The competitions are the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España, contested annually in that order. They are the only stage races permitted to last longer than 14 days. No cyclist has won all three Grand Tours in the same calendar year, but Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Chris Froome have won all three in succession. The only other cyclists to win all three Grand Tours at some point in their career are Jacques Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Alberto Contador, and Vincenzo Nibali. Contador is the youngest, at 25 years, to win every Tour. It is rare for cyclists to ride all Grand Tours in the same year; in 2004, for example, 474 cyclists started in one of the Grand Tours, 68 rode two and only two cyclists started all three.
List of Grand Tour points classification winners
The Grand Tours are the three most prestigious multi-week stage races in professional road bicycle racing. The competitions are the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España, contested annually in that order. They are the only stage races permitted to last longer than 14 days. No cyclist has won all three Grand Tours's points classifications in the same year; the only cyclists to win all three Grand Tours's points classifications in their career are Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, Mark Cavendish, Laurent Jalabert, Eddy Merckx and Alessandro Petacchi. It is rare for cyclists to ride all Grand Tours in the same year; in 2004, 474 cyclists started in one of the Grand Tours, 68 rode two and two cyclists started all three.