- We've listened to your suggestions
on who you should think should be
in our latest toughest riders video.
And here are the results.
Four more resolute, resilient, robust, and rugged riders
who've made the grade.
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At only 17 years old, Lauren Dolan is the youngest rider
to be included in our toughest riders video.
Due to her immense bravery shown
in the individual time trial
at last year's World Championships in Bergen, Norway.
Which drew praise from all quarters of the cycling world
due to her astounding mental and physical fortitude
at such a tender age.
Around halfway through the 16.1 kilometre event,
Dolan crashed after hitting a pothole
and slid on her right-hand side,
severely lacerating her thigh and her knee.
But incredibly, she remounted to finish the event
only two minutes and 24 seconds behind the eventual winner
before being whisked off to hospital
where she underwent surgery.
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Let's face it, you've got to be pretty tough
if you end up with a nickname Monsieur Paris-Roubaix.
Well that was what Roger De Vlaeminck was known as
during his reign as one of the hardest of the hard men
in the 1970s and 1980s.
In fact, he was so hard that the French even had
a special word to describe that rarefied level of grit.
Aflout.
He excelled in wet, cold, muddy conditions.
The more extreme the environment,
the better he went.
And these actually suited the demands of Cyclo-cross
and saw him take the World Pro
and Amateur Cyclo-cross titles
as well as three national titles.
Four victories Paris-Roubaix clearly explain
why he was given his nickname.
But a more detailed examination of his results
show how brilliant a campaigner
he was over all terrains.
Victorious in stages of all of the Grand tours
and a winner of every single Monument.
So add to four victories in Paris-Roubaix,
three additions of Milan-San Remo,
two additions of the Tour of Lombardy,
a Tour of Flanders, and a Leige-Bastogne-Leige,
and you get a real fuller sense
of this man's capacity to suffer and excel
at the toughest races in cycling.
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Twenty-four year old American Amanda Cokey
is one tough bike rider.
Make no bones about it.
She's also the World Record holder
for furthest distance cycled by any cyclist in a year.
The eye-popping total, 86,573 miles.
That's per day, around 236.8 miles for 365 days
without a day off.
What makes this feat all the more impressive
is the fact she only returned to cycling in 2015
after sustaining a serious brain injury
when she was hit by a car in 2011.
And during that remarkable run of 365 consecutive days
of riding, which started in May, 2016,
she had to contend with 100 degree heat,
crashes, hail storms, and some pretty nasty saddle sores.
As well as the monosony of what must have seemed like
endless, never-ending laps of a seven mile circuit
on flatless park in Tampa in Florida.
Now on her longest day, Cokey managed an amazing 302 miles.
On the shortest, just 55.
Although, on that particular day,
we must forgive her, as she was riding through
the violent winds of Hurricane Hermine.
(rock music)
Dutchman Wim van Est is quite likely to be a rider
that many of you haven't heard of,
as he's not one of the big shining stars of the sport.
But what he does have is a story
that again illustrates the grit, determination,
and fortitude of so many cyclists.
As well as highlighting the risks faced by riders
when riding in the high mountains.
In the 1951 edition of the Tour de France,
a breakaway victory on stage 12
saw van Est become the first ever Dutchman
to wear the maillot jaune which he wore with pride
on the following day as the race headed into the Pyrenees.
However, not being a climber,
he was soon distanced as the road rid upwards.
And during a furious solo chase on the descent
of the Col D'Aubisque, he punctured and loss control,
plunging 17 metres into a ravine.
Miraculously, he survived the fall
without serious injury.
And then incredibly, and rather ingeniously,
using a chain of linked cycle tyres,
managed to scale the near vertical slopes
back to the roadside where he quite bravely
tried to rejoin the race before being forced
to withdraw by his team management
and sent off to hospital.
Now van Est did return to the Tour de France
a couple years later, picking up two more stages
and had a further two stints in the yellow jersey.
Now this event was considered so significant,
that 50 years later, in 2001, the Tour de France organisers
erected a monument on the Col D'Aubisque.
Let us know what you think
of the aforementioned riders' exploits
in the comment section down below.
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Now, for the World's Toughest Riders: Volume Three,
how bout clicking just down here.
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click just down here.
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