GREATEST ENDURANCE ATHLETE ARMSTRONG OR KK ??

As much as I want to go with the runner and as much as I know I am going to get flamed by the "Lance is on EPO" crowd, I have to go with LA on this one. What he does for the Tour de France and other races on that bike is nothing less than amazing. Don't get me wrong, on a scale of 1 to 10, Lance is a 10 and KK a 9.9999999, but it is about the bike.

I'de give the nod to Lance. He's one in a billion.

he is one in SIX billion

wow, that article was complete trash. not that he didn't have some points but basically it was moot.

anyway, i rank armstrong way of KK. armstrong has one THE tour four times, KK has run some impressive time trials and in fact beat two of the greatest runners of all time but i wouldn't even rank him as the best marathoner of all time. he's hardly the best now. Bikila was porbably the best ever. anyway, KK is most certainly on drugs, and he doesn't always raise his level of performance when it counts (dropping out because the pace was too slow, come on now, maybe not enough EPO). as much as i like lance i'm tempted to suggest he's just as dirty as anyone. KK. lance, tergat, the great one (geb), el G, and even our own blessed bob kennedy: probably all on drugs at some point. i can only hope i'm wrong. either way i love this sport!

oh an you can get knee injuries riding dispite no impact and falling off isn't a rarity.

one more thing 35something for 10km isn't that close to five minutes per mile. besides lots of people can run a marathon a five minutes per mile 4:45 is very different.

I disagree with the author's idea of an athlete, but...

I'd have to say Lance just because of the cancer. I'd place Geb on the same platform as KK and LA, though.

as far as the thon is concerned... the greatest ever was Rodgers, then Shorter & KK... time may change this, but we'll see.

I will let my runner bias push me to choose Khannouchi. I'm certain that Lance Armstrong is more a king of bicycling than KK is of running, but it just seems to me that fewer people are involved in competetive bicycling and that Lance might not be facing as tough competition as KK.

As far as being a tough SOB though, since Lance beat the cancer thing that should have killed him, I'll give him that crown, but KK is the better endurance athlete it my humble opinion.

Armstrong has a very very good shot at becoming the greatest cyclist ever. He is already in the top 3 all time. Does anyone consider KK to be in the top 3 marathoners? Top 10 even? Don't get me wrong, KK is great, but has no Olympic Gold and has not displayed dominance in the same way that Armstrong has.

Greatest endurance athlete of all time - Haile Gebreselassie.

I think once geb wins a marathon, you could make a great case for him.

I suspect many of you have never heard of this guy, but if your are looking at endurance alone, he can't be beat. His injury resilince must be 10 times that of LA or KK. This man is Yiannis Kouros, his performances:

200 km 15:10:27

500 km 60:23:00

500 miles 105:42:09

1000 km 136:17:00

12 hours 100M 1602Y

24 hours 188M 1038Y

48 hours 294M 710Y

6 days 635M 147Y

This guy has logged a 188 mile day, amazing.

I would agree that although KK is good, Lance Armstrong is without peer at this time in any sort of endurance sport. The Tour De France victories are more significant than many people realize or understand. The Tour is very comparable to running 10-20k races every day for three weeks, choosing which ones to really push at. As for the lack of competition, although the sport is relatively obscure in America, Europe more than makes up for its lack of popularity in the United States. Particularly Spain. These people go nuts over this stuff, I mean, kids trade like "cycling cards" instead of baseball cards! I agree with the majority of the posters. But no matter what, everyone is probably on EPO or some sort of drug...I just hope thats really not the case!

All right fellas,

KK has sacked up twice, (if you want to look at his overall record you're not gonna find many comparisons), Big Time. Sacking Tergat and Geb in the biggest race of all time is no small feat.

But Lance is second to none. The guy was a world champ at 23 (the youngest ever in cycling), beat cancer, and won the tour, winning every time trial along the way. Then did it again. And again. And then again... He even made it a practice to WAIT for his best competitor if there was a mishap so he could kick his ass square.

Running a straight 26.2 start to finish faster than any other man goes to KK on a rocket. Ripping ultra-multi-disciplines day in and out, for three weeks, and torching the worlds best athletes up exscrucitating climbs and 40 mile sprint time trials, four years in a row when they know its coming at them, goes to Lance. Theres no argument.

Kevin

This author is a complete jackass

Truth Is endurance athletes and power lifter types in body athleticism.

What he is thinking about is skillmen.

I wold go with lance.

Physiologically.

Runners in general have a higher vo2.

Biclye have a higher L.T tolerance thought.

However lance as a VO2 of 90ml/kg/min

Highest very on a bike.

Sorry but babe Ruth would get is ass kicked. In an arena of power by any really power athlete.

Mark henry

Michael Johnson

Any Olympic thrower.

Any L.T real L.T athletic would spank Michael Jordan.

Any speed skater

Any middle distance runner.

ron jeremy has to get some consideration in this discussion. how can you ignore what that man has accomplished?

i'll be out in chigago cheering for lots of you. best of luck to everyone running......sehon

pardon me..... that's "chicago." it's a bit early.

anyone on the board know anything about the party scene or bars at valparaiso U? that is tonight's stop over, and it's

h-coming weekend out there too.

I think defining endurance would help a lot here. Do you mean activity over extreme extended periods of time, many hours or something more like highly intense exercise over a somewhat shorter period.

In either case Gebreselassie has them both beat hands down. He is a better runner than Armstrong is a cyclist. Yes better, won Olympics twice, Armstrong did not once, won several world champs, equivalant to the Tour I'll say. He was unbeatable on the track, Lance has been beaten, just not at the Tour recently. KK shouldn't even be in this argument. Lance is a great cyclist one of the best ever, Geb is the best ever at his sport.

Of the 6 Billion people (3 Billion Men) on this planet, how many ever realize their true potential to compete in a race like the Tour de France? If every man on this planet had the goal of winning the tour de France, I'll bet that we never would have heard of Lance Armstrong. I'm not saying that he's not a great cyclist, but it takes 3 things to be the top athlete in the world in a sport.

Talent, Desire, and Opportunity

Lance, obviously has all 3, but I would guess that there are several others who were born with similar (or more) talent who never realized it and are farming in some 3rd world country, or sitting on a couch in the midwest watching WWF.

Just imagine how competitive our sport would be if everyone in this country, and in the world wanted to be the fastest marathoner in the world!

dhockings post was almost as much trash as the article, to make claims about KK using drugs is trash. yes he could be but you have nothing to even assume he is but you claim he most deffinatly is. your a piece of shit