Most dominating active athlete!

[noel]

hey noel or aranuil or whatever you wanna call yourself...you didn't vote for lance armstrong.

you voted for a volleyball player.

[Spang]

you voted for a volleyball player.

[Boogahz]

At the conclusion of Friday's Stage 18 of the 2004 Tour de France, one thing is clear: Lance Armstrong isn't just winning, he's proving a point. What, you ask, does he have left to prove?

The greatest cyclist of all time is not Armstrong, but Belgian Eddie "the Cannibal" Merckx. Merckx raced in the late '60s/early '70s, and like Armstrong, won five Tours de France. But unlike Armstrong, Merckx won everything else: The tours of Spain and Italy, the one-day "classics," world championships and almost every other race on the European calendar.

They called him the Cannibal because he ate up every rider in his path. He rode in the front of every stage of every race with or without teammates, accepting nothing less than victory. If he started a race, he intended to win. Period.

Modern professional cycling is now highly specialized. Individual racers focus on a small number of races that suit their strengths and train to achieve peak fitness for those races. If you aren't at peak fitness, someone else is, and you can't win. Competing to win all season long is simply no longer done.

Armstrong has been criticized for taking this philosophy to the extreme, planning his entire calendar around the Tour de France. He rides in other races to train, not to win. In the Tour itself, he is more concerned with overall victory than stage wins, and has backed away from winning non-crucial stages.

Not this year. Armstrong has now won four stages — three straight in the Alps — and will win the individual time trial Saturday. He is not just winning; he's ripping the legs off the competition. His Stage 17 win was meaningless in the overall standings, yet he won with a ferociousness not seen since his pre-cancer days.

Maybe Armstrong is fed up with the criticism. Maybe he's concerned with his legacy. Maybe he's just that much better than the competition. Whatever the reason, he is sending a message, and no one — no one — can reply.

[Xzion]

Schumacher I would say, but not by far. He is in such a league of his own its rediculous. Watching him race against other professional racers is like watching Tiger Woods play golf against a bunch of little girls at a Golf lesson camp

[Kelshara]

Anybody here watch Moto GP roadracing? I kind of regret not putting Valentino Rossi on the poll, what he does in Moto GP is ridiculous. And he left the Honda team last year which was completely dominating to go to Yamaha and well.. guess who dominates on Yamaha this year even though the Hondas themself are way better bikes!