2009 Protour racer of the year

[ProTour]

I'm going with Cadel Evans. He raced a full season, posting solid results in the spring, summer and the fall, and ended up World Champion.

Contador is a close runner up. The only question is; who had the third best season?

 

[Publicus]

I'm going with Cadel Evans. He raced a full season, posting solid results in the spring, summer and the fall, and ended up World Champion.

Contador is a close runner up. The only question is; who had the third best season?

I don't think having a "solid" spring/summer/fall is enough to warrant someone being racer of the year. He should win something more than one race and one stage during the course of that year. Definitely a good year, but not racer of the year.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

I'm going with Cadel Evans. He raced a full season, posting solid results in the spring, summer and the fall, and ended up World Champion.

Contador is a close runner up. The only question is; who had the third best season?

Really? Cuddles? With the exception of his WC win he wasn't that spectacular. Cavendish on the other hand, raced the entire season from Tour of Qatar to the Tour of Missouri, and he won a stage (if not multiple stages) in every stage race he entered. He also won Milan-Sanremo. By far the most consistent and impressive year.

 

[ProTour]

Really? Cuddles? With the exception of his WC win he wasn't that spectacular. Cavendish on the other hand, raced the entire season from Tour of Qatar to the Tour of Missouri, and he won a stage (if not multiple stages) in every stage race he entered. He also won Milan-Sanremo. By far the most consistent and impressive year.

Cavendish was consistent and impressive, but none of his wins were emotional; he was simply a sprinting machine. Cadel's season had more raw emotion.

2009 official ProTour Rider of the Year award:

1. Cadel Evans

2. Mark Cavendish

3. Alberto Contador.

I'm betting VeloNews and CyclingNews will agree.

 

[Anonymous]

1. Bala Verde
2. Pistolero
3. Cav
4. Cuddles
5. Schlecklet

Honestly, Valverde has had a really solid season - albeit a bit quiet in July

 

[maltiv]

Cavendish was consistent and impressive, but none of his wins were emotional; he was simply a sprinting machine. Cadel's season had more raw emotion.

2009 official ProTour Rider of the Year award:

1. Cadel Evans

2. Mark Cavendish

3. Alberto Contador.

I'm betting VeloNews and CyclingNews will agree.

"ProTour Rider of the Year" and "Emotional Rider who finally (and well deservingly) succeeds (once) award" are two completely different things, you know.

Mark Cavendish should be on the top, sadly.

 

[stefrees]

Cavendish was consistent and impressive, but none of his wins were emotional; he was simply a sprinting machine. Cadel's season had more raw emotion.

2009 official ProTour Rider of the Year award:

1. Cadel Evans

2. Mark Cavendish

3. Alberto Contador.

I'm betting VeloNews and CyclingNews will agree.

none of cavs wins were emotional? Did you not see cav on the podium at milan san remo? or his reaction aft6er stage 19 of the tour? cav has actually had a pretty emotional year, hard 2nd season syndrome, and one of his best mates (jonny bellis) has spent 6 weeks in intensive care-thankfully jonny is back in london now. moving on from the emotional side, cav won consistently, in big races, but as much as i dont like the guy, valverde has the best results-4 stage race wins including a grand tour?

 

[pmcg76]

"ProTour Rider of the Year" and "Emotional Rider who finally (and well deservingly) succeeds (once) award" are two completely different things, you know.

Mark Cavendish should be on the top, sadly.

Based on results only, it has to be between Valverde, Contador & Cavendish. Then it depends on what people consider most relevant.

Evans, I dont think so, Valverde beat him at both Dauphine & Vuelta(even if luck played a part) and yes Evans won the worlds but overall the other guys had better seasons.

Waiting for Sprocket at any minute now................

 

[blaxland]

cavendish=1st
?=second(greiple or gilbert)
3rd=evans
just a thought.....

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

1. Bala Verde
2. Pistolero
3. Cav
4. Cuddles
5. Schlecklet

Honestly, Valverde has had a really solid season - albeit a bit quiet in July

True Valverde had a good season, but unfortunately, his "quiet July" tends to overshadow it, even though he won the Vuelta.

Cav was just making so much noise in every race from February to September; that's why I picked him. After Cav, I could see either Valverde or Contador in second.

....and to say his wins weren't emotional. What the crap!

 

[ak-zaaf]

Is this based on Pro-Tour riders or races?

If it's the first:
Cav, Contador, Valverde, Canc.. Could be any one of them. All other riders are far behind. I'll place Gilbert 5th because of his great finish of the season.

 

[karlboss]

where are the protour rankings? from memory grand tours aren't part of the protour points.

are there protour points? or has this been done away with?

 

[aarnold517]

where are the protour rankings? from memory grand tours aren't part of the protour points.

IIRC they had a new ranking system this year where the grand tours counted as part of the protour points system, resulting in contador winning the overall protour classification

i think no one knew anything about it because contador took the lead in the rankings after the tour de france, but he did not race the rest of the season, so he was not seen in the protour leaders jersey (if there even still is one)

 

[badboyberty]

IIRC they had a new ranking system this year where the grand tours counted as part of the protour points system, resulting in contador winning the overall protour classification

i think no one knew anything about it because contador took the lead in the rankings after the tour de france, but he did not race the rest of the season, so he was not seen in the protour leaders jersey (if there even still is one)

There were two official points systems this year, the ProTour (only PT races) and the World Tour (PT, Grand Tours and monuments).

Not that it matters because both are weighted against sprinters, and Chavendish was definitely the most successful rider of the year.

 

[lagartija]

if we are speaking in generalities ( races , protour or historical)
contador , valverde , cavendish , the order is arguable......

it may simply come down to nationalistic inclinations or just whomever your favorite rider is........

but its definitely not cadel......................

 

[Anonymous]

Not that it matters because both are weighted against sprinters, and Chavendish was definitely the most successful rider of the year.

I don't actually think that the ranking is weighted against sprinters. Firstly, I will just say that any points-based system is heavily flawed as assigning numbers to rankings is very arbitrary in the first place.

With regard to Cav, he didn't really race much after the Tour and therefore missed out on points coming from stages in Pologne and Eneco Tours, and he missed the Vattenfall race.. all good races for him to rack up an extra hundred points to move up the rankings.

With regard to the top 5 ranked riders being typical GC riders, all these five raced a pretty solid season with many stage race appearances and wins (Valv and Cont) and one-day placings (Schleck, Sanchez and Evans) to get their points.

Is the tour de france worth 200 points, when Milano-SanRemo is worth 100? - Who knows? It's pretty arbitrary. But one race takes 7 hours and the other takes 90+ hours, so I think Conti being on top of the rankings reflects this.

In regard to Cav being the "most successful rider of the year".. well, probably in terms of quantity of wins, but most sprinters have more wins to their name than a typical GC rider, so in that sense, I don't think the ranking system is weighted againts Cav. If Cav had of raced, and won, Vattenfall, that gives him an extra 80 points, and he would have jumped up to 3rd. So one more semi-classic, and he moves from 7th to 3rd in the rankings...

The list of world rankings is right here

 

[Ferminal]

Valverde
Contador
Schleck
Spartacus
Cav
(Evans)

 

[auscyclefan94]

none of cavs wins were emotional? Did you not see cav on the podium at milan san remo? or his reaction aft6er stage 19 of the tour? cav has actually had a pretty emotional year, hard 2nd season syndrome, and one of his best mates (jonny bellis) has spent 6 weeks in intensive care-thankfully jonny is back in london now. moving on from the emotional side, cav won consistently, in big races, but as much as i dont like the guy, valverde has the best results-4 stage race wins including a grand tour?

cavs a sprinter who wins all the time. evans was more emotional as he had a tough season before that.

 

[CentralCaliBike]

Cavendish was consistent and impressive, but none of his wins were emotional; he was simply a sprinting machine. Cadel's season had more raw emotion.

2009 official ProTour Rider of the Year award:

1. Cadel Evans

2. Mark Cavendish

3. Alberto Contador.

I'm betting VeloNews and CyclingNews will agree.

I watched one of his wins at the ToC at the finish line - looked pretty emotional to me - in fact, in reviewing all of his wins I do not remember one that was not.

I would say that Contador was the most likely to win any stage race - Cancellara the best TT by far for the year - and Cavendish was nearly unbeatable as a sprinter. I figure you end up picking the individual in the discipline you enjoy the most.

 

[Anonymous]

I watched one of his wins at the ToC at the finish line - looked pretty emotional to me - in fact, in reviewing all of his wins I do not remember one that was not.

Maybe the HTC/Phil Liggett "Oh, what's he doing, he's on the telephone" win wasn't overly emotional..

I think you are right, when he has won big races/stages he was very emotional..

 

[CentralCaliBike]

Maybe the HTC/Phil Liggett "Oh, what's he doing, he's on the telephone" win wasn't overly emotional..

I think you are right, when he has won big races/stages he was very emotional..

I always figured arrogance was an emotion - he had that, even in the small races >> of course, arrogance tends to be an emotion that coincides with winning repeatedly.

 

[ludwig]

It's a tough call between Valverde and Contador. Valverde beat AC the only time they really went head to head (the Dauphine), but Contador's Tour win puts him over the top.

1) Contador
2) Valverde
3) Cavendish
4) Cancellara

....big gap.....

5) Evans

Schleck and Menchov up there as well.

 

[ProTour]

I watched one of his wins at the ToC at the finish line - looked pretty emotional to me - in fact, in reviewing all of his wins I do not remember one that was not.

I would say that Contador was the most likely to win any stage race - Cancellara the best TT by far for the year - and Cavendish was nearly unbeatable as a sprinter. I figure you end up picking the individual in the discipline you enjoy the most.

The win where he gave the DZ Nutz salute wasn't emotional. He was making an advertisement.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

Maybe the HTC/Phil Liggett "Oh, what's he doing, he's on the telephone" win wasn't overly emotional..

I think you are right, when he has won big races/stages he was very emotional..

Yeah that was a nod to the new sponsor, but excitement is certainly an emotion, and I can't recall one win where he didin't cross the line with his hands in the air or tear up afterward.

You can't expect Cav to react to every win like Heinrich Haussler did to his TdF stage win, which was one of my favorite moments of the tour, by the way.

 

[isayic]

It's a tough call between Valverde and Contador. Valverde beat AC the only time they really went head to head (the Dauphine), but Contador's Tour win puts him over the top.

1) Contador
2) Valverde
3) Cavendish
4) Cancellara

....big gap.....

5) Evans

Schleck and Menchov up there as well.

I think that Contador didn't want to win the Dauphine. He helped Valverde to win the race knowing that Alejandro could not ride the Tour de France. I watched every stage on TV and could see this.