50 Most Influential Article

[Kaptain Kool]

Roger De Vlaeminck? Retired over 35 years ago but whatever he says is still reported on and discussed. And the more over-the-top the better!
Mario Cipollini for somewhat similar reasons.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

This is the issue with adding "cycling heroes". I'm not against it, but if you add Sagan & Cancellara, you have to add Boonen too. If you add Merckx & Hinault, you have to add Gimondi too. If you add Vos and Van Vleuten, then surely the list should include Longo as well?

 

[Koronin]

This is the issue with adding "cycling heroes". I'm not against it, but if you add Sagan & Cancellara, you have to add Boonen too. If you add Merckx & Hinault, you have to add Gimondi too. If you add Vos and Van Vleuten, then surely the list should include Longo as well?

Cancellara is still involved in the sport. I was debating about Cancellara and Boonen together due to their rivalry.
I put Sagan on the list more because I think he has brought new fans into the sport. The question is how many will stay.
Including Indurain is because he did have a lot of influence on the Contador/Valverde generation of Spanish cyclists.

 

[BlueRoads]

Cancellara is still involved in the sport. I was debating about Cancellara and Boonen together due to their rivalry.
I put Sagan on the list more because I think he has brought new fans into the sport. The question is how many will stay.

I think that rivalry-aspect is indeed important when it comes to riders. A lot of athletes (also in other sports) have attracted fans not so much as single individuals but rather as part of a duo-narrative.
The point about Sagan is also spot on I think.

But in general it seems indeed tough to decide which of the many riders that have attracted spectators and children to the sport should really be on such a list. I would not include those that have mostly been influential in that regard, but only those who have really changed the perception of the sport.

 

[Koronin]

I think that rivalry-aspect is indeed important when it comes to riders. A lot of athletes (also in other sports) have attracted fans not so much as single individuals but rather as part of a duo-narrative.
The point about Sagan is also spot on I think.

But in general it seems indeed tough to decide which of the many riders that have attracted spectators and children to the sport should really be on such a list. I would not include those that have mostly been influential in that regard, but only those who have really changed the perception of the sport.

I think with Indurain you must consider that influence as the generation he inspired are considered Spain's Golden Era and were nicknamed the Spanish Armada. I also don't know how much influence he has had on his brother who is a local politician who has pushed for more protections in Spain for cyclists. As I said when I listed Valverde and Contador together it's as much for what they have done, what they have inspired, and their rivalry as it for them both own their teams to specifically develop young cyclists.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Cancellara is still involved in the sport. I was debating about Cancellara and Boonen together due to their rivalry.
I put Sagan on the list more because I think he has brought new fans into the sport. The question is how many will stay.
Including Indurain is because he did have a lot of influence on the Contador/Valverde generation of Spanish cyclists.

You think Boonen didn't inspire a lot of young cyclists? These guys were in turn inspired by other (actual or so called) heroes. It's a cascading effect.

I also don't understand that Adri van der Poel wasn't on the list for instance. Not only was he a successful classics rider, not only is he the dad of "some dude", but he also was WC in cyclocross and still holds an important position at the UCI for CX if i'm not mistaking.

EDIT: oh, and Jan Raas. Perhaps the most influential Dutchman in cycling history?

 

[Koronin]

You think Boonen didn't inspire a lot of young cyclists? These guys were in turn inspired by other (actual or so called) heroes. It's a cascading effect.

I also don't understand that Adri van der Poel wasn't on the list for instance. Not only was he a successful classics rider, not only is he the dad of "some dude", but he also was WC in cyclocross and still holds an important position at the UCI for CX if i'm not mistaking.

Yet here we're still finding a better list than the one they published.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think it's a difficult one to include "cycling heroes" per se, because it will always be subjective. For that reason, people like, say, Merckx or Indurain aren't actually as relevant as Bradley Wiggins, because not being funny, but young Belgians and Spaniards will have had worthwhile cycling heroes to look up to regardless, as they are cycling hotbeds, and there were already prominent big name Belgians in the mid-late 60s when Merckx emerged just as there were already prominent Spanish stars in the late 80s when Indurain emerged. They might have had a slightly reduced pool of prospects because fewer people would have got the bug if not for those riders, but the impact of a first major superstar in at least a generation for a country where cycling was a complete minority sport like the UK brings a lot of people who wouldn't have been interested in the sport to it. I would argue that of Spanish ex-pros, actually at present a case could be made that Delgado and Escartín probably should feature ahead of Indurain; Delgado is one of the main voices of cycling and Escartín works with Unipublic and is a large part of the route design crew there. Similarly Jalabert having been a prominent voice of cycling in France for several years means that he has a stronger platform than many French riders of similar prominence.

Part of the reason for Annemiek (and part of the reason why I mention Cille) is that they have actively challenged both audience and race organiser perceptions of women's racing. Annemiek has actively campaigned for more challenging races and both she and Cille, like Edita Pučinskaitė and Emma Johansson before them, have criticised route designers and race organisers such as ASO to drive better courses and races for the women. Again, with Cille, part of the success of that is the fact that it is her that's doing it, as she is afforded a platform by her popularity that means if she makes such comments it likely reaches a wider cycling milieu than when similar points are being made by others - including some who have been very crucial in the presentation of women's cycling in recent years such as Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, who is almost always a sensible and rational voice that rises above a lot of the arguing that these kind of debates can raise.

Outside of that kind of campaigning for races, race coverage and similar, there are few active cyclists I would say merit a place on the list purely for cycling. The nearest would probably be Peter Sagan in fairness; I may have said my piece about the kind of people attracted to the sport by him (as I've said in the past, people who are cycling fans who happen to be Peter Sagan fans who were attracted to follow the sport because they were inspired by his racing to follow it are one thing, but the kind of people who support Peter Sagan simply because he's Peter Sagan are the kind of people who will leave the sport again when he's not there, and they aren't the kind of people that the sport needs as fans; that differentiation is there for a reason and I don't want to argue it further) but given the testimonies we've had of people who were there at Richmond, at California etc., sure that's the kind of milieu he is built for but his mainstream appeal is clearly more significant than anybody else in the last decade for certain - almost everybody else that has that level of mainstream appeal only does so on a more regional basis. I mean, hell, if we're going to include people solely for their cult of personality, then given the way every single year seemingly requires at least one Giro moment of veneration, we should include Marco Pantani, and he's been dead for sixteen years!

Realistically, the number of cyclists who changed the sport such as to have been involved in a list such as this just for how they cycled ever are few in number, and would probably be restricted to those who have been absolute pioneers for countries on the periphery that have gone on to become central powers in the sport (eg Greg Lemond, Cochise or Phil Anderson) or whose racing has resulted in significant changes to the sport (eg Vicente Trueba, Rik van Looy).

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I agree with many points, Libertine, but being a "hotbed" isn't something that is sparked once and remains forever some sort of perpetuum mobile. Every generation needs their own heroes. Kids these days, even in Belgium, don't start cycling because Merckx was king in 1969. But the generation that is now moving through the U23 will have started because of Boonen, more likely. Kids today, in Belgium, will look up to Van Aert, Evenepoel, less so to Gilbert & Van Avermaet. Once you have a generation without a strong figure, you will get a next generation that is a lot more sparse. Hence, statistically even less chance for a next pivotal figure to emerge in such a generation, and things spiral downwards fast. In a niche sport like Cyclocross, this is even more apparent. Before Nys, Belgian CX was almost dead and buried, now we have the best generation of in Belgium born & living CX riders ever. (Ha!) On the other hand, there are countries that were once prolific CX nations, but have lost interest because they lost a generation along the way.

 

[Koronin]

I agree with many points, Libertine, but being a "hotbed" isn't something that is sparked once and remains forever some sort of perpetuum mobile. Every generation needs their own heroes. Kids these days, even in Belgium, don't start cycling because Merckx was king in 1969. But the generation that is now moving through the U23 will have started because of Boonen, more likely. Kids today, in Belgium, will look up to Van Aert, Evenepoel, less so to Gilbert & Van Avermaet. Once you have a generation without a strong figure, you will get a next generation that is a lot more sparse. Hence, statistically even less chance for a next pivotal figure to emerge in such a generation, and things spiral downwards fast. In a niche sport like Cyclocross, this is even more apparent. Before Nys, Belgian CX was almost dead and buried, now we have the best generation of in Belgium born & living CX riders ever. (Ha!) On the other hand, there are countries that were once prolific CX nations, but have lost interest because they lost a generation along the way.

I'd also add that sometimes it also out of anyone's control. During the middle of the Contador/Valverde era we had the global economic downturn which hit cycling in Spain hard. Many teams from top to bottom disappeared. Valverde and Contador putting their own teams together is part of rebuilding that within the country. Don't know about Contador, but Valverde has also tried to help organize races in the province of Murcia. When he started his U-23 team it became the first U-23 (and is still the only one) in the region of Murcia. However, in general I agree with what you are saying. You need a figure in each generation to inspire the next generation of kids. You don't typically have guys (Valverde and Gilbert) racing for close to 20 years. In the peloton for Spain today you have two generations of cyclists who have said it's the Contador/Valverde group who inspired them and name both of them (and others from that group) as their cycling heroes.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I agree with many points, Libertine, but being a "hotbed" isn't something that is sparked once and remains forever some sort of perpetuum mobile. Every generation needs their own heroes. Kids these days, even in Belgium, don't start cycling because Merckx was king in 1969. But the generation that is now moving through the U23 will have started because of Boonen, more likely. Kids today, in Belgium, will look up to Van Aert, Evenepoel, less so to Gilbert & Van Avermaet. Once you have a generation without a strong figure, you will get a next generation that is a lot more sparse. Hence, statistically even less chance for a next pivotal figure to emerge in such a generation, and things spiral downwards fast. In a niche sport like Cyclocross, this is even more apparent. Before Nys, Belgian CX was almost dead and buried, now we have the best generation of in Belgium born & living CX riders ever. (Ha!) On the other hand, there are countries that were once prolific CX nations, but have lost interest because they lost a generation along the way.

Yea, but at the time of Merckx, there were a number of other Belgian stars who would have had better results had Merckx not been there dominating things. Spain had literally just had Delgado, Lejarreta was still around, Cubino, Echave, Jesús Montoya, Íñaki Gastón. Indurain was also from that northern line of regions which have always been the cradle of cycling in Spain. He had more of an influence in the type of rider that Spain was producing than anything else, because until then Spain's biggest names had always been inconsistent climber types, from Trueba to Loroño and Bahamontes to Ocaña and Fuente to Ángel Arroyo and Alberto Fernández to Delgado. You also had CLAS merging with Mapei and ONCE coming into the game at the time. The Vuelta had really asserted itself and developed into a real Grand Tour and had developed the kind of national significance it had struggled to assert in earlier times, with Franco's Spain lagging behind the rest of cycling's traditional countries development-wise and its national tour therefore often deliberately tailoring itself toward overseas stars and away from the home stars to shore up the startlist - with better broadcasting, the development of the skiing industry and Unipublic's nous in taking it over after El Correo-El Pueblo Vasco had to withdraw when the terrorist threats meant their home region had to come off the menu, the Vuelta had really improved in the public conscience. In addition, as the Spanish domestic péloton grew in maturity, tactical awareness and depth, the role that they had traditionally fulfilled at the Giro and Tour was being passed over to the Colombians as they made their first forays into European stage racing, and a lot of funding was being thrown towards sporting developments to lead in to the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. There were a lot of factors that led to a rapid development of the sport in Spain from the late 70s through to the late 90s that mean that while the success and popularity of Indurain was definitely a factor in inspiring the next generation, I simultaneously would argue that it's difficult to argue that Spanish cycling would have been thrust back into its wilderness years in the late 90s-early 00s and the prospect pool dried up if everything happened exactly as it had but Indurain didn't exist. We might have seen a few fewer Spanish teams across that period, but then there were literally enough Spanish teams at that point that they could have held a pretty reasonable Vuelta if there had been a Covid-19 epidemic back then and they were restricted to whoever was on site in the national péloton like it was the HTV Cup. Remember, immediately following Indurain's generation you had that batch of contenders in the Indurain mould, like Olano, Casero and Terminaitor, but even before the 90s were over you had José María Jiménez and Roberto Heras on the scene, two traditional waifish climbers of the classic Spanish tradition - and both from the Sistema Central rather than the strong mountainous scenes of the north and east, too.

 

[jmdirt]

IMO: there should be a list for racers, a list for team ownership/management, and a list for other (promoters, media, pioneers, etc.).
Racers: John Tomac, Ned Overend, Jacquie Phelan, Juli Furtado, N1no Schurter, LeMond
O/M: Unzue, LeFlaves (I know),
Other: Klunker crews, Paul Turner, NORBA, 7/11, ASO

I don't apologize for my dirt and USA centered start lists! Maybe I'll add more when I have a few minutes...

IMO, its pretty hard to leave LA off of a list of 'influential' no matter what you feel about what he did and/or who he is.

 

[del1962]

I thought Prudhomme would have been higher up the list.

Should Macron be included on the list?

 

[Koronin]

IMO: there should be a list for racers, a list for team ownership/management, and a list for other (promoters, media, pioneers, etc.).

O/M: Unzue, LeFlaves (I know),

Proving we can't spell his name, but we all know who we're talking about. LOL. Also we put together a list and might debate others, but we all seem to be in agreement they are on the list.

 

[hayneplane]

My most obvious additions to the list would be:
Dave Brailsford: The world laughed at the stated aim to win the Tour de France within 5 years with a British rider. The team he formed has since won 7 of the 10 editions since the team was formed. Plus the lead guy behind the domination of Olympic Track Cycling.

Eusebio Unzue: The preeminent figure in the Spanish cycling scene for as long as anyone can remember. His teams have been a Central part of the story of cycling in the last 40 years.

Patrick Lefevre: No DS has successfully kept letting riders go off to earn big money while replacing them to even greater effect so often.

Mario Cipollini: For the way his success and ego enabled him to push for entire teams to be built around him. The lead out man was not a specialist position up until that point but now almost every decent sprinter of the last 25 years has had a lead out man closely associated with them.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

LeFlaves

I know him! The rapper from Public Enemy.

Well... not personally.

 

[tobydawq]

My most obvious additions to the list would be:
Dave Brailsford: The world laughed at the stated aim to win the Tour de France within 5 years with a British rider. The team he formed has since won 7 of the 10 editions since the team was formed. Plus the lead guy behind the domination of Olympic Track Cycling.

Eusebio Unzue: The preeminent figure in the Spanish cycling scene for as long as anyone can remember. His teams have been a Central part of the story of cycling in the last 40 years.

Patrick Lefevre: No DS has successfully kept letting riders go off to earn big money while replacing them to even greater effect so often.

Mario Cipollini: For the way his success and ego enabled him to push for entire teams to be built around him. The lead out man was not a specialist position up until that point but now almost every decent sprinter of the last 25 years has had a lead out man closely associated with them.

Brailsford was fourth on the original list.

 

[jmdirt]

I know him! The rapper from Public Enemy.

Well... not personally.

Pati is his brah!

 

[SafeBet]

Do I count for nobody?

I flirted with the idea of giving you credit but it'd ruin my flashy joke.

Can dead people still be influential? Gino Bartali has left a tremendous legacy, not just for his cycling feats, but for his political and civic engagement too. Anti-fascism never dies.

 

[Forever The Best]

I flirted with the idea of giving you credit but it'd ruin my flashy joke.

Can dead people still be influential? Gino Bartali has left a tremendous legacy, not just for his cycling feats, but for his political and civic engagement too. Anti-fascism never dies.

I'm glad Bartali is not on the same list as Bahrain prince tbh, would be a disrespect for Bartali given that the Bahrain dictatorship is a big example of fascism.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

50 Most influential people in cycling..........And then named a list of basically Road cycling people. Don't MTB, Track, BMX, etc count?

 

[BlueRoads]

(We should also include "Quäl dich, du Sau" Udo Bölts, my cycling hero when I was 13. He's currently working in a mountain bike park, so still relevant to transmitting the enthusiasm for cycling.)

Well, it's a list of how influential people are on pro cycling, and the pro (as in economically relevant) side of road cycling is just way bigger than that of mtb, track, cross.

 

[hayneplane]

Brailsford was fourth on the original list.

Ooops, my fault for reading the article a few days ago then coming back to comment on it yesterday without rechecking the list