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Best Rider Never to Win World Pro/Elite Road Race

May 3, 2010
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Best rider never to win Pro or Elite World Road Title.



Who in your opinion, is the best rider never to win the World Pro or Elite
Road Title?


My choice would be Roger De Vlaeminck of Belgium, one of the greatest
single day riders of his generation, and incidentally, the winner of the first
race I ever rode as an amateur in Belgium, way back in the 60s.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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it is gonna be hard to come up with a better choice than that, especially since in the top ten riders list he makes just about every one usually @ top 5.

I'll give you three in order: Bartali, Anquetil and Indurain tho since they are all GT riders to varying extents its perhaps understandable they never won the Worlds.

Of recent vintage one day riders/classics guys: Jalabert and Baroli.

Ooops a huge miss on my part: Sean Kelly. Who may rival RDV as the greatest one day rider ever not named Eddy Merckx. (sometimes it pays to be long winded as thing you overlooked come to mind as you babble away on the keyboard.)
 
Nick C. said:
it is gonna be hard to come up with a better choice than that, especially since in the top ten riders list he makes just about every one usually @ top 5.

I'll give you three in order: Bartali, Anquetil and Indurain tho since they are all GT riders to varying extents its perhaps understandable they never won the Worlds.

Of recent vintage one day riders/classics guys: Jalabert and Baroli.

Ooops a huge miss on my part: Sean Kelly. Who may rival RDV as the greatest one day rider ever not named Eddy Merckx. (sometimes it pays to be long winded as thing you overlooked come to mind as you babble away on the keyboard.)

I think Indurain could've won the year he rode for Abraham Olano's win in Colombia with Pantani being the chief antagonist. I believe he had already won the ITT title that year and being the generous soul that he was, he dedicated himself to shadowing each of Pantani's attacks to ensure Olano was the victor. This inspite of Olano getting a flat in the final km or so and riding it to the line.
 
Mar 26, 2009
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www.ciclismo-espresso.com
pic7252510web_600.jpg
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Nick C. said:
it is gonna be hard to come up with a better choice than that, especially since in the top ten riders list he makes just about every one usually @ top 5.

I'll give you three in order: Bartali, Anquetil and Indurain tho since they are all GT riders to varying extents its perhaps understandable they never won the Worlds.

Of recent vintage one day riders/classics guys: Jalabert and Baroli.

Ooops a huge miss on my part: Sean Kelly. Who may rival RDV as the greatest one day rider ever not named Eddy Merckx. (sometimes it pays to be long winded as thing you overlooked come to mind as you babble away on the keyboard.)

Indurain > Roger de Vlaeminck

GC contenders can win a WC RR. Just look at Cadel Evans. I'm sure that during Indurain's career there were at least some World championships where he could win. He got a couple of second placings and a third placing at the worlds...
 
Jul 16, 2010
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180mmCrank said:
Sean Kelly

(or currently is it Mark Cavendish? :) )

Cavendish doesn't count. First of all he has nowhere near the palmares of someone like Sean Kelly yet and second of all, he has most of his career still before him, so he can still win it someday.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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Angliru said:
I think Indurain could've won the year he rode for Abraham Olano's win in Colombia with Pantani being the chief antagonist. I believe he had already won the ITT title that year and being the generous soul that he was, he dedicated himself to shadowing each of Pantani's attacks to ensure Olano was the victor. This inspite of Olano getting a flat in the final km or so and riding it to the line.

We'll wait a long time to see another Patron of his stature.
 
Michielveedeebee said:
TGBM? i don't understand :(
And let's not forget about the late Frank VDB the guy that never got as big as he should've been :(

The Great Bauke Mollema

For some reason, this forum has many many dutch posters, so get used to the fact that half the posts talk as if a so called "rabobus" is the only team in pro cycling ;)
 
El Pistolero said:
Cavendish doesn't count. First of all he has nowhere near the palmares of someone like Sean Kelly yet and second of all, he has most of his career still before him, so he can still win it someday.

You are right of course and technically the question did not stipulate 'and is no longer riding' but I stand suitabley corrected ;)

Although I don't mind going on record as saying that I think Cavendish is the fastest sprinter there has ever been and will go on to capture the results that will demonstrate this and he will become the greatest sprinter with out question - probably not a very bold prediction :)
 
Jul 13, 2009
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I'd say the best rider to never win the World Championships was Indurain.

I'm sure he could have had a much greater palmares than he ended up with if he had a killer instinct in one day races. He was the best rider in the 1995 world champs but was happy to play second fiddle to his team mate. He also showed what sprint he had on him in the 1993 world champs when he took second outsprinting Olaf Ludwig and Johan Musseuw (When he was still considered a bunch sprinter rather than a classic specialist)
 
Carlo Algatrensig said:
I'd say the best rider to never win the World Championships was Indurain.

I'm sure he could have had a much greater palmares than he ended up with if he had a killer instinct in one day races. He was the best rider in the 1995 world champs but was happy to play second fiddle to his team mate. He also showed what sprint he had on him in the 1993 world champs when he took second outsprinting Olaf Ludwig and Johan Musseuw (When he was still considered a bunch sprinter rather than a classic specialist)
That was funny because when he was gifting mountain stages he often said it was because he wasn't fast and just couldn't win a sprint, not because he was actually gifting any stages. Then he beat two of the fastest guys around in the 1993 WC. And then he somehow came 5th in a bunch sprint in the 1994 Giro (though probably it was one of those relatively small bunch sprints; I didn't watch it at the time).
 
Mar 11, 2009
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El Pistolero said:
Indurain > Roger de Vlaeminck

GC contenders can win a WC RR. Just look at Cadel Evans. I'm sure that during Indurain's career there were at least some World championships where he could win. He got a couple of second placings and a third placing at the worlds...

You are totally correct. What I meant was more that they are less focused on the WCs than the classics riders, look at recent history: Contador, Lance, Levi, Klodi, Ullrich, Basso, Sastre to rattle off a few barely bother. You are right tho the guys like Cadel who actually try other than in May or July can be counted on to be in the WCs. For all we know one day a Schleck brother could win.
 
Mar 12, 2009
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15kphslower said:
Sean Kelly - absolutely agree

Agreed, but I'm more disappointed that Zabel never won it. Maybe because Kelly had a more varied palmares with his stage race wins, but it just seemed like such a gaping hole in Zabel's career.
 
Jul 2, 2009
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It's either Kelly or De Vlaeminck. Either choice is good.

The likes of Indurain, Bartali and Anquetil deserve consideration, but ultimately they didn't build their reputation on one-day races*, which is what the WC is.



(*Yes I know Bartali won the Italian monuments several times)