Best rider of the season?

[Arredondo]

JRod is kind of multidimensional in the sense that he can win various races (steep, very hilly classics and mountainstages)

However the way he wins mountainstages and classics are always the same - 1/2k to go attack (except for the worlds perhaps, but that attack was maybe more tactical).

Nibali can win timetrials, mountainstages (by longer attacks), GT's and stageraces and has proven himself in a monument where the last climb is mostly a powerclimb (Poggio, obviously) for the strong guys. I would call that multidimensional

JRod can attack from far out, just watch Dauphine 2011, it's just a mental game. He knows he can wait til 1/2 km, because he usually wins that type of game. Nibali has to attack from far, because he isn't that explosive.

Rodriguez can conquer the Poggio with ease, because he is a powerful rider. I don't see much difference between Nibbles and JRod, except the fact that Nibbles can win time trials.

The way someone races, doesn't make him a more multidimensional rider. You have to look at the capacity of the rider, not what he does with it.

 

[Pentacycle]

What does versatility have to do with this discussion? Gilbert was almost unanimously chosen as rider of 2011, while all his victories(except the Belgian TT against horrible competition) were achieved in the same way; an uphill sprint or attack.

 

[Angliru]

Jrod is a 2 dimensional rider hills & mountains.
Jrod cannot podium MSR simply as the he does not have enough power for the last flat kms. Even Nibali was ridden off his wheel by Cance. Jrod cannot sprint worth a dime. Look at WC.
Piti has the best chance because of his finishing sprint but he must reach there first. Nowadays he sucks wheels only.
Both are explosive only on the climbs and not on the flats. Sagan is more explosive on the short hills and Cav is an explosive sprinter.
Yup but he is closest one of the current crop of riders. Can you name any other?

In Purito's defense in the WCRR he had been solo in the wind for a period that likely left his sprint just a bit diminished against Costa. It wasn't as if Costa left him in a cloud of dust.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Why does Jrod can't finish on the podium in MSR? If he attacks on the Poggio, or on the steepest part of the Pompeia (15%), few can follow. He can't time trial, but he isn't a complete moron on the flat. If he's in a small group, he doesn't get dropped on the flat.

Jrod isn't a brilliant sprinter, but definitily better than Nibbles. He was tired in the finale of the worlds, after soloing for 10 k, that's not comparable with a sprint in some other race. He did a fairly nice sprint in Mende against Contador though.

Sagan is better than Jrod and Piti on 'Gilbert' type of climbs, but not on really steep climbs like Chieti and Huy, no way.

I don't understand your last sentence.

I didn't say that he was a moron. It would be disrespectful. What i am saying is that being a light rider he cannot follow powerhouses like Cancellera, Martin, Sagan, Boonen etc for the flat section for long time after racing for more than 250 kms.
Mende was a situation where Contador did all the pulling to put time into Andy.
Fuente De is a place where Purito lost badly on the flat to both Valverde & Contador
I was saying that Nibbles is the closest to the riders of the old.

The way someone races, doesn't make him a more multidimensional rider. You have to look at the capacity of the rider, not what he does with it.

Whatever be the capacity of the rider, it is what he does with it that counts. Eg. Boonen is able to match Cancellara in the Cobbled classics yet he cant time trial as good. Tony Martin is good in TTs but in Cobbles he is nowhere.

In Purito's defense in the WCRR he had been solo in the wind for a period that likely left his sprint just a bit diminished against Costa. It wasn't as if Costa left him in a cloud of dust.

No its not about the sprint but earlier to that. Costa came from ~200m behind to catch him. Costa is a more powerful rider than Purito and it showed. I was in fact thinking that Purito would win.

 

[Pentacycle]

No its not about the sprint but earlier to that. Costa came from ~200m behind to catch him. Costa is a more powerful rider than Purito and it showed. I was in fact thinking that Purito would win.

With ~10 kgs difference in muscle mass it would be very logical that Costa is more powerful on the flat, especially when Purito's tired out from riding practically solo for half of the last lap. It was a sealed deal when Valverde and Nibs stayed behind, no way a powerhouse like Costa could lose on such a finishing straight.

 

[TheGame]

So Marianne Vos isn't a rider then?

 

[EnacheV]

So Marianne Vos isn't a rider then?

It is but in almost all races we are talking about she probably struggle to make, even an imaginary, the time cut. In the best women cycling category she wins with no opposition.

 

[happytramp]

It is but in almost all races we are talking about she probably struggle to make, even an imaginary, the time cut. In the best women cycling category she wins with no opposition.

Unlikely...

 

[red_flanders]

Horner FTW.

 

[Echoes]

MSR is a race for sprinters,

Cycling knowledge, please.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Cycling knowledge, please.

over the last years, it has evolvedto a race largely for the sprinters/punchers with a good sprint.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Horner FTW.

he would have, if he didn't crash out of the worlds and IL.

 

[Arredondo]

Cycling knowledge, please.

Of course i know it hasn't decided in a bunch sprint the past years, but i have to use it in my favour

Although, if Cav is able to finish in the top 10, it still has the potential of a sprinters race

Ow, i forgot the winner this year. Gerald Ciolek! Guess what he is!!!

 

[Echoes]

Stop fooling yourself, please. Fed up with all these GTtards and their contempt for the classics.

Ciolek is a hard man, loving the cold, good puncher who never won Milan-Sanremo but Cogoleto-Sanremo. Documentate, please.

 

[Arredondo]

Stop fooling yourself, please. Fed up with all these GTtards and their contempt for the classics.

Ciolek is a hard man, loving the cold, good puncher who never won Milan-Sanremo but Cogoleto-Sanremo. Documentate, please.

In the past 15 years, 12 sprinters won. Just the facts, i'm not playing a game.

 

[Echoes]

Enough fooling yourself !

 

[Cyivel]

Stop fooling yourself, please. Fed up with all these GTtards and their contempt for the classics.

Ciolek is a hard man, loving the cold, good puncher who never won Milan-Sanremo but Cogoleto-Sanremo. Documentate, please.

I bet they don't even care about what has happened to Paris-Brussels, brother.

 

[Arredondo]

Enough fooling yourself !

If this is your respons, i know enough. Just look a little bit better at the stats, please.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

2013 Gerald Ciolek
2012 Simon Gerrans
2011 Matthew Goss
2010 Óscar Freire
2009 Mark Cavendish
2008 Fabian Cancellara
2007 Óscar Freire
2006 Filippo Pozzato
2005 Alessandro Petacchi
2004 Óscar Freire
2003 Paolo Bettini
2002 Mario Cipollini
2001 Erik Zabel
2000 Erik Zabel

Punchers and sprinters... and Cancellara

 

[The Hitch]

Stop fooling yourself, please. Fed up with all these GTtards and their contempt for the classics.

GTS are much more important, deal with it. ESPECIALLY, Le Tour de France.

More people would know who Ciolek was if he came 4th in a stage of the Tour de France than he got by winning MSR aka the sprinter's monument.

Sorry but thats just a hard cold fact.

Next year though it will become the hill sprinters monument, and the little pixies inside your head that tell you to be annoying on internet cycling forums will convince you that Milano San Remo is indeed a sprinters classic, so that everytime someone says it is a race for puncheurs, you'll but in with your usual thinly veiled insults and lectures about how years ago great non climbers like Cipolini, Zabel and Cavendish won MSR.

 

[Echoes]

I bet they don't even care about what has happened to Paris-Brussels, brother.

Who are you on the other boards?

Anyway, I know I shouldn't ask for the moon. Ignorant people are ignorant people.

 

[phanatic]

Froome, Nibali, Cance ...

Sagan had the most wins, but Cance crushed him at E3 and Flanders before winning Roubaix, and was the only rider to win two of the big races (monuments, GTs, World's). Nibali won the Giro, finished second at the Vuelta to a man he defeated at T-A, at which race he also beat the TdF champion fair and square. But vroom-vroom Froome was a step above the competition in so many stages and races, highlighted by his three stage wins and overall at the Tour. I would put it as Froome, Nibali, and Cance third. I was thinking Cance's double is better than the Giro, but the second at La Vuelta is better than a stage win there and bronze in the World's ITT. Further, T-A > E3 and Nibali deserves bonus points for being so strong in some of the worst weather last Spring had to offer. I would put Sagan fourth, as he had the most victories, and with nine second place finishes, possibly the most of those as well.

 

[Netserk]

In the past 15 years, 12 sprinters won. Just the facts, i'm not playing a game.

In the past 15 years, 12 different riders won Milano-Sanremo (and that's counting this year's edition). Are you really saying that all of Tchmil, Bettini, Pozzato, Canc and Gerrans are sprinters?!?

 

[tbonic]

Too bad the respondent's nationality isn't included with the vote. I'd bet a dollar Froome's votes are the most partisan.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Too bad the respondent's nationality isn't included with the vote. I'd bet a dollar Froome's votes are the most partisan.

yea, and we all drink tea with biscuits in the afternoon.