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Teams & Riders Best rider without a pro win after 3+ seasons in the senior ranks

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hayneplane

Sep 4, 2017
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Inspired by the race to most top 10s without a win in the season thread I thought I would cast the net even further and try to find the best riders never to have crossed the line first in their entire career.

If someone with an even more detailed knowledge of the race categories could set some criteria I would be very thankful.
 
Samu Cuenca

Samu Cuenca

Sep 26, 2020
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hayneplane said:
Inspired by the race to most top 10s without a win in the season thread I thought I would cast the net even further and try to find the best riders never to have crossed the line first in their entire career.

If someone with an even more detailed knowledge of the race categories could set some criteria I would be very thankful.
Click to expand...

Jesus Hernandez didn't win anything, but was a fine domestique for Contador.
 
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Logic-is-your-friend

Logic-is-your-friend

Jun 7, 2011
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hayneplane said:
Inspired by the race to most top 10s without a win in the season thread I thought I would cast the net even further and try to find the best riders never to have crossed the line first in their entire career.

If someone with an even more detailed knowledge of the race categories could set some criteria I would be very thankful.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about current riders, or do retired riders who took more than 3 years to win something, also count?
 
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tobydawq

tobydawq

Nov 16, 2013
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Fabio Sabatini
Tim Declercq
Pieter Serry
Lawson Craddock
Michael Gogl
Sebastián Henao
Edward Dunbar
Salvatore Puccio
Maarten Wynants
Lennard Hofstede
Chris Hamilton
Koen de Kort
Alex Kirsch

But of course, the by far best and most accomplished current rider (who due to a technicality has amassed three pro seasons) to never have a win must be João Almeida.
 
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hayneplane

Sep 4, 2017
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Logic-is-your-friend said:
Are you talking about current riders, or do retired riders who took more than 3 years to win something, also count?
Click to expand...
All-time if they never won, trying to find the rare rider that got multiple contracts despite never winning because they were valuable in other ways to their team. Chose 3 years for current riders as I felt it often takes a couple of years for many riders to get given opportunities to ride for themselves in races.
 
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H

hayneplane

Sep 4, 2017
2,776
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tobydawq said:
Fabio Sabatini
Tim Declercq
Pieter Serry
Lawson Craddock
Michael Gogl
Sebastián Henao
Edward Dunbar
Salvatore Puccio
Maarten Wynants
Lennard Hofstede
Chris Hamilton
Koen de Kort
Alex Kirsch

But of course, the by far best and most accomplished current rider (who due to a technicality has amassed three pro seasons) to never have a win must be João Almeida.
Click to expand...
Serry and de Kort are great shouts as it is really surprising that they haven't won at least a couple of lower level stages or one day races. Surely Craddock has won at the Tour of Utah or similar event with a mix of American teams and a few world tour squads.
 
Billie

Billie

Jun 24, 2013
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hayneplane said:
Serry and de Kort are great shouts as it is really surprising that they haven't won at least a couple of lower level stages or one day races. Surely Craddock has won at the Tour of Utah or similar event with a mix of American teams and a few world tour squads.
Click to expand...

Koen de Kort won the GP Eddy Merckx with Thomas Dekker back in the early 2000's when it was still held
 
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Leinster

Jun 10, 2017
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BlueRoads said:
Not sure, but what about Guillaume Martin? Trainee from 1st of August 2014, first .1 win I see is in the Tour de Limousin, 18.08.2017?
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I think the point is that the first win disqualifies the rider. The 3 years is to establish that it's not just someone who's biding his time for his first win, like a Tiesj Benoot. (Who actually also was a pro for 3 years before he won Strade Bianche).
 
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Anderis

May 10, 2013
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Leinster said:
Well, most of the “hype” for Craddock came from one Tour de France where he spent he whole race hanging off the back of the peloton with a broken collarbone. Other than that he’s been exactly what this thread is about.
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Not really. At the time, Craddock really was a proper GC hope. He finished 7th in USA Pro Challenge and 8th in California at age of 21, added 5th in u-23 WC ITT that year. Next year he improved with 3rd overall in California. He was genuinely seen as someone who could maybe not win GTs, but be around top10 level and win smaller stage races. Unfortunately, like many American riders, his progress has stalled around that age.
Then he went to Cannondale in 2016 and had a very consistent and promising frist spring with the team, finishing 6 consecutive stage races in top20, including 9th in Pais Vasco against a very strong field. Unfortunately that was the strongest he had ever been as overtraining and awful 2017 followed and after that he's never recovered beyond a domestique level with an occasional good ITT.
The broken collarbone thing happened in 2018 and had nothing to do with his early career hype.

EDIT: I've just looked at his thread on this forum and he had been called the next Greg LeMond in 2010 already. :p
 
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L

Leinster

Jun 10, 2017
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Anderis said:
EDIT: I've just looked at his thread on this forum and he had been called the next Greg LeMond in 2010 already. :p
Click to expand...

C'mon, that post was when he was 18 and had just won junior nationals. There were 2 replies to it, and then no more posts until 2016. Nobody's even called him the next Tejay van Garderen since then.

My first memory of him was as Tom Dumoulin's least-worst mountain domestique at the 2015 Vuelta. I've never heard since any suggestion of Craddock being any more than a solid pro who might pick up some good results here and there.
 
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