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Bradley Wiggins Vs Fabian Cancellera

Impossible to compare.
One specialised in winning classics and ITT his whole career only competing in events he was suited to, the other didn't. I think in terms of palamares i'd give it to Cancellera though as the classics hold a lot of weight, but in terms of actual ability and an engine on the bike it has to go to Wiggins.

I was remembering an old interview with Cancellera when I watched him so happy on the Rio podium the other day back from 2005/6 I think it was and he was saying he was hoping to one day transform into a Tour rider and perhaps try and win a less-mountainous Tour de France and wished to retire after beating the Hour record. I remember reading it at the time and thinking he was crazy about the Tour, but then when Wiggins won Tour and perhaps he should have tried afterall. I think he was such a sure bet classics machine for his teams, he never would have been allowed the freedom like Wiggins to explore his engine beyond his strongest disciplines.
 
Would indeed be interesting if Cancellara also would have been able to win a tdf like 2012 if he had trained for it. The big difference between Wiggins and Cancellara is however that Cancellara didn't need to try to win gt's because he was so good at what he did anyway. He has won 7 monuments in is the most successful TT'er of his generation, therefore no need to try to win something completely different. Wiggins is rather a rider like Dumoulin today. A great TT'er but probably not the kind of rider who will win numeral monuments, so it makes more sense to use the TT ability to win gt's.
Cancellara and Wiggins are however hard to compare, because Wiggins also rode track races. For me as a road racing fan those victories don't mean that much and it's hard for me to say what the value of those wins is but all in all I'd rate Cancellara higher.
 
Whilst I think that Cancellara is an unbelievable rider and one of the all time greats, a fully focused Wiggins who would have only specialised in Fabian's disciplines would have probably been equal if not better, probably not MSR though, lol.
 
Nov 29, 2010
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Re:

Armchair cyclist said:
They were only really rivals in time trials, in which Cancellara has a 16-13 advantage, In terms of wider career, it is like asking whether my armchair is better than my dining table.

Well surely it's the armchair. How do else do you sit at the dining table?
 
This is why I don't go with the whole 2012 tour designed for Wiggins thing and why his win therefore carries little weight in his palamares. When you have Froome second and Nibali in third in Paris, it's clearly not the case. If the course suited Wiggins pursuit/tt strength, it must have suited other TT specialists too and it didn't. None performed any better or worse than in what would be considered a more mountainous GT in final GC.
Ironically it was Wiggins who pulled the yellow jersey off Cancellara's back on a medium mountain stage 7 where Cancellera lost contact with Wiggins group loosing 1:50 over the last 7km to Wiggins.
 
Re:

samhocking said:
This is why I don't go with the whole 2012 tour designed for Wiggins thing and why his win therefore carries little weight in his palamares. When you have Froome second and Nibali in third in Paris, it's clearly not the case. If the course suited Wiggins pursuit/tt strength, it must have suited other TT specialists too and it didn't. None performed any better or worse than in what would be considered a more mountainous GT in final GC.
Ironically it was Wiggins who pulled the yellow jersey off Cancellara's back on a medium mountain stage 7 where Cancellera lost contact with Wiggins group loosing 1:50 over the last 7km to Wiggins.
I think his tour counts as much as any other tour, but it makes his transformation into a gc rider less impressive. It would be incredible if a TT specialist transforms and wins a tdf edition like last year. But because the tour had so many TT kilometers his performance wasn't really that surprising.
 
Bradley Wiggins - 36

1998 1st   Individual pursuit, UCI Junior Track World Championships

1999 1st   Madison (with Rob Hayles), National Track Championships

2000 2nd   Team pursuit, UCI Track World Championships
2nd Six Days of Grenoble (with Rob Hayles)
3rd   Team pursuit, Olympic Games

2001 1st   Overall Cinturón a Mallorca
1st   Team pursuit, UCI Track World Championships

2002 3rd   Team pursuit, UCI Track World Championships

2003 1st  Individual pursuit, UCI Track World Championships
 Team pursuit, UCI Track World Championships

2004 1st   Individual pursuit ,Olympic Games
2nd   Team pursuit ,Olympic Games
3rd   Madison (with Rob Hayles) ,Olympic Games

2005 7th  UCI World Time Trial Championships

2006


2007 1st   Individual pursuit, UCI Track World Championships
1st Prologue Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
10th  UCI World Time Trial Championships

2008 1st   Individual pursuit, Olympic Games
1st  Team pursuit, Olympic Games
UCI Track World Championships
1st   Individual pursuit
1st   Team pursuit
1st   Madison (with Mark Cavendish)

2009 3rd Overall Tour de France

2010







2011 3rd Overall Vuelta a España
2nd   UCI World Time Trial Championships
1st   Overall Critérium du Dauphiné

2012 1st   Overall Tour de France
1st Stages 9 (ITT) & 19 (ITT)
1st   Overall Paris–Nice
1st   Overall Tour de Romandie

1st   Time trial, Olympic Games
1st   Overall Critérium du Dauphiné

2013 2nd   UCI World Time Trial Championships




2014 1st   UCI World Time Trial Championships
1st   Overall Tour of California
9th  Paris–Roubaix

2015

2016 1st   Madison (with Mark Cavendish), UCI Track World Championships
1st   Team pursuit, Olympic Games
 
Re:

Fabian Cancellera - 35

1998 1st   Junior time trial, Road World Championships

1999 1st   Junior time trial, Road World Championships

2000 2nd Under-23 time trial, Road World Championships



2001 1st   Overall Tour of Rhodes


2002 1st   National Time Trial Championships

2003


2004 1st   National Time Trial Championships
1st  1st Prologue, Tour de France


2005 3rd  UCI World Time Trial Championships

2006 1st   Time trial, Road World Championships
1st  Paris–Roubaix

2007 Tour de France
1st Prologue & Stage 3
1st   Time trial, Road World Championships

2008 1st   Time trial, Olympic Games
1st  Milan–San Remo
2nd   Road race, Olympic Games
2nd  Paris–Roubaix



2009 1st   Time trial, Road World Championships

2010 1st   Time trial, Road World Championships
1st Paris–Roubaix
1st Tour of Flanders
1st E3 Harelbeke
Tour de France
1st Prologue & Stage 19 (ITT)


2011
3rd World Time Trial Championships


2012 1st  1st Strade Bianche







2013 3rd   UCI World Time Trial Championships
1st E3 Harelbeke
1st Tour of Flanders
1st Paris–Roubaix

2014 1st  Tour of Flanders



2015

2016 1st   Time trial, Olympic Games
 
Bradley Wiggins spent most of his career in track events. He invested around 3 years to transform to TDF winner and Olympic TT winner.
For top althletes, it is easy to do other sport events and play strong.
But transform and become WC or win Olympic is another thing.
Bradley Wiggins seems to be underestimated by most of road cycling fans.
Outside cycling, he is considered as a best sportsman in GB history.
This achievement is huge and remarkable.
In his last part of career, hope he could try more in classic events.
His 9th result in PR told us something.
Pursuit is short distance ability. Hour record is long distance ability. TDF is climbing and endurance ability.
With such a high level of ability, I won't surprise that he could do well in all classics events even if his ability should be decreasing by time
 
Feb 6, 2016
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Completely depends on how you rate track events. Like asking who the better sprinter is between Gregory Bauge and Marcel Kittel: meaningless unless you define it further. Fwiw, I think that, if you rate track wins as equal to road wins, Wiggins just pips it (because they've got rid of his best event from the Olympics, and yet he's still got 5 golds), but it's desperately close.
 

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