Great Breakway Riders...

[nobilis]

Jens Voigt of course.
Thomas Voeckler also. But I think, there is a certain bias concerning French riders caused by the Tour de France and by the fact that there are no French riders that can fight for the GC so they compensate by going into breakaways

 

[Mellow Velo]

My vote for the current most persistent, if not successful breakaway specialist goes to Rubén Pérez.
If he's racing for a week, he's usually off the front for two or three stages.

 

[RedheadDane]

Vino? Or is he more the attacking type but doesn't really go into breaks?

 

[locker]

Up and coming breakaway rider Richie Porte

 

[Roland Rat]

When Cancellara does a breakaway he's doing a time trial. --> His special weapon. An attack in the last km is not what I call a breakaway specialist. If so, then Gilbert is hands down the best.

So by your logic any solo break is a TT. Therefore is a group break just a TTT?

And there's no distance limit on what a breakaway is. Whether it's with 250k, 50k or 1k to go, a break is a break is a break.

And yes, Gilbert is a great breakaway rider.

 

[El Pistolero]

So by your logic any solo break is a TT. Therefore is a group break just a TTT?

And there's no distance limit on what a breakaway is. Whether it's with 250k, 50k or 1k to go, a break is a break is a break.

And yes, Gilbert is a great breakaway rider.

You can't be a great breakaway guy if no one allows to let you go into a breakaway.

An attack from 1km to go out of the left over peloton is just not a break away. It's Gilbert doing a long uphill sprint.

Under your logic everything is a breakaway.

 

[Angliru]

Luis Leon Sanchez is my favorite along with Jens Voight. Both are sound tacticians and Sanchez especially has the craftiness to get the win at the end. I can't forget Sylvain Chavanel whose performance in this year's Tour cemented him as one of the best. Agree with Thomas Voeckler too, who is always aggressive and has the results to support his being named with the elite escape artists in the pro peloton.

Edit: How could I forget David Moncoutie? He has to be considered one of the best when he's in the mountains of a grand tour. He seems to just wear out his break companions until he's left alone with hands raised crossing the finish. A class act.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

And there's no distance limit on what a breakaway is. Whether it's with 250k, 50k or 1k to go, a break is a break is a break.

By that definition, Mark Cavendish is the best breakaway rider, and his breaks average 50m

Interesting to see some of the historical names that get a mention, but of the current peloton, Voeckler, Fedrigo and LLSanchez.

 

[Kazistuta]

OMG.... noone mentioned dear old Stephane Auge yet??? He's almost a certain participants in break-aways, but never seems to pull through.

Besides that I agree with a lot of earlier mentioned names, but I'm a little surprised only one has mentioned Thomas De Gendt. He has practically been breaking away in every race he participated in this year. Almost like a "young mans Jens Voigt".

Guys like Machado and Ignatiev also deserves a mention.

 

[Roland Rat]

You can't be a great breakaway guy if no one allows to let you go into a breakaway.

An attack from 1km to go out of the left over peloton is just not a break away. It's Gilbert doing a long uphill sprint.

Under your logic everything is a breakaway.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/break+away "To move rapidly away from or ahead of a group: The cyclist broke away from the pack."

Gilbert does that, yes. He also is a great break-away rider. See this year's Tour of Lombardy for one example.

By that definition, Mark Cavendish is the best breakaway rider, and his breaks average 50m

 

[ergmonkey]

Fedrigo is really good atm. And he almost always wins when he is in the break.

Erik Dekker was a really good one too. Like someone mentioned a few posts above he won 3 stages in 1 TDF from breakaways.

Jacky Durand is legendary regarding breakaways.

Future top breakaway guy is Niki Terpstra

I'm talking about riders that breakaway on flat/slighty hilly stages. The guys that miss a weapon to win because they can't climb well or can't sprint.

Okay, if you guys really can't accept the fact that Jacky Durand is the only recent rider worth discussing in this thread, then you might want to recall the following about Erik Dekker:

Yes, he did have some successful stage breakaways at the Tour; BUT, much more impressively, he won Paris-Tours in the following manner:

-got in the day-long break;
-attacked as the long break was reeled in and got into a new break;
-attacked the new break as they were caught in the final km's
-ever so narrowly held off the main sprint pack to take the win

That's balls. And pure class riding.

But he's still no Jacky Durand.

 

[ergmonkey]

Ta-da!

 

[theyoungest]

Okay, if you guys really can't accept the fact that Jacky Durand is the only recent rider worth discussing in this thread, then you might want to recall the following about Erik Dekker:

Yes, he did have some successful stage breakaways at the Tour; BUT, much more impressively, he won Paris-Tours in the following manner:

-got in the day-long break;
-attacked as the long break was reeled in and got into a new break;
-attacked the new break as they were caught in the final km's
-ever so narrowly held off the main sprint pack to take the win

That's balls. And pure class riding.

But he's still no Jacky Durand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xGpjOfYLG0

The quality is a bit crappy, but it's worth watching.

 

[ergmonkey]

More Paris-Tours magic, this time from Virenque:

 

[xmoonx]

Up and coming Peter Sagan would be someone to look out for.

 

[theyoungest]

Up and coming Peter Sagan would be someone to look out for.

? He's won one race from a breakaway, if you could call it that. The rest of them in sprints of a larger group. He's not your typical breakaway rider.

 

[Kwibus]

Okay, if you guys really can't accept the fact that Jacky Durand is the only recent rider worth discussing in this thread, then you might want to recall the following about Erik Dekker:

Yes, he did have some successful stage breakaways at the Tour; BUT, much more impressively, he won Paris-Tours in the following manner:

-got in the day-long break;
-attacked as the long break was reeled in and got into a new break;
-attacked the new break as they were caught in the final km's
-ever so narrowly held off the main sprint pack to take the win

That's balls. And pure class riding.

But he's still no Jacky Durand.

Wow! I didn't know this since until this year my cycling calendar existed out of spring classics and the Tour, but if I had watched this live I'd probably would've went crazy
Gonna watch that youtube movie once I get home.

And I agree Jacky Durand is the most legendary breakaway guy

 

[ak-zaaf]

Nobody mentioned David Boucher yet? He's the breakaway king of the current peloton. He even used to have a counter on his website that totalled the km's he spent attacking.

From the old days: Thomas Wegmuller, even more than Durand.
Wegmuller really didn't know (or cared) how to win races. Just rode full power until the finish.
In the Ronde van Vlaanderen that Durand won Wegmuller just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. Durand could easily escape in the end.

IMO a breakaway king shouldn't be the clever guy who 'knows' what break will succeed and what wheel to hold, I prefer powerhouses that are just there in every single break and work there ass off. And almost never win offcourse.

 

[Old School]

The kid from "American Flyers" movie...and he was a rookie!

 

[Barrus]

IMO a breakaway king shouldn't be the clever guy who 'knows' what break will succeed and what wheel to hold, I prefer powerhouses that are just there in every single break and work there ass off. And almost never win offcourse.

IF that is the requirement I would certainly put in Olivier Kaisen in there, the amount of breaks he gets in each year is astounding

 

[Libertine Seguros]

My vote for the current most persistent, if not successful breakaway specialist goes to Rubén Pérez.
If he's racing for a week, he's usually off the front for two or three stages.

José Iván Gutiérrez and Rubén Pérez spent the most time in breaks in the '09 Tour (way ahead of Combativity Prize winner Franco Pellizotti). But they aren't really well noticed; Pérez was mostly there as a helper for Martínez in the polka dot fight; Guti is more noticeable now in his Spanish champs' jersey.

 

[Old School]

I was just joking.

Jimmy Casper always goes for it.

 

[ultimobici]

Anybody that does a 200km break to win Flanders is in another league.

That guy rode a helluva lot of kms by himself. Bravo.

And in winning Flanders reduces many a Belgian fan to tears!

My list
Bernard Hinault - LBL 1980
Charly Mottet - Lombardia 1988
Pantani - Les Deux Alpes 1998

 

[El Pistolero]

And in winning Flanders reduces many a Belgian fan to tears!

My list
Bernard Hinault - LNL 1980
Charly Mottet - Lombardia 1988
Pantani - Les Deux Alpes 1998

Fixed it for you

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

IMO a breakaway king shouldn't be the clever guy who 'knows' what break will succeed and what wheel to hold, I prefer powerhouses that are just there in every single break and work there ass off. And almost never win offcourse.

The Giro of course has a classification that measures pretty much that: kms spent in a lead group of less than 10 riders, the Trofeo Fuga.

Recent Winners:
2010 Jérôme Pineau
2009 Mauro Facci
2008 Fortunato Baliani
2007 Mikhail Ignatiev
2006 Christophe Edaleine
2005 Sven Krauss
2004 Daniele Righi
2003 Constantino Zaballa