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How Did They Never Win It..?

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Double world champions who never won a national championship:

Briek Schotte - 2nd x 3 in the Belgian RR
Julian Alaphilippe - 3rd x 2, 5th x 2 in the French RR
Giorgia Bronzini - 2nd x 2, 3rd x 4, 4th x 2 in the Italian RR
 
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Aru was usually also never at his best on the really hard multi mountain stages, most of his best performances have come on unipublic-style stages, and has a history of being bad in cold, rainy weather. Actually winning the Giro would have been hard for him. He probably could have podiumed in the 2017 Tour if his prep was geared towards it (Had a knee injury that forced him to miss the Giro and only raced the Tour because of that) and the whole team didn't start falling apart during that Tour, but that's it.
2017 Giro had several unipublic stages ( more than usual ) and didn't have many important cold/rainy stages, if any.
 
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Emma Pooley, Giro d'Italia Femminile - one of the top 2 climbers in the world for half a decade, but never made it to the top step.

Freddy Maertens and all Monument Classics.

A real surprise one however is Ryszard Szurkowski and the Tour de Pologne. The best cyclist Poland ever produced, and arguably the greatest rider ever produced in the Eastern Bloc, a four time winner of the Course de la Paix (in its heyday too), a 12-time national champion across all disciplines, almost every major 'open' or amateur stage race he targeted for most of the 70s, a three time world champion (amateur road and 2x TTT) and the man who was largely responsible for the opening up of races to the Ostbloc teams with the 'open' format, after coming 2nd to Merckx in a stage and 28th overall in Paris-Nice as an amateur... and despite 14 stage wins and two GC podiums he never won his home Tour.

How is a guy barely nobody has heard of better than Kwiatkowski?
 
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How is a guy barely nobody has heard of better than Kwiatkowski?
In Poland though, I suppose Szurkowski is still a better recognizable athlete amongst average people across different ages than Kwiato is. I guess 99% of people over 60 years would tell you who Szurkowski is, while I doubt if more than 50% of 20/30 year olds are familiar with Kwiatkowski's name.

Cycling was arguably more popular sport in Poland in the days of Szurkowski's days than it is now.
 
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In Poland though, I suppose Szurkowski is still a better recognizable athlete amongst average people across different ages than Kwiato is. I guess 99% of people over 60 years would tell you who Szurkowski is, while I doubt if more than 50% of 20/30 years olds are familiar with Kwiatkowski's name.

Cycling was arguably more popular sport in Poland in the days of Szurkowski's days than it is

Snap poll, neither of my Polish work colleagues have unfortunately heard of Kwiatkowski.
 

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