Mental or random cycling statistics

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What logic is this? Roglic is a brilliant rider. Maybe you don't know it, but he isn't a ski jumper anymore. He even quit that before beginning his cycling career.

Reference to all the fans claiming that Merckx "raced against farmers in a weak era".
Poulidor, Zoetemelk, Ocana, Gimondi, De Vlaeminck.....were all great riders who rode in (often) much harder conditions, but suddenly Merckx' raced farmers in a "weak era".

Then it's safe to say that Pogacar is racing (former) football players and ski-jumpers in a soft era where some of the riders would quit cycling if they're forced to race in the conditions the "weak era" was racing.
 
Remco's and Roglic' pasts have no influence on their current levels, whereas part-time farmers probably didn't live as professionally as possible. I don't think that's particularly controversial.

On their level obviously not. However, the fact that both of them can change the sport they compete in, and become top 3-5 cyclists in the world may be used as a proof that the overall level today isn't as high as some people think. That's unprovable of course, as is unprovable that the era back then has been weak.

However, my point about the softness of the current era still stays.
 
Was going through Denmark's results in the big races, and imagine my surprise when I came across this:

 
Was going through Denmark's results in the big races, and imagine my surprise when I came across this:


I remember watching it live on a dodgy stream. You missed out on a great race.
 
Was going through Denmark's results in the big races, and imagine my surprise when I came across this:

And I think we all know RhD's next entry in the Guess Who thread.
I see that I am currently setting the mystery. I have no idea whom I had in mind, but when and if it is resuscitated, I'm sure I will be able to think of some retired male rider
 
How dominant can two riders be in the monuments?

From Liège 1971 to Liège 1975 there were 21 monuments. Eddy Merckx won 10 of them; Roger De Vlaeminck won 5. So these two together won 15 out of 21 monuments. On average that's 5 out of 7.

From Flanders 2022 to Lombardia 2024 there were 14 monuments. Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel both won 5 of them. So these two together won 10 out of 14 monuments. On average that's 5 out of 7.
Now 11 out of the last 15.
 
Merckx has won every monument, every grand tour and the WCRR placing him at 9/9. He's the only one to have done so. Nobody else even has 8/9 or podiums in 9/9.

With a podium in Roubaix however Pogacar could become the 2nd rider to get a podium in each.

Victories
9 - Eddy Merckx
8 - /
7 - Felice Gimondi, Bernard Hinault
6 - Tadej Pogacar, Rik Van Looy, Louison Bobet, Fausto Coppi
5 - Francesco Moser, Hennie Kuiper, Sean Kelly, Vincenzo Nibali, Roger De Vlaeminck, Philippe Gilbert

Podiums
9 - Eddy Merckx
8 - Felice Gimondi, Tadej Pogacar, Herman Vanspringel
7 - Bernard Hinault, Rik Van Looy, Louison Bobet, Francesco Moser, Hennie Kuiper, Sean Kelly, Gianni Bugno
6 - Fausto Coppi, Vincenzo Nibali, Roger De Vlaeminck, Philippe Gilbert, Moreno Argentin, Alejandro Valverde, Greg LeMond, Raymond Poulidor, Fiorenzo Magni, Joaquim Rodriguez

Top-10s
9 - Eddy Merckx, Felice Gimondi, Herman Vanspringel, Rik Van Looy, Francesco Moser, Raymond Impanis
8 - Tadej Pogacar, Bernard Hinault, Louison Bobet, Hennie Kuiper, Sean Kelly, Alejandro Valverde, Greg LeMond, Raymond Poulidor, Jacques Anquetil, Jan Janssen, Laurent Jalabert, Freddy Maertens
 
Merckx has won every monument, every grand tour and the WCRR placing him at 9/9. He's the only one to have done so. Nobody else even has 8/9 or podiums in 9/9.

With a podium in Roubaix however Pogacar could become the 2nd rider to get a podium in each.

Victories
9 - Eddy Merckx
8 - /
7 - Felice Gimondi, Bernard Hinault
6 - Tadej Pogacar, Rik Van Looy, Louison Bobet, Fausto Coppi
5 - Francesco Moser, Hennie Kuiper, Sean Kelly, Vincenzo Nibali, Roger De Vlaeminck, Philippe Gilbert

Podiums
9 - Eddy Merckx
8 - Felice Gimondi, Tadej Pogacar, Herman Vanspringel
7 - Bernard Hinault, Rik Van Looy, Louison Bobet, Francesco Moser, Hennie Kuiper, Sean Kelly, Gianni Bugno
6 - Fausto Coppi, Vincenzo Nibali, Roger De Vlaeminck, Philippe Gilbert, Moreno Argentin, Alejandro Valverde, Greg LeMond, Raymond Poulidor, Fiorenzo Magni, Joaquim Rodriguez

Top-10s
9 - Eddy Merckx, Felice Gimondi, Herman Vanspringel, Rik Van Looy, Francesco Moser, Raymond Impanis
8 - Tadej Pogacar, Bernard Hinault, Louison Bobet, Hennie Kuiper, Sean Kelly, Alejandro Valverde, Greg LeMond, Raymond Poulidor, Jacques Anquetil, Jan Janssen, Laurent Jalabert, Freddy Maertens
Pog also has a podim at the Olympics but of course Merckx is excused for not having that as it wasn't open to the pros back then.
 
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Today was Peter Serry's 1000th raceday. A pretty good testament to longevity, but not even in the top 250 recorded by PCS (and given the proportion of recently retired racers near the top, I suspect that the list is historically very incomplete: only Sean Kelly in the top 40 is pre-2000 career).

Alexander Kristoff (1373, 22nd in this list) and Simon Clarke (1331, 31st) are the highest of those still racing (gravel races of the semi-retired do not seem to be included in this stat); no-one else in the top 50 and the likes of Taaramae, Mollema and Arashiro are 100 days+ behind Kristoff.
 
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Today was the third time a major one-day race ended with Pogacar, Wout, Mathieu and Pedersen occupying the top 4 positions after De Ronde 2023 and WCRR 2023 (where Küng, Stuyven and Benoot who were 5th, 6th and 7th today were also all in the top 9).

That seems like a lot. Does anyone know of any examples that match or even surpass this?
 
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No clue if there has ever been another instance of that. Difficult to check that.

It's interesting though how a specific set of four riders managed to claim the top spots 3(!) times even though the podium hasn't ever been filled with the same three riders more than twice.

MSR 1925 and Lombardia 1924 had the same names (also the only instance of this happening across monuments):
Girardengo / Brunero / Linari
Brunero / Girardengo / Linari

Lombardia 1938 and 1940 also had the same names:
Cinelli / Bartali / Bailo
Bartali / Bailo / Cinelli

WCRR 1971 and Lombardia 1972 had the same names:
Merckx / Gimondi / Guimard
Merckx / Guimard / Gimondi

PR 1974 and 1976 had the same names:
De Vlaeminck / Moser / Demeyer
Demeyer / Moser / De Vlaeminck

LBL 1985 and 1987 had the same names:
Argentin / Criquelion / Roche
Argentin / Roche / Criquelion

PR 2006 and 2008 had the same names:
Cancellara / Boonen / Ballan
Boonen / Cancellara / Ballan

LBL 2014 and WCRR 2014 had the same names:
Gerrans / Valverde / Kwiatkowski
Kwiatkowski / Gerrans / Valverde

RVV 2023 and 2025 had the same names:
Pogacar / Van der Poel / Pedersen
Pogacar / Pedersen / Van der Poel

Really surprised. I thought this was a much more common occurrence. I also had a glance at the Olympic RR but that wouldn't have changed anything.
 
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Okay, this is some crazy stuff:

Schachmann beat Almeida in yesterday's ITT by 0.54 seconds. However, that is by far the largest amount by which he has beaten him of the last four times they have faced each other in an ITT (dating back to the Tokyo Olympics) - and he has never been beaten by Almeida! So four times in a row the margin has been less than a second, every time in Schachmann's favour - amounting to a total of 0.8 seconds in favour of the German.

Yesterday the margin was 0.54 seconds.
At Algarve this year, the margin was 0.05 seconds.
At Worlds in 2024, the margin was 0.06 seconds.
At Tokyo the margin was 0.15 seconds.

WTF?!
 
Okay, this is some crazy stuff:

Schachmann beat Almeida in yesterday's ITT by 0.54 seconds. However, that is by far the largest amount by which he has beaten him of the last four times they have faced each other in an ITT (dating back to the Tokyo Olympics) - and he has never been beaten by Almeida! So four times in a row the margin has been less than a second, every time in Schachmann's favour - amounting to a total of 0.8 seconds in favour of the German.

Yesterday the margin was 0.54 seconds.
At Algarve this year, the margin was 0.05 seconds.
At Worlds in 2024, the margin was 0.06 seconds.
At Tokyo the margin was 0.15 seconds.

WTF?!
Get a job please
 

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