Most overrated (good) rider in the peloton?

[ashhutch1997]

The first name that came to my head is Biniam Girmay. The commtators on Eurosport such as Rob Hatch talk about him all the time, he also tried to put him in the same braket as MVDP back in 2022! Don't get me wrong he's a very good cyclist, but he's waaay overhyped.
I also think Remco Evenepoel as a grand Tour rider is very overatted, he'd be lucky to get top 5 in the TDF this year. He's a world class one day racer, but totally overatted as a GC rider IMO.

 

[Netserk]

How many % chance do you give him to finish in the top 10?

80-85 %.

It's a low bar, so merely an off-day or sub-optimal form is not enough to fail it. The Grand Départ should see relatively few peloton pile-ups, so only the gravel stage poses above-baseline risk of crash and injury.

 

[Salvarani]

Evenepoel isn’t the only rider to be compared or labeled as the next Eddy Merckx though at the beginning of their career; EBH, Sagan, and Keldermerckx among others.

How long did it last until people saw what it was with those though, it didnt stick. Some people still seem very adamant that the title of that thread is "correct", which would prove he is really overrated. No results so far to back it up. Thats what this poll was asking for, if I am not mistaken. Most overrated.

 

[topcat]

Not enough fighting in this thread. How about:
Who is the most overrated forum member?

 

[Netserk]

Not enough fighting in this thread. How about:
Who is the most overrated forum member?

State of the forum 2024

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered.

forum.cyclingnews.com

 

[topcat]

State of the forum 2024

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered.

forum.cyclingnews.com

That thread might be well worth a read for some insight.

 

[Izzyeviel]

The people who voted for Roglic - are you talking about cycling or his ski jumping career?

 

[fbjim]

The first name that came to my head is Biniam Girmay. The commtators on Eurosport such as Rob Hatch talk about him all the time, he also tried to put him in the same braket as MVDP back in 2022! Don't get me wrong he's a very good cyclist, but he's waaay overhyped.
I also think Remco Evenepoel as a grand Tour rider is very overatted, he'd be lucky to get top 5 in the TDF this year. He's a world class one day racer, but totally overatted as a GC rider IMO.

I think Girmay's problem is that they seemingly want him to be a sprinter and sprinting is one of those things where it's clear if you've got enough to be a top sprinter or not, and he's clearly not in the class of the Philipsens, or even the Sam Bennets. His wins at G-W and a break/punchy stage at the Giro I think are pretty much what he should be doing, not trying to do the full leadout thing into a flat finish at the TDF.

 

[SHAD0W93]

How long did it last until people saw what it was with those though, it didnt stick. Some people still seem very adamant that the title of that thread is "correct", which would prove he is really overrated. No results so far to back it up. Thats what this poll was asking for, if I am not mistaken. Most overrated.

Of the 4 I know Kelderman’s comparison was the shortest. For the start of the Evenepoel thread it was compared since they’re the same nationality and Evenepoel winning solo. Yes, some fans think that but that’s the same for every rider, it’s just in our face more due to his positive and negative popularity. I definitely agree with you that Pogacar is a far better rider to say is the next Merckx. Then the new thread names have definitely gone off the rail.

 

[The fridge in the blue trees]

Daniel Martinez

Well, overrated by me. Although I'm slowly coming around.. .but after following him since his Colombia year, which was very promising . Nice development, after his Giro 21 I was convinced that by 23 at the very latest he'd be better than Bernal (the one with back problems, before the crash) and a TdF podium candidate...
Still get excited when he shows something in Algarve, like in 23, but yeah, somehow he completely imploded after April 22.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

How many % chance do you give him to finish in the top 10?

At the 2024 Tour? 5 percent or thereabouts. I think he'll throw in the GC towel at some point to shift his focus to breakaway wins.

I question how he handles accumulated fatigue as a GC rider, which is pretty relevant in this particular GT.

 

[Red Rick]

At the 2024 Tour? 5 percent or thereabouts. I think he'll throw in the GC towel at some point to shift his focus to breakaway wins.

I question how he handles accumulated fatigue as a GC rider, which is pretty relevant in this particular GT.

I think naming the 2022 Vuelta winner asl huge underdog to top 10 the Tour 2 years later is a huge stretch

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

5% means that he will make it top 10 1 out of 20 Tours. I don’t see it.

 

[repre]

Girmay sucks, that's a fact, he is nowhere close to his hype. But for me he sucks so much, that i wouldn't count him here.

For me answer is easy - it's Remco. All hype in the world, maybe only Lebron and Wembanyama from NBA had bigger hype than this guy. Yet i don't see how he can win TDF soon. He has a GT win, but that Vuelta was probably weakest edition that i've seen with not fully prepared Rogla as a main competitor. So for any future GT win he must have a proper ammount of ITT and also historically weak field...

It's a pity, cause i really like the guy on the bike, he attacks constantly and makes dumb decisions which is fun for viewers like me, also says what he thinks to press.

But for next Mercx he does too many fundamental things bad enough to not win enough races for his talent.

He is strong as a bull and have the best motor in cycling, even Pogi not close to him. But he races dumb tactically to screw things up for him even in week-long races, in GTs it's even worse. And woth tactical aspect he doesn't get better at all.

Also with his motor and other physical charasteristics he should be a force in almost all classics, but lacks technical prowess. Seriously, he doesn't race on gravel, cobbles and his descent is suspect as well. This eliminates Strade, Flanders, Roubaix, Sanremo and most of Lombardia editions from 'his' races. He only has L-B-L from monuments and he dominates here.

I think he's improving with his technic and also become so much better with punch, so maybe Lombardia will be within his reach sometime. But not now.

So what we got?

All hype in the world and next Mercx label. And what races he can win? Only L-B-L, San Sebastian and Algarve? Love the guy, but he has too many weak places in his game, which makes him most overrated rider for me.

 

[repre]

Also Bla-BlaBroecks has to be second most overrated. He is similar to Remco in having too many weak sides. Can't sprint, descend or ITT, also not blowing anyone away with his climbing. It's hard to be the best all-around riders, which is often required to win a GT...

Still young, but the time is clicking...

 

[Salvarani]

Girmay sucks, that's a fact, he is nowhere close to his hype. But for me he sucks so much, that i wouldn't count him here.

For me answer is easy - it's Remco. All hype in the world, maybe only Lebron and Wembanyama from NBA had bigger hype than this guy. Yet i don't see how he can win TDF soon. He has a GT win, but that Vuelta was probably weakest edition that i've seen with not fully prepared Rogla as a main competitor. So for any future GT win he must have a proper ammount of ITT and also historically weak field...

It's a pity, cause i really like the guy on the bike, he attacks constantly and makes dumb decisions which is fun for viewers like me, also says what he thinks to press.

But for next Mercx he does too much fundamental things bad enough to not win enough races for his talent.

He is strong as a bull and have the best motor in cycling, even Pogi not close to him. But he races dumb tactically to screw things up for him even in week-long races, in GTs it's even worse. And woth tactical aspect he doesn't get better at all.

Also with his motor and other physical charasteristics he should be a force in almost all classics, but lacks technical prowess. Seriously, he doesn't race on gravel, cobbles and his descent is suspect as well. This eliminates Strade, Flanders, Roubaix, Sanremo and most of Lombardia editions from 'his' races. He only has L-B-L from monuments and he dominates here.

I think he's improving with his technic and also become so much better with punch, so maybe Lombardia will be within his reach sometime. But not now.

So what we got?

All hype in the world and next Mercx label. And what races he can win? Only L-B-L, San Sebastian and Algarve? Love the guy, but he has too many weak places in his game, which makes him most overrated rider for me.

Well put. Good post. Points were made.

 

[kingjr]

@Karthago you're not the Karthago from Eurosport fame, are you?

 

[topcat]

After a slow start, the bitter twisted cranks have come out to play. Can we have someone to beat the bollocks off Roglic also?

 

[Ripper]

No one in this poll is really overrated. Only De Lie can be considered at the current state, but he's young, so it's too soon to tell.

Pidcock should never be on this list, because he's a world and Olympic champion. He's underrated by those who only follow road cycling.

Objectively I would suggest Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa. They are big names who have never won a big race. Landa has won the poll "Future GT Winner" two years in a row.

It is a road racing subforum though, and Podcock is not those things on the road. He is a hellavu cross country racer, and a very, very good cross racer. He is good on the road, don't get me wrong, but often wayyyy overhyped by the media and some posters.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

5% means that he will make it top 10 1 out of 20 Tours. I don’t see it.

I was talking about the 2024 Tour only. It's clearly stated in my post.

Even if he's physically able, which I doubt - with this route and a Tour de France field - I don't think he can be bothered to race for 8th place or so. He'll roll in at half an hour when things don't get his way. Rather than fight for an anonymous top ten.

If he manages a top 10 he will be in podium contention (almost) until the very end, which I highly doubt.

Where do you have him at? Top five?

 

[hayneplane]

I think Girmay's problem is that they seemingly want him to be a sprinter and sprinting is one of those things where it's clear if you've got enough to be a top sprinter or not, and he's clearly not in the class of the Philipsens, or even the Sam Bennets. His wins at G-W and a break/punchy stage at the Giro I think are pretty much what he should be doing, not trying to do the full leadout thing into a flat finish at the TDF.

Agreed. In a selective race he packs a punch at the finish but I would not bet on his positioning or acceleration in a group of 30+

 

[hayneplane]

I was talking about the 2024 Tour only. It's clearly stated in my post.

Even if he's physically able, which I doubt - with this route and a Tour de France field - I don't think he can be bothered to race for 8th place or so. He'll roll in at half an hour when things don't get his way. Rather than fight for an anonymous top ten.

If he manages a top 10 he will be in podium contention (almost) until the very end, which I highly doubt.

Where do you have him at? Top five?

If he loses half an hour at the end of week 1 then keeps getting in big breakaways he could easily regather half that time and 15 minutes from the Yellow Jersey has been a top 10 finisher in each of the 3 most recent editions.

 

[shadowrider]

I think you'll find you're the one who doesn't understand the question, because having a better palmares than other riders doesn't mean you can't be more overrated than said riders. If Evenepoel is rated three times as highly as rider X, but his palmares is only twice as good, then by definition Evenepoel is more overrated than rider X. You also appear to be confusing the extent to which a rider is rated with the extent to which a rider has gotten the most out of his career - by your reasoning, Betancur would have been one of the most overrated riders even towards the end of his career when nobody actually still believed in him much (if at all) by that point.

Again. It's not about GT only. So you have to adapt your point of view. Evenepoel performed very strong from his first months as a pro at the age of 19. As predicted by fans, Belgian press but also experts. So, Evenepoel wasn't overrated. He was (and is) correctly rated.

You also forgot important facts. A (good) rider as Roglic was largely able to perform on a quite high level and win a lot of stages and a few GT's because of his enormous strong team. After moving from the strongest team in the world to the third or fourth strongest team in the world, his performances and especially his victories will drop sharply. We already saw that happen in Paris-Nice.
So, who's the most overrated rider ?

Finally. Give me your ranking of overrated riders. With arguments. Can we have a good laugh !

 

[shadowrider]

The first name that came to my head is Biniam Girmay. The commtators on Eurosport such as Rob Hatch talk about him all the time, he also tried to put him in the same braket as MVDP back in 2022! Don't get me wrong he's a very good cyclist, but he's waaay overhyped.
I also think Remco Evenepoel as a grand Tour rider is very overatted, he'd be lucky to get top 5 in the TDF this year. He's a world class one day racer, but totally overatted as a GC rider IMO.

But it's not about GT's only. So, being slightly overrated as a GT-rider but not overrated as a worldclass rider of smaller stageraces and one day races gives as a result he is normally rated. Unlike some other riders on the list.

Even as a GT-rider Evenepoel is only slightly overrated. Having won the Vuelta already. He would have won the Giro last year without Covid. Against Roglic who was able to defeat old Thomas with difficulty and only at the very last. Your GT-position on Evenepoel is therefore largely based on that one bad day of Evenepoel in the Vuelta last year. But apparently you don't take Roglic's bad days in a few GTs and Pogacar's three bad days in the Tour 22 and 23 into account at all. Furthermore, you already know that Evenepoel will not perform well in July 2024. What a smart guy you are. To make you laugh out loud.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

I was talking about the 2024 Tour only. It's clearly stated in my post.

Even if he's physically able, which I doubt - with this route and a Tour de France field - I don't think he can be bothered to race for 8th place or so. He'll roll in at half an hour when things don't get his way. Rather than fight for an anonymous top ten.

If he manages a top 10 he will be in podium contention (almost) until the very end, which I highly doubt.

Where do you have him at? Top five?

Yes I know you meant 2024. I mean that 5% means in 20 simulations of the Tour this year you put him top 10 in only 1.

I think he can range anything from 3rd to something like the Vuelta, outside of top 10+stage wins in break. The last two years 10th has been around 25 minutes down. I think hes very likely to manage a top 10, and top 5 (3-5) is possible if he stays healthy and doesnt crash. We’ll see in July.