Most overrated rider

[theyoungest]

Probably a fair comment especially now after his past few years results on the cobbles. He still is rated highly as he was when he had some big results in cobbled races.

Hold on, did I miss something? He's still riding for BMC, right? I thought all BMC riders were absolutely world-stunningly fantastic.

 

[L'arriviste]

Hold on, did I miss something? He's still riding for BMC, right? I thought all BMC riders were absolutely world-stunningly fantastic.

No, only really one of them in particular

 

[theyoungest]

No, only really one of them in particular

Yes, but his greatness shines upon all of them, and thus by extension they're great as well.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Yes, but his greatness shines upon all of them, and thus by extension they're great as well.

And all his fans!

Hold on, did I miss something? He's still riding for BMC, right? I thought all BMC riders were absolutely world-stunningly fantastic.

Well some of them except Karsten kroon who is dutch so he must be bad.

 

[Matthijs]

Michael Rogers - never been a good enough climber to be a podium finisher, yet his chances are always spoken up. Best result has been a 9th in '06 tdf. Other than that nothing to speak of. For me, it is Rogers' performances in the tdf time trials which have been the most disappointing. How can a guy who wins the world championships 3 times always finish minutes behind the GC guys in the tdf time trial? Maybe it's just that he can't handle the 3 weeks.

I think he lost weigth (and a lot of TT ability) when he decides he was a GC-man...

 

[Ferminal]

I rate Valverde higher than AS. Many people do. I think he is a better rider and will be even if AS wins the tdf.

Purely on GTs Andy will end up with a better career than both, depending on Bertie's suspension and whether or not Andy ever decides to ride another race.

Purely on GTs both currently have "more runs on the board" than Andy. Evans = 8th Tour, "4th" Tour, 2nd Tour, 4th Vuelta, 2nd Tour, 3rd Vuelta, 5th Giro. Andy = 2nd Giro, 2nd Tour, 2nd Tour. Valverde has won a GT so that makes him better by default.

As all-round cyclists, well, Andy can't be considered one of those until he decides to compete in more than four races a year.

 

[El Pistolero]

Before he became World champ I gotta say Caddles. This year he showed he isn't overrated.

Now: Pippo Pozatto

 

[python]

too many to chose from ...but i'm going to throw this one -- mayo.

even discounting you know what he never equaled the upper climber's class he was/is considered belonging to.

too inconsistent, too many low points.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Who is the most overrated rider in the current peleton? For me it has to be Pozzato-- always a "favorite" to win the big ones but never actually does. Your thoughts please...

pelOton please...

 

[Cobblestoned]

After thinking about it for some days, I would say BALLAN. (this season and especially this spring)

 

[The Hitch]

After thinking about it for some days, I would say BALLAN. (this season and especially this spring)

Completely the opposite for me. Id say he is WAY underated. Perhaps MOST underated.

Hes won 2 of what people see as the 3 big one day races. THe worlds , as big as it gets, and Flanders. Any one of those is enough to make any riders career.

Outside that hes podiumed Paris Roubaix twice, and won a PT stage race.

Any non italian/ spaniard aquires this palmares and he would be touted as one of the greats of his generation.

 

[Cobblestoned]

Completely the opposite for me. Id say he is WAY underated. Perhaps MOST underated.

Hes won 2 of what people see as the 3 big one day races. THe worlds , as big as it gets, and Flanders. Any one of those is enough to make any riders career.

Outside that hes podiumed Paris Roubaix twice, and won a PT stage race.

Any non italian/ spaniard aquires this palmares and he would be touted as one of the greats of his generation.

Yes, yes, big palmares. Because of that, i overrated him this season (again).
I was more talking about this year, because it is very difficult (for me) to generalize this "overrated" over the years. Every rider has good and bad years.
And thinking about a rider who I can add to this thread - I ended with Ballan, because I was waiting for him to do something big for the whole season and especially for the whole springcampaign.
I really thought BMC would smash them nearly all on the cobbles. (U can't really smash Spartacus at all )

to worlds:
This worlds win was....let me say, more a tactical thing. This race was ridiculous with the favorites watching each other.
But anyway, he won it. Beeing a deserved or "real" winner is another story.

 

[luckyboy]

Ballan was suspended by BMC from April 9th to May 28th.

 

[Magnus]

how about abraham olano ( i know he has retired) but he only looked like indurain facially. always built up and never performed

Yeah. RR and TT wc. 1 gt win 4 gt podiums. Never performed.

 

[El Pistolero]

Completely the opposite for me. Id say he is WAY underated. Perhaps MOST underated.

Hes won 2 of what people see as the 3 big one day races. THe worlds , as big as it gets, and Flanders. Any one of those is enough to make any riders career.

Outside that hes podiumed Paris Roubaix twice, and won a PT stage race.

Any non italian/ spaniard aquires this palmares and he would be touted as one of the greats of his generation.

He hasn't done anything worthy of note since his World wins.

 

[therealtimshady]

Yeah. RR and TT wc. 1 gt win 4 gt podiums. Never performed.

maybe but his tour de france performances were desperate at best and we kept hearing every year how olano was a big contender

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

He hasn't done anything worthy of note since his World wins.

becuase of injurys

most overrated:

nuyens
pozzato
gerrans
sella
kreuziger
nibali (yes)
gerdemann
hincapie


from top of my head now

 

[El Pistolero]

becuase of injurys

most overrated:

nuyens
pozzato
gerrans
sella
kreuziger
nibali (yes)
gerdemann
hincapie


from top of my head now

Yeah, for 2 years now. He's even more overrated then I thought then. I know he had some disease in 2009, but you can't keep using that as an excuse.

 

[The Hitch]

Yeah, for 2 years now. He's even more overrated then I thought then. I know he had some disease in 2009, but you can't keep using that as an excuse.

Under this logic your beloved Boonen is extremely overated. I mean sure he has a great palmares, but according to you only the present matters.

and Boonen was tipped to win at least 1 of 3 monuments this year and won 0.

Ballan wasnt tipped to win anything. Ballan did as was expected.

Boonen tipped to win more than he did, perfotmed worse than expected.

So if, as you say, only the present matters and if Ballan is overated,actually, even "more overated than you thought" , just how epic is Toms overation under this logic ?

 

[Matthijs]

Ballans attack at his WC RR 2008 was very strong. Cunego protected his run to the finish perfectly (I think without Cunego in maybe his best form he probably didn't make it). But wasn't Ballan also 2nd in MSR ones? He was a real champion, but he is a little dissapointing lately. BMC screwed him big time, suspention without any official statement from the investigaters. But in the rest of the year he wasn't there too. Or did I miss some new disease?

Olano (the next Indurain) has a great palmares. Winning the worlds at a flat But he never could have been like Indurain as everybody thought he would. Unfair to account him for, but the expectations were unfair...

nuyens
pozzato
gerrans
sella
kreuziger
nibali (yes)
gerdemann
hincapie

please explain Nibali? This Vuelta wasn't that much weaker than others and he was 3rd (2nd without Arroyo) in the Giro the same year...
especially Gerrans (great wins from breakaways won't work forever) and gerdemann (still dominated Bayern 09 though ) are good ones! Wat was Sella even racing btw?

 

[Anonymous]

EAAANH!!! The answer is: George Hincapie (at least for one more season of "will this be his P-R year" hype)

 

[ak-zaaf]

Ballans attack at his WC RR 2008 was very strong. Cunego protected his run to the finish perfectly (I think without Cunego in maybe his best form he probably didn't make it). But wasn't Ballan also 2nd in MSR ones? He was a real champion, but he is a little dissapointing lately.

Idd.

We've all come to expect him to compete with the favorites on the cobbles and other long hard races and he usually does, but can anyone actually name a race where he was the absolute favorite without mentioning De Panne?

Still he managed to get a palmares to die for. But people who expect him to pull these amazing wins off every year, and in that way overrate him, just look at the palmares and not the rider and his abilities.

/edit: I see Hitch kinda said this already. nm.

 

[Night Rider]

Armstrong v3
Hincapie
Renshaw

Any of the dopers that used to be rated as well i.e. Sella, Valverde, etc

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sella I can see, since he's returned to a level of doing pretty well in some mountainous races but otherwise being a break-hound...

but Valverde? This is a guy who CAS could find nothing wrong with this year, and who finished 2nd in Paris-Nice, 2nd in País Vasco, 3rd in LBL and 1st in Romandie. He's still a beast.

 

[Night Rider]

This is a guy who CAS could find nothing wrong with this year

What? What judgement did you read? The one I read from CAS confirmed his ban for extracting blood i.e. blood doping. sure they didn't (read couldn't legally) disqualify him from this years results but that doesn't mean he was suddenly racing clean.

Edit: I will add though, that I agree his results on the face of it ignoring the doping ban were impressive. I was a Valverde fan for years but get a bit switched off when he was dound blood doping. I will still follow him when he comes back .... but yes, just a bit tainted now.

He is in no way as overated as my initial picks, Pharmstrong v3, Hincapie and Renshaw.