• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Most Underrated Riders of All-Time

My nominee is Jan Raas. He gets some acclaim, but not enough, given his palmares:

5 x Amstel Gold
2 x Tour of Flanders
2 x Paris-Tours
Paris-Roubaix
Milan San Remo
Ghent Wevelgem
3 x E3
Het Volk
Paris-Brussels
Gold - World Championships
10 x Tour de France stage winner
3 x National Champion
Numerous Classics podium finishes.

He should be mentioned much more often when speaking of the best Classics/semi-classics riders.
 
Re:

DanielSong39 said:
My vote is for Alejandro Valverde; people on this forum recognize him as an all-time great but not recognized as such by the general public.
I would have thrown him on, but me being a big Valverde-fan, I would probably be accused of trolling and fanboying. :D Seriously tho, I think you have a point, altho Im sure many won't agree.


"
 
Re:

LaFlorecita said:
Christophe Laporte.
2606134-endthread.jpg
 
Re:

DanielSong39 said:
My vote is for Alejandro Valverde; people on this forum recognize him as an all-time great but not recognized as such by the general public.
He just doesn't have enough big wins. Someone who watches most big cycling races easily gets impressed by a guy like Valverde who seems to be a threat to win in every race he enters. But if you are an average Julyer you'll probably rate Froome and Sagan way above him.
 
Mar 13, 2015
2,637
0
0
Visit site
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
DanielSong39 said:
My vote is for Alejandro Valverde; people on this forum recognize him as an all-time great but not recognized as such by the general public.
He just doesn't have enough big wins. Someone who watches most big cycling races easily gets impressed by a guy like Valverde who seems to be a threat to win in every race he enters. But if you are an average Julyer you'll probably rate Froome and Sagan way above him.

He has more big wins then both, I would say... Well, if you count only Tour, then obviously no. In every other counting he's ahead.

He's already a legend of cycling, one of the 2 biggest in the current peloton.

Btw, I agree on Raas, he's underrated a bit. Was one hell of a rider!
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
DanielSong39 said:
My vote is for Alejandro Valverde; people on this forum recognize him as an all-time great but not recognized as such by the general public.
He just doesn't have enough big wins. Someone who watches most big cycling races easily gets impressed by a guy like Valverde who seems to be a threat to win in every race he enters. But if you are an average Julyer you'll probably rate Froome and Sagan way above him.

I may be in the minority but I count the season-long UCI World Ranking as a "big win". Valverde has 4 of those.
 
chiocciolis_calves said:
My nominee is Jan Raas. He gets some acclaim, but not enough, given his palmares:

5 x Amstel Gold
2 x Tour of Flanders
2 x Paris-Tours
Paris-Roubaix
Milan San Remo
Ghent Wevelgem
3 x E3
Het Volk
Paris-Brussels
Gold - World Championships
10 x Tour de France stage winner
3 x National Champion
Numerous Classics podium finishes.

He should be mentioned much more often when speaking of the best Classics/semi-classics riders.

Those seem pretty similar to Philippe Gilbert numbers.
 
Mar 13, 2015
2,637
0
0
Visit site
Re: Re:

DanielSong39 said:
Gigs_98 said:
DanielSong39 said:
My vote is for Alejandro Valverde; people on this forum recognize him as an all-time great but not recognized as such by the general public.
He just doesn't have enough big wins. Someone who watches most big cycling races easily gets impressed by a guy like Valverde who seems to be a threat to win in every race he enters. But if you are an average Julyer you'll probably rate Froome and Sagan way above him.

I may be in the minority but I count the season-long UCI World Ranking as a "big win". Valverde has 4 of those.

Rather big achievement, than big win. And only the very best are capable of winning that kind of competition
 
DanielSong39 said:
chiocciolis_calves said:
My nominee is Jan Raas. He gets some acclaim, but not enough, given his palmares:

5 x Amstel Gold
2 x Tour of Flanders
2 x Paris-Tours
Paris-Roubaix
Milan San Remo
Ghent Wevelgem
3 x E3
Het Volk
Paris-Brussels
Gold - World Championships
10 x Tour de France stage winner
3 x National Champion
Numerous Classics podium finishes.

He should be mentioned much more often when speaking of the best Classics/semi-classics riders.

Those seem pretty similar to Philippe Gilbert numbers.
Except better
 
Mar 11, 2009
1,005
0
0
Visit site
Rik Van Steenbergen. Other than seeing his name on a list of three time world champs he gets very little mention, especially vis a vis his near contemporary Rik Van Looy. He was an extremely prolific track rider. As best as I can tell he was a lethal sprinter who was also an exceptional one day rider. He has a Vuelta points jersey along with 25 Grand Tour stage wins .He won MSR, Paris Roubaix x2, Flanders x2 among the monuments. Yet there is nary a word said about him. Obviously some of this is due to his career taking place largely in the 40s and 50s. Perhaps, in other countries with a greater history of cycling than her in the US he is revered like baseball players of the pre WWII era are here and I am just unaware of such things.
 
Jun 30, 2014
7,060
2
0
Visit site
2 of my father's favourite riders.
Beat Breu, one of the great climbers of the early 80ies who won the 1981 Tre Cime stage (with arund 60,000 spectators alongside the road on the Tre Cime), winner of the 1981 edition of Zuri Metzgete and also a great Cross rider and a bit of a smack talker.
Josef Fuchs, a Swiss stage racer and LBL winner (who was 2nd on the already mentioned Tre Cime stage) and a pretty good Individual pursuit rider in the early 70ies.
I know that those 2 picks are rather unusual, but you never hear anyone talking about them.
 
Angliru said:
This will be my third attempt at posting this! :(

While he may not be the most underrated he has to be one of the most unappreciated riders in history (and one of my favorites): Jose Manuel Fuentes.
I've read a bit about Fuente, i can only appreciate a rider who would smoke a pack of cigarettes before an important stage and attack from the get-go.
 

TRENDING THREADS