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Teams & Riders Official Wout Van Aert thread

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i know this is early yet, but the way he is climbing as well, i really see him winning all five monuments eventually...

Flandres and P-R are no brainers.

but LBL and Lombardy now come into view, i think...
I'm hearing this over and over again. Every year we have a rider who will win all five Monuments, sometimes even a couple of guys, yet we're still waiting for that guy, well since De Vlaeminck... First we had Sagan, then Kwiatkowski, Moscon, Alaphilippe, Jungels, Van Der Poel and now Van Aert. They combined won 6, so I guess we were exaggerating a bit... :rolleyes:
 
I'm hearing this over and over again. Every year we have a rider who will win all five Monuments, sometimes even a couple of guys, yet we're still waiting for that guy, well since De Vlaeminck... First we had Sagan, then Kwiatkowski, Moscon, Alaphilippe, Jungels, Van Der Poel and now Van Aert. They combined won 6, so I guess we were exaggerating a bit... :rolleyes:
Finally someone with a bit of common sense...
But Van Aert is really gonna win all 5 monuments.
Multiple times.
 
I don't remember any of those being seriously hyped besides Kwiatkowski and Moscon. Kwiatkowski maybe, could have got close if he stayed with Quickstep. I just don't see him getting GdL or a result. Heck, Gilbert is the closest with 4 1st places and a 3rd. Then GVA with his worst place at 12th, otherwise top 10 in all the others. It is very hard to do. Maybe the 2 Vans can split wins across the 5 or both get top 10 in each monument.
Heck Van Aert could win all 5 this year if he raced them and Porte doing the treble. 2020 would be the year to do it. :D
 
I see that the hype is on!
Sagan will go down as a legend of this sport, and he's not finished yet.If Wout Van Aert even comes close to him, he should be more than happy, cause that will be one hell of a task. We had many talents over the years, but few legends...

Personally, I don't consider Sagan to be a legend. He is a great rider, one of the best of the last decade, that won a lot in his career but a classics rider that only won two monuments once, is not enough to be classified a legend in my book even considering his three World Championships wins.

Now regarding Van Aert, I think he won't probably become a legend either in road cycling, although I expect him to win a lot and quite diverse races, but if we add his cyclo cross wins I am pretty sure he will become one.
 
Personally, I don't consider Sagan to be a legend. He is a great rider, one of the best of the last decade, that won a lot in his career but a classics rider that only won two monuments once, is not enough to be classified a legend in my book even considering his three World Championships wins.

Now regarding Van Aert, I think he won't probably become a legend either in road cycling, although I expect him to win a lot and quite diverse races, but if we add his cyclo cross wins I am pretty sure he will become one.

Have to agree on Sagan here. I know he won Flanders and Roubaix and a bunch of green jerseys....so it’s not entirely fair to compare but would we consider Freire a legend?
 
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Personally, I don't consider Sagan to be a legend. He is a great rider, one of the best of the last decade, that won a lot in his career but a classics rider that only won two monuments once, is not enough to be classified a legend in my book even considering his three World Championships wins.
First of all, Sagan is much more than just a classic rider. Guy won more than 100 races (which is a very rare feet nowadays), and he's only 30.
Second, if you look him only as a classic rider, you need to know that he won the biggest classic of them all three times in a row, plus two monuments (so 5 big ones, not "only two monuments"!), plus 3 GW, E3, Montreal, 2x Quebec, European Championship...
And third, Sagan was a top rider of the peloton, or among few of them for at least 5-6 years. He was a reference point in the races he entered, a patron of the peloton.
 
First of all, Sagan is much more than just a classic rider. Guy won more than 100 races (which is a very rare feet nowadays), and he's only 30.
Second, if you look him only as a classic rider, you need to know that he won the biggest classic of them all three times in a row, plus two monuments (so 5 big ones, not "only two monuments"!), plus 3 GW, E3, Montreal, 2x Quebec, European Championship...
And third, Sagan was a top rider of the peloton, or among few of them for at least 5-6 years. He was a reference point in the races he entered, a patron of the peloton.

Yes, he won a huge number of races in his career but for me to become a cycling legend is more about the quality and the diversity of wins rather than its sheer number.

Regarding the classics, I don't really think that the World Championships is more important than the Paris Roubaix for example and Sagan lacks the diversity of someone like Gilbert that won 4 different monuments and was World Champion too, besides winning the Ardennes treble in the same year, something that Sagan never tried because he prefered to stay in his confort zone.

As for your last paragraph, I acknowledge in my previous post that Sagan was and perhaps still is one of best riders in the world during several years but he never was as dominant as someone like Merckx, Hinault, Coppi, De Vlaemnick the kind of riders that anyone will consider cycling legends.
 
I see that the hype is on!
Sagan will go down as a legend of this sport, and he's not finished yet.If Wout Van Aert even comes close to him, he should be more than happy, cause that will be one hell of a task. We had many talents over the years, but few legends...
I wouldn't say Sagan is a legend. Merckx is a legend. How many monuments has Sagan won? If it wasn't for all his stage wins at the Tour of California, his palmares would look pretty average.
 
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Who was the last real strong do it all rider?
TT -> one of the very best
cobble Classics-> one of the very best
Sprint -> ~Top 20
punch/hilly races -> really good
climbing -> riding like a 3rd or even 2nd domestique

riders like Alaph or Lutsenko are already really complete, but this is a whole different level. One might even say unbelievable in todays time.
 
Who is more of a legend, Sagan or Gilbert? Anyway I just read an article that said Wout will not be challenging for the green jersey, instead focusing on Roglic getting the yellow. I'm very disappointed about that since I thought he had a good chance for it. Would have been fun to watch a Sagan vs Wout duel. He did however say he would try to win some sprints.
 
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Of course Sagan is a legend of the sport, are you guys freaking kidding me? By far the best and most consistent rider in the world from 2011 to 2017, doing impossible things day in, day out in the Tour, always up there in the classics, unlucky to necer win MSR and he became the first ever consecutive triple World Champion which in itself makes a rider a legend, especially as it happened riding for Slovakia!!! It wasn't anything like Freire's armchair rides.
 
Of course Sagan is a legend of the sport, are you guys freaking kidding me? By far the best and most consistent rider in the world from 2011 to 2017, doing impossible things day in, day out in the Tour, always up there in the classics, unlucky to necer win MSR and he became the first ever consecutive triple World Champion which in itself makes a rider a legend, especially as it happened riding for Slovakia!!! It wasn't anything like Freire's armchair rides.
Last but not least the guy was never in a top team. Being on QS the classics would have become boredom for several years and his palmiers could be probably tripled.
He was on the podium on almost every third race in Tour.
 

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