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Rider of the year 2018

Page 7 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Who is the rider of the year 2018

  • Chris Froome

    Votes: 23 21.5%
  • Geraint Thomas

    Votes: 6 5.6%
  • Simon Yates

    Votes: 17 15.9%
  • Alejandro Valverde

    Votes: 27 25.2%
  • Tom Dumoulin

    Votes: 22 20.6%
  • Vincenzo Nibali

    Votes: 3 2.8%
  • Niki Terpstra

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • Peter Sagan

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • Thibaut Pinot

    Votes: 3 2.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Total voters
    107
Re: Re:

dastott said:
A GT is a 3 week race over all terrains and tests all capabilities. How that be compared to winning a 1 day race is completely illogical.

1. Tour
2. Giro
3. Vuelta
4. World Road Race and TT, Monuments
5. Dauphine, Paris-Nice, País Vasco, Tirreno, Catalunya, Romandie
6. Lesser classics and stage races.

Even winning major stages of GTs (summit finishes like Alpe or Ventoux and TTs) would be equal to a monument for many riders I would imagine.

I’m not sure that I’ve ever disagreed more fundamentally with a not insane post here before!

One day races and stage races are different, but both are core parts of the sport. Both categories include very prestigious races and both have included very prestigious races for more than a century. Over time, there has been a certain concentration of prestige at two poles: the Monuments and WCRR among one day races and the three GTs among stage races. The other classics have become very much subordinate to the main six, while among stage races the Vuelta has become more prestigious and all non three week stage races have become marginal.

There is a logic to that marginalization: if you are measuring stage racing ability, then three week races are obviously the biggest and best tests. But one day races aren’t about measuring stage race ability. They are about something else entirely: one do or die effort over (usually) a longer course.

There are six annual first tier one day races. And perhaps four tier two ones, Flèche, Amstel, GW, maybe Strade. There are sixty three GT stages. Winning a Monument or a WCRR is career defining for a rider with a collection of GT stages already.
 
Re: Re:

tobydawq said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
I’m not biased in favour of GTs, probably the reverse, but I don’t see how anyone who didn’t win one this year can crack the top 3 because nobody took multiple very big wins. There is no reasonable case for Valverde and no case at all for Dumoulin.

Compare for instance Thomas and Valverde: The Tour is a much bigger win than the WCRR. The Dauphine is a bigger win than Catalunya. Two Tour stages are bigger wins than two Vuelta stages. Looking at tier one (big 9) wins, Thomas is miles ahead. Looking at tier two (in this case GT stages and major one week races), Thomas only gets further ahead. You have to give frankly absurd weight to quantity of tiny wins to put Valverde even close. Not only is his season defining win less important, there just aren’t important enough secondary wins to back it up.

There is a case for any of the GT winners, but in my view the one for Froome is clearly weaker than those for Thomas or Yates. Ranking him against Thomas presents essentially the same core difficulty for his partisans as that faced by Valverde fans: his big win is closer in value to a Tour win, but ultimately it is still clearly less valuable to win a Giro. Two Giro stages are again outranked by two Tour stages. He has no other wins to weigh against the Dauphine. He’s closer to Thomas than Valverde, because a Giro is a lot better than the WCRR, but instead of giving absurd weight to little wins, you have to give absurd weight to failing to complete a Giro-Tour double. That brings us back to the Dumoulin problem: when you are ranking the best of the best, impressive failures are still ultimately failures.

There is no plainly obvious equivalent problem for Yates. He has the requisite big win to belong in the discussion in the first place. He has more tier two wins than anyone else. He also has various lesser wins. Ranking him and Thomas is essentially down to subjective weighting of the Tour and just how much more a winner of a lesser GT has to do overcome that weight. Yates did quite a lot more, enough for me to put him first, but Ive no beef with anyone who picks Thomas.

You make some good points here, but I don't totally agree with your premises.

First of all, the manner in which a race is won definitely should be taken into account. So regarding the Catalonia vs Dauphiné comparison, Thomas was gifted the win through the ridiculous TTT (the same happened in Tirreno where he was unlucky with an untimely mechanical), and Valverde won his race by himself (and also won Abu Dhabi Tour which is WorldTour too, however much you may dislike it). Further, I disagree that Dauphiné is a bigger win in and of itself than the Volta as it's a preparation race, which the Volta isn't.

Also, I definitely rank WCRR much, much higher than MSR and Lombardia but I accept that not everybody agrees with that.

Finally, the fact that Thomas was only really at the top of his game for a couple of months speaks against him for me. But that is just a personal preference.

I agree with some of this, but not all of it.

Thomas won the Dauphine by more than his free TTT bonus, but of course I accept that him having that bonus changed the race. I don’t dislike the Abu Dhabi race, but I can’t reasonably award it much prestige, whatever it’s UCI category says.

I go back and forth on how to order the six big one day races. I sometimes tend to demote the same two as you, but in the context of picking the best rider of this year I don’t think it makes much difference if we put the WCRR ahead of MSR or Lombardia because Pinot and Nibali aren’t serious contenders. On the Volta issue, I would like Catalunya to be more prestigious than the Dauphine, for the same reason as you, but I don’t think that it actually is as prestigious in this bewildered and perverse world.
 

Singer01

BANNED
Nov 18, 2013
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Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
Koronin said:
bambino said:
Koronin said:
Please tell me what Thomas and Froome did outside of the Giro, Tour and Dauphine? I'm sorry but I do NOT put any of those races over any of the other WT races on the calendar. To me the Tour ranks well below most of the other WT races. Heck I personally put a few continental races over the Tour just because I happen to like them better.
As Tobydawq said Valverde was dominant in the first 3 months of the season. Possibly even more dominant than Quickstep as a team were at that point in the season. No one else in the peloton can say that for any time frame.

Your prestige to Tour is your personal opinion which you are entitled. I just don't think many here agrees on that. Especially when it actually fits to your biased agenda.

I don't like Yates, Thomas nor Froome. But I still don't have a problem to admit they were the Top 3.

I do have Yates in my top 3 but Froome and Thomas aren't even close as they did nothing outside of those 3 races. Yes I do value the classics more than the GTs. To me the GTs should not hold anymore weight and esp not the Tour. To me consistency throughout the season is much much more important which is why I rank Sagan very high on my list even if he didn't have the season this year he had last year.
What did Yates do this season that Froome and Thomas didn't? Except win a less prestigious and less highly quality GT.

Not ride for Sky. People are mental.

I agree that some people over rate GT's compared to monuments, however all 3 GT winners this year also had something else in the box, 3rd in tour, Dauphine, multiple impressive stage wins at the Giro.
 
Re: Re:

Singer01 said:
DFA123 said:
Koronin said:
bambino said:
Koronin said:
Please tell me what Thomas and Froome did outside of the Giro, Tour and Dauphine? I'm sorry but I do NOT put any of those races over any of the other WT races on the calendar. To me the Tour ranks well below most of the other WT races. Heck I personally put a few continental races over the Tour just because I happen to like them better.
As Tobydawq said Valverde was dominant in the first 3 months of the season. Possibly even more dominant than Quickstep as a team were at that point in the season. No one else in the peloton can say that for any time frame.

Your prestige to Tour is your personal opinion which you are entitled. I just don't think many here agrees on that. Especially when it actually fits to your biased agenda.

I don't like Yates, Thomas nor Froome. But I still don't have a problem to admit they were the Top 3.

I do have Yates in my top 3 but Froome and Thomas aren't even close as they did nothing outside of those 3 races. Yes I do value the classics more than the GTs. To me the GTs should not hold anymore weight and esp not the Tour. To me consistency throughout the season is much much more important which is why I rank Sagan very high on my list even if he didn't have the season this year he had last year.
What did Yates do this season that Froome and Thomas didn't? Except win a less prestigious and less highly quality GT.

Not ride for Sky. People are mental.

I agree that some people over rate GT's compared to monuments, however all 3 GT winners this year also had something else in the box, 3rd in tour, Dauphine, multiple impressive stage wins at the Giro.

Yates had best results outside of that winning GT, by far. He was the best rider of Il Giro for 18 stages, and not just the best, he was dominant! He was good practically all year, 2nd in Paris-Nice with a stage win, 4th in Catalunya also with a stage, 2nd in Poland + stage. These are all WT races, so the competition is very good. In fact, Yates is probably the best rider of the year, but I'm a big, big fan of Don Alejandro so I gave him an edge over Simon :razz:
 

Singer01

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Nov 18, 2013
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'Yates is probably the best rider of the year, but I'm a big, big fan of Don Alejandro so I gave him an edge over Simon :razz:'

See, that's how to do it, none of this unseemly justification outside of the facts. Be loud and proud about your biase.
 
Re:

Singer01 said:
'Yates is probably the best rider of the year, but I'm a big, big fan of Don Alejandro so I gave him an edge over Simon :razz:'

See, that's how to do it, none of this unseemly justification outside of the facts. Be loud and proud about your biase.

Don't get me wrong, margin is very slim, Valverde also had a fantastic season..
 
Re: Re:

[/quote]

Yates had best results outside of that winning GT, by far. He was the best rider of Il Giro for 18 stages, and not just the best, he was dominant! He was good practically all year, 2nd in Paris-Nice with a stage win, 4th in Catalunya also with a stage, 2nd in Poland + stage. These are all WT races, so the competition is very good. In fact, Yates is probably the best rider of the year, but I'm a big, big fan of Don Alejandro so I gave him an edge over Simon :razz:[/quote]

Some very good points about Yates here. I didn't realise that he had done so much over the course of the entire season. He was probably the most consistently good of the stage racers this year.

But does that make him the rider of the year?

I still think that something is missing. If he had won the Giro and had his collapse in the Vuelta, then it would be enough. The Giro is the number one specific target for a number of riders for their entire season. The same cannot be said for the Vuelta. Yates certainly attempted to hit a peak for the event, but it was still a secondary season target after the Giro.

More riders specifically target the World Championship Road Race than the Vuelta. A strong result there would help Simon's cause, but he was understandably cooked by then.

Maybe if he had won Paris-Nice and podiumed Catalunya? But as it stands I still don't think it's enough.
 
Re: Re:

dastott said:
Even winning major stages of GTs (summit finishes like Alpe or Ventoux and TTs) would be equal to a monument for many riders I would imagine.

No.
Too many (breakaway) riders are gifted these wins. Chaves and Polanc on the Etna, Contador on the Angliru, Ben King won two Vuelta stages...
 
Re: Re:

Breh said:
dastott said:
Even winning major stages of GTs (summit finishes like Alpe or Ventoux and TTs) would be equal to a monument for many riders I would imagine.

No.
Too many (breakaway) riders are gifted these wins. Chaves and Polanc on the Etna, Contador on the Angliru, Ben King won two Vuelta stages...
One of these is absolutely not like the others
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Breh said:
dastott said:
Even winning major stages of GTs (summit finishes like Alpe or Ventoux and TTs) would be equal to a monument for many riders I would imagine.

No.
Too many (breakaway) riders are gifted these wins. Chaves and Polanc on the Etna, Contador on the Angliru, Ben King won two Vuelta stages...
One of these is absolutely not like the others

Very clever post though :D

But still not remotely close to the post of the year. Rating the Tour Of California higher than the Tour De France is going to be tough to beat :lol:
 
Yates' season is a bit overrated, I find. The Vuelta course was soft as all hell (even by Vuelta standards), and he still managed to almost run out of steam towards the very end. Mas and Lopez would have murked him on a halfway decent climbers' course.

I rate Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin higher, performance-wise. Thomas and Froome, results-wise, also, as they won the two most prestigious races in a dominant fashion.
 
Re: Re:

gregrowlerson said:
Red Rick said:
Breh said:
dastott said:
Even winning major stages of GTs (summit finishes like Alpe or Ventoux and TTs) would be equal to a monument for many riders I would imagine.

No.
Too many (breakaway) riders are gifted these wins. Chaves and Polanc on the Etna, Contador on the Angliru, Ben King won two Vuelta stages...
One of these is absolutely not like the others

Very clever post though :D

But still not remotely close to the post of the year. Rating the Tour Of California higher than the Tour De France is going to be tough to beat :lol:

My personal ranking is:
1.
"I just don't place any more value on the Tour than I do say California (which is a race I like)."
2.
“Please tell me what Thomas and Froome did outside of the Giro, Tour and Dauphine? I'm sorry but I do NOT put any of those races over any of the other WT races on the calendar. To me the Tour ranks well below most of the other WT races. Heck I personally put a few continental races over the Tour just because I happen to like them better.
3.
"In fact, Yates is probably the best rider of the year, but I'm a big, big fan of Don Alejandro so I gave him an edge over Simon."
 
Re:

18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Yates' season is a bit overrated, I find. The Vuelta course was soft as all hell (even by Vuelta standards), and he still managed to almost run out of steam towards the very end. Mas and Lopez would have murked him on a halfway decent climbers' course.

I rate Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin higher, performance-wise. Thomas and Froome, results-wise, also, as they won the two most prestigious races in a dominant fashion.

Thomas dominant yes, but I can't say the same for Froome in Giro.

Actually - my original list was Yates - Thomas - Froome - Piti - Dumoulin, but I'm starting to think I'm rating Froome's overall performance too high. Yes, he won the Giro which itself is fantastic, but in reality Froome salvaged his whole season in one single stage. That is one day of faboulous (and it surely was) racing during the entire season. Yes he also won Zongolan, but that was hardly decisive in any shape of form and was more or less countered by horrible day after. Without the magical solo Froome's season would have been very sub-par and way below his carreer previous not to mention others in my Top 5 list. So can I even consider Froome as the best for riding one single absolutely fabouls day in the entire year and rate him above WCRR champ with monument podium and multiple stage races won? No I can't. It doesn't change my opinion of Yates as #1 of the year though.
 
Re: Re:

bambino said:
18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Yates' season is a bit overrated, I find. The Vuelta course was soft as all hell (even by Vuelta standards), and he still managed to almost run out of steam towards the very end. Mas and Lopez would have murked him on a halfway decent climbers' course.

I rate Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin higher, performance-wise. Thomas and Froome, results-wise, also, as they won the two most prestigious races in a dominant fashion.

Thomas dominant yes, but I can't say the same for Froome in Giro.

Actually - my original list was Yates - Thomas - Froome - Piti - Dumoulin, but I'm starting to think I'm rating Froome's overall performance too high. Yes, he won the Giro which itself is fantastic, but in reality Froome salvaged his whole season in one single stage. That is one day of faboulous (and it surely was) racing during the entire season. Yes he also won Zongolan, but that was hardly decisive in any shape of form and was more or less countered by horrible day after. Without the magical solo Froome's season would have been very sub-par and way below his carreer previous not to mention others in my Top 5 list. So can I even consider Froome as the best for riding one single absolutely fabouls day in the entire year and rate him above WCRR champ with monument podium and multiple stage races won? No I can't. It doesn't change my opinion of Yates as #1 of the year though.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that he followed up winning the Giro, by finishing 3rd in the Tour. The best attempt at the double in two decades.

What did Yates and Thomas follow up their wins with that is better than a podium at the Tour?

There seem to be some double standards here. Riders like Dumoulin and Yates seem to be given extra credit because they did better than we have seen from them previously, while we are used to seeing Froome at the highest level. Objectively though, Froome's achievements are better.
 
I just love this hypothetical **** that someone would beat someone if the course was different, or the race was ridden different, if his DS didn't hold him back, if the weather was different, etc.
The truth is that Yates won, and he won very convincingly, he showed patience in the first part, trying not to burn himself like in the Giro, then he showed strength in the second, and at the very end he showed courage, when he attacked while being pressured on penultimate Andorra stage. Only true champions would do such a move. He was risking big time, nobody knew that Valverde would fade, he dropped Yates on previous MTF. So for me his Vuelta win was flawless.
As far as Giro concerns, Yates was easily 2nd or 3rd best rider of that race.
He also showed good form in numerous WT stage races throughout the year, so for me performance wise and results wise Yates was just simply better than Froome and Thomas.
 
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
bambino said:
18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Yates' season is a bit overrated, I find. The Vuelta course was soft as all hell (even by Vuelta standards), and he still managed to almost run out of steam towards the very end. Mas and Lopez would have murked him on a halfway decent climbers' course.

I rate Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin higher, performance-wise. Thomas and Froome, results-wise, also, as they won the two most prestigious races in a dominant fashion.

Thomas dominant yes, but I can't say the same for Froome in Giro.

Actually - my original list was Yates - Thomas - Froome - Piti - Dumoulin, but I'm starting to think I'm rating Froome's overall performance too high. Yes, he won the Giro which itself is fantastic, but in reality Froome salvaged his whole season in one single stage. That is one day of faboulous (and it surely was) racing during the entire season. Yes he also won Zongolan, but that was hardly decisive in any shape of form and was more or less countered by horrible day after. Without the magical solo Froome's season would have been very sub-par and way below his carreer previous not to mention others in my Top 5 list. So can I even consider Froome as the best for riding one single absolutely fabouls day in the entire year and rate him above WCRR champ with monument podium and multiple stage races won? No I can't. It doesn't change my opinion of Yates as #1 of the year though.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that he followed up winning the Giro, by finishing 3rd in the Tour. The best attempt at the double in two decades.

What did Yates and Thomas follow up their wins with that is better than a podium at the Tour?

There seem to be some double standards here. Riders like Dumoulin and Yates seem to be given extra credit because they did better than we have seen from them previously, while we are used to seeing Froome at the highest level. Objectively though, Froome's achievements are better.

Dumoulin was 13 second further than Dawg in double attempt if we calculate purely against a clock. I don't regard Froome any closer to double attempt than Tom really. And again the Giro win was far from dominant and based one single dominant racing day. I do not regard Tour's 3 place too high, especially when he was no-where to compete for win and didn't show anything that would even closely resemble a treath to Thomas. I just don't see Froome being very good this year. Outside the one day in Giro. Of course I might unfairly compare to his previous years.
 
Froome was kinda lucky with Roglic ruining his ITT due to elbow injury to even podium, but it doesn't really matter. He was also unlucky with crashing on day 1 and losing team leadership as a result, while Dumoulin was unlucky with the disaster that was Mur de Bretagne. Quite a shame for the entire Tour.

The cumulative time difference between Dumoulin and Froome isn't interesting at all. Froome won a GT, Dumoulin didn't. That's what matters. What Dumoulin has over Froome are his strong results at the Worlds, but once again no dice on the wins.
 
Re: Re:

bambino said:
DFA123 said:
bambino said:
18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Yates' season is a bit overrated, I find. The Vuelta course was soft as all hell (even by Vuelta standards), and he still managed to almost run out of steam towards the very end. Mas and Lopez would have murked him on a halfway decent climbers' course.

I rate Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin higher, performance-wise. Thomas and Froome, results-wise, also, as they won the two most prestigious races in a dominant fashion.

Thomas dominant yes, but I can't say the same for Froome in Giro.

Actually - my original list was Yates - Thomas - Froome - Piti - Dumoulin, but I'm starting to think I'm rating Froome's overall performance too high. Yes, he won the Giro which itself is fantastic, but in reality Froome salvaged his whole season in one single stage. That is one day of faboulous (and it surely was) racing during the entire season. Yes he also won Zongolan, but that was hardly decisive in any shape of form and was more or less countered by horrible day after. Without the magical solo Froome's season would have been very sub-par and way below his carreer previous not to mention others in my Top 5 list. So can I even consider Froome as the best for riding one single absolutely fabouls day in the entire year and rate him above WCRR champ with monument podium and multiple stage races won? No I can't. It doesn't change my opinion of Yates as #1 of the year though.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that he followed up winning the Giro, by finishing 3rd in the Tour. The best attempt at the double in two decades.

What did Yates and Thomas follow up their wins with that is better than a podium at the Tour?

There seem to be some double standards here. Riders like Dumoulin and Yates seem to be given extra credit because they did better than we have seen from them previously, while we are used to seeing Froome at the highest level. Objectively though, Froome's achievements are better.

Dumoulin was 13 second further than Dawg in double attempt if we calculate purely against a clock. I don't regard Froome any closer to double attempt than Tom really. And again the Giro win was far from dominant and based one single dominant racing day. I do not regard Tour's 3 place too high, especially when he was no-where to compete for win and didn't show anything that would even closely resemble a treath to Thomas. I just don't see Froome being very good this year. Outside the one day in Giro. Of course I might unfairly compare to his previous years.
I'm not sure I get this. Do you mean you don't see him as very good by his own standards? Which is possible to argue I guess, but he did still complete the GT set and put in the best ride of his career.

But not very good in general? He won a GT and finished on the podium in another. And those GTs were the Giro and the Tour - not the easy ticket of the Vuelta. Those two results alone make it an exceptional year for anyone.
 
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
bambino said:
DFA123 said:
bambino said:
18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Yates' season is a bit overrated, I find. The Vuelta course was soft as all hell (even by Vuelta standards), and he still managed to almost run out of steam towards the very end. Mas and Lopez would have murked him on a halfway decent climbers' course.

I rate Thomas, Froome and Dumoulin higher, performance-wise. Thomas and Froome, results-wise, also, as they won the two most prestigious races in a dominant fashion.

Thomas dominant yes, but I can't say the same for Froome in Giro.

Actually - my original list was Yates - Thomas - Froome - Piti - Dumoulin, but I'm starting to think I'm rating Froome's overall performance too high. Yes, he won the Giro which itself is fantastic, but in reality Froome salvaged his whole season in one single stage. That is one day of faboulous (and it surely was) racing during the entire season. Yes he also won Zongolan, but that was hardly decisive in any shape of form and was more or less countered by horrible day after. Without the magical solo Froome's season would have been very sub-par and way below his carreer previous not to mention others in my Top 5 list. So can I even consider Froome as the best for riding one single absolutely fabouls day in the entire year and rate him above WCRR champ with monument podium and multiple stage races won? No I can't. It doesn't change my opinion of Yates as #1 of the year though.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that he followed up winning the Giro, by finishing 3rd in the Tour. The best attempt at the double in two decades.

What did Yates and Thomas follow up their wins with that is better than a podium at the Tour?

There seem to be some double standards here. Riders like Dumoulin and Yates seem to be given extra credit because they did better than we have seen from them previously, while we are used to seeing Froome at the highest level. Objectively though, Froome's achievements are better.

Dumoulin was 13 second further than Dawg in double attempt if we calculate purely against a clock. I don't regard Froome any closer to double attempt than Tom really. And again the Giro win was far from dominant and based one single dominant racing day. I do not regard Tour's 3 place too high, especially when he was no-where to compete for win and didn't show anything that would even closely resemble a treath to Thomas. I just don't see Froome being very good this year. Outside the one day in Giro. Of course I might unfairly compare to his previous years.
I'm not sure I get this. Do you mean you don't see him as very good by his own standards? Which is possible to argue I guess, but he did still complete the GT set and put in the best ride of his career.

But not very good in general? He won a GT and finished on the podium in another. And those GTs were the Giro and the Tour - not the easy ticket of the Vuelta. Those two results alone make it an exceptional year for anyone.

Yeah sorry I lost you.

What I tried to say is that Froome did indeed have very good results, but looking inside the actual races he wasn't the most impressive rider what-so-ever. Except in one stage. Previous years in the GT's (and some other races) he has competed to win, he has normally been superior par none. This year that wasn't the case in either of the GT's. Therefore, in the context of best rider of the year, his overall performance was not as good as his results. Therefore I have hard times to put him over Thomas and particularly Yates, who bossed GT's over 39 stages during the year. Valverde is harder comparison, but to my taste even he was more consistently in very high level than Froome. Remember these are only opinions. This is mine.
 
All other riders on the list would for sure trade their results this season with Geraint Thomas, so for sure Thomas is the rider of the year. The TDF is just so much more important than anything else so to better it one would have to do something completely amazing instead, and even if several others have had great seasons noone has done anything that extraordinary.

My top:

1. Thomas

2. Valverde
3. Yates
4. Froome

5. Sagan
6. Dumoulin
 
MADRAZO said:
All other riders on the list would for sure trade their results this season with Geraint Thomas, so for sure Thomas is the rider of the year. The TDF is just so much more important than anything else so to better it one would have to do something completely amazing instead, and even if several others have had great seasons noone has done anything that extraordinary.

My top:

1. Thomas

2. Valverde
3. Yates
4. Froome

5. Sagan
6. Dumoulin

I don't think Valverde would trade his Worlds win for anything, including a Tour.
 
MADRAZO said:
All other riders on the list would for sure trade their results this season with Geraint Thomas, so for sure Thomas is the rider of the year. The TDF is just so much more important than anything else so to better it one would have to do something completely amazing instead, and even if several others have had great seasons noone has done anything that extraordinary.

My top:

1. Thomas

2. Valverde
3. Yates
4. Froome

5. Sagan
6. Dumoulin

No. It is the most important race, but certainly not so much more important!
 
MADRAZO said:
All other riders on the list would for sure trade their results this season with Geraint Thomas, so for sure Thomas is the rider of the year. The TDF is just so much more important...
I don't think this is true. The obvious example to disprove this is Froome. If he really wanted to win the Tour so much, then he would have done. He wouldn't have ridden the Giro (if the Tour was so much more important he would gladaly have taken the risk that he wouldn't have been allowed to ride), Thomas would have been sent to the Giro instead and Froome would have won the Tour at a canter again. But I would guess that completing the GT set and holding all three titles at once, was more important than racking up another Tour victory.

Similar with Valverde. Winning the WC was a personal redemption thing for him after so many near misses. It has been his obsession for 15 years and number one goal. You could probably make a similar case for Sagan with PR after so many failures there.
 
I voted Thomas and the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I made the correct decision

The Tour what ever we think about entertainment is the biggest race of the season and no other rider had more than one big win

I think there is a general overrating of the Vuelta because it can be entertaining, but if the UEFA cup final is entertaining it doesn't give the same prestige as the Champions League
 

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