Riders who have not filled expectations

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Doesn't Martijn Maaskant also belong here? He was 4th in his first Paris Roubaix as a neo pro, and in 2009 he was 4th in Flanders. He's had his share of bad luck ofc, but he should've been a big factor in the classics over the last 3 seasons.

Yeah. but like you said a **** load of bad luck kinda ruined his career

 

[DominicDecoco]

Don't think the expectations should be that high for Guldhammer. The talent is definitely there but does he love the sport enough? Is he determined enough? He already quit the sport once.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Don't think the expectations should be that high for Guldhammer. The talent is definitely there but does he love the sport enough? Is he determined enough? He already quit the sport once.

That got known after he turned pro, the expectations were high when he turned pro.

 

[theyoungest]

But they are still so extremely young I didn't list them for obvious reasons.
Vermeltfoort had mononucleosis. Sicard was hampered by injuries... Just some very valid reasons

Vermeltfoort is one of the weakest pros in the peloton right now, let alone at Worldtour level. I'm not sure that's completely down to mono.

 

[DominicDecoco]

That got known after he turned pro, the expectations were high when he turned pro.

I know but how far do we go back with these 'expectations'?

 

[MADRAZO]

Many good picks already.

Some riders not mentioned could be pros like Javier Ramirez Abeja and Marco Marzano that was dominant as amateurs and has turned out to be very mediocre proriders. Or recent youthdominators like Arturo Mora or Higinio Fernandez totally failing as pros. Also recent big talents like Vitaliy Buts, Alfredo Balloni, Dennis Van Winden or to some degrea Danielle Ratto has been very dissapointing so far for instance and not lived up to the expectations.

 

[jens_attacks]

luca ascani.


....

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Vermeltfoort is one of the weakest pros in the peloton right now, let alone at Worldtour level. I'm not sure that's completely down to mono.

He was quite good at the tests and training camp beginning of the season. But he crashed quite hard again at the beginning of this year. Since then it's misery again

 

[El Pistolero]

Bernard Eisel.

 

[Pentacycle]

Bernard Eisel.

What did people expect from that guy?

 

[El Pistolero]

What did people expect from that guy?

Eisel is the guy that was hand-picked from the Junior ranks by Giorgio Squinzi together with Filippo Pozzato(Milan-San Remo), Michael Rogers (3x World Champion time trial) and Fabian Cancellara(beast) to join the Mapei youth team. Guy was a very big talent and clearly never quite filled expectations and is now wasting his career for Mark whatshisname.

 

[Pentacycle]

Eisel is the guy that was hand-picked from the Junior ranks by Giorgio Squinzi together with Filippo Pozzato(Milan-San Remo), Michael Rogers (3x World Champion time trial) and Fabian Cancellara(beast) to join the Mapei youth team. Guy was a very big talent and clearly never quite filled expectations and is now wasting his career for Mark whatshisname.

Well, being selected in that Mapei youth team didn't instantly make them good riders. Guys like Frederik Willems, Petrov, Sinkewitz, Aurelien Clerc etc, weren't as talented as the three you've named. What did Eisel show in the U23 category for example? That's much more important than what he did as a junior.

 

[will10]

Many good picks already.

Some riders not mentioned could be pros like Javier Ramirez Abeja and Marco Marzano that was dominant as amateurs and has turned out to be very mediocre proriders. Or recent youthdominators like Arturo Mora or Higinio Fernandez totally failing as pros. Also recent big talents like Vitaliy Buts, Alfredo Balloni, Dennis Van Winden or to some degrea Danielle Ratto has been very dissapointing so far for instance and not lived up to the expectations.

Marzano is a great shout.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Thomas Löfkvist: Was considered to be a huge talent in his early 20's. Many thought he would be a future GT winner, and he definitely showed a lot of promise. In 2008 he was both climbing and TT'ing with the best (with results such as 3rd overall T-A and 5th in TdS). He had another good season in 2009, winning Monte Paschi, 4th in T-A and placing 6th in F-W. In 2010 he joined Sky and since then he has gotten zero results (apart from a fairly anonymous 17th overall in TDF). He now has seemingly no recovery, climbs like a bag of sand and can't even top 15 in ITT's anymore. What on earth happened? It's not common that a cyclist declines a bit every year from the age of 23 to the age of 28...

His recovery was always suspect, but he had his two career best GT results for Sky, so I doubt it has gotten any worse. He has less notable results in shorter races, however.

2010-12
2nd Strade Bianche
12th overall, Tour de Suisse
6th Overall, Tour du Limousin
6th Overall, Vuelta a Andalucía
10th Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall, Critérium International

Probably should've been borderline top 10 the recent TdS as well.

2008-09
2nd Overall, Deutschland Tour
3rd Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
3rd Cantons d'Argovie
5th Coppa Bernocchi
5th Overall, Tour de Suisse
8th Monte Paschi Eroica
9th Overall, Tour of Catalonia
12th, UCI Road World Championships
1st Monte Paschi Eroica
4th Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
5th Overall, Tour of California
6th Flèche Wallonne
3rd Giro dell'Emilia

 

[Gloin22]

His recovery was always suspect, but he had his two career best GT results for Sky, so I doubt it has gotten any worse. He has less notable results in shorter races, however.

2010-12
2nd Strade Bianche
12th overall, Tour de Suisse
6th Overall, Tour du Limousin
6th Overall, Vuelta a Andalucía
10th Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
8th Overall, Critérium International

Probably should've been borderline top 10 the recent TdS as well.

2008-09
2nd Overall, Deutschland Tour
3rd Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
3rd Cantons d'Argovie
5th Coppa Bernocchi
5th Overall, Tour de Suisse
8th Monte Paschi Eroica
9th Overall, Tour of Catalonia
12th, UCI Road World Championships
1st Monte Paschi Eroica
4th Overall, Tirreno–Adriatico
5th Overall, Tour of California
6th Flèche Wallonne
3rd Giro dell'Emilia

He really is the only big name rider that disappointed at Sky in my opinion through those 3 years, very surprising.

 

[McLovin]

Ullrich, Kloden, Piti, Cunego, all shake the cycling world before 25''th and got down after that. and maybe Mayo. And in june 2006 I thought Basso will win 6 Tours and 6 Giros by 2012. What do you know......

 

[Flamin]

Jurgen van Goolen
Wim de Vocht
...

 

[Wigwan]

Ullrich, Kloden, Piti, Cunego, all shake the cycling world before 25''th and got down after that. and maybe Mayo. And in june 2006 I thought Basso will win 6 Tours and 6 Giros by 2012. What do you know......

Ullrich had Armstrong in front of him
Kloden worked for Ullrich and Amrstrong
Valverde and Basso got Puerto'd
Cunego is more a hilly classic rider than a GT rider.

 

[greenedge better then some]

What was so promising about Sulzberger

I agree with you about Brajkovic but hopefully at the TDF he will go well this year.

for me it has to be trent lowe,has had media coverage of a pro, but sickness an a few other things stopped him,

i agree who thought wes would be anything more then a free roaming pro who might steal a few wins as a pro... plus didn't he have a bad knee all last year,so take out 2011 he has done what we all would of thought as a pro ..

 

[auscyclefan94]

What was so promising about Sulzberger

I agree with you about Brajkovic but hopefully at the TDF he will go well this year.

He came 2nd in the U23 world championships in Varese or Stuttgart and was very impressive in the Mendrisio Elite Men World Championships.

 

[Kazistuta]

I don't think it's reasonable to let U23 results count as guideline to failed expectations, because there's more examples of riders with great U23 results not making it as pros as there are examples of riders making it. For every Sagan, Moser, Mollema, Demare, Cancellara and Contador there's a row of socalled "wasted talents".

U23 results doesn't automatically transfer into great pro results, so in my view we should only include those riders who showed promise/talent as pro's. If not, the list could go on and on and on and on......

There's been mentioned several names in that category so far in this thread:
Löfkvist, Haussler, Maaskant, De Vocht (where did he go? Of to the clinic?), Ciolek, Devolder, Gerdeman etc. They've all made results as pro, but have since failed to follow up on those early promises.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Perhaps Thomas Dekker deserves a mentioning. Kim Kirchen was awesome as well.

 

[Wraith Rider]

Frank Vandenbroucke was a classic and tragic case of high expectations that never went anywhere.

Touted as the next Merckx in the 90s and never went anywhere. Lots of personal problems and died at 34.

 

[MADRAZO]

One can also add Mauro Finetto that was both a promessing amateur and that had a great start to his procareer, and then faded away and now could not even get a contract this season. Big waste of talent.

 

[movingtarget]

Kreuziger and Devolder also Brajkovic.