Sprinters 2019

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Looks like we have to add Alaphilippe to the list

After today, may as well.

He has 6 wins this season! Do you include his ITT and Strade Bianche wins in his sprinting palmares..?


Can he keep this up for the season? It’s surely not usual for a non-specialist sprinter to be outpacing the actual sprinters for wins, even this early. And Alaf is still going to have chances for wins throughout the season.

 

[Akuryo]

Re: Re:

Looks like we have to add Alaphilippe to the list

After today, may as well.

He has 6 wins this season! Do you include his ITT and Strade Bianche wins in his sprinting palmares..?


Can he keep this up for the season? It’s surely not usual for a non-specialist sprinter to be outpacing the actual sprinters for wins, even this early. And Alaf is still going to have chances for wins throughout the season.

He had 12 last year which was in the middle of the pack if we talk about sprinters. But most of his wins came from late attacks. For a "non sprinter" he had a lot last season! I still remember his first season as a pro they had him as a "sprinter" in the Pro Cylcing Manager game. Maybe they were on to something. :lol:

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Looks like we have to add Alaphilippe to the list

After today, may as well.

He has 6 wins this season! Do you include his ITT and Strade Bianche wins in his sprinting palmares..?


Can he keep this up for the season? It’s surely not usual for a non-specialist sprinter to be outpacing the actual sprinters for wins, even this early. And Alaf is still going to have chances for wins throughout the season.

He had 12 last year which was in the middle of the pack if we talk about sprinters. But most of his wins came from late attacks. For a "non sprinter" he had a lot last season! I still remember his first season as a pro they had him as a "sprinter" in the Pro Cylcing Manager game. Maybe they were on to something. :lol:

It's amazing how long it took him to become a winner, considering his characteristics. Just think that in his first four years as a pro (he was second in both Flèche and Liège in the second of those) he won as many times as he has done this season already.

Can he win 20 times this season? Probably not but he could get close.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Looks like we have to add Alaphilippe to the list

After today, may as well.

He has 6 wins this season! Do you include his ITT and Strade Bianche wins in his sprinting palmares..?


Can he keep this up for the season? It’s surely not usual for a non-specialist sprinter to be outpacing the actual sprinters for wins, even this early. And Alaf is still going to have chances for wins throughout the season.

Well for the past two season Valverde has had one of the highest win totals for the year. In 2017 it took until September for one of the sprinters to finally reach his win total that year and last year he had either the 2nd or 3rd most wins for the season. Last I checked Valverde is a non specialist sprinter and last year at Catalonia he won a full field sprint. Although Valverde is probably not the best comparison for Alaphilippe that is the comparison that has been made for several years. Can Alaphilippe keep it up all year, only time will tell. However it will be interesting with how good he's started this season and he's definitely peaking now to see where he's actually at come the Ardennes and how he matches Valverde then.

 

[Leinster]

I should have realized I was replying to Alejandro’s Mom.

Bala wins bunch sprints in Catalunya because he’s the nearest thing to a sprinter that shows up for it, while all the true sprinters are in Flanders.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I should have realized I was replying to Alejandro’s Mom.

Bala wins bunch sprints in Catalunya because he’s the nearest thing to a sprinter that shows up for it, while all the true sprinters are in Flanders.

:lol: :lol: Acquaintance (friend of some of his friends) but definitely not mom. (Year younger than his oldest brother.) :lol:

It's still a field sprint.

 

[Akuryo]

Competition does matter. Mareczko had 13 wins last season and yet nobody in their right mind would consider him a top tier sprinter. A good one, especially when it is completely flat but he ain't winning bunch finishes in GTs. He has 40 wins now and 20 (18 stages, 2x GC) of them were in the Tour of Taihu Lake ffs. 10 more wins in other Chinese races with extremely low competition. That is 3/4 in one country where he is light-years ahead of anyone else.

 

[armchairclimber]

Yes, I'm starting to feel that picking Mareczko for my CQ team was a bit of a mistake. I hadn't twigged that he's a flat track bully, so to speak.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Looks like we have to add Alaphilippe to the list

After today, may as well.

He has 6 wins this season! Do you include his ITT and Strade Bianche wins in his sprinting palmares..?


Can he keep this up for the season? It’s surely not usual for a non-specialist sprinter to be outpacing the actual sprinters for wins, even this early. And Alaf is still going to have chances for wins throughout the season.

He had 12 last year which was in the middle of the pack if we talk about sprinters. But most of his wins came from late attacks. For a "non sprinter" he had a lot last season! I still remember his first season as a pro they had him as a "sprinter" in the Pro Cylcing Manager game. Maybe they were on to something. :lol:

Only Viviani, Groenewegen and Mareczko had more, out of sprinters, so it is hardly "in the middle of the pack"

 

[Cinemaniak]

Update 29 March:

Groenewegen: 5
Viviani: 4
Bennett: 4
Gaviria: 3
Ackermann: 2
Matthews: 1
Jakobsen: 1
Sagan: 1
Hodeg: 1
Kittel: 1
Ewan: 1
Greipel: 1

I added Bling to this list. For me he's still a guy that could win hard (slightly uphill) sprints. Hope to see more sprints like the one on wednesday.

 

[armchairclimber]

Kristoff is in on the act too now. And Matthews has 2. What a year.

 

[armchairclimber]

Bennett now leading the parade with 6 victories. Groenewegen 5 and Viviani 4 ... with Jakobsen, Laporte and Gaviria on 3 and the rest in ones and twos. This maybe doesn't represent their respective merits as some victories are in harder races, but it does continue to show how closely matched the sprinters are this year.

 

[armchairclimber]

Maybe Ackerman is going to be the Daddy after all. It's all so tight.

 

[Cinemaniak]

Update 16/05
Groenewegen is basically winning every sprint he gets involved in and probably ready to be the most dominant sprinter in the Tour de France. Nothing wrong with his support with the likes of Tony Martin, Teunissen and Jansen. Ackermann isn't going to ride the TdF, so it's up to Gaviria, Sagan and Viviani in TdF. Viviani should really get a win this Giro for that little extra confidence in the Tour.

Groenewegen: 8
Bennett: 6
Ackermann: 5
Gaviria: 4
Viviani: 4
Jakobsen: 3
Ewan: 3
Matthews: 2
Sagan: 2
Hodeg: 1
Greipel: 1

 

[Akuryo]

If he is going (and I think he will) Jakobsen should destroy the other contenders at the Vuelta pretty easily. He is winning against bigger names already and the Vuelta usually has a weak field for sprinters. Him being one of the only top level sprinters right now going to that race will push his win total up quite a bit while the others take victories from each other at the Giro and Tour.

 

[yaco]

Re:

If he is going (and I think he will) Jakobsen should destroy the other contenders at the Vuelta pretty easily. He is winning against bigger names already and the Vuelta usually has a weak field for sprinters. Him being one of the only top level sprinters right now going to that race will push his win total up quite a bit while the others take victories from each other at the Giro and Tour.

Except Groenewegen is down to ride the Vuelta and Bennett is riding if he doesn't change teams mid-season.

 

[Leinster]

This is the same Jakobsen who got dropped by his own leadout train in Sacramento on Sunday?

 

[Eli]

Re:

This is the same Jakobsen who got dropped by his own leadout train in Sacramento on Sunday?

LOOL

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I think in a no-nonsense sprint, Jakobsen isn't far from the top sprinters. But maybe in a technical or chaotic final he'd have issues with placement and/or wasting energy.

 

[Mavic]

Well, he already beat Ackermann in last year's Scheldeprijs and on 3 other occasions between last year and this year; twice in Guangxi and once in Algarve. He also beat several other top sprinters like Kittel and Ewan in the Binck Bank Tour, Demare in Algarve, Bennett and Cavendish in Turkey. He's still only 22 as well so plenty of time to grow. He should get a shot in a GT imo.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It’s worth resurrecting this thread on a day when four of the season’s top five sprinters finished 1 in the Vuelta, 1 in the Tour of Britain and 1, 2 in the Brussels Cycling Classic. Bennett, Groenewegen, Ewan and Ackermann have been the cream of the crop this year, along with Viviani.

 

[Leinster]

This is the same Jakobsen who got dropped by his own leadout train in Sacramento on Sunday?

And Jakobsen got dropped by his leadout train into Oviedo.

 

[Akuryo]

Yet still won a GT stage at 22. He may be the next coming of Kittel: gets dropped over a molehill but as long as the roads are flat he is hard to beat.

 

[jaylew]

The homepage has an interesting breakdown and ranking of sprinters in 2019.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/ranking-the-top-10-sprinters-of-2019/

According to their formula it was:

1 Ewan
2 Viviani
3 Ackermann
4 Bennett
5 Groenewegen
6 Sagan
7 Gaviria
8 Jakobsen
9 Démare
10 Kristoff

Maybe not exactly how I'd rank them but I can't really argue with that. There was no clear best to me but I'd also probably lean slightly towards Ewan.

Some interesting stats there on shared race days, head to head wins, and wins against the "big 5" this year. I thought the latter was most interesting though it would also be interesting to see this extended a bit more to include others in the top 10.

Vs Big 5:

Rider Name	Alone	vs 1	vs 2	vs 3
Caleb Ewan	0	4	6	0
Elia Viviani	4	4	2	1
Pascal Ackermann	10	1	2	0
Sam Bennett	5	5	3	0
Dylan Groenewegen	7	4	4	0

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I think that their pseudo mathematical approach is unnecessary and more mystifying than clarifying. It was extremely close among the big 5 and depending on what metric you use you can get reasonably put them in almost any order. Eg in total wins Groenewegen comes first, Bennett and Ackermann joint second, Viviani fourth, Ewan fifth. In WT wins, Bennett moves to first, Ewan to second. In GT wins, Ewan moves to first. Etc etc.

If I had to rank their seasons I’d put them in order Ewan, Bennett, Groenewegen, Ackermann, Viviani, but I’ve no beef with anyone who sees it differently.

The big gap is from those five to the rest. Gaviria and Jakobsen look to me to be the guys outside the top 5 who should be right in the mix next year.