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Sprinters 2020

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I don’t think there’s sufficient evidence to conclude that Merlier is faster than MVDP. I also think that people tend to take that one win Trentin had vs MVDP and Van Aert as the sole metric to determine who is faster, ridiculous.

Regarding Jakobsen, I think the raw speed is definitely there, but I still think he needs some more wins vs top tier sprinters in order to be considered tier 1.

Finally, Hodeg turned out to be kind of a disappointment. The jury was still out at some point as to who was faster between him and Jakobsen. Now Jakobsen has made strides while Hodeg seems to have stalled, or even regressed based on his recent defeats vs Molano.
  1. MVDP said so himself, as did WVA. Of all the cyclocross riders, Merlier has the fastest sprint. I second you about Trentin however.
  2. Right about Jakobsen
  3. Read what I wrote about Hodge earlier today. But I do think Jakobsen's development is better atm as well.
 
  1. MVDP said so himself, as did WVA. Of all the cyclocross riders, Merlier has the fastest sprint. I second you about Trentin however.
  2. Right about Jakobsen
  3. Read what I wrote about Hodge earlier today. But I do think Jakobsen's development is better atm as well.

I’d love to see the interview where Mathieu said that Merlier was faster than him. Got the source? Afaik, Mathieu beat him once in 2018 at the Ronde van Limburg, albeit not a flat finish.

Other than that the only visual evidence we have is the video recently posted where they went mano-a-mano in training and even then there was no clear winner.

As far as Hodeg goes, we’ll see I guess. Being owned by Molano isn’t doing him any favors though.
 
Oh come on, one year or five is a big difference. Also if you consider that Gaviria is only 25. Would be different if we were talking about someone who is 37 and already declining and then injured...
Maybe, but there's nothing to back up your statement that he's "hands down the best sprinter in the world right now" even if you do discount last year which of course you can't and you shouldn't. It's not like he was even "hands down" the best sprinter in 2018 either.

Due to his recent injuries I'm actually willing to put him up there with the others at the top when many others don't but there's no real evidence at this point to suggest he's the best in the world right now. After all, he hasn't even faced any of the top tier guys this year - just Sagan and Hodeg.
 
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I see no evidence of Gaviria being clearly faster than the top 3-4 sprinters in the world. He has never gone on a run like Cipollini or even prime Cavendish/Kittel.

Those guys were hands down the best sprinters in the world when healthy. Now there's no such thing.
 
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I see no evidence of Gaviria being clearly faster than the top 3-4 sprinters in the world. He has never gone on a run like Cipollini or even prime Cavendish/Kittel.

Those guys were hands down the best sprinters in the world when healthy. Now there's no such thing.
I wouldn't say no such thing, but that's more because the entire sprinting field is deeper than we've had in years.

At the moment I have Ewan and Groenewegen ever so slightly ahead of Bennett, Ackermann and Viviani with Gaviria having to make up ground.
 
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I wouldn't say no such thing, but that's more because the entire sprinting field is deeper than we've had in years.

At the moment I have Ewan and Groenewegen ever so slightly ahead of Bennett, Ackermann and Viviani with Gaviria having to make up ground.
Makes sense.

For me, I tend to look at sprinter tiers as a current "who can beat or be competitive with whom on a regular basis" which I why I currently have all of those guys and also Jakobsen as top tier. As the youngest, Jakobsen doesn't yet have the palmares of the others but I'd give him just as much chance to win against each other as any of the other 6.


I think we have to wait with conclusions like that at least until the first really important races will take place this year..

But for now I agree with you, that he really doesn´t seem competitive like last season.
Viviani is primed to move down a notch. Though every sprinter gets a QS bump, unlike Cav and Kittel I never felt like Viviani was top tier before QS. I think he'll move down below the others this season but I guess we'll see. I'm more interested to see if someone will separate themselves above the others.
 
Yeah, and that also makes this race not very good in order to get a measure on Jakobsen with all the best sprinters going to UAE instead.
I think we already have a good measure on Jakobsen. He's matched up pretty well with Groenewegen already this year and beat Bennett and Gaviria a couple times at the Vuelta. To me, he's clearly a top tier sprinter, he just has to split the calendar with Bennett.
 
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I think Bora should habe kept Bennett and Ackermann and get rid of Sagan, but this was apparently out of the question... :D

Jokes aside, the sprints at the UAE Tour show that the current field of elite sprinters is incredibly close to each other. Everyone of them can win against any of the other guys. Exciting times for lovers of sprint finishes.
 
Jokes aside, the sprints at the UAE Tour show that the current field of elite sprinters is incredibly close to each other. Everyone of them can win against any of the other guys. Exciting times for lovers of sprint finishes.
Yeah, it often just seems to come down to positioning and who can get a clean runout at what point in the sprint. Groenewegen was positioned poorly on the 1st stage and Ackermann and particularly Ewan seemed a little blocked today.
 

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