The Best Cyclist Of the Last 5 Years.

[gthx_gthx_]

I am gonna go with Cancellara i guess.

Contador has of course a much better palmares but the way Cancellera wins is always super impressive. He's almost the only one who can ride away from the peloton on the flat and this quality is so rare.

 

[Panda Claws]

Yes, this. To add...

Best overall during those 5 years - Spartacus
Best palmares - Cav
Best cyclist of those active during 5 years (ie. also counting results previous) - Boonen
Best including women - Vos, obviously

Contador has (officially) won 5 GT's over the last 5 years.
Cancellara has won 3 Monuments, 4x WC ITT, 1 x Olympic ITT among other things.
Boonen won 4 Monuments among other things
Gilbert won 3 Monuments, lots of classics and became WC

Cavendish does not beat that.

 

[Angliru]

I am gonna go with Cancellara i guess.

Contador has of course a much better palmares but the way Cancellera wins is always super impressive. He's almost the only one who can ride away from the peloton on the flat and this quality is so rare.

He was the only one that could ride away from the peloton on the flat. He hasn't been able to do that lately. It appears the opposition has caught on and have nullified that attribute. It still remains to be seen come cobbled classic time if he can still get away with it.

 

[ferryman]

Easy poll post from me. If, and when Alberto turns his head to the Classics he can win (starting with Lombardy this weekend), the poll in the future will be, is Contador one of the greatest all round cyclists that has ever lived.

The answer is yes.

 

[The Hitch]

He was the only one that could ride away from the peloton on the flat. He hasn't been able to do that lately. It appears the opposition has caught on and have nullified that attribute. It still remains to be seen come cobbled classic time if he can still get away with it.

Umm he has just had an entire season ruined by injury. Before his Flanders collarbone break, he won msb in a traditional cancellara fly away from everyone style. Its amazing how many people think he is past it due to 1 lost season. Its like how people said Evans should retire after 2010.

 

[The Hitch]

Easy poll post from me. If, and when Alberto turns his head to the Classics he can win (starting with Lombardy this weekend), the poll in the future will be, is Contador one of the greatest all round cyclists that has ever lived.

The answer is yes.

Contador aint going to turn to classics. If he turns to anything its to do the Vuelta after PN PV and TDF next year.

 

[Tyler'sTwin]

Luigi Cecchini.

Strade Bianche is a small race, who gives a damn?

Suisse and Tirreno had no mountains by the way.

Cecchini doesn't dope riders.

 

[ferryman]

Contador aint going to turn to classics. If he turns to anything its to do the Vuelta after PN PV and TDF next year.

Not next year no. But I've got a feeling it's something he wants to do. And why not. I've no doubt it is in his mind. It's only a slight change to his normal early season programme that can be managed I'm sure without detriment to his GT aspirations.

 

[Escarabajo]

This is going to be a long winter.

 

[Angliru]

Umm he has just had an entire season ruined by injury. Before his Flanders collarbone break, he won msb in a traditional cancellara fly away from everyone style. Its amazing how many people think he is past it due to 1 lost season. Its like how people said Evans should retire after 2010.

I'm not discounting his awesomeness but was he injured in 2011? That was the first indication that teams weren't going to, or were doing their best to stop him from exploding away from the competition with his signature move. This year's MSR was a continuation of that trend. I'm not implying that he's past it. MSB while a promising event is still not on par with PR and RVV. Yes he was injured for most of this season but the trend, with the exception of this year at MSB, was such that Fabian had begun to get frustrated by his opponents tactics which he described as racing to not let him win instead of racing to win.

 

[The Hitch]

I'm not discounting his awesomeness but was he injured in 2011? That was the first indication that teams weren't going to, or were doing their best to stop him from exploding away from the competition with his signature move. This year's MSR was a continuation of that trend. I'm not implying that he's past it. MSB while a promising event is still not on par with PR and RVV. Yes he was injured for most of this season but the trend, with the exception of this year at MSB, was such that Fabian had begun to get frustrated by his opponents tactics which he described as racing to not let him win instead of racing to win.

In 2011 he flew away from.everyone on e3. He was also far more impressive on ronde than he had been when he won it, and he did fly away from everyone on.pr too. Don't see how 2011 was any indication that he could no longer drop people in the classics.

 

[Afrank]

In 2011 he flew away from.everyone on e3. He was also far more impressive on ronde than he had been when he won it, and he did fly away from everyone on.pr too. Don't see how 2011 was any indication that he could no longer drop people in the classics.

But in 2011 when flying away form people really counted, people got on his wheel and beat him in the sprint. He was able to get away from Hushovd and co in Roubaix but he did it too late to win the race, and in Flanders Nuyens and Chavanel managed to stay with him and beat him in the sprint. Plus the same thing happened in Milan San Remo with Gerrans this year. And there was the first stage of the tour where Sagan hung on his wheel.

I think he still has the capability to fly away from other but flying away from others is not working out as much as it used to for him.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Not next year no. But I've got a feeling it's something he wants to do. And why not. I've no doubt it is in his mind. It's only a slight change to his normal early season programme that can be managed I'm sure without detriment to his GT aspirations.

Maybe he should do it when he can't win GTs anymore

 

[LaFlorecita]

Lol he probably thinks most wins = best palmares

 

[El Pistolero]

In 2011 he flew away from.everyone on e3. He was also far more impressive on ronde than he had been when he won it, and he did fly away from everyone on.pr too. Don't see how 2011 was any indication that he could no longer drop people in the classics.

As Roger de Vlaeminck would say: 6th rate competition.

He didn't fly away from everyone on P-R. Hushovd was on his wheel the entire time and when it was clear Vansummeren had won Cancellara surprised them with an attack.

He wasn't far more impressive in the Ronde either. Boonen was the weakest at the Ronde that year since 2007. Chavanel was on his wheel for most of the time.

Nobody said he can't drop people anyway. He can't drop everyone. He needs to rely on surprise attacks to get rid of absolutely everyone, but there has always been someone on his wheel since 2010.

When cyclists start dominating other cyclists will be glued to their back wheel, that's only normal.

 

[pdluz7]

Easy poll post from me. If, and when Alberto turns his head to the Classics he can win (starting with Lombardy this weekend), the poll in the future will be, is Contador one of the greatest all round cyclists that has ever lived.

The answer is yes.

Contador debuts winning one-day races, it is still not Lombardy, but a good debut.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Ivan basso.

 

[The Hitch]

But in 2011 when flying away form people really counted, people got on his wheel and beat him in the sprint. He was able to get away from Hushovd and co in Roubaix but he did it too late to win the race, and in Flanders Nuyens and Chavanel managed to stay with him and beat him in the sprint. Plus the same thing happened in Milan San Remo with Gerrans this year. And there was the first stage of the tour where Sagan hung on his wheel.

I think he still has the capability to fly away from other but flying away from others is not working out as much as it used to for him.

He never tried to ride Chav off his wheel. He flew away from Nuyens Boonen and co then caught up with Chav and just paced him for half an hour. At that point all he cared about was getting a sufficient gap over the rest of the peloton, and deal with Chavannel later.

And Paris Roubaix he lost cos his team was weak as ****. Had nothing to do with strenght, he was clearly way stronger than everyone else.

 

[Miburo]

As Roger de Vlaeminck would say: 6th rate competition.

He didn't fly away from everyone on P-R. Hushovd was on his wheel the entire time and when it was clear Vansummeren had won Cancellara surprised them with an attack.

He wasn't far more impressive in the Ronde either. Boonen was the weakest at the Ronde that year since 2007. Chavanel was on his wheel for most of the time.

Nobody said he can't drop people anyway. He can't drop everyone. He needs to rely on surprise attacks to get rid of absolutely everyone, but there has always been someone on his wheel since 2010.

When cyclists start dominating other cyclists will be glued to their back wheel, that's only normal.

Boonen won paris-roubaix this year, what did de vlaeminck say about his competition? Yeah...

And nuyens was in the e3 that year, the future winner of RVV.

He dropped Boonen, pozzato like a stone. Chavanel stayed in his wheel and on the muur chav suffered as much as canc otherwise he wouldn't have stayed with him there.

 

[El Pistolero]

Boonen won paris-roubaix this year, what did de vlaeminck say about his competition? Yeah...

And nuyens was in the e3 that year, the future winner of RVV.

He dropped Boonen, pozzato like a stone. Chavanel stayed in his wheel and on the muur chav suffered as much as canc otherwise he wouldn't have stayed with him there.

That's why I said 6th rate instead of the more common "third rate".

Because if Roger thinks an ex-world champion is third rate I'm sure he thinks of Roelandts as 6th rate. That edition of the E3 Prijs had the weakest competition since years.

Boonen and Pozzato weren't having good years in 2011. Boonen was still suffering from his injuries in 2010 and was ill during Tirreno-Adriatico. All in all he performed very well. Much better than "sick" Cancellara in 2009.

Chavanel wasn't suffering, after the race he said Cancellara was going very slow for most of the time and he never had any problem. He stayed with Cancellara because that were the team orders.

 

[Progsprach]

Well, I tried to approach this somewhat objectively, so I just summed the CQ-Values of riders for the relavant period (2008-2012). Of course there's a few problems: 1. "missing" values 2. the ratings for the races don't always take into account prestige 3. placings are perhaps a little overweighted. So with those in mind I just added the values for a bunch of cyclists I happened to come up with (hardly a representative sample):
Gilbert 9281
J-Rod 8723
Evans 8264
Canc 7400
Valverde 7169*
Contador 7077*
Greipel 6890
Nibali 6849
Cavendish 6673
Boonen 6186
EBH 6261
Wiggins 5245



A somewhat strange list but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vos 7374

Not a bad haul considering there's only 200 points available for the Worlds and Olympics, and only 80 points available for the Giro Donne GC, and that these results do not include her winter of 'cross.

 

[ferryman]

Contador debuts winning one-day races, it is still not Lombardy, but a good debut.

And in some style Lombardy look out

 

[Parker]

Well, I tried to approach this somewhat objectively, so I just summed the CQ-Values of riders for the relavant period (2008-2012). Of course there's a few problems: 1. "missing" values 2. the ratings for the races don't always take into account prestige 3. placings are perhaps a little overweighted. So with those in mind I just added the values for a bunch of cyclists I happened to come up with (hardly a representative sample):

Gilbert 9281
J-Rod 8723
Contador 8709*
Evans 8264
Canc 7400
Valverde 7169*
Greipel 6890
Nibali 6849
Cavendish 6673
Boonen 6186
EBH 6261
Wiggins 5245

You've added in 2007 as well for Contador. He should be on about 7000.

 

[Progsprach]

You've added in 2007 as well for Contador. He should be on about 7000.

Yes, you're correct. Did this in five minutes so it isn't well calcualted. I'll edit it.