The best one week stage racers of the 21st century

[SafeBet]

According to wiki Valverde has won 19, Contador 11. Then there are a big cluster of people 5-9.
Quality of the race obviously matters but its hard to argue Valverde doesn't make the top 5, and I hate him.

The problem with Valverde is always how you rate the .HC and .1 wins compared to the biggest races.
How many Ruta del Sol equal one Itzulia?

 

[Blanco]

Competition is very stiff here, I would say.
First we have to clear things up of which races exactly are we talking about. If I understood correctly they are: PN, Tirreno, Catalunya, Itzulia, Romandie, Dauphine and Suisse.
Main factor should be number of wins, and we have only one guy with 7 victories.
Next factor should be podium places.
Then stage wins.

The way I see it, Contador is No.1

Edit: If we count all races, not just these 7 mentioned, than No.1 is Valverde, followed by Contador.

 

[Ricco']

According to wiki Valverde has won 19, Contador 11. Then there are a big cluster of people 5-9.
Quality of the race obviously matters but its hard to argue Valverde doesn't make the top 5, and I hate him.

According to my quick check Valverde has 24 wins in GC stage races (plus five 2nd places and two 3rd in WT stage races - if we count 2010 results we have an extra win in Romandie, 2nd in Itzulia and 2nd in Paris-Nice):
3x Volta a Catalunya (9 stages)
2x Dauphiné (3 stages)
1x Itzulia (6 stages)
1x Abu Dhabi Tour (1 stage)
5x Vuelta a Andalucia (8 stages)
3x Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (4 stages)
3x Murcia (3 stages)
2x Route d'Occitanie (2 stages)
2x Burgos (4 stages)
1x Gran Camiño (1 stage)
1x Castilla y Leon (2 stages)
2 stages at Paris-Nice
1 stage at UAE Tour, Tour Down Under and Romandie

 

[OlavEH]

Who actually have most wins if we count the 7 biggest one-week races? Even Merckx or Hinaut didn't have too many of these, I guess the prioritized other events more. I count 14 for Sean Kell, 7 for Contador and 6 for Jalabert, Porte, Valverde and Roglic. The latter would proably had 8 if it weren't for late crashes in CD and PN. Anyone else close to Kelly?

 

[Ancalagon]

Competition is very stiff here, I would say.
First we have to clear things up of which races exactly are we talking about. If I understood correctly they are: PN, Tirreno, Catalunya, Itzulia, Romandie, Dauphine and Suisse.
Main factor should be number of wins, and we have only one guy with 7 victories.
Next factor should be podium places.
Then stage wins.

The way I see it, Contador is No.1

Edit: If we count all races, not just these 7 mentioned, than No.1 is Valverde, followed by Contador.

You make a lot of sense, but we differ because I chose to put some weight on diversity of wins : Porte has won 5/7 when Contador only 3/7. It is the same for me with Monuments : I am more impressed with someone winning 3 different Monuments one time, than with someone winning one monument 3 times.

That being said, I perfectly understand ranking Contador number 1.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Trying to be objective this is my top 10 for one-week races since 2000:

1. Contador
2. Valverde
3. Roglic
4. Quintana
5. Porte
6. Froome
7. Wiggins
8. Vinokourov*
9. Klöden
10. Costa

*Vino would be two places higher if his results from the late 90s were included.

 

[BigCoward]

Who had the best year, Wiggins won 3 big races, contador had a year with 2 first and 2 seconds. I can't think of anyone else that came close?

 

[Peyroteo94]

Wow, putting Porte ahead of Contador... oh lord

 

[Peyroteo94]

If we put prime Contador against prime Roglic in Itzullia, Roglic would look an amateur. No one comes close to prime Contador, specially in short climbs and hilly time trials.

 

[SHAD0W93]

All I know is I wasn’t expecting Klöden 5th and became all for the list. If it wasn’t for a pesky Panzer he could have been higher.

I like Pantsni’s list and think that’s pretty spot on.

 

[Red Rick]

Probably Roglic.

 

[Orbit501]

Good thread!

I'm going to throw pure stats out of the window and nominate my top two as the riders that immediately spring to my mind when I think of one week specialists. They are not statistically the most successful , but one week stage racing was by far their greatest strength.

My qualifying criteria are that these two, unlike more successful riders, never achieved any Grand Tour GC wins or stage wins. Despite my top one week stage rider continually targeting GT's throughout his career.

My runner up is... Simon Spilak.
When it came to Tour De Swisse/ Romandy, Simon was your man!

And my winner is one time Tour De France podium man and king of the one week stage race... Richie Porte.

 

[Unchained]

Guy is really really punchie..when he jumped on I he alone basically exploded Flanders..the guy is looking like he can go from 50-40k alone and has mind and body to bury himself riding alone. Doesn't get panicked on any climb and looks like even if people get away he sits down and puts it together and can calm himself down and formulate an awesome chase as a rule..maybe Jumbo will have the numbers at the TDF and get good results overall but I don't see anyone currently that can just stand up and shake him off their wheel..if his time trialing stays in a constant state of improvement..he is going to be hard to beat.
I always read things by Fabian Cancellara and after his Flanders predictions..I will pay closer attention..

 

[tobydawq]

Because they are two matching sets of races at the same calendar slot. Itzulia is a great race but its one a lot more riders who could do well skip to focus on other goals at least in the 21st century.

So a race must be held at the same time as a different race to be considered? Wow, that is a weird logic...

 

[Extinction]

Contaador can't be taken seriously as the best when he didn't win Catalunya, Romandie, Dauphine or Suisse

It's crazy Contador never won any of those races. Of course, his career was derailed and as a result troubled with teams that could not give him tranquility.

 

[hayneplane]

I don’t base this purely on stats as I can’t do all the 1x this win vs 3x that win stuff. Thinking about what the pecking order would be on a balanced parcours with all of them in prime form then:

1. Roglic
2. Pogacar
3. Contador
4. Froome
5. Porte
6. Valverde
7. Spilak
8. Wiggins
9. Vinokourov
10. Costa

Costa certainly doesn’t match the rest on talent but his palmares is worthy of a nod.

Pog vs Rog in a 1 week race is a coin flip at the moment as superior recovery is the biggest pint of difference between the two in longer races.

Valverde has the volume of wins in his favour but I think every rider ahead of him in the list puts time into him in a ITT and can drop him in high mountain finish. Valverde will stay competitive by picking up a lot of bonus seconds but his edge here was against much less explosive riders than the Slovenian duo.

 

[Red Rick]

It's crazy Contador never won any of those races. Of course, his career was derailed and as a result troubled with teams that could not give him tranquility.

Only Catalunya is kind of crazy. But he did sorta win it then he got stripped of it and then he got 2nd like 3 more times. The others just didn't fit into the schedule or were prep races.

I'm not sure riding all of PN, Cata and PV was a great schedule to begin with generally.

 

[Extinction]

Only Catalunya is kind of crazy. But he did sorta win it then he got stripped of it and then he got 2nd like 3 more times. The others just didn't fit into the schedule or were prep races.

I'm not sure riding all of PN, Cata and PV was a great schedule to begin with generally.

I honestly think if Contador (and how crazy is this?) had been Belgian or Dutch, he would have accomplished so much more. Being Spanish I think gave him a mentality that he could only focuss on the tradition of stage races and GTs. But I realize I'm being silly.

 

[Red Rick]

I honestly think if Contador (and how crazy is this?) had been Belgian or Dutch, he would have accomplished so much more. Being Spanish I think gave him a mentality that he could only focuss on the tradition of stage races and GTs. But I realize I'm being silly.

Not really. I do think he had some potential to do respectable at the LBL and IL, but those aren't won by pure climbers either. Also Liege had the Ans finish and IL didn't go to the Civiglio route until after Contadors prime. Maybe he spins the wheel of fortune at a few WCs, like Mendrisio or something, but whatever.

If he'd been Belgian or Dutch he probably would've just been more Tour focused and been a bit worse for it.

Also let's be real. Alberto Contador sounds frigging cool. Bert Boekhouder fuckign doesn't.

 

[tobydawq]

Not really. I do think he had some potential to do respectable at the LBL and IL, but those aren't won by pure climbers either. Also Liege had the Ans finish and IL didn't go to the Civiglio route until after Contadors prime. Maybe he spins the wheel of fortune at a few WCs, like Mendrisio or something, but whatever.

If he'd been Belgian or Dutch he probably would've just been more Tour focused and been a bit worse for it.

Also let's be real. Alberto Contador sounds frigging cool. Bert Boekhouder fuckign doesn't.

Bert Boekhouder, lol

Too bad he wasn't English. Albert Accountant.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Not really. I do think he had some potential to do respectable at the LBL and IL, but those aren't won by pure climbers either. Also Liege had the Ans finish and IL didn't go to the Civiglio route until after Contadors prime. Maybe he spins the wheel of fortune at a few WCs, like Mendrisio or something, but whatever.

If he'd been Belgian or Dutch he probably would've just been more Tour focused and been a bit worse for it.

Also let's be real. Alberto Contador sounds frigging cool. Bert Boekhouder fuckign doesn't.

Remember that guy who said Contador should have won Sanremo a few months ago. Lol

 

[Extinction]

Not really. I do think he had some potential to do respectable at the LBL and IL, but those aren't won by pure climbers either. Also Liege had the Ans finish and IL didn't go to the Civiglio route until after Contadors prime. Maybe he spins the wheel of fortune at a few WCs, like Mendrisio or something, but whatever.

If he'd been Belgian or Dutch he probably would've just been more Tour focused and been a bit worse for it.

Also let's be real. Alberto Contador sounds frigging cool. Bert Boekhouder fuckign doesn't.

Ok, but I don't agree had he been French or Belgian the Tour would have been it for him. I rather see MSR, maybe RVV, certainly the Ardenne classics and Worlds among his objectives.

 

[Pantani_lives]

This is an all-time list with the number of wins in the seven biggest one-week races: Paris-Nice, Dauphiné, Suisse, Romandie, Tirreno, Basque Country and Catalunya. Those of the current century are in bold. The most surprising name is Mariano Cañardo, who's won Catalunya seven times.

14 Seán Kelly
9 Jacques Anquetil
9 Tony Rominger
8 Mariano Cañardo
7 Eddy Merckx
7 Roger De Vlaeminck
7 Miguel Indurain
7 Alberto Contador
6 Luis Ocaña
6 Laurent Jalabert
6 Alejandro Valverde
6 Primož Roglič
5 Ferdinand Kübler
5 Joop Zoetemelk
5 Stephen Roche
5 Alex Zulle
5 Andreas Klöden
5 Richie Porte
5 Chris Froome
5 Nairo Quintana

 

[Extinction]

This is an all-time list with the number of wins in the seven biggest one-week races: Paris-Nice, Dauphiné, Suisse, Romandie, Tirreno, Basque Country and Catalunya. Those of the current century are in bold. The most surprising name is Mariano Cañardo, who won Catalunya seven times.

14 Seán Kelly
9 Jacques Anquetil
9 Tony Rominger
8 Mariano Cañardo
7 Eddy Merckx
7 Roger De Vlaeminck
7 Miguel Indurain
7 Alberto Contador
6 Luis Ocaña
6 Laurent Jalabert
6 Alejandro Valverde
6 Primoz Roglic
5 Ferdinand Kübler
5 Joop Zoetemelk
5 Stephen Roche
5 Alex Zulle
5 Andreas Klöden
5 Richie Porte
5 Chris Froome
5 Nairo Quintana

No Tirreno-Adriatico!

 

[Pantani_lives]

No Tirreno-Adriatico!

Yes, that's included, I just shortened its name.