From the top of my head, a more or less chronological list of all time greats without too much data to back it:
François Faber
Philippe Thys
Henri Pélissier
Alfredo Binda
Gino Bartali
Briek Schotte
Fausto Coppi
Rik Van Steenbergen
Louison Bobet
Rik Van Looy
Fred De Bruyne
Ferdi Kübler
Jacques Anquetil
Charly Gaul
Raymond Poulidor
Felice Gimondi
Eddy Merckx
Roger De Vlaeminck
Freddy Maertens
Luis Ocaña
Bernard Hinault
Sean Kelly
Laurent Fignon
Greg LeMond
Francesco Moser
Giuseppe Saronni
Miguel Indurain
Tony Rominger
Johan Museeuw
Laurent Jalabert
Lance Armstrong (yeah, I know)
Paolo Bettini
Tom Boonen
Alejandro Valverde
Fabian Cancellara
Alberto Contador
Chris Froome
Philippe Gilbert
Vicenzo Nibali
Peter Sagan
That are, if i counted well, 40 names.
From those 40, following should certainly feature in the top 20:
Alfredo Binda
Gino Bartali
Fausto Coppi
Louison Bobet
Rik Van Looy
Jacques Anquetil
Eddy Merckx
Roger De Vlaeminck
Bernard Hinault
Sean Kelly
Miguel Indurain
Alberto Contador
Chris Froome
If you scrutinize that list, you'll notice that there are no 1-day riders from the 1990-2020 era. That's because I find it too difficult to make a distinction between Boonen, Cancellara and Museeuw. Somehow I rate Philippe Gilbert higher than Boonen and Cancellara, just because of the versatility of his palmares (all types of 1-day races, ranging from paris-roubaix to Lombardia, and that in an era of specialization) and the only reason I don't say I rate him higher than Museeuw is because I was too much a Museeuw-fan in my youth. Bettini has less monument wins than Museeuw, Boonen or Cancellara, but has an olympic gold and at least 1 extra wc title.
Valverde built too much of his palmares on his hilltop sprint abilities, in an era where too much races were concluded in hilltop sprints.
There's also no-one included from cyclings prehistoric times, allthough I think at least one of the first three names I mentioned should be, just for the sake of completeness.
François Faber
Philippe Thys
Henri Pélissier
Alfredo Binda
Gino Bartali
Briek Schotte
Fausto Coppi
Rik Van Steenbergen
Louison Bobet
Rik Van Looy
Fred De Bruyne
Ferdi Kübler
Jacques Anquetil
Charly Gaul
Raymond Poulidor
Felice Gimondi
Eddy Merckx
Roger De Vlaeminck
Freddy Maertens
Luis Ocaña
Bernard Hinault
Sean Kelly
Laurent Fignon
Greg LeMond
Francesco Moser
Giuseppe Saronni
Miguel Indurain
Tony Rominger
Johan Museeuw
Laurent Jalabert
Lance Armstrong (yeah, I know)
Paolo Bettini
Tom Boonen
Alejandro Valverde
Fabian Cancellara
Alberto Contador
Chris Froome
Philippe Gilbert
Vicenzo Nibali
Peter Sagan
That are, if i counted well, 40 names.
From those 40, following should certainly feature in the top 20:
Alfredo Binda
Gino Bartali
Fausto Coppi
Louison Bobet
Rik Van Looy
Jacques Anquetil
Eddy Merckx
Roger De Vlaeminck
Bernard Hinault
Sean Kelly
Miguel Indurain
Alberto Contador
Chris Froome
If you scrutinize that list, you'll notice that there are no 1-day riders from the 1990-2020 era. That's because I find it too difficult to make a distinction between Boonen, Cancellara and Museeuw. Somehow I rate Philippe Gilbert higher than Boonen and Cancellara, just because of the versatility of his palmares (all types of 1-day races, ranging from paris-roubaix to Lombardia, and that in an era of specialization) and the only reason I don't say I rate him higher than Museeuw is because I was too much a Museeuw-fan in my youth. Bettini has less monument wins than Museeuw, Boonen or Cancellara, but has an olympic gold and at least 1 extra wc title.
Valverde built too much of his palmares on his hilltop sprint abilities, in an era where too much races were concluded in hilltop sprints.
There's also no-one included from cyclings prehistoric times, allthough I think at least one of the first three names I mentioned should be, just for the sake of completeness.