Top 5 GT Riders: Order & Discussion

[ILovecycling]

Probably more than 90% of us,cycling fans, agree on 4 riders who have the biggest chance/are the favourites for every GT WIN.
Those riders are the most consistent and superior over last few years.

There are riders who were able to win GT recently but are not supposed to repeat their win (Horner,Wiggins,Hesjedal,Cobo...) and then there are riders who some of you want to add to this Top5 instead of one of the riders (Valverde,Uran...) but those are likely to win only if those riders are not present and usually arent dangerous for those superior guys when present, even tho they were on podium multiple times.

Plese welcome to the world of GT superiority.

Starring:
Vincenzo 'Lo Squalo' Nibali

Last 3 finished GT's:
1st
2nd
1st

GT podiums: 7
of them wins: 3

Top success:
Win of 2014 Tour de France

Age:
29


Christopher 'Froomedog' Froome

Last 3 finished GT's:
2nd
1st
4th

GT podiums: 4
of them wins: 1

Top success:
Win of 2013 Tour de France

Age:
29

 

[ILovecycling]

Alberto 'El Pistolero' Contador Velasco

Last 3 finished GT's:
1st
4th
1st

GT podiums: 8
of them wins: 6 (8)

Top Success:
Win of Giro-Vuelta double 2008

Age:
31

Nairo Alexander 'Naironman' Quintana Rojas

Last 3 finished GT's:
1st
2nd
36th

GT podiums: 2
of them wins: 1

Top success:
Win of 2014 Giro d'Italia

Age:
24


???
Who is the 5th

 

[ILovecycling]

I think we kind of need a place to discuss this in order to not spam other threads.I saw lots of posts about this topic during and after Tour,so I hope this will help to organize some interesting thoughts.

Order those 5 riders (GT strenght,abilities) according to your opinions.Add arguments please to have a nice discussion about those great riders.

My top5
1.Froome
2.Contador
3.Quintana
4.Nibali
5.Rodriguez

I feel an advantage on Froome side in terms of TT.Contador's flat tt is unknown.Those two are quite close,then there is Quintana and Nibali for me.There is an advantage in versatility for Nibali,but I believe colombians climbing make this up.Their TT is almost on par imo,Nibali better at panflat tho.Murito (I used 'official nickname in OP) is not that far away.I think he is almost the same climbing wise,and is more explosive,so would react better to Froome and Contador attack style,otoh Nibali improved his explosivness,so Quintana is the worst in this.Purito imo has a big disadvatage of bad tt and decision making.



Of course feel free to add thoughts about GT's,those riders,other riders,memories,fanboy talks,future prospects,decline of riders etc to have a nice (or not nice) discussion.
I enclosed only elementary statistics about these riders to have a comparison and overview,Im aware you know those riders very well.If there are mistakes in opening posts,please note.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Thnik it depends on the parcour really.
This years tour with cobblestones, I wouldn't put Nibali behind anyone. In a straight forward tour parcour with 3/4 mtf and 80++ km tt Froomedog is probably the best. Give us a few more hard mountain stages where long range attacks are possible and one can race hard from the get go, Quintana and AC are perhaps/probably at his level. Give us an insane Giro parcour and I wouldn't be suprised if the colombian is the strongest.

Don't really rate JRod higher than Uran, and the likes anymore. He must impress me in the Vuelta if he wants to take the 5th place from Horner

 

[ILovecycling]

Thnik it depends on the parcour really.
This years tour with cobblestones, I wouldn't put Nibali behind anyone. In a straight forward tour parcour with 3/4 mtf and 80++ km tt Froomedog is probably the best. Give us a few more hard mountain stages where long range attacks are possible and one can race hard from the get go, Quintana and AC are perhaps/probably at his level. Give us an insane Giro parcour and I wouldn't be suprised if the colombian is the strongest.

Don't really rate JRod higher than Uran, and the likes anymore. He must impress me in the Vuelta if he wants to take the 5th place from Horner

Yes,that was my initial thought.You can make a prediction for each GT (vuelta,giro,tour seperately)if you have a time and thoughts ,but firstly I thought about the battle usually at Tour,unfortunately.

I hoped for sentences like the last one in this thread

btw You dont agree with my genius thought that Purito is much more dangerous than 'others' for those favourites? See '12

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Yes,that was my initial thought.You can make a prediction for each GT (vuelta,giro,tour seperately)if you have a time and thoughts ,but firstly I thought about the battle usually at Tour,unfortunately.

I hoped for sentences like the last one in this thread

btw You dont agree with my genius thought that Purito is much more dangerous than 'others' for those favourites? See '12

Uran would scare me more in a tt heavy tour than JRod any day of the week

 

[classicomano]

1. Alberto Contador.
2. Va Va Froome.
3. Chris Horner.
4. Rui Sousa.
5. Francis de Greef.

 

[kingjr]

Assuming everyone is in top form I would put Froome and Contador on top as pretty much equal, Froome with an edge in the TT, contador maybe with one regarding consistency over 3 weeks.

So 1. Froome/Contador
3.Quintana
4.Nibali
That's a real tough one too, but I think Quintana can outclimb Nibali.


5.Rodriguez

 

[Netserk]

Horner > Purito



1st: Contador
2nd: Froome
3rd: Nibali
4th: Quintana

 

[cineteq]

At the moment...
1. Nibali
2. Quintana
3. Contador
4. Froome
5. Talansky

 

[ILovecycling]

1. Alberto Contador.
2. Va Va Froome.
3. Chris Horner.
4. Rui Sousa.
5. Francis de Greef.

How could I forget?

 

[ILovecycling]

Horner > Purito



1st: Contador
2nd: Froome
3rd: Nibali
4th: Quintana

guys,this is becoming serious,the horner thing,I thought,you know...

At the moment...
1. Nibali
2. Quintana
3. Contador
4. Froome
5. Talansky

what do you mean at the moment?This particular day is not good to judge on when 3 of 5 are (almost) injured.I meant how do you see it in 2014,after all those gt's.

Talansky is interesting pick indeed.But dont you think he lacks consistency and experience in comparison with Rodriguez and Uran,Valverde etc?Or you think with his climbing he will beat them anyway?

 

[Arredondo]

Well, it's pretty much this:

1. Froome
2. Nibali
3. Quintana
4. Contador
5. Purito

Well, it differs between the first 4. Now Nibali got 2nd place because he won the Tour, but in normal circumstances Contador and Froome are better. Quintana is perhaps the best climber of all, so if he wins a Tour (next year perhaps) he will be 1.

 

[del1962]

Peraud > Horner
Pinot > Purito

 

[ILovecycling]

Well, it's pretty much this:

1. Froome
2. Nibali
3. Quintana
4. Contador
5. Purito

Well, it differs between the first 4. Now Nibali got 2nd place because he won the Tour, but in normal circumstances Contador and Froome are better. Quintana is perhaps the best climber of all, so if he wins a Tour (next year perhaps) he will be 1.

you are a bit confident,if he wins next Tour it doesnt automatically means he is the best I think.

Peraud > Horner
Pinot > Purito

Im not gonna answer on oldsters, but do you think Pinot is better in climbing than Purito?

 

[SafeBet]

I don't really have an opinion on who's better among the top4.
But I'm strongly convinced Uran is currently the fifth best GT rider in the peloton, especially in a standard, TT heavy Tour de France

 

[cineteq]

what do you mean at the moment?This particular day is not good to judge on when 3 of 5 are (almost) injured.I meant how do you see it in 2014,after all those gt's.

Talansky is interesting pick indeed.But dont you think he lacks consistency and experience in comparison with Rodriguez and Uran,Valverde etc?Or you think with his climbing he will beat them anyway?

I meant today, thus far in 2014. When I think of Talansky, inconsistency is not a word that comes to mind. I believe Talansky would have podiumed this year's Tour had not he crashed few times (with Contador out). It's Purito's last chace to do something in this year's Vuelta or any GT for that matter. Valverde is not the same he once was. Uran still doesn't convince me, inconsistency perhaps

 

[Red Rick]

The order of this list changes constantly, so far, Froome and Nibali and arguably Quintana have had one GT of murdering everybody, Contador has proven in the past that he could do it time and time again. It also depends a lot on the parcours. Purito might as well be replaced by Andy Schleck, it changes nothing about the thread, there's a Big 4 in GT cycling now.

In terms of absolute level, I still rate Contador higher than everyone else. This year he proved he can reach that level again, if not a higher level even. His crash changes nothing. Froome is pure watts, little bike handling skills and little brains. Nibali is a pure racer, improving almost every year, able to make a difference on every terrain, but he has a lower base level. Quintana is obviously a great rider, but he absolutely needs the most brutal mountains to have a chance against the rest, being the worst tt'er, most fragile on flat and cobbles and being the least explosive in terms of accelerations. His Giro victory was, excluding the controversial stage to Val Martello, barely dominant. He won a MTT against a first time GC contender with 7 seconds, and I didn't like that he didn't bother to try and prove his dominance later on and when he tried, Uran could match him

 

[Rollthedice]

Top 5 GT riders are 4 in whatever order you choose depending on the parcours, who shows up, who crashes or who is in better form. Obviously I'm talking about Froome, Nibali, Contador and Quintana. The rest are 8 minutes down in GC.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Top 5 GT riders are 4 in whatever order you choose depending on the parcours, who shows up, who crashes or who is in better form. Obviously I'm talking about Froome, Nibali, Contador and Quintana. The rest are 8 minutes down in GC.

5 guys within 8 minutes of Quintana this giro

 

[Angliru]

The order of this list changes constantly, so far, Froome and Nibali and arguably Quintana have had one GT of murdering everybody, Contador has proven in the past that he could do it time and time again. It also depends a lot on the parcours. Purito might as well be replaced by Andy Schleck, it changes nothing about the thread, there's a Big 4 in GT cycling now.

In terms of absolute level, I still rate Contador higher than everyone else. This year he proved he can reach that level again, if not a higher level even. His crash changes nothing. Froome is pure watts, little bike handling skills and little brains. Nibali is a pure racer, improving almost every year, able to make a difference on every terrain, but he has a lower base level. Quintana is obviously a great rider, but he absolutely needs the most brutal mountains to have a chance against the rest, being the worst tt'er, most fragile on flat and cobbles and being the least explosive in terms of accelerations. His Giro victory was, excluding the controversial stage to Val Martello, barely dominant. He won a MTT against a first time GC contender with 7 seconds, and I didn't like that he didn't bother to try and prove his dominance later on and when he tried, Uran could match him

I got the impression that rather than Uran matching him, Quintana wanted to finish that final mountain top stage together with Uran, for the symbolism of 2 Colombians finishing 1-2 in the gc at the Giro. I think he could've dropped Uran had he chose to.

 

[Arredondo]

Top 5 GT riders are 4 in whatever order you choose depending on the parcours, who shows up, who crashes or who is in better form. Obviously I'm talking about Froome, Nibali, Contador and Quintana. The rest are 8 minutes down in GC.

So Purito will be 8 minutes down in GC against any of those big 4?

 

[retzko]

For the moment nibali is way above Quintana.... i like Quintana but he would never be top 10 in the last long ITT in the tour. And like nibali was Climbing I don t see Quintana Climbing faster on ( not so steep) TDF climbs. Not to speak about the cobbles or other flat stages.

Quintana cannot accelerate like froome or contador can so I think nibali would have followed easily. The level Nibali showed was above any level he ever showed before . Only the not so stellar competition makes it believable.

Even on the Martello? stage Quintana did not drop hesjedal until the very end.

 

[Rollthedice]

5 guys within 8 minutes of Quintana this giro

OK, he still has some work to do.

 

[Arredondo]

For the moment nibali is way above Quintana.... i like Quintana but he would never be top 10 in the last long ITT in the tour. And like nibali was Climbing I don t see Quintana Climbing faster on ( not so steep) TDF climbs. Not to speak about the cobbles or other flat stages.

Quintana cannot accelerate like froome or contador can so I think nibali would have followed easily. The level Nibali showed was above any level he ever showed before . Only the not so stellar competition makes it believable.

Even on the Martello? stage Quintana did not drop hesjedal until the very end.

Normally the tempo of Quintana is so high that he murders his oponnents as longer the climb get. Could be the case too with Nibali (not this Tour however).