Who deserves the Vélo d'Or the most so far?

[El Pistolero]

The way I see it, there are only 3 competitors at the moment: Peter Sagan, Christopher Froome and Greg van Avermaet.

Peter Sagan

Sagan started his season strong. His first notable result was a second place against Greg van Avermaet in the Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Next he made the winning move at the Strade Bianche, but he couldn't follow Stybar and Cancellara on the uphill finish. To make matters worse he became second yet again in the Tirreno-Adriatico, finishing only one second behind... you guessed it... Greg van Avermaet. At Milan-San Remo he got held up by a crash in the final 500 meters and saw victory slip through his hands yet again. Next he made the winning move at E3 Harelbeke, but got outsprinted by Michal Kwiatkowski. The curse of the rainbow jersey seemed to be in full effect, but then came Gent-Wevelgem. Sagan attacked on the Kemelberg and only Cancellara and Vanmarcke could follow him. This time he surprised everyone by actually winning the sprint. His good fortune continued in the Ronde van Vlaanderen: he held off an unleashed Cancellara in a thrilling final and won the first Monument of his career. He was also the first reigning world Champion since Boonen in 2006 to win the Ronde van Vlaanderen. His success continued in the Tour de France, where he won the green jersey and 3 stages.

Christopher Froome

Chris Froome started the season slowly, but he did manage to win an unimportant stage race in Australia. His next notable result came at the Tour de Romandie, where he won a stage from the breakaway, after losing too much time on the first mountain stage to still be in contention for the overall title. He returned to winning ways in the Criterium du Dauphiné where he won a stage and the overall title: his third - which is a (shared) record. Froome did not disappoint in the Tour. He caught everyone by surprise on the first mountain stage by riding away in the descent to claim his first stage win. He also rode well on a flat echelon stage, where he managed to escape with Peter Sagan to claim more time on his nearest GC rivals. His second stage win came in a mountainous time trial where he obliterated the competition. He wasn't able to distance the likes of Porte in any of the real mountainous stages however, but then again, he never needed to. It should be noted that the competition in the Tour was very weak this year: Contador crashed out, Nibali won the Giro and Quintana wasn't at his usual level.

Greg van Avermaet

Greg van Avermaet started the season strong. He won the first important race of the season by outsprinting Sagan at the Omloop het Nieuwsblad. On stage 6 of the Tirreno-Adriatico he escaped together with Peter Sagan, Michal Kwiatkowski and Zdenek Stybar. He once again managed to outsprint Peter Sagan to claim his second victory of the year, as well as the blue leader's jersey. He managed to keep off Sagan in the final time trial and won the coveted gilded trident. It should be noted however that the only mountain stage was cancelled due to snow. Had this not been the case, he would have never won the overall. Fortune seemed to be on the side of Van Avermaet for once, but then he had a horrible crash in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, which ended his classics season before it even began. Eager to prove himself he trained hard to prepare himself for the Tour de France. There he managed to win a medium mountain stage from a breakaway and also took the yellow jersey from Sagan. Everybody expected Van Avermaet to lose his yellow jersey on the next mountain stage, but he surprised everyone by joining the breakaway where he successfully defended his yellow jersey. He lost it the day after at an even harder mountain stage. Then came the biggest win of his career: he won the mountainous Olympic Road Race in Rio de Janeiro. He rode a tactically strong race by following a move from Caruso at 50km from the finish-line. At the final climb he managed to keep himself within striking distance of the top climbers. What followed was a nerve-wrecking descent where leaders Vincenzo Nibali and Sergio Henao crashed out on. This left Majka alone in the final 10km of the race. Fuglsang and Van Avermaet worked together brilliantly and reeled Majka back in. Van Avermaet then easily beat his two rivals in the sprint to claim the coveted gold medal.

 

[jsem94]

Probably Sagan so far, but not by a whole lot.

 

[TMP402]

Larry Warbasse. It's time.

 

[Red Rick]

Peter Sagan, and it's not really that close. I think it happens too often that the Tour winner wins it, but Sagan has been riding too remarkable to pass up.

GvA is a well deserved Olympic champion and a great rider, but I think his TA victory should be greatly discounted, and Omloop and Olympics alone is just not enough compared to Sagan, who was everywhere, all the time.

Froome won the Tour, that's about it. Dauphine + Tour doesn't mean much more than Tour alone to me and too often the Tour winner is awarded the damn prize only because he won the most overrated race in the world. Likely it'll stay between these 3 though, Vuelta can't save Contador to win it, juuuuuust maybe Cav would be in contention if he won the Worlds (worlds +4 stages at Tour would be considered pretty good), but I think Sagan should have this baby locked up already.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Froome the only to challenge Sagan if he wins La Vuelta

 

[trucido]

I'm happy that GvA got his first big one day race win but he doesn't deserve to be on this list.

 

[johnymax]

You missed two stage wins in Suisse and another two in California for Sagan. I know that doesn't change much but if you mentioned minor wins and WT stage wins for both other candidates, I think it's correct to add those to the Sagan season description, too.

Anyway going by the big wins it's very close and I can't choose between the three. But if you ask me who was the best rider this season so far and taking in account also the way they raced, it's Sagan hands down.

 

[BigMac]

Greg risks not even making top three. That's how much this award loves non-GT racers as of late.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

Peter Sagan, and it's not really that close. I think it happens too often that the Tour winner wins it, but Sagan has been riding too remarkable to pass up.

GvA is a well deserved Olympic champion and a great rider, but I think his TA victory should be greatly discounted, and Omloop and Olympics alone is just not enough compared to Sagan, who was everywhere, all the time.

Froome won the Tour, that's about it. Dauphine + Tour doesn't mean much more than Tour alone to me and too often the Tour winner is awarded the damn prize only because he won the most overrated race in the world. Likely it'll stay between these 3 though, Vuelta can't save Contador to win it, juuuuuust maybe Cav would be in contention if he won the Worlds (worlds +4 stages at Tour would be considered pretty good), but I think Sagan should have this baby locked up already.

Vélo d'Or isn't just about results, but about how you achieved them. Contador won it in 2014 after he crashed out in the Tour and came back to win the Vuelta. A similar story to Van Avermaet's season this year. Had Van Avermaet not crashed during his classics and Sagan still beat him then I agree, Sagan would win. But that's not the case, now is it?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Vélo d'Or isn't just about results, but about how you achieved them. Contador won it in 2014 after he crashed out in the Tour and came back to win the Vuelta. A similar story to Van Avermaet's season this year. Had Van Avermaet not crashed during his classics and Sagan still beat him then I agree, Sagan would win. But that's not the case, now is it?

I think it's a somewhat hard case to make. Greg van Avermaet wasn't exactly a frequent winner of monuments at the time of his crash. In fact, most of his competition prior to winning De Ronde had come from Kwiat, who beat him at the E3. The other huge favourite was Cancellara, whom he soundly beat, and Canc was always a bigger favourite than GvA was.

As for Contador, he had much more of a history of winning GT's than GvA had in monuments, and GTs are just more predictable that way. Also, his comeback was a bit more spectacular for what that matters, GvA was back wayyyy before the Olympics where on.

Don't get me wrong. Greg is great, and now he's won the one everybody dreams of winning, but I don't think you can deny Sagan is better. Holding of Cancellara and Vanmarcke on his own in Flanders is amazing, and he's basically made every race he participated in. You could also argue that Greg's major wins are a helluva lot luckier than Sagan's major win of the season (except that Tour stage, he handed TdG ass to him).

And as for Froome, if he gets it I just want myself to forget Velo d'Or is a thing that actually exists. Though that's blindly assuming he won't win La Vuelta.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Greg risks not even making top three. That's how much this award loves non-GT racers as of late.

Well, stage racers haven't been exactly been super impressive this year. I don't really know how Samu was ranked in 2008 though, that would be interesting I think

 

[SeriousSam]

Froome if he wins the the Olympic Time trial. The Tour is by far the most important race every year and if you can add another highly desirable victory to that, it's close to impossible for someone to be even better.

 

[trucido]

Re: Re:

Peter Sagan, and it's not really that close. I think it happens too often that the Tour winner wins it, but Sagan has been riding too remarkable to pass up.

GvA is a well deserved Olympic champion and a great rider, but I think his TA victory should be greatly discounted, and Omloop and Olympics alone is just not enough compared to Sagan, who was everywhere, all the time.

Froome won the Tour, that's about it. Dauphine + Tour doesn't mean much more than Tour alone to me and too often the Tour winner is awarded the damn prize only because he won the most overrated race in the world. Likely it'll stay between these 3 though, Vuelta can't save Contador to win it, juuuuuust maybe Cav would be in contention if he won the Worlds (worlds +4 stages at Tour would be considered pretty good), but I think Sagan should have this baby locked up already.

Vélo d'Or isn't just about results, but about how you achieved them. Contador won it in 2014 after he crashed out in the Tour and came back to win the Vuelta. A similar story to Van Avermaet's season this year. Had Van Avermaet not crashed during his classics and Sagan still beat him then I agree, Sagan would win. But that's not the case, now is it?

Well if you're talking about how they were achieved I didn't see GvA dominate the final 30km of the ORR like Sagan did in RvV as the marked rider in the group. He simply didn't take any unnecessary risks and profited from a crash in the leading group (of course it goes without saying that he was strong).

I also fail to see how GvA crashing lessens Sagan's victories and has any impact on the decision. Sagan could have crashed very badly in both MSR and PR which could have ended his season, but he obviously didn't.

 

[luckyboy]

Sagan. Would be great to see him win the Worlds again (partly because that would mean the race was windy and crazy but also because lets not have Cav/Greipel/Kittel win)

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

Peter Sagan, and it's not really that close. I think it happens too often that the Tour winner wins it, but Sagan has been riding too remarkable to pass up.

GvA is a well deserved Olympic champion and a great rider, but I think his TA victory should be greatly discounted, and Omloop and Olympics alone is just not enough compared to Sagan, who was everywhere, all the time.

Froome won the Tour, that's about it. Dauphine + Tour doesn't mean much more than Tour alone to me and too often the Tour winner is awarded the damn prize only because he won the most overrated race in the world. Likely it'll stay between these 3 though, Vuelta can't save Contador to win it, juuuuuust maybe Cav would be in contention if he won the Worlds (worlds +4 stages at Tour would be considered pretty good), but I think Sagan should have this baby locked up already.

Vélo d'Or isn't just about results, but about how you achieved them. Contador won it in 2014 after he crashed out in the Tour and came back to win the Vuelta. A similar story to Van Avermaet's season this year. Had Van Avermaet not crashed during his classics and Sagan still beat him then I agree, Sagan would win. But that's not the case, now is it?

Well if you're talking about how they were achieved I didn't see GvA dominate the final 30km of the ORR like Sagan did in RvV as the marked rider in the group. He simply didn't take any unnecessary risks and profited from a crash in the leading group (of course it goes without saying that he was strong).

I also fail to see how GvA crashing lessens Sagan's victories and has any impact on the decision. Sagan could have crashed very badly in both MSR and PR which could have ended his season, but he obviously didn't.

I'm not saying it lessens Sagan's victories, I'm saying that if Sagan beat GvA at the Ronde AND Roubaix then we'd have solid proof that he was better than GvA. Now we don't because of the crash.

GvA won on a course that wasn't suited to him at all. Sagan didn't even compete because he thought it was too hard! That should tell you enough how amazing this victory is of GvA.

 

[PremierAndrew]

If GVA hadn't been taken out by his team at RVV, this thread could have been completely different

But as strong as GVA looked in the spring, he came out with nothing to show for it. TA, one TdF stage win and OG RR is a lot less than Sagan and Froome's achievements this season.

If Froome wins gold in the TT on Wednesday, he'll become a contender to Sagan for the Velo d'Or, and same applies if he performs well in the Vuelta. Otherwise, has to be Sagan

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

If GVA hadn't been taken out by his team at RVV, this thread could have been completely different

But as strong as GVA looked in the spring, he came out with nothing to show for it. TA, one TdF stage win and OG RR is a lot less than Sagan and Froome's achievements this season.

If Froome wins gold in the TT on Wednesday, he'll become a contender to Sagan for the Velo d'Or, and same applies if he performs well in the Vuelta. Otherwise, has to be Sagan

He also won the Omloop. I don't think Sagan's season is that more impressive, if you take his crash at the Ronde in account.

 

[luckyboy]

Where do you think Contador comes out if he wins the Vuelta?

3rd Algarve
2nd Paris-Nice
2nd Catalunya
wins Pais Vasco
wins Burgos
wins Vuelta

 

[burning]

I'd still rate his season 4th even if these 3 guys won't win anything. I think that Froome will win the award if he wins the TT and Sagan does not win the WC based on 2015's ranking, especially Aru being 3rd while doing nothing apart from 2 races.

 

[Jspear]

Where do you think Contador comes out if he wins the Vuelta?

3rd Algarve
2nd Paris-Nice
2nd Catalunya
wins Pais Vasco
wins Burgos
wins Vuelta

Definitely not first, and that's all that matters....not even a podium imo.

 

[42x16ss]

I want to see what happens at the Vuelta, Worlds and Autumn classics before making too big a call. If someone else who has had a reasonable season already like Chaves or Contador were to win the Vuelta AND Lombardia for example, they could find themselves very much in contention from seemingly nowhere.

No one rider really stands above for me at the moment, but I'd have Sagan slightly ahead.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

With a monument or rainbow win GVA belongs to the group, but as of now hes somewhat behind Sagan and Froome.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Sagan should win, but it will be Froome, the Tour winner almost always gets overrated in this competition.

 

[spalco]

Sagan without hesitation, unless Froome has a phenomenal late season (which I doubt).

 

[SKSemtex]

GVA.
yesterday he beat top riders of the world , including top climbers on their field. Practicly except Sagan and Conti everbody was there. Froome , Nibali, Valverde, Cance, Domoulin ....
Cream of the cream of cycling.
That was not 10 minutes or half of an hour of maximal efford. He had to go very deep to stay in those climbs with the best climbers of the word.
His performance is uncomperable with any other performance this year.
Lets be honest Sagan wins in spring classics, and green jersey competition are very predictible with his set of skill and power, the same as Froome's
yellow as there is a very small competition for them in theses races.
Only if Sagan wins the WC RR or Froome win GDL (he will nor ride of course ) can match the Grag olympic gold for me.