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

[portugal11]

Sagan is better than vanmarcke over cobbles. I don't get this hype around him. Sagan did a tactical mistake in roubaix and boonen knew how to eliminate cance and sagan

 

[Breh]

lol

 

[Flamin]

Re:

Sagan is better than vanmarcke over cobbles.

Hahaha.

 

[trucido]

Re:

Sagan is better than vanmarcke over cobbled climbs. I don't get this hype around him. Sagan did a tactical mistake in roubaix and boonen knew how to eliminate cance and sagan

Fixed that for you.

 

[Gigs_98]

I wouldn't be so sure that this years Vanmarcke is better on cobbles than this years Sagan.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Vanmarcke is the easily the best in the current peloton over the cobbles

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

but still not enough to win, you said that they can finish strong but the best they could do was being beaten by a non-sprinter, cancellara, so where's the strong finishers

Cancellara is one of the strongest sprinters at the end of a tough race. He sprints more or less the same after an easy 100km or after a brutal 250km. So does GVA, so does Stybar and Degenkolb. Sagan doesn't.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Vanmarcke is the easily the best in the current peloton over the cobbles

Agreed. With Cancellara retired and Boonen fading (despite an impressive effort this year), it's not even close.

Brullnux is also correct that he doesn't have a really great engine or sprint (though he's not bad at either); but, even so, he's been very narrowly edged out from winning the race twice before. He's certainly shown he has the ability to win PR. Sagan obviously hasn't yet.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Though Sagan may have stepped his rouleur and endurance skills. No weird cracking and losing sprints at the end of races anymore. But in PR and MSR where he could've shown his improved rouleur and endurance skills best and where he has failed previously due to a lack of that, he didn't have the chance to show it.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Though Sagan may have stepped his rouleur and endurance skills. No weird cracking and losing sprints at the end of races anymore. But in PR and MSR where he could've shown his improved rouleur and endurance skills best and where he has failed previously due to a lack of that, he didn't have the chance to show it.

Except E3, Strade Bianche and that stage of the Tour when he got beaten by Matthews all this year. He still can't put out a really hard anaerobic effort or quality sprint at the end of a tough race. Fortunately he's realised that now (or at least has had it drummed into his head by coaches enough times) that he tries not to wait for the sprint anymore in the biggest races.

His problem at PR is that he isn't good enough on the flat cobbles to drop the rest of the field.

 

[MacBAir]

Re: Re:

Though Sagan may have stepped his rouleur and endurance skills. No weird cracking and losing sprints at the end of races anymore. But in PR and MSR where he could've shown his improved rouleur and endurance skills best and where he has failed previously due to a lack of that, he didn't have the chance to show it.

Except E3, Strade Bianche and that stage of the Tour when he got beaten by Matthews all this year. He still can't put out a really hard anaerobic effort or quality sprint at the end of a tough race. Fortunately he's realised that now (or at least has had it drummed into his head by coaches enough times) that he tries not to wait for the sprint anymore in the biggest races.

His problem at PR is that he isn't good enough on the flat cobbles to drop the rest of the field.

At E3 and Strade, he was a bit out of shape and there were some mental issues, due to 2015.
At the tour, you just have to be trolling. There's no other explanation. Every single rider that did 1/10th of what Sagan did that day would've lost that sprint against Mathews. And despite having worked 10x more, it was still more than enough to eat GVA...

 

[Brullnux]

He was not out of shape at E3, he won Gent-Wevelgem two days later. Nor was he that out of shape at Strade Bianche, he came second at Tirreno a week later.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Sagan has to do the double to be a contender

 

[SKSemtex]

Re:

Sagan has to do the double to be a contender

No he does not. He is already winer for the most people here according the pool and for those who does not agree should be enough beating group of BMC and Etixx riders on Sunday.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Though Sagan may have stepped his rouleur and endurance skills. No weird cracking and losing sprints at the end of races anymore. But in PR and MSR where he could've shown his improved rouleur and endurance skills best and where he has failed previously due to a lack of that, he didn't have the chance to show it.

Except E3, Strade Bianche and that stage of the Tour when he got beaten by Matthews all this year. He still can't put out a really hard anaerobic effort or quality sprint at the end of a tough race. Fortunately he's realised that now (or at least has had it drummed into his head by coaches enough times) that he tries not to wait for the sprint anymore in the biggest races.

His problem at PR is that he isn't good enough on the flat cobbles to drop the rest of the field.

This is the point where I disagree. He hasn't been good enough to drop everyone, but why do you know he won't be in the future. He improved a lot in classics this year but didn't have the chance to show how good he is in PR this year. Maybe he already would have won the race without the early selection.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Sagan is certainly the best rider in the current peloton, and has been again this year. But the problem is, at the end of the day, his only major win was RVV. Sure, GW and Quebec and 3 Tour stages are also big wins (and same goes for Eneco if he can take it away from Dennis & GVA). But it's not an overly special season. If we look at classics specialists just in this decade, Canc 2010, Gilbert 2011, Boonen 2012 and Canc 2013 all had more successful seasons than Sagan this year.

Meanwhile, Froome's results this season are probably the best for a stage racer since Pantani 1998, especially when you throw in an Olympic medal (yes, 1-2 in Tour-Vuelta is more impressive imo than Contador's Giro-Vuelta double given the gap in between)

That's why Froome deserves it this year unless Sagan wins the Worlds or Lombardia

 

[LaFlorecita]

Sagan is literally winning this poll by a landslide already and he'll have the opportunity to add some more results to his tally before the end of the year.
He should win, but that doesn't mean he will.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

Sagan is certainly the best rider in the current peloton, and has been again this year. But the problem is, at the end of the day, his only major win was RVV. Sure, GW and Quebec and 3 Tour stages are also big wins (and same goes for Eneco if he can take it away from Dennis & GVA). But it's not an overly special season. If we look at classics specialists just in this decade, Canc 2010, Gilbert 2011, Boonen 2012 and Canc 2013 all had more successful seasons than Sagan this year.

Meanwhile, Froome's results this season are probably the best for a stage racer since Pantani 1998, especially when you throw in an Olympic medal (yes, 1-2 in Tour-Vuelta is more impressive imo than Contador's Giro-Vuelta double given the gap in between)

That's why Froome deserves it this year unless Sagan wins the Worlds or Lombardia

First of all, Sagan is best rider in the peloton this year, but only this year. Previous years he was not the best. Among the best, he was, but on the top, he never was.

Second, you can't look only the biggest wins, or only wins for that matter. By that logic Degenkolb 2015 was better than Sagan this year, and that is very far from truth. Sagan had a superb season this year, he has 13 wins, Monument, 2 WT classics, 3 Tour stages + green jersey, high quality European Championhips, 4 WT stages + 2 TOC stages. He was 2nd in Tirreno GC, in E3, Montreal, Het Volk. That is one hell of a season! Not better than Gilbert 2011, and maybe Boonen 2012, but certainly on par with Cancellara 2010, and certainly better than his 2013 season.

And third, Froome had a phenomenal season, too. And I agree that he is the rider of the year...till now. But the difference is small IMO, and I think Sagan can reverse things in his favor.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Sagan is literally winning this poll by a landslide already and he'll have the opportunity to add some more results to his tally before the end of the year.
He should win, but that doesn't mean he will.

The majority of the votes are from just after the OG and before the Vuelta.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

Sagan is certainly the best rider in the current peloton, and has been again this year. But the problem is, at the end of the day, his only major win was RVV. Sure, GW and Quebec and 3 Tour stages are also big wins (and same goes for Eneco if he can take it away from Dennis & GVA). But it's not an overly special season. If we look at classics specialists just in this decade, Canc 2010, Gilbert 2011, Boonen 2012 and Canc 2013 all had more successful seasons than Sagan this year.

I completely agree. For the same reason I didn't understand why everyone was hyping Valverde's season last year.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Asking myself "would I rather have Froome's or Sagan's results this season on my palmares", I'd pick Froomes.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Asking myself "would I rather have Froome's or Sagan's results this season on my palmares", I'd pick Froomes.

While I also think Froome is ahead at this point, I think one has to consider more than race results in themselves. Palmares-wise, one could very well argue that Evans' season in 2011 was better than Contador's in 2009, but I still think most would prefer Contador's.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

First of all, Sagan is best rider in the peloton this year, but only this year. Previous years he was not the best. Among the best, he was, but on the top, he never was.

Second, you can't look only the biggest wins, or only wins for that matter. By that logic Degenkolb 2015 was better than Sagan this year, and that is very far from truth.

I would have mentioned Degenkolb 2015 in my post if I thought that

But I will say that if Kristoff had done anything after spring last year, that would also be comparable to Sagan this year

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

First of all, Sagan is best rider in the peloton this year, but only this year. Previous years he was not the best. Among the best, he was, but on the top, he never was.

Second, you can't look only the biggest wins, or only wins for that matter. By that logic Degenkolb 2015 was better than Sagan this year, and that is very far from truth.

I would have mentioned Degenkolb 2015 in my post if I thought that

But I will say that if Kristoff had done anything after spring last year, that would also be comparable to Sagan this year

He had 9 victories after Roubaix, including GP Plouay and results like WCRR 4th, Quebec 3rd, Hamburg 2nd.

 

[Flamin]

Re:

Sagan is certainly the best rider in the current peloton, and has been again this year. But the problem is, at the end of the day, his only major win was RVV. Sure, GW and Quebec and 3 Tour stages are also big wins (and same goes for Eneco if he can take it away from Dennis & GVA). But it's not an overly special season. If we look at classics specialists just in this decade, Canc 2010, Gilbert 2011, Boonen 2012 and Canc 2013 all had more successful seasons than Sagan this year.

Meanwhile, Froome's results this season are probably the best for a stage racer since Pantani 1998, especially when you throw in an Olympic medal (yes, 1-2 in Tour-Vuelta is more impressive imo than Contador's Giro-Vuelta double given the gap in between)

That's why Froome deserves it this year unless Sagan wins the Worlds or Lombardia

Sagan this year is clearly better than Boonen 12 and Canc 13. Unbelievable how one could think otherwise.