Who is the most over rated cyclist???

[gingerwallaceafro]

I'm going to give B.Wiggions until after this years TDF to make a judgement...If he fails to podium(which i think he will fail)then i would say he is definantly overatted....And a douche bag too.

That's big of you.

 

[benpounder]

from your list kloden,he was on TDF podium couple of times and that was long time ago...other than that i dont really remeber huge results from him,but he was never a true leader so maybe thats why

This is the flip side to JoePapps thread about which big dogs should have retired and didnt. Kloden was the super-domestique that stepped up for T-Mobile when Ullrich faltered in 2004, and when Ullrich was denied in 2006 (moved up to 2nd when Landis...)

As such, I think the OP is forcing Kloden into a category that I'm not sure Andreas would want to occupy.

Now Brad Wigggins on the other hand... (those poll results must tick of the anglophiles here)

 

[spanky wanderlust]

someone already pointed this out. but i'll say it again. to be overrated, first of all, you have to have someone rating you higher than you probably should be. i belabor this painfully obvious point because some don't seem to understand this.

 

[karlboss]

someone already pointed this out. but i'll say it again. to be overrated, first of all, you have to have someone rating you higher than you probably should be. i belabor this painfully obvious point because some don't seem to understand this.

hear hear.

 

[gingerwallaceafro]

Hear hear.

 

[Yo Momma]

Tom Danielson , woulda ,coulda ,shoulda

 

[craig1985]

Dmytro Grabovskyy, Giovanni Visconti (I thought he was meant to take over from Paulo Bettini), José Rujano, Romain Feillu, Thomas Voeckler, Pierrick Fédrigo.

 

[Ferminal]

To choose one out of that list I voted Bradley W.

Could've easily voted Schleck though, he annoys me now.

 

[blaxland]

Dmytro Grabovskyy, Giovanni Visconti (I thought he was meant to take over from Paulo Bettini), José Rujano, Romain Feillu, Thomas Voeckler, Pierrick Fédrigo.

Definantley agree with Rujano and Visconti,both touted as GT winners..WTF?

 

[Ashtabula]

Certainly riders are talked-up, particularly in the English-speaking world, beyond their likely capability. But this seems to be a curse to the ones who are overrated.

What are they supposed to do, not take the money, when several times a month, at least ,well-known riders are killed or have their careers ruined, or at least their seasons, by training accidents and collisions? They don't know what they might be capable of until they try; I don't blame anyone for trying to step up. It seems the ego necessary for a rider to train and and put himself out there is going to think himself capable, maybe not of the highest performances tomorrow, but of being a lot better given an opportunity.

Here on this board we see the development of English, Australian, Dutch riders closely watched and hoped-for by their countrymen, always ready to get behind the next superstar. I'm an American, who has never felt that way about American riders, but it doesn't surprise or annoy me that other Americans do want the next great champion to appear.

It seems there is something melancholy about the careers of Leipheimer, Horner, Zabriskie, Danielson, Vandevelde, and a host of guys roughly their ages or a little older no longer riding. When the wonder was that an American like George Mount was riding in Europe at all, then these expectations were not waiting for every hint of promise.

Our riders have been the victims of the out-sized success of Lemond and Armstrong. Hincapie is about the only rider I can think of who's had a solid mid-level career with appropriate levels of respect.

 

[craig1985]

Definantley agree with Rujano and Visconti,both touted as GT winners..WTF?

I would say Visconti as a Classics winner, and he hasn't delivered, or otherwise he would be still riding for Quick Step or a better team then ISD (with all due respect).

 

[Mr.DNA]

Tom Danielson , woulda ,coulda ,shoulda

But that's old news by now. Who expects anything out of him anymore?

 

[Zerak-Tul]

David Millar. Gets an astonishing amount of column space around these parts, never really does anything above "half decent".

:edit: Lol, speaking of the devil, just saw this after posting

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/millar-hoping-for-overall-success-at-dauphine

 

[M Sport]

Wigans for sure. Come July he will be taking up more bandwidth, column inches and airtime than his ability can afford.

 

[Sasquatch]

Wiggins is definitely over-rated.

He won't even come top 5 in the TDF.

 

[tgsgirl]

Again the crux of it is, without spelling it out (!), the 2010 Tour hasn't begun so how is he overrated?

Without spelling it out... no wait, I'll spell it out. What he's yet to do has nothing to do with how people see him right now. How people see him right now is the sum of everything he's done in the past. Yet he somehow gets rated way above what the results show us he's done.

If he podiums in TdF 2010 he'll move one step closer to how is perceived*. But right how, what people (or the media. or some fans) think of him overrates what he's shown us he can do.

*where he's mentioned in the same breath as Sastre (1 GT win and 8 GT top 5s), Evans (6 GT top 5s), Menchov (3 GT wins and 3 GT top 5s) to name but a few. And you're lucky I didn't use top 10s for Sastre, or we'd be here all night.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

The question is who is doing the over-rating here - the fans or the media? The media loves to ram any english speaking rider down our throats - from Cuddles, Wiggins, Danielson, McGee and now Richie Porte.

Over-rating = media hype/number of wins

I don't think that the riders themselves saw or see themselves as the next big thing - or likely to win a GT.

If Harmon didn't keep touching himself up like a madman everytime an Aussie comes onto the screen I am sure I would look much more favourably on the likes of Cuddles, Porte etc

 

[Eyeballs Out]

David Millar. Gets an astonishing amount of column space around these parts, never really does anything above "half decent".

:edit: Lol, speaking of the devil, just saw this after posting

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/millar-hoping-for-overall-success-at-dauphine

Unless Millar is somehow equated with say Contador then I'm not sure in which way he's overrated - quite the opposite. He rides pretty much every race in the calendar without being invisible in any of them, he's won this year and he's kind of a jack-of-all-trades. If I'm a DS I'd love to have him on my team

To me the overrated riders are the ones you see a couple of weeks a year

 

[sublimit]

Wiggins and Millar have done well, i dont think anybody really expects them to win a major tour but getting a podium spot isnt impossible for wiggins, maybe not Millar as he tends to go for stage wins and helping his team mates.

Both riders have grabbed TT wins in the tours so they have the class, so to say they are overated is ridiculous.

 

[Potomac]

Both riders have grabbed TT wins in the tours so they have the class, so to say they are overrated is ridiculous.

It is not ridiculous to say Wiggins or Millar is over-rated. Wigans is a strong candidate for short time trials, Millar a strong candidate for most ITTs and a threat for a stage win in a break. That is the quality they have shown.

However if you read the daily thread for the Giro stages for the first two weeks Millar and Wiggans are consistently included in posts of overall GC position along with the serious GC candidates. The inclusion of their names over and over again as gc contenders, is what gives the status of over-rated.

 

[Nearly]

Overrated but measured against what rating? It would have to be against current expectations given those listed have hardly underachieved (as opposed to many who are not there).

Despite Wiggo's 'forgotten' late season victory in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour (actually he was very impressive but the opposition was hardly stellar) he has not done enough to suggest he is with a show to repeat his TdF performance last year.

Schlecklet is in the same boat despite the odd easy as you like burst in one or two of the classics but the Tour de Suisse could change things.

LA has been below adjusted lower par as well and Kloedi too although both are looming with some promise as the TdF approaches.

 

[Mrs John Murphy]

Nearly - spot on. Look at the way that the Uniballer coming 5th in a prologue of minimal quality was trumpeted in the media as 'a return to form'. I fail to see how beating Frank Schleck and Borut Bozic in a 3km ITT counts as a return to form. If he'd beaten Wiggins, FC, Dertie, etc ie noted TTers then the claim might have had some traction.

 

[badboyberty]

Arthur Vichot




Just kidding.

Gerdemann and Ciolek need honourable mentions, but I don't have a clear favourite for this poll (other than maybe Wigans, but he is so widely seen as over-hyped it's hard to class him as over-hyped anymore.)

 

[sublimit]

It is not ridiculous to say Wiggins or Millar is over-rated. Wigans is a strong candidate for short time trials, Millar a strong candidate for most ITTs and a threat for a stage win in a break. That is the quality they have shown.

However if you read the daily thread for the Giro stages for the first two weeks Millar and Wiggans are consistently included in posts of overall GC position along with the serious GC candidates. The inclusion of their names over and over again as gc contenders, is what gives the status of over-rated.

You must be gullible to read that stuff and take it seriously. Anyway Wiggins and Sastre performed well on the epic stage 11 at the Giro, So you cant dismiss riders like that.

 

[Anonymous]

Wiggans.
I can't believe sky built a whole team around him based on one performance.

they havnt...

anyway, as far as overrated goes i guess it depends on your expectations..

Lance is expected to win tours, he did that
Contador shouldnt even be on the list
Baby Schleck - has been somewhat dissapointing as a tour challenger, but done ok in the ardennes and will win a gt one day
Wiggins - the expectation is that he could podium this year, we dont know if he will, but so far as a rider I would say he has surpassed peoples expectations (ie nobody expected him to podium) or wear pink or attack (albeit stupidly) in the giro
Evans - tough one, ask anyone before the worlds and he would have got votes.. different rider since. may never win a GT though which would rate as very dissapointing all things considered
Basso - shouldnt be on the list imo
Sastre - is actually where my vote would go.. all the promise, is on a great team, but hasnt really delivered outside of inheriting a tour win due to the abscence of contador
Kloden - has this guy ever been that highly rated?
Menchov - another one who has probably exceeded expectations

so im going with sastre, has never fulfilled his real potential, outside of that one tour his palmares is actually pretty thin.