Who is the most talented rider of the XXI century?

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

do you mean talented, or has the most diverse talents?

I suppose the latter would be "most complete". "most talented" is hugely subjective and pretty worthless.

Most complete is easy. Kwiatkowski by a country mile. There is nothing where he is really bad at.

Geraint Thomas could have a say, but I agree with you.

With a little help of the Sky magic potion this year. Wasn't so good in previous years

 

[Hyman]

For talent I mean natural talent,

For example which would be the palmares of Valverde with the "brain" of Bettini?

I mean Cancellara has accomplished as much as he could or more. Same for Boonen or Bettini in my opinion. Contador always wins when he is the strongest in the race.

But Valverde has been the strongest guy on lots and lots of races (several WC, Monuments) and has not necessarily win them.

For talent I mean the ability of Valverde to be banned for 1 and a half year and return winning and in the same shape he was before the ban. For talent I mean the ability of Valverde to be competitive and contesting for the win in every race where he rides (probably except the TdF) from January to October. For talent I mean not declining and being a top 5 rider from 2003 to 2015.

Valverde doesn't need to peak or an ideal age for being one of the best riders in the world. Others do. Cancellara and Boonen suck from April to October for example.

 

[Hyman]

My ranking of curren riders in terms of "pure talent" would be.

1) Valverde
2) Contador
3) Sagan
4) Cancellara
5) Froome

 

[ferryman]

Re: Re:

do you mean talented, or has the most diverse talents?

I suppose the latter would be "most complete". "most talented" is hugely subjective and pretty worthless.

Most complete is easy. Kwiatkowski by a country mile. There is nothing where he is really bad at.

Geraint Thomas could have a say, but I agree with you.

With a little help of the Sky magic potion this year. Wasn't so good in previous years

Come on, we all know no doping talk in this forum..

 

[BigMac]

Interesting, though of course people's lists end up being slightly biased. Without ranking it, I think it would go something like Valverde, Cadel, Cancellara first, as these are simply on another league. Beyond that I pretty much don't care, because I'd have to name riders I strongly dislike.

That said, SeriousSam is the one whose list I agree the most with .

 

[Bushman]

Re: Re:

do you mean talented, or has the most diverse talents?

I suppose the latter would be "most complete". "most talented" is hugely subjective and pretty worthless.

Most complete is easy. Kwiatkowski by a country mile. There is nothing where he is really bad at.

Geraint Thomas could have a say, but I agree with you.

With a little help of the Sky magic potion this year. Wasn't so good in previous years

Always looked to have massive potential though

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

For talent I mean natural talent,

For example which would be the palmares of Valverde with the "brain" of Bettini?

I mean Cancellara has accomplished as much as he could or more. Same for Boonen or Bettini in my opinion. Contador always wins when he is the strongest in the race.

But Valverde has been the strongest guy on lots and lots of races (several WC, Monuments) and has not necessarily win them.

For talent I mean the ability of Valverde to be banned for 1 and a half year and return winning and in the same shape he was before the ban. For talent I mean the ability of Valverde to be competitive and contesting for the win in every race where he rides (probably except the TdF) from January to October. For talent I mean not declining and being a top 5 rider from 2003 to 2015.

Valverde doesn't need to peak or an ideal age for being one of the best riders in the world. Others do. Cancellara and Boonen suck from April to October for example.

This. Valverde by some margin, then Boonen,Sagan,Cancellara,Contador,Kwiatkowski,etc.

 

[Angliru]

Is this La Pandera? If so I remember it well. Valverde had been dropped, fought back and won the stage.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re:

If this is purely about talent, clearly the only correct answer is Mathieu van der Poel

For the future yes definately. He's got so much potential to dominate all the classics (cobbles and ardennes) plus do a full cx season from October to Febuary.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Vino. Won a gt, won several hily classics, won tts and he even won the most famous sprint stage in any gt. Have won everything

 

[DBotero]

Is this La Pandera? If so I remember it well. Valverde had been dropped, fought back and won the stage.

Yes,Sierra de La Pandera https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcyGRyEIiwU

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

My ranking of curren riders in terms of "pure talent" would be.

1) Valverde
2) Contador
3) Sagan
4) Cancellara
5) Froome

Wouldn't put Froome up there in terms of 'pure talent'. My definition of 'pure talent' would be someone who is extremely gifted naturally. Yes Froome is clearly extremely gifted, but he clearly works so goddamn hard, which is why he's successful - but in terms of raw natural talent, I'd be tempted to put guys like Wiggins, Cavendish, Stybar, Cippolini, Pantani etc above Froome. Anyway, that list would probably be fine for 'this decade' but it looks like you haven't really considered the early 2000s

 

[Escarabajo]

This thread is comedy gold. Should ask instead who is your favorite rider?

 

[BigMac]

Contador is not a talented cyclist. He climbs, TT's a bit, and that is all. Maybe he is talented at climbing, but still doesnt change that he is a sort of one trick pony, in the sence that he can only perform in one type of race. Talented cylists are jacks of various trades, masters of pretty much all, and among those there is no place for the likes of Contador.

 

[Jspear]

Contador is not a talented cyclist. He climbs, TT's a bit, and that is all. Maybe he is talented at climbing, but still doesnt change that he is a sort of one trick pony, in the sence that he can only perform in one type of race. Talented cylists are jacks of various trades, masters of pretty much all, and among those there is no place for the likes of Contador.

The problem with this thread is it isn't very specific....it only asks who is the most talented rider of our current century. The word talented simply means gifted or accomplished; naturally inclined or disposed to (in this case) cycling. AC is EXTREMELY gifted when it comes to winning stage races. Now if the question was "who is the best all rounder" you would have a valid point. The op is asking a really broad question...you're going to get lots of different answers.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Chris Horner. Can do it all, one leg, half lung, half dead, no training, no race days, aged... it all doesnt matter... And now imagine him being 25, healthy, and full trained... He would win every GT by 10 mins+... The greatest ever

 

[LaFlorecita]

Contador is not a talented cyclist. He climbs, TT's a bit, and that is all. Maybe he is talented at climbing, but still doesnt change that he is a sort of one trick pony, in the sence that he can only perform in one type of race. Talented cylists are jacks of various trades, masters of pretty much all, and among those there is no place for the likes of Contador.

The problem with this thread is it isn't very specific....it only asks who is the most talented rider of our current century. The word talented simply means gifted or accomplished; naturally inclined or disposed to (in this case) cycling. AC is EXTREMELY gifted when it comes to winning stage races. Now if the question was "who is the best all rounder" you would have a valid point. The op is asking a really broad question...you're going to get lots of different answers.

BigMac is just showing his intense dislike for Contador and on top of that he also loves Valverde, ignore it. No one would deny Contador is an extremely talented stage racer except for some clinic posters like Big Doopie and FoxxyBrown.

 

[AussieBob]

Valverde for me with honourable mentions for Evans, Cancellara, Boonen and Wiggins.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

My ranking of curren riders in terms of "pure talent" would be.

1) Valverde
2) Contador
3) Sagan
4) Cancellara
5) Froome

Wouldn't put Froome up there in terms of 'pure talent'. My definition of 'pure talent' would be someone who is extremely gifted naturally. Yes Froome is clearly extremely gifted, but he clearly works so goddamn hard, which is why he's successful - but in terms of raw natural talent, I'd be tempted to put guys like Wiggins, Cavendish, Stybar, Cippolini, Pantani etc above Froome. Anyway, that list would probably be fine for 'this decade' but it looks like you haven't really considered the early 2000s

Hilarious!

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

do you mean talented, or has the most diverse talents?

I suppose the latter would be "most complete". "most talented" is hugely subjective and pretty worthless.

Most complete is easy. Kwiatkowski by a country mile. There is nothing where he is really bad at.

I’d say Evans.

huh?

Then he won the TDF, the WC, a Fleche, and is one of a fairly small group of cyclists to have podiumed in all three GTs, as well as to wear the leader’s jersey in all three.

What?

Forget "podiumed" all 3 gts, theres guys in the 20th century who have won all 3. I don't know why you mention palmares because if we look at palmares Evans would be lucky to scrape top 10. He has 1 TDF, 1 Worlds. 1 classic. 1 TDF stage. 0 monuments, 0 other gts. There;s guys in the peloton who blow him out of the water.

At his peak, he could climb, he could descend, he could TT, he could win bumpy stages, he could win uphill sprints, he could even win flat sprints if there was no world-class competition. Before he even became a roadie, he won mountain bike championships.

The same could be said for 2 or 3 dozen other riders from the last decade. Most weren't as good as Evans but then plenty of them were better. And almost all showed these talents on a more frequent basis.

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

My ranking of curren riders in terms of "pure talent" would be.

1) Valverde
2) Contador
3) Sagan
4) Cancellara
5) Froome

Wouldn't put Froome up there in terms of 'pure talent'. My definition of 'pure talent' would be someone who is extremely gifted naturally. Yes Froome is clearly extremely gifted, but he clearly works so goddamn hard, which is why he's successful - but in terms of raw natural talent, I'd be tempted to put guys like Wiggins, Cavendish, Stybar, Cippolini, Pantani etc above Froome. Anyway, that list would probably be fine for 'this decade' but it looks like you haven't really considered the early 2000s

On what exactly do you base the idea that Froome works harder than anyone else ?

 

[ray j willings]

I would say Boris Johnson.
You can see the power he puts down riding away from journalists.
David Cameron runs BoJo close but can't climb as well.
If Andrew Mitchell could have controlled his temper he could have been the greatest ever.

I also think that with natural talent, fantastic genetics etc and nice hair anyone one of us could be a champion.

 

[ray j willings]

Re: Re:

My ranking of curren riders in terms of "pure talent" would be.

1) Valverde
2) Contador
3) Sagan
4) Cancellara
5) Froome

Wouldn't put Froome up there in terms of 'pure talent'. My definition of 'pure talent' would be someone who is extremely gifted naturally. Yes Froome is clearly extremely gifted, but he clearly works so goddamn hard, which is why he's successful - but in terms of raw natural talent, I'd be tempted to put guys like Wiggins, Cavendish, Stybar, Cippolini, Pantani etc above Froome. Anyway, that list would probably be fine for 'this decade' but it looks like you haven't really considered the early 2000s

On what exactly do you base the idea that Froome works harder than anyone else ?

He never said he works harder than anyone else. He just works hard which is fair comment.

 

[The Hitch]

Contador is not a talented cyclist. He climbs, TT's a bit, and that is all. Maybe he is talented at climbing, but still doesnt change that he is a sort of one trick pony, in the sence that he can only perform in one type of race. Talented cylists are jacks of various trades, masters of pretty much all, and among those there is no place for the likes of Contador.

On a World Tour level alone Contador has won something like 7 tts including 2 in a gt, podiumed a dozen or so more, came 4th in the olympics.

Think of something else because saying climbing is his only trick just doesn't work nor make any sense.

 

[Echoes]

Contador is just a better time-trialist than other climbers and performed in climbing ITT's like every climbers do. 4th at the Olympics? lol. What was the Peking route like?

BigMac is right. Vayer noticed that since his come-back, Contador has never won a single ITT. He might be a better time-trialist than Quintana, he's nothing compared to Cancellara or Malori. Since the ITT is THE indicator of the engine of a rider, the best ITT'ists are the most talented riders. So Cancellara is the answer.


By the way, Mac, I wouldn't describe Evans as a really talented rider (though he's more than many others of course). He seems like a rider who made the most of relatively limited talent, thanks to amazing mental hardness, getting very deep. And that's a good thing.