Who is the most underrated rider

[Libertine Seguros]

Benoît Vaugrenard - never really thought of as a threat but has amassed a pretty solid bank of results of late

Ángel Vicioso - never fails to bring in the results. In fact his performances for April were among the top performers out there

Vasil Kiryienka - now that he's spent a lot of his time as Valverde's minder we forget that he's a super rider in his own right, very aggressive and will kill himself over and over for you

Juanjó Cobo - oh, if only he had the self-confidence or willingness to ride for himself.

Samuel Dumoulin - oft-forgotten in the realms of French domestic riders but is always compiling results.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Vaugrenard is a good one. Always up there in hilly races just in or outside the top 10, but never noticed by the public.

Fedrigo is also underrated, very inconsistent but when he has his day....

 

[spanky wanderlust]

This a noble ideal for a thread, but the fog of relative anonymity makes it hard to refute many of the suggested names.

If I suggest Noowan Effirhurdivuum as a candidate you will just shake your head a think "Well he certainly doesn't get any press, but does he really deserve it?"

hahahaha! don't diss my man noowan! he's gonna be a star in this sport. mark my words.

 

[turtlesoup]

Mark Renshaw, im sure hes prideful in "being the best lead out man in the business" but he would be a powerful sprinter in his own right. Half the stages cav takes are only because he goes around renshaw out of formality.

 

[trompe le monde]

Was Przemysław Niemiec mentioned already? If not, now he is.

 

[ericthesportsman6]

Joaquim Rodriguez, Ezequiel Mosquera, Juan Jose Cobo, Kevin Seeldrayers, Bjorn Luekemans

 

[Michielveedeebee]

bjorn leukemans

 

[Zoncolan]

Vasil Kiryienka - now that he's spent a lot of his time as Valverde's minder we forget that he's a super rider in his own right, very aggressive and will kill himself over and over for you

This guy is worth his weight in gold. One of the best domestiques in the peloton. Furthermore, if he was allowed to ride for himself, he could win a classic IMO, and get a top 10 finish at a GC (Vuelta most likely).
As far as people who know their cycling probably not that underrated, but as far as the media go, flies under the radar completely.

@trompelemonde: as far as Niemiec is concerned, I would like to see him sign with a bigger team and enter some big races. Always very strong in the medium size races in Italy. Huge potential IMO.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

I can agree with most names here, but I think you forgot about Jan Kuyckx, The guy raced good, was a lot in marathonescapes, then got second in Paris-Tours after Gilbert(in 2008). But he didn't even get signed again at any team??? someone explain that

 

[Barrus]

bjorn leukemans

Really? He is underrated now? It seemed after the classics that everyone was pretty vocal in their agreement that he was one of the most constant performers at them. If I would choose someone from Vacansoleil I would choose Marco Marcato

 

[p e t e r]

@trompelemonde: as far as Niemiec is concerned, I would like to see him sign with a bigger team and enter some big races. Always very strong in the medium size races in Italy. Huge potential IMO.

Niemiec was a guest commentator of Polish Eurosport for one day during one of the Giro's mountain stages - he mentioned he hopes to sign a contract with a team that will assure him of riding the Giro next year. It's his big dream.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Really? He is underrated now? It seemed after the classics that everyone was pretty vocal in their agreement that he was one of the most constant performers at them. If I would choose someone from Vacansoleil I would choose Marco Marcato

He was before the classics season

 

[issoisso]

Really? He is underrated now? It seemed after the classics that everyone was pretty vocal in their agreement that he was one of the most constant performers at them. If I would choose someone from Vacansoleil I would choose Marco Marcato

This.

In fact, I'd say he's overrated, since people at this point consider him a very good rider. He did well because for once he just followed wheels and therefore it was just a case of his legs which, yes, are very good. However, whenever his head comes into it, he's dead meat. Tactically, his idiocy never ceases to amaze.

 

[Michele]

Really? He is underrated now? It seemed after the classics that everyone was pretty vocal in their agreement that he was one of the most constant performers at them. If I would choose someone from Vacansoleil I would choose Marco Marcato

Agree with you, Marcato is for sure underrated and can't see why no ProTour team wouldnt take him.
Althought by talking directly to the guy (he doesnt live too far from my place) he said that he's very happy where he is.

 

[dancing on pedals]

judging on races ive seen this year i would say Robert Kiserlovski of Liquigas Doimo - to finish top ten in the Giro while working for Basso and Nibali quite outstanding performance; in fact possibly more impressive than the excellent performance by Richie Porte.
thanks

 

[ericthesportsman6]

judging on races ive seen this year i would say Robert Kiserlovski of Liquigas Doimo - to finish top ten in the Giro while working for Basso and Nibali quite outstanding performance; in fact possibly more impressive than the excellent performance by Richie Porte.
thanks

Definitely not. I notice your new here but I have heard those two names on this forum over the past few weeks hundreds of times as Potential future stars. I'm not saying that their not, but people have definitely noticed there Giro performances.

 

[craig1985]

Grischa Niermann anyone?

 

[karlboss]

IMO a lot of the second tier contenders (klöden, Leipheimer, Evans etc.) gets both under- and overestimated a lot. Quite a lot of people want to either elevate them to the top level or alternatively ignores their accomplishments altogether.

I'd agree with this.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Grischa Niermann anyone?

yeah a bit underrated in terms of being a real work horse. Great rider, whom works his a$s off.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Definitely not. I notice your new here but I have heard those two names on this forum over the past few weeks hundreds of times as Potential future stars. I'm not saying that their not, but people have definitely noticed there Giro performances.

yeah I agree.
They are young riders, whom hadn't shown a whole lot prior to this year, so how could we really underrate them? They have been getting lots of praise since the giro, rightly so.

I find it difficult to underrate/overrate the youngsters.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

If anything I find tony martin overrated by some.

This was my first thought also. But then again, he has produced some very good results. I think he's hard to judge because he is so inconsistant. He can have one horrible day and the next day destroy everyone (well, almost) in a TT. Some days he climbs rather well and the next day he'll lost 20 mins.

 

[aarnold517]

i'd say matteo carrara, although he may get more talk after winning the tour of luxembourg. but he's been fifth in setimanna two years running and was fourth a couple years ago in suisse, seems to be able to pull off good results in some of the week-long tours

 

[dancing on pedals]

Definitely not. I notice your new here but I have heard those two names on this forum over the past few weeks hundreds of times as Potential future stars. I'm not saying that their not, but people have definitely noticed there Giro performances.

Well I was comparing the one against the other in terms of achievement and recognition. I take your point.
In which case Björn Leukemans must be the outstanding candidate. Since he has already been picked i will go for Giovanni Visconti of ISD-Neri.
Not sure why no bigger team picked him up when he finished at Quickstep. However he rallied, came top of the UCI Europe Tour rankings in 2009, started 2010 well, great kit great bikes and STILL no invite to Giro.
So he heads off and wins Tour of Turkey.
Thanks

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well I was comparing the one against the other in terms of achievement and recognition. I take your point.
In which case Björn Leukemans must be the outstanding candidate. Since he has already been picked i will go for Giovanni Visconti of ISD-Neri.
Not sure why no bigger team picked him up when he finished at Quickstep. However he rallied, came top of the UCI Europe Tour rankings in 2009, started 2010 well, great kit great bikes and STILL no invite to Giro.
So he heads off and wins Tour of Turkey.
Thanks

The best thing about Visconti is that he will always try to enliven a race. His win in Turkey took about four days of trying to disrupt Columbia and their boredom train, the fun vacuum that is HTC strangled him a couple of times, but he was too intent on being entertaining and beat them. Thanks in no small part to Oscar Gatto, who perhaps also belongs here.

And Bartosz Huzarski, another great Polish rider on an Italian team, who's a real breakaway man.

Another couple - I calculated up the time gained in breakaways for the Tour and Vuelta last year, and only one rider was in the top 10 in both - Christophe Riblon. Rubén Pérez and José Iván Gutiérrez were the breakaway kings at the Tour, Pérez mainly to serve as a mountain helper for Egoi Martínez in the fight for polka dots, and he even won a sprint stage recently, so he's something of an under-the-radar all-rounder.

 

[theyoungest]

Just thought about Ezequiel Mosquera. Very strong climber who does well in every race he targets with limited team resources. He's also held back by which races he can enter, sadly, because he rides for an obscure-ish team. If the Alonso-Santander-Contador team gets set up this off-season I hope Mosquera is one of the guys they pick up and offer him a chance to shine on the big stage.

+1. He was arguably the best climber in last year's Vuelta.