Who is the most versatile rider ?

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

If Sir Wiggo grabs the cobble in April, the discussion will be over.

I give him credit for a top ten finish but hes not even the strongest on his team

 

[PaPong]

why not Cancellara: TTs, cobbled classics, Milan San Remo and Tour of Switzerland.

Cancellara beat the peloton with McEwen, Hunter and other sprinters on the stage Tour de France 2007 in Compiegne, it was not sprint of Cancellara of course but it was such amazing victory of time trial cyborg

for me it was the most incredible victory I've ever seen

 

[Arredondo]

I give him credit for a top ten finish but hes not even the strongest on his team

Of course he's the strongest of his team. That was his first PR in nearly 10 years. Imagine what track record he would have if he focused on the classics since he was 20.

 

[Netserk]

Geraint Thomas is very versatile as well. Good ITT (especially short ones), good on cobbles and hills as well. Have done well as (an early) part of the Sky train in the mountains.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I give him credit for a top ten finish but hes not even the strongest on his team

who is talking about placements?

 

[Afrank]

Of the top guys, in order:
Kwiatkowski- sprint, short hills, classics, Stage races, TT, cobbles. Only Thing he doesn't really have is the ability to ride the long hills and GT's. Then again I wouldn't be surprised to see him become able to in the future.
Valverde-Sprint, GT's, long hills, short hills, classics, decent on cobbles, decent TT.
Nibali-Long hills, GT's, classics, cobbles (stages in GT's that is), descending, great tactical mind, decent enough TT. Crap sprint one of the only things he's missing.
Contador-long hills, short hills, GT's, classics, descending, good tactical mind as well. Like Nibs, missing that sprint (if only he would sprint in the drops!).
Cance-TT, cobbles, classics, descending, okay climbing at times.
Sagan-sprint, cobbles, classics, descending, decent enough TT, decent enough climbing at times.

Or course Vos does beat them all on versatility.

Can't see how Wiggins is really that versatile, he can do well on GT's and long climbs, good on cobbles, and has a great TT. His sprint isn't that great though, he won the stage of Romandie iirc? But if memory serves he just grinded out a harder tempo then the others (not really a full sprint IMO). He can't descend for sh!t (especially in the rain). And his tactics consist of tempo tempo tempo. Not any better on short hills then some of the other GT riders like Nibs or Contador.

 

[Coat-O]

Valverde, Kwaitkowski, Thomas, GVA, Westra, Tom Dumoulin, Nibali, Evans.

 

[samhocking]

Wiggins' is certainly the most diverse accomplisher, but not the most versatile rider. He's an Indurain, not a Merckx, but you do need to look back to a their eras of cycling to find a similar diversity.
I wouldn't count Nibali as very versatile rider any more. For the past 4-5 years he's clearly had to focus only on stage racing in order to be competitive in the GTs, so no wins of note outside stage races. He could be very diverse if his team allowed him to be though or he wanted to be.

 

[De Snelle Duif]

Kwiatkowski by a mile. The things he is worst at is sprinting and high mountains and he's still quite decent in both.

Is the currently active rider with the biggest chance of getting anywhere near of winning all the five monuments.

Gilbert already has 2 out of 5 and has been in the top 10 of all the others.

 

[Netserk]

Gilbert already has 2 out of 5 and has been in the top 10 of all the others.

Top-10 in Roubaix? What year?

 

[King Boonen]

Nibali-Long hills, GT's, classics, cobbles, descending, great tactical mind, decent enough TT. Crap sprint one of the only things he's missing.

You're giving Nibali cobbles? Really? Sure he did better on them than Froome and Contador but he'd never even be close in Roubaix or Flanders. As much as I love the way he rides a bike that's a massive stretch when talking about top performers in a variety of disciplines. His TT is also pretty questionable if you match him up against the real TT guys, although it's better than you would expect for a rider like him (same with Contador but Bertie is a level above).

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Wiggins is a joke, master of nothing

If your hatred for Brad is such that you can erase from your memory the fact that he's the current World and Olympic TT champion, you're probably best off avoiding discussing him, for fear of embarrassing yourself again.

 

[ray j willings]

Wiggins can do well on the track, in mountains (and hence GT's), in time trials, on cobbles and heck he can even sprint`a little. How is that not versatile?

Because he falls off in the rain and has worse handling skills than Andy Schleck. He will never win a one day race that has steep climbs.
He his a 2nd tier climber. This cobbles stuff has only come about because he has managed not to fall off. Wait until it rains. He will never win a classic.
His results do not show a versatile rider. They show a very lucky tour winning year where he got dragged around stage races wheel sucking his team mates with very weak competition. That's why he wont never win a GT again. Nibs destroyed him at the Giro. I doubt he would have made the top ten in any GT last year.

 

[Afrank]

Wiggins' is certainly the most diverse accomplisher, but not the most versatile rider. He's an Indurain, not a Merckx, but you do need to look back to a their eras of cycling to find a similar diversity.
I wouldn't count Nibali as very versatile rider any more. For the past 4-5 years he's clearly had to focus only on stage racing in order to be competitive in the GTs, so no wins of note outside stage races. He could be very diverse if his team allowed him to be though or he wanted to be.

Italian road race champs?

 

[Afrank]

You're giving Nibali cobbles? Really? Sure he did better on them than Froome and Contador but he'd never even be close in Roubaix or Flanders. As much as I love the way he rides a bike that's a massive stretch when talking about top performers in a variety of disciplines. His TT is also pretty questionable if you match him up against the real TT guys, although it's better than you would expect for a rider like him (same with Contador but Bertie is a level above).

Most definitely I give him cobbles. Maybe better to amend it as cobble stages though, as a stage in the Tour is nowhere near the difficulty of Flanders or Roubaix. And he really did perform incredibly on the cobbles, which I think would mostly be due to his technical skills and tactical sense.

I don't think any of the GT riders (Contador, Nibs, Valverde) would come that close in Roubaix or Flanders. But as far as cobble stages in GT's, thats another point of versatility for Nibali.

Similar story with the TT, compared to the other GT contenders he's decent enough.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I wouldn't count Nibali as very versatile rider any more. For the past 4-5 years he's clearly had to focus only on stage racing in order to be competitive in the GTs, so no wins of note outside stage races. He could be very diverse if his team allowed him to be though or he wanted to be.

Disagree wholeheartedly. He's tried to win Liège and Lombardia with very long solos - in the former case almost successfully. He's raced to be competitive in one-day races, if anything being too gung-ho about it.

 

[King Boonen]

Most definitely I give him cobbles. Maybe better to amend it as cobble stages though, as a stage in the Tour is nowhere near the difficulty of Flanders or Roubaix. And he really did perform incredibly on the cobbles, which I think would mostly be due to his technical skills and tactical sense.

I don't think any of the GT riders (Contador, Nibs, Valverde) would come that close in Roubaix or Flanders. But as far as cobble stages in GT's, thats another point of versatility for Nibali.

Similar story with the TT, compared to the other GT contenders he's decent enough.

You missed Wiggins out of your GT riders who could compete on the cobbles list on purpose?


Giving Nibali cobbles in any form, to me, is saying he could compete with guys like Sagan or Cancellara in this conversation. We're talking about people who can compete at the pointy end in multiple disciplines, that rules Nibali out on the cobbles.


Same with TT. Nibs is decent, but he can't compete at the pointy end. Froome, Wiggins and Contador at his best could.

 

[Coat-O]

Péraud could be a contender. Great TT, good in both hilly and mountainous terrain, fine downhill.

He was a decent mountain biker so he should do well on the cobblestones. He punctured twice on stage 5 last year, but could have been up there.

He has no great sprint or super explosiveness on Mur climbs, but that's his only weakness.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Mathieu van der Poel.



Inb4 Maaaaaaaaarten.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Based on achievements then Wiggins has to be near the top of the list.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Well, i don't think he can win Flanders and Roubaix. So that's 2/5 he can't win

Indeed. There's only 4 riders in the current pro peloton that could win all 5 monuments, and Valverde isn't one of them (it's Gilbert, Sagan, Kwiatowski and GVA). But Valverde can win a GT, and of those 4, only Kwia could ever do that.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Or course Vos does beat them all on versatility.

To be honest, there's no comparison. I think it's more fair to compare with the peloton in the '70s, when all the riders were versatile, but some were simply way better than others.

Can't see how Wiggins is really that versatile, he can do well on GT's and long climbs, good on cobbles, and has a great TT. His sprint isn't that great though, he won the stage of Romandie iirc? But if memory serves he just grinded out a harder tempo then the others (not really a full sprint IMO). He can't descend for sh!t (especially in the rain). And his tactics consist of tempo tempo tempo. Not any better on short hills then some of the other GT riders like Nibs or Contador.

Well, there's that. And then there's all the olympic medals.

And to finish: I would like to add Sven Nys to the list, since he's the only one I know that had good results in 3 disciplines (I count 2 top 40s in PR as a good result).

 

[grizzlee]

OMG 5 pages in and not one single person has mentioned Dan Martin. Won 2 monuments and podiumed at least another 5 and top 10 in the only grand tour he has targeted for GC.

Am I missing something here on why he hasn't even been mentioned?

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

OMG 5 pages in and not one single person has mentioned Dan Martin. Won 2 monuments and podiumed at least another 5 and top 10 in the only grand tour he has targeted for GC.

Am I missing something here on why he hasn't even been mentioned?

How is it versatile if you are very decent at riding a hill very fast?
(and what do you think monuments are, and how many there are?)

 

[Coat-O]

OMG 5 pages in and not one single person has mentioned Dan Martin. Won 2 monuments and podiumed at least another 5 and top 10 in the only grand tour he has targeted for GC.

Am I missing something here on why he hasn't even been mentioned?

That's nothing. Then you could mention Purito as well who is way better GC rider and climber, have several GT podiums, 2 monuments, podiums in most non-cobbled classics and stage wins in most WT races. And he is definitely NOT versatile. But Dan Martin is even less. He is a pure specialized puncheur.