Who is your favourite rider ?

[Charlyghoul]

I’m thinking, while discussing the merits of current riders , who is your favourite rider of all time and why?
For me you can tell by the name that Charly Gaul is a favourite. I’ve not cycled competitively in a long time due to injuries but when I used to race i used to read about all the old champions of cycling and always liked Charly Gaul.
One reason was because I liked climbers and the mountains and he was one of the best there, even though I was probably best at time trials, if anything. Another reason was that he used to like racing in the wet and cold conditions, a bit like me. I always did better in the rain and was terrible in the sun and heat.
Other riders I like are Bartali, Merckx, Mcewen and Nibali.

 

[Valv.Piti]

My favorites throughout the years when I started following cycling in the mid 00's:
Michael Rasmussen, Alejandro Valverde, Jan Ullrich, Sami Sanchez, Tom Boonen, Wout, Pogi

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

Lachlan Morton, Puck Pieterse, my wife (as a cyclist, I am not making any type of other reference, so please don't read anything else in there). Not necessarily in that order.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Primož Roglič.

 

[Charlyghoul]

I started following cycling around then, watching Armstrong and Heras winning all the tours. I liked Valverde too and Petacchi, I had iles Balears and fassa bortolo team shirts…the other one I had was selle italia Colombia long sleeve jersey, that was the only I bought the others were gifts from family but the Colombia was a cool jersey I still have somewhere.

 

[Charlyghoul]

Roglic is one of my favourites of the last few years though I’ve not really followed cycling that much again until the last 2 or 3 years

 

[Peyroteo94]

90s - Orlando Rodrigues (my first hero), Cândido Barbosa ("Foguete da Rebordosa" - Our national Peter Sagan)
I just started to follow cycling regularly (international) in 2000 so these are my all time favorites (I will not put riders I "just liked")

GC riders:
Armstrong - a rider with his story, winning 7 Tours, the perfect fairytale. I still remember playing PCM in "US Pistol with Lance Nilstrong". Good old days.

Contador - The great one is probably the rider I loved the most. For me, he showed what is pure ciclismo (in GTs), I was used to cheering for a robotic team like US Postal with Lance and after a horrible 2006 (Lance retired. Operacion Puerto, etc), I had a glimpse of hope and life when Contador came to the spotlight in that Paris Nice 2007. Such a thrilling and exciting rider, who can't remember his fight against Rasmussen? Probably the best fight I ever seen in cycling. With Contador, I also lived my lowest moment as a cycling fan (even more than Armstrong's confession) when he lost the Tour in 2014.

Pogacar - just like Contador, he is agressive and he doesn't ride defensively. He is by far the greatest rider I ever seen and by a huge margin. As a rider he is everything I like as fan even if he is somewhat too good which leads to boring racing most of the time.

Classicomanos:
Bettini - for me, he represents the "old italian mafia" (Bartoli, Di Luca, Rebellin, Ricco, Cunego, Savoldelli, Simoni, etc) and "pure ciclismo". I enjoyed those italian riders, they were bold, they were crazy, they were pure racers and Bettini was all of this. Very attacking mindset, good sprint, very smart. Unfortunately he stole us a gold medal in Athens.
He also reminds me the World Cup and its jersey I simply loved. I miss to see him in that jersey.

Boonen - My favorite cobbled classics rider of all times. Loved to see how he used to ride on the cobbles. Only MVP matches him.

Gilbert - Biggest puncheur I ever seen (after Tadej). No one comes close to his level when he was in peak shape. Those vicious accelerations on Cauberg were something else. He was also a pure racer, able to contest any classic. A shame he broke his rib on AGR (he still won) after winning RVV. There is also his BMC years where he chose money and probably wasn't training a lot. He wasted 3 or 4 years there.

Sagan - A showman, such a huge character, so much panache on the bike. His palmares doesn't feel right when you look to his level and ability.

Sprinter:
Cav - The only sprinter I fall in love (SuperMario was likeable too). Huge personality, huge ability on the bike, I never saw a sprinter so crazy like Mark, he was 10 cm smaller than everyone and still bullied his rivals. His acceleration was remarkable. Probably the most enjoyable rider in interviews.

 

[Sandisfan]

Some of my Favorites including finding this place because of my Fandom of Sagan are Roglič, Contador, Pogacar. in general American riders but will root against them in particular race when I prefer others. Healy is Fun and there are so many riders I like Del Toro for one and too many to name here.

 

[scribers]

Some say I’m a pogi fan



They are right

 

[RedheadDane]

The one and only Goat Master:

Spoiler

 

[Vinther1991]

When growing up, I was absolutely fascinated with Erik Zabel, but that has fainted a bit over the years.

Some that I still remember with great fundness are:

Thor Hushovd - liked his versatility as a sprinter, and he was consistently good at the Tour. Just a joy to watch and seems like a genuinely nice dude.

Philippe Gilbert - What a punch, will never forget his 2011 season, was always hoping he would find that level again, he never quite did, but he certainly got some big victories. Still the only rider this century to win 4 different monuments.

Alberto Contador - Incredible fighter, loved watching his long range attacks. Especially remember the way he won the 2012 Vuelta and how he made the 2011 Tour entertaining.

Cadel Evans - Extremely recognisable and cool to watch, even if a bit defensive rider.

Chris Froome - First to truly make my jaw drop with some insane attacks in the mountains. And who wasn’t blown away by his attack on Finestre or the descent in the 2016 Tour. After the Armstrong scandal I was happy to get a Tour king again to replace the stained memory.

Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel - For the same reason, was annoyed watching Cavendish dominate so much, these two were the ones breaking the monopoly. I have come to appreciate Cav more over the years though. Kittel is probably still my favourite pure sprinter.

Primoz Roglic - Despite all the crashes, he is such a force to watch.

Mathieu Van der Poel - Hands down the best pure classics rider I have seen, he replaces Boonen by also being able to do well on hilly parcours like Amstel and LBL.

Jakob Fuglsang - An elegant rider, and seems like such a nice guy. Took him a while to live up to the potential though.

Tadej Pogacar - What’s not to like? He is such a phenomenon. Getting a bit tired of the dominance, but gotta appreciate greatness. Best rider at least since Hinault.

Jonas Vingegaard - Can at least challenge Pogacar on a good day, and denied him two tour wins. Also seems sympathetic.

 

[Gobbo]

My all time favorite rider is probably Jakob Fuglsang, since I am a Dane and for a loooooooooong period he was by far the most successful Danish rider. Also I like his personality. Always calm and with a sense of humor.

In the past I also liked Ivan Basso, Claudio Chiappucci, Contador and Carlos Sastre.

Among todays riders my favorite is probably Mads Pedersen. Vingegaard too, but his personality is cute and kind, but also kind of boring. He always says exactly what you would expect him to say and nothing more. Pedersen is much more funny and entertaining.

Among non-Danish riders I like Evenepoel, Van der Poel and also Pogacar. It is hard not to like such impressive riders, even though they are also opponents to my favorite Danish riders.

Being a Dane, I also follow the norwegian and nordic team, Uno X, a bit and I must admit that I also like a couple of the norwegian riders, especially Johan Abrahamsen and Tobias Halland Johannesen. They are both doing an amazing Tour this year.

 

[SafeBet]

Just dropping some names:

Simon Philip Yates
Moreno Moser
Santiago Perez
Peter Van Petegem
Elisa Longo Borghini
Wout van Aert
Joseba Beloki
Gilberto Simoni
Aleksandr Vinokurov
Alberto Contador
Diego Rosa
Thibaut Pinot
Superman Lopez
Christian Scaroni

And I'm probably forgetting a hundred or two.

 

[RedheadDane]

He always says exactly what you would expect him to say and nothing more

And apparently what you should always expect him to say (at least in Danish) is: "Det er klart at..."

 

[slim charles]

Having grown up with access to RAI [though I didn't live in Italy], it was hard not to fall in love with Pantani. Although I didn't really follow cycling that closely back then, but he was the first one. Also, Virenque, just because I saw him in KOM jersey. Could have been whoever, I just loved that jersey.

When I started actually following the sport, I loved Contador. But I would say my favorites are Nibali and Pinot. There are plenty others I loved, and, aside from Armstrong, I never really strongly disliked anyone [perhaps I was mildly annoyed by Froome], but the two of them are definitely the favorites.

Right now, Remco is probably the one I like the most.

 

[carolina]

My absolute favourite cyclist is Thibaut Pinot.

Following his career was an emotional roller coaster. You could feel his happy and his sad moments. The DNFs were particularly soul-crushing. He always felt very relatable, with all the ups and downs of his career. I still feel sad that he retired so early.

 

[Keldergoat]

Wilco Kelderman of course.

Man is a metaphor for how to live life. Crashed 254 times in his career, always got up, is cheerful despite never have won a single WT race in his life.

Fell in love with the sport in the 2010s era, so riders like Contador, Pinot, Sagan have a soft spot for me as well.

 

[pastronef]

any Brit (I'm Italian)
any Q36.5
any Ineos
G.Thomas
Campenaerts
Jorgenson
Alaph now with Tudor
Hirschi
Storer
Healy
Ayuso and Mas because of their haters
and many others

 

[P4rthen0n]

Current riders:
João Almeida
Pogacar
MVDP

Past riders (since 1999):
Armstrong
Mario Cipollini
Alberto Contador
Cândido Barbosa

 

[fenns]

Fabio Parra - great climber but looked like he suffered. Won a stage of the Tour in the Alps that took 8 and a half hours. Those were the days...

 

[Miha81]

Miguel Indurain - Absolute beast and first stand our rider I could watch as a young kid growing up
Marco Pantani - Kinda underdog in GC terms but I liked him a lot and cheered for him whenever I could
Jan Ullrich - There was something about him riding into shape and being clear number two rider of his time that made me cheer for him
Alberto Contador - The one that made cycling interesting again (at least for me)
Janez (Jani) Brajkovic - First Slovenian with at least small chance of some GC success
Thibaut Pinot - He is French, he was flamboyant, very good rider, lot's of up and downs,... (like my countryman would say: "Why not, ehh.")
Primoz Roglic - The one that put Slovenian cycling on map. Also very relatable person that almost whole nation loves.
Alejandro Valverde - What he was able to do in his late 30's and 40's. I always cheered for him.
Tadej Pogacar - Slovenian, absolute beast. Never imagined Slovenia will have cyclist like this (not even in my dreams).

There are many others I like. Hard to remember them all. MVD is phenomenal, Filippo Ganna, Mark Cavendish an absolute legend, Victor Campenaerts and Matej Mohoric (with both one emotional interview was enough and they have fan for life) and many more. In general I obviously cheer for Slovenians and try to enjoy this period in time for our cycling as I know it won't last forever.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

I used to be a big fan of Pogačar because of his attacking style, but I really can‘t stand dominance so that fell apart very suddenly during the 2024 Tour. Richard Carapaz is one of my favorite riders. I care a bit too much about German riders, used to be a big fan of Buchmann but his ego has gone the opposite way of his form for some reason.
Other than that I always find it easier to cheer for older riders because I know they won‘t have a long spell of dominance anymore. Roglič is rising in popularity with me as well because of that.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

any Brit (I'm Italian)
any Q36.5
any Ineos
G.Thomas
Campenaerts
Jorgenson
Alaph now with Tudor
Hirschi
Storer
Healy
Ayuso and Mas because of their haters
and many others

Mate the question is who is your favourite rider and you've listed half the peloton

 

[Dazed and Confused]

In recent times I've been a fairly loyal fan of Hoogerland, Pirazzi and Voeckler. The term "casual fan" can be used for a larger group of current riders. This group undergoes changes pretty rapidly. Zero attachment or loyalty, some would probably call me a bit of a whore in this respect.

 

[topcat]

1. Delgado
2. Nibali
3. Alaphilippe
4. Herrera
5. Breukink