Who is your favourite rider ?

[Cance > TheRest]

A select few riders stand out significantly for me. These are the riders whose performances and personas I have looked especially up to.

Fabian Cancellara - Easily nr. 1 on my list. His performances in time trials and classics in the late 2000s were what dragged me fully into cycling, as the grand tours was mainly what I was following before. Even with the current 'golden' generation in mind, I have yet to see a rider as powerful and elegant at the same time as prime-Cancellara.

Roberto Heras - My favourite climber of all time. I always look back with nostalgia on the time where Heras rode for Postal as super dom for Lance, and his time with Liberty Seguros when he rode to spectacular victories in some epic editions of La Vuelta. In my opinion, he was the archetype of a real climber.

Jakob Fuglsang - I really fell in love with Jakobs style and persona, when he rode to 6th in Dauphiné 2009, in particular the stage to Saint Francois Longchamp. The fact that he never really delivered big in the grand tours was intriguing to me and made his other big victories in LBL and Dauphiné that much sweeter.

Alberto Contador - Love-hate-love relationship with AC, as I initially liked him when he rode as a young rider for Liberty Seguros riding alongside Heras, Jacksche and co. I since then sided with Schleck in their short rivalry, but as Sky started to dominate the Tour, I found myself a Contador-fan once again. In the 2010s Contador's role as the opportunist and underdog really appealed to me.

I don't feel the same attachment to any riders before the 2000s probably because I was too young at the time to have any memory of them. And in the latter years (2020 to now), no rider has really struck a chord with me.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Current - Carapaz, Hates, Alaphilippe, Soler, Wilco, Freddie, Scaroni, Ayuso, Widar, Champoussin, Matthew, De Lie, Movistar Lazkano, Gaviria. I am warming to Lipowitz too, I’ve seen him put in some brain dead attacks that show real promise.

Was going to put riders like Sainbayar and Moreira too but i didn’t want to get accused by you lot of “defaming the sanctity of the thread by putting in stupid hipster choices.”

 

[AnotherArmChair]

The Shark, The Shark, The Shark, The Shark, The Shark, The Shark...oh did i mention The Shark

Of current riders I like
Ben Healy
Pello Bilbao
Matej Mohorič
Victor Campenaerts
All the Americans in WT ( they are all cool)

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Current:

Fausto masnada
Mikel Landa
Julien Alaphilippe
Tim merlier the Belgian horse
Victor langelotti
Pello Bilbao
Cristian Scaroni
Esteban Chaves

I honestly like a lot of riders, generally attacking riders, but those are the main ones

Former:

Vincenzo Nibali
Purito Rodriguez
Pozzovivo
Bardet
Sagan (although I was very young and probably wouldn't be a fan of him if he was born 10 years later)
Andre Greipel
Gilbert
Lucien van impe
Christophe bassons

 

[aruipksni]

dudes that i really loved to see winning:
Alberto Contador "the gunfighter"
Cadel Evans "the little engine that could"
Vincenzo Nibali " the shark of Massina"

i really enjoy Chris Horner's podcast - this guy is always near the money, and is funny and very articulate.

 

[Peyroteo94]

Current riders:
João Almeida
Pogacar
MVDP

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

Another portuguese fella!

 

[rodanafrenteguigs]

Almeida ( any portuguese cyclist basically)
Pogi
Philipsen
VDP
Marlen Reusser since she moved away from SD Worx

 

[OJRvE]

Jenny Rissveds not just because she is the only decent Swedish Bike rider but she is actually very likeable with her sense of humor, how she had been open with her vulnerability, her respect to the other girls in the circus not to mention her technical skillset especially over the roots.

I also like the breakaway specialists in the past like de Gendt and Voeckler (also liked his funny faces). In today’s peloton I am not having a clear favorite but I guess I like guys like Asgreen, Cavagna, Mohoric a bit more then the rest. Also have a soft spot for Soler since his Movistar days. But he is not a fun now as the most dedicated Pogacar domestique.

 

[Gratemans]

I've never been a die hard fan of any rider, but I do have my preferences.
Nibali, Contador, Purito, Vinokourov, Terpstra, Pinot, Sagan, Bardet, MvdP to name a few.

 

[dampframme]

When I started following cycling it was Evans, then during the Sky years Quintana as he seemed to be the only one that could break their dominance from time to time. With Quintana I started also liking Movistar and spanish riders like Valverde, Purito, now Mas but my favorite right now is Carapaz because of his attacking and never give up mindset. Others I liked over the years were Nibali, Greipel, Sagan, Cancellara.

 

[Nerlo]

I have always had a soft spot for pure climbers. My favourite getting into cycling was probably Igor Anton and Piepoli (until it became obvious).

These days it's whoever dare to make the race.

 

[SHAD0W93]

In order at this time:
Mark Cavendish
Tadej Pogacar
Andreas Klöden
Alberto Contador
Jan Ullrich
Joao Almeida
Remco Evenepoel
Andy Schleck
Alejandro Valverde
Roman Kreuziger
Andre Greipel
Thibaut Pinot
Fabian Cancellara
Damiano Cunego
Jasper Philipsen
Primoz Roglic
Matteo Jorgenson
Ivan Basso
Joaquin Rodriquez

The only constant likes since I started watching or their career has started have been Mark Cavendish, Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, and Andy Schleck. I didn’t use to like Contador due to 2009 being the first Tour I watched from Armstrong returning but by 2011 he grew and continued to grow on me. The others all grew on me with time.

 

[jmdirt]

If I have to choose one...MvdP, but I love this entire crew of guys who like to race hard all day! As I like to say: I love it when a racer TAKES a race!

Favorite of all time? That's a tough call for me...

 

[jono]

Current riders: MVDP, Puck Pieterse, Turgis. Like many others I admire Pogacar's style of racing, but his dominance has ceased to be exciting or interesting. The Holmgren sisters and most other Canadian riders.

Past riders: Dumoulin, Kittel, A. Schleck.

 

[CalMacD]

As a kid all I knew was the Tour and the Olympics so for me it was Stephen Roche, Pedro Delgado, Greg Lemond and Miguel Indurain. Loved watching Djamolidine Abdoujaparov sprint as you just never knew what he would do next. Being Scottish I favoured Graeme Obree in his battles with Chris Boardman and latterly Chris Hoy on the velodrome.

It wasn't until the early 2010s I discovered what I'd been missing out on with the classics and to a lesser extent the other GTs. Cancellara was without doubt my favourite - his run of consecutive podiums in monuments coincided with my growing interest and I just found him phenomenal to watch. In the grand tours I did a 180 on Contador who I'd previously disliked, as his swashbuckling style was entertaining.

My favourite rider these days is MVDP - I will watch any race he's a part of, even the odd MTB appearance in which he always seems to crash out in the first lap!

Pogi is of course phenomenal but he's just too good and I'm getting a little tired of it. If it weren't for the aforementioned MVDP he'd likely have won 6 monuments in a row ( 2 last year and all 4 so far this year) AND being in the driver's seat entering the last week in the tour. I wish he had some more competition.

 

[BigL]

Fignon, Perico and Coppi.

 

[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.

Forgot to add in general a fan of Portuguese riders being Portuguese decent, though by my time not very indoctrinated to that culture. Though only seeing the later part of Rui Costa's career wasn't so fond of his approach as a wheel sucker though as we know that can be very successful and in his case and others sometimes it wouldn't have changed the outcome to pull a little more. But as always not wedded to only cheering for those riders.

 

[zlev11]

juan jose cobo

 

[Charlyghoul]

Cancellera I always wanted to win the classics. Vinokourov i liked too. Can’t say I was a big fan of Cavendish, great sprinter of course.

 

[Tonton]

Thibaut Pinot.

Honorable mentions to others, starting with Merckx at the last stage in '75, Hinault at times, Fons De Wolf, Sean Kelly, Greg LeMond. Chiappucci was fun. Then Virenque... Nibali, Bardet, Birdsong.

Thibaut Pinot.

Honorable mentions to Teddy Merckx for winning so much, I love Remco, Allez Matthieu! Merci Julian, Martinez Gen 3, I love it, and Paul Seixas is the real deal..

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

I guess these are the riders I do/did enjoy/root for/hold a soft spot for(in no particular order)

Primoz Roglic
Mark Cavendish
Julian Alaphilippe
Sepp Kuss
Magnus Sheffield
Biniam Girmay(though not like his Eritrean fanbase)
Van Der Poel
Ben O Connor
Vincenzo Nibali
Romain Bardet
Made Pedersen
Arnaud De Lie

 

[Lorzenz08]

Ivan Basso
Alberto Contador
Romain Bardet
And now my favorite of all time : Tadej Pogacar

 

[elguapo]

Ivan Basso
Alberto Contador
Romain Bardet
And now my favorite of all time : Tadej Pogacar

Carlos Rodriguez with his Engineering degree with two majors, Bardet, Cunego and any professional cyclists who pursued their college degrees while competing or after their cycling careers.

 

[peterfin]

My current favorite rider is Evenepoel and my former favorite riders are Delgado, Museeuw, Ullrich and Van Avermaet. If I need to pick one during the 40 years I am watching cycling it would be Evenepoel.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

1. Delgado

A Corkman's instinctive dislike of Dubliners runs deep...