Who is your Men's Rider of the Decade?

[Blanco]

For me it's Tour, Giro, Vuelta, WC and then Monuments...

 

[tobydawq]

A thing I didn't consider much but has to be said in this discussion:

After Milano-Sanremo in 2010, Fabian Cancellara took part in 13 and finished 12 monuments in the rest of the first half of the decade.

He ended on the podium in Every Single One of them.

That's pretty tough to do better.

 

[Blanco]

A thing I didn't consider much but has to be said in this discussion:

After Milano-Sanremo in 2010, Fabian Cancellara took part in 13 and finished 12 monuments in the rest of the first half of the decade.

He ended on the podium in Every Single One of them.

That's pretty tough to do better.

If we take into consideration WC RR (and I don't see why not), Valverde also has a nice streak from Valkenburg 2012 until Lombardia 2015. Not quite like Cancellara, but still:
3,3,2,3,2,2,3,20,1,5,4

 

[cobblesandstones]

Without the sparkle of a doubt: Valverde

 

[Parker]

If we take into consideration WC RR (and I don't see why not), Valverde also has a nice streak from Valkenburg 2012 until Lombardia 2015. Not quite like Cancellara, but still:
3,3,2,3,2,2,3,20,1,5,4

The difference being the win rate. 45% for Cancellara, 9% Valverde. Which is the difference between them. Cancellara will race for the win, Valverde will wait to sprint for the best position available.

 

[Blanco]

The difference being the win rate. 45% for Cancellara, 9% Valverde. Which is the difference between them. Cancellara will race for the win, Valverde will wait to sprint for the best position available.

I've been there, done this, for a thousand times, guy won 130 races, a lot more than Cancellara, Nibali, and other so called winners, who always goes for the win, blah, blah...
You would think that a man who always goes for the win should have more victories than a man who goes for the best possible position, yet we have here a total opposite situation. Weird, don't you think?

 

[rick james]

Without the sparkle of a doubt: Valverde

Maybe if Froome and Sagan hasn’t been about

 

[Red Rick]

I've been there, done this, for a thousand times, guy won 130 races, a lot more than Cancellara, Nibali, and other so called winners, who always goes for the win, blah, blah...
You would think that a man who always goes for the win should have more victories than a man who goes for the best possible position, yet we have here a total opposite situation. Weird, don't you think?

Cav>Valverde

 

[tobydawq]

Cav>Valverde

Especially in this decade...

 

[Blanco]

Cav>Valverde

Yep, sure. Also Merckx>Cav.

 

[sir fly]

Yep, sure. Also Merckx>Cav.

Past decade?!

 

[Blanco]

Past decade?!

Every decade

 

[sir fly]

Every decade

Let's wait and see...

 

[tobydawq]

Durbridge > EVERYONE in this decade!

 

[Parker]

I've been there, done this, for a thousand times, guy won 130 races, a lot more than Cancellara, Nibali, and other so called winners, who always goes for the win, blah, blah...
You would think that a man who always goes for the win should have more victories than a man who goes for the best possible position, yet we have here a total opposite situation. Weird, don't you think?

Quality not quantity. Stage wins in Castilla y Leon and the Tour of Andalucia are nice but not equal to proper races.

 

[christopherrowe]

Quality not quantity. Stage wins in Castilla y Leon and the Tour of Andalucia are nice but not equal to proper races.

They're all good races Park.

 

[Blanco]

Quality not quantity. Stage wins in Castilla y Leon and the Tour of Andalucia are nice but not equal to proper races.

Half of his wins are WT, so I don't think your point stands...

 

[roundabout]

Froome won more WT races in the last decade than Valverde

 

[Forever The Best]

Maybe if Froome and Sagan hasn’t been about

Nibali >>> Sagan. Winning Tour de France and Milano San Remo is much diverse than anyone has achieved since the 90'ies let alone Sagan and he won at least one big race from 2013 to 2018 ( GT or a Monument ). I would put Nibali second only to Froome. And a couple of other riders like Gilbert are similar to Sagan in terms of achievements.

And no, not everyone is a fan of Sagan's personality either. ( This was a common argument I saw on the thread for some reason )

 

[Alexandre B.]

Nibali >>> Sagan. Winning Tour de France and Milano San Remo is much diverse than anyone has achieved since the 90'ies let alone Sagan and he won at least one big race from 2013 to 2018 ( GT or a Monument ). I would put Nibali second only to Froome. And a couple of other riders like Gilbert are similar to Sagan in terms of achievements.

And no, not everyone is a fan of Sagan's personality either. ( This was a common argument I saw on the thread for some reason )

It's not about being a fan, it's about what his antics - combined with his results and physical prowess - bring to the larger world of sport.

He also has won 71 more races than Nibali in the 2010s, and not cheap ones.

 

[Marek]

If I ask my non-cycling friends to name one cyclist, they will all say Sagan. Maybe some of them know Froome, but I would bet noone knows Nibali etc. So rider of the decade should not be decided only by results...

 

[sir fly]

If I ask my non-cycling friends to name one cyclist, they will all say Sagan. Maybe some of them know Froome, but I would bet noone knows Nibali etc. So rider of the decade should not be decided only by results...

If I ask my illiterate friends to name a Nobel prize winner in literature, they'll all say: "Andrić".
Some of them might name Solzhenitsyn, too.
Nationalistic sentiments and crutches of self-respect play a part, but no one serious would accept it as a valid argument.

 

[christopherrowe]

If I ask my non-cycling friends to name one cyclist, they will all say Sagan. Maybe some of them know Froome, but I would bet noone knows Nibali etc. So rider of the decade should not be decided only by results...

I understand the angle of approach that takes fame into account. The elephant in the room using that metric, though, is that a certain Texan was riding for Radioshack in 2010 (and rode the TdU in 2011). For what it's worth, I doubt any of my non-cycling friends have heard of Sagan. Heck, I doubt most of the club cyclists around here have heard of him. But then, I live in Kentucky!

 

[Red Rick]

If I ask my non-cycling friends to name one cyclist, they will all say Sagan. Maybe some of them know Froome, but I would bet noone knows Nibali etc. So rider of the decade should not be decided only by results...

Fame does not equal greatness by any stretch of the imagination

 

[Koronin]

I understand the angle of approach that takes fame into account. The elephant in the room using that metric, though, is that a certain Texan was riding for Radioshack in 2010 (and rode the TdU in 2011). For what it's worth, I doubt any of my non-cycling friends have heard of Sagan. Heck, I doubt most of the club cyclists around here have heard of him. But then, I live in Kentucky!

I live in North Carolina and can say the same thing.