Who is your Men's Rider of the Decade?

[Squire]

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...

By that metric, Steven Bradbury would be the greatest short track speed skater of all time.

 

[SHAD0W93]

By that metric, Steven Bradbury would be the greatest short track speed skater of all time.

Even further metric, if you ask them to name any cyclist than it'll be Armstrong(especially here in America. I have plenty of people who I say "oh like Armstrong" when I say I watch cycling).

 

[Marek]

By that metric, Steven Bradbury would be the greatest short track speed skater of all time.

I didnt say fame is only metric, but that it should also be considered...

 

[Red Rick]

By that metric, Steven Bradbury would be the greatest short track speed skater of all time.

Spoiler: Wee bit off topic

Damn what a legend. Didn't he get last in the semifinal and qualify because of crashes too?

 

[tobydawq]

Spoiler: Wee bit off topic

Damn what a legend. Didn't he get last in the semifinal and qualify because of crashes too?

Yeah, something similar happened in the semi-finals AND quarter-finals as well.

Edit: In the quarter-final he proceeded thanks to a DQ. The semi-final was the same story as the final.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Fame does not equal greatness by any stretch of the imagination

It garnishes Sagan’s sporting achievements.

 

[SafeBet]

If I ask my non-cycling friends to name one cyclist they will all say Pantani. He should be included in the poll.

 

[Breezy1985]

Fame does not equal greatness by any stretch of the imagination

No but it helped footballers like Cantona and George Best live on much longer than their playing careers. Personality helps when looking back on periods from the future

 

[Blanco]

No but it helped footballers like Cantona and George Best live on much longer than their playing careers. Personality helps when looking back on periods from the future

That doesn't make them a better players though...

 

[Blanco]

I have one question here, it's not related to the topic though, but we argued about the matter several times in this thread. It's about big wins only vs all wins and results, one of my favorite subjects lately...
For example, I'd like to know, who would be the best Dutch cyclist of all time?
I have four names in mind, Jan Janssen, Joop Zoetemelk, Hennie Kuiper and Jan Raas.
Zoetemelk has the least big wins out of them - 3
Jan Janssen has 4, Kuiper and Raas both have 5.
But somehow Zoetemelk tops the list for me, mostly because of his impressive TDF record, so I'm curious does anybody else thinks that too, or the big wins holds advantage over podiums and consistency?

 

[Red Rick]

I have one question here, it's not related to the topic though, but we argued about the matter several times in this thread. It's about big wins only vs all wins and results, one of my favorite subjects lately...
For example, I'd like to know, who would be the best Dutch cyclist of all time?
I have four names in mind, Jan Janssen, Joop Zoetemelk, Hennie Kuiper and Jan Raas.
Zoetemelk has the least big wins out of them - 3
Jan Janssen has 4, Kuiper and Raas both have 5.
But somehow Zoetemelk tops the list for me, mostly because of his impressive TDF record, so I'm curious does anybody else thinks that too, or the big wins holds advantage over podiums and consistency?

Actually, Zoetemelk doesn't have more podiums in the biggest races (9) than Jansen (9), Kuiper (10) or Raas (10). So the gap in big wins vs consistency is actually far smaller here. Especially considering the guys who won 3 and 4 tier 1 races actually won the Tour.

Between the 4, Zoetemelk was funnily enough the closest to a July tard by far. Between the 4, the guy consistently winning was Jan Raas.

 

[SKSemtex]

It is really hard to pick up between Froome and Sagan. I think that the results of Froome are higher that Sagan's ones. On the other hand, as was mentioned in this conversation before, Froome is the product of Sky factory - by far the best GT orientated cycling team of the decade and it is questionable what would be his palmiers in any other team.

Can someone imagine Sagan´s palmiers being the part of WULFPACK?

For me, the most impressive palmier of Sagan is his podium ratio in TOUR which is close to 1/3 achieved with very medium support of his team.
If sagan won one more monument or WCRR it would be him, if Froome one more GT it would be Froome. Now it is a pretty fair draw for me.

 

[memyselfandI]

This one is closed but here's one more for Cav. .

For me he's the ultimatum of sprinter, even measured against level these days, I dare to say there's no substitute against his best days, not even close. And it's getting busy for Peto to pack it up againts total wins of Cav, remember Peto told something like he can see retirement looming somewhere there. No hard feelings for Sagan tough, he's one of the big three (others being Bala and Cav) and the onlyone who can drum triplets in RWC shuffle..

Pure GC contenders don't do things these three do. Then again 2013 Tour Stage 13 Saxo & Alberto aso..nevemind. They're all superheroes!

 

[Red Rick]

It is really hard to pick up between Froome and Sagan. I think that the results of Froome are higher that Sagan's ones. On the other hand, as was mentioned in this conversation before, Froome is the product of Sky factory - by far the best GT orientated cycling team of the decade and it is questionable what would be his palmiers in any other team.

Can someone imagine Sagan´s palmiers being the part of WULFPACK?

For me, the most impressive palmier of Sagan is his podium ratio in TOUR which is close to 1/3 achieved with very medium support of his team.
If sagan won one more monument or WCRR it would be him, if Froome one more GT it would be Froome. Now it is a pretty fair draw for me.

Laughs in Devolder