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Who's the unluckiest rider in pro cycling?

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Ruby United

Ruby United

Jan 3, 2012
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Who's the unluckiest rider in pro cycling currently?

Can be In terms of both crashes or 2nd places.

Dan Martin springs to mind with crashes in Liege and Giro just over the past few weeks never mind before.

Rodriguez always seem to end up on the podium. The world's last year and so many grand tours to date for Purito (as well as this Giro) illustrates my point.

Even riders like JVDB who missed out on a podium in the tour twice and crashed out twice.

One other rider who comes up for me is mathew Goss.
Any other opinions?
 
The Hitch

The Hitch

Jun 14, 2010
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Eh Joaquin Rodriguez (aside from our fallen brothers of course)

Most of the other riders named in this list still have years left to try their luck. Dan Martin, really? So what he got a chain slip in Lbl he was unlikely to win at that stage, of which he was the defending champion. He's probably not even hit his peak yet and can keep trying any race je wants for the best part of a decade. Murito is slowly reaching the door of last chance saloon and every race he targets for a few years now things just conspire against him -
18 seconds in giro, largely his own doing but he could have easily eliminated Ryder if Ryder hadn't just emerged from nowhere in that gt
Contador getting banned in 2012 taking him out of the tdf and placing him into the vuelta murito would have won by a country mile.
Injured at amstel last year taking him out of that and his fw defence and weakening him for Lbl.
Crashed in tour though wouldn't have won anyway.
The Valverde betrayal.
crash at amstel ruins his last chance at both giro and a gt.
 
Netserk

Netserk

Apr 30, 2011
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For me getting 2nd in itself is not unlucky. Mechanicals at critical moments, injury and crashes (that primarily isn't the fault of the rider) is what unlucky is to me. In that regard Boonen is far more unlucky than Purito, and just because he has managed to do more than well anyway doesn't make him less unlucky.
 
Ruby United

Ruby United

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The Hitch said:
Most of the other riders named in this list still have years left to try their luck. Dan Martin, really? So what he got a chain slip in Lbl he was unlikely to win at that stage, of which he was the defending champion. He's probably not even hit his peak yet and can keep trying any race je wants for the best part of a decade.
Click to expand...
True, but up to date he's always had bad luck, whilst I agree that purito has had more bad luck, you can't ignore martins.
 
V

Von Mises

Aug 5, 2009
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The Hitch said:
Eh Joaquin Rodriguez (aside from our fallen brothers of course)

Most of the other riders named in this list still have years left to try their luck. Dan Martin, really? So what he got a chain slip in Lbl he was unlikely to win at that stage, of which he was the defending champion. He's probably not even hit his peak yet and can keep trying any race je wants for the best part of a decade. Murito is slowly reaching the door of last chance saloon and every race he targets for a few years now things just conspire against him -
18 seconds in giro, largely his own doing but he could have easily eliminated Ryder if Ryder hadn't just emerged from nowhere in that gt
Contador getting banned in 2012 taking him out of the tdf and placing him into the vuelta murito would have won by a country mile.
Injured at amstel last year taking him out of that and his fw defence and weakening him for Lbl.
Crashed in tour though wouldn't have won anyway.
The Valverde betrayal.
crash at amstel ruins his last chance at both giro and a gt.
Click to expand...

Is it Dan Martin´s fault that he has still many years left and Rodriguez not?

It was Rodriguez own choosing to be dom/stage hunter/ classics rider and not leader/GT racer. To say 4 years ago that Rodriguez will get second at Giro and 3rd at Vuelta, answer would have been Wow, super, not near miss.
 
A

Anderis

May 10, 2013
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If finishing 2nd is considered unlucky, then Rohan Dennis should be considered unlucky, since he finished time trials on 2nd position 7 times since early 2013, but won none of them.
But I don't think finishing 2nd is unlucky enough to put you in contention to be the most unlucky rider in the peloton. I would certainly prefer to finish 2nd than to DNF if I was a professional cyclist.

I can't agree that Rodriguez is unlucky compared to some other riders in the peloton. 2014 is his first unlucky year, but before that, he didn't seem to be affected by crashes, mechanicals or whatever you can call bad luck. Well, if you look at his career, he scored some good positions in almost all races he peaked for between 2010-2013. That's what many riders in the peloton dream of. He even has some great wins next to his name, including 2 wins in a monument, stages in all 3 GTs etc.

I think Hesjedal has been fairly unlucky since his Giro 2012 win. He came into TdF in good shape that year but was caught in crash. Then Giro 2013 and lungs infection, then crashing out from Tour de Suisse from 2nd overall, so his season was basically over. Then Giro 2014 and losing big amount of time in TTT without the slightest fault of himself while he seems to be strong enough to be in contention for top10.
And that's why he is seen as a one-race man, a one-off that couldn't repeat his Giro 2012 form, a flukey win by many, despite the fact he certainly was capable of achieving more in the last two years.
 
Afrank

Afrank

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Anderis said:
If finishing 2nd is considered unlucky, then Rohan Dennis should be considered unlucky, since he finished time trials on 2nd position 7 times since early 2013, but won none of them.
But I don't think finishing 2nd is unlucky enough to put you in contention to be the most unlucky rider in the peloton. I would certainly prefer to finish 2nd than to DNF if I was a professional cyclist.
Click to expand...

It's not so much a single 2nd placing. It's consistently placing 2nd in races, be it the worlds, LBL, or a GT. It's about seemingly always just missing out on a win that could have been his.
 
H

HSNHSN

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Afrank said:
It's not so much a single 2nd placing. It's consistently placing 2nd in races, be it the worlds, LBL, or a GT. It's about seemingly always just missing out on a win that could have been his.
Click to expand...
Somewhat like Zoetemelk in the past, that is - even though he managed to win the TdF, besides getting second six times.

More on-topic: I agree with several posters that Brajkovic scores pretty high on this list.
 
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