The Virtual Musette: A Road Cycling Blog

This article will complete the scoring system that has been developed to rank Top 25 Cyclists of the Modern Era. I outlined all the races that were part of the basic system in Scoring, Part 1; the assigned, or earned points, through that framework are what I will refer to as the “raw scores.”

As a refresher, points were earned by victories in the following ten categories:

The Monuments

The World Championship Road Race*

Classics/Olympics/Time Trial Championships

Semi-Classics/National Championships

Minor Tours

Grand Tours*

Grand Tour Classification Competitions (Mountains and Points)

Grand Tour Stages

Season Long Competitions

Bonus: The UCI World Hour Record 

*Points also awarded for podium spots.

After I had completed the basic scoring sheets** for all the top cyclists of the Modern Era, it was a lot easier to compare all the greats; I now had a nice snapshot of an entire career, as all their major victories had been grouped into these neat little categories (along with the points earned in each). Virtually every other historical source I’d consulted provided career wins (palmares) in a year-by-year format. When I began evaluating victories grouped by type of race, this new perspective started to reveal some rather significant lifetime achievements, which had been somewhat hidden by the standard yearly results format. Some of these career milestones are quite well known, and often discussed, while others may come as a complete surprise to even the most diehard of fans.

**(I’ll be publishing all the riders scoring sheets, which will include a biography, my commentary, points earned in each race and category, and all adjustments as outlined below. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to release these all at once.)

It was these hidden major accomplishments that convinced me there was far more to a cyclist’s career than simply the sum total of their victories. This may be stating the obvious when it comes to legends like Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, or Bernard Hinault, but I was really surprised by some of the significant achievements of the less well-known champions of the Modern Era, such as Jan Janssen (photo, left). In the final analysis, I felt that these special lifetime accomplishments actually warranted additional points, in addition to the raw scores achieved through victories in the most significant races. I know you’re not all going to agree with this approach, but I believe this solution provides a more accurate representation of a cyclist’s true standing in the pecking order of all-time greats.

I created three separate categories of Significant Lifetime Milestone Adjustments. So that no particular type of cyclist was given a leg up over another, there is one category for single day races, one for Grand Tours, and finally a combined category. Further, each category includes three Milestones. The general rule of thumb was that if there were more than seven cyclists who had achieved a particular Milestone up for consideration, I decided it was no longer unique, thus no longer “significant,” and it was eliminated from inclusion. Conversely, I didn’t want to choose Milestones that were so inclusive that only one or two cyclists made the cut (there were any number of special achievements that could have been created just for Eddy Merckx). The points awarded for each “bonus” were based on the number of cyclists who qualified for each Milestone. I spent months pouring over statistics and race results before finally choosing the nine listed below; this part of the scoring system was without a doubt the most difficult piece of this project.

I’ve also opted to award some extra points for record holders of the 12 most important races (after all, these are lifetime achievements, as well); these include the five Monuments, the World Championship Road Race, and all three Grand Tours. The extra points given were the same as those awarded for a single victory in each respective race (see Part 1).

Finally, I’ve decided to create a Missing Years Adjustment Formula, which is my way of compensating those cyclists who lost at least two years of their careers due to war, an injury, or an illness. The logic behind this decision has already been examined in great detail through an earlier series of articles titled The Missing Years – War, Injury and Illness, Parts 1-3. In the end, all cyclists that received an adjustment would still have made The Top 25 list (with one exception, which will be revealed when I publish the final rankings). The math behind the additional points that were awarded can be found below.  

Photo credits: Eddy Merckx, Pez/Cor Vos; Jan Janssen, Tour De France.nl; Felice Gimondi, La Lanterna del Popolo; Rik Van Steen Bergen, La Lanterna.

So, on with the final phase of scoring...

Significant Lifetime Milestone Adjustments, 10 - 15 points

1.  Single-day races

a)  Won all five Monuments, 15 points

          Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck

b)  25 combined wins in all major single-day race categories (Monuments, WC, Classics, and Semi-Classics), 10  points

          Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Van Looy, Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Francesco Moser

c)  Won 30 Grand Tour Stages, 10 points

          Coppi, Van Looy, Merckx, Freddy Maertens, Bernard Hinault, Mario Cipollini, Alessandro Petacchi

2.  Grand Tours (Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espagna)

a)  Won 8 GTs, 15 points

          Jacques Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault

b)  Won all three GTs, 12 points

          Anquetil, Felice Gimondi, Merckx, Hinault, Alberto Contador

c)  Won 8 Classification Jerseys (Points or Mountain, any combination), 10 points

          Bartali, Federico Bahamontes, Merckx, Lucien Van Impe, Sean Kelly, Laurent Jalabert, Erik Zabel

3.  Combined Category (single-day races + Grand Tours)

a)  Achieved at least one victory in every major road category (Monuments, WC RR, Classics, Semi-Classics, Minor Tours, Grand Tours, GT Classification Competitions, GT Stages, and Season Long Competitions), 12 points

          Louison Bobet, Ferdi Kubler, Jan Janssen, Merckx, Hinault

b)  Won 3 of any 5 Monuments and any GT, 10 points

          Coppi, Bobet, Merckx, Gimondi, Hinault, Moser, Kelly

c)  200 or more career road victories, 10 points

          Van Looy, Merckx, De Vlaeminck, Joop Zoetemelk, Hinault, Zabel 

Significant Race Records, various points

1.  Milan San-Remo, Merckx (7x), 3 points

2.  Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), Achiel Buysse*, Fiorenzo Magni, Eric Leman, and Johan Museeuw (3x), 3 points

3.  Paris-Roubaix, De Vlaeminck (4x), 4 points

4.  Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Merckx (5x), 3 points

5.  World Road Race Championship, Alfredo Binda*, Rik Van Steenbergen, Merckx, and Oscar Freire (3x), 4 points

6.  Giro di Lombardia (Tour of Lombardy)(5x), Coppi, 3 points

7.  Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy), shared by Binda*, Coppi, and Merckx (5x), 6 points

8.  Tour de France, Lance Armstrong (7x), 8 points

9.  Vuelta a Espagna (Tour of Spain), shared by Tony Rominger and Roberto Heras (3x), 4 points

*These cyclists are part of the Heroic Era (pre 1938), and are not included as part of The Top 25 Cyclists of the Modern Era 

“Missing Years” Adjustment, various points

1.  Gino Bartali, 49 points

2.  Fausto Coppi, 36 points

3.  Ferdi Kubler, 16 points

4.  Fiorenzo Magni, 21 points

5.  Rik Van Steenbergen, 7 points

6.  Greg Lemond, 13 points

7.  Lance Armstrong, 15 points

Missing Years Formula

Do not continue reading this section unless you are an analytic, numbers crunching geek. There, you’ve been warned, so for those who would like to know just how I arrived at the above added points, read on. First off, my objective with this adjustment was to answer a huge “what if…”  What if all the above cyclists had been healthy and racing during their years lost to war, injury, or illness? Just how many additional points would they have scored, extrapolated from their points earned during their productive years. Productive years – that is the key to this equation. Many cyclists hung on well past their ability to win races. The best example is Rik Van Steenbergen. He turned pro in 1943, won his last race (of those available in this scoring system) in 1958, yet he did not retire until 1966. In other words, for eight of Steenbergen’s 24 years as a pro, he didn’t win a marquee event. I don’t think it would make a lot of sense to include those final eight years if we are trying to determine what he might have won during his productive “missing years” lost to WWII from 1943 to 1945. So, when I’m calculating average points scored during a career, “career” is defined as follows: the year turned professional through the last year points were earned in a qualifying race. So here is the formula:

1.  Length of career (defined above)

2.  Subtract from #1 the number of “missing years”

3.  Average number points scored in a cyclist’s scoring career (rider’s raw score divided by the total from step 2)

4.  Number from step 3 multiplied by the number of missing years (this will equal the number of points a cyclist could have score during his missing years)

5.  Subtract from number 4 any points actually scored during the missing years (i.e. Van Steenbergen won the Belgian Nats in ’43, and Flanders in ’44; it was one of the rare big-time races that took place during the war years)

6.  If the missing years took place during the cyclist first five years as a professional, then they received 75% of the figure from step 5. If the missed years took place during a cyclist’s prime, five years after turning professional, then they received 100% of the total from step 5.

7.  Finally, the number from step 6 is rounded to the nearest whole number.

Yes, I know this is a bit like filling out an income tax return, but here is an example:

             Rik Van Steenbergen (professional from 1943-1966)

1. Scoring Career, 1943-1958, 16 years (last point scored was in ’58 Criterium de As)

Missing Years, 3 years (1943-1945)

2. Actual number of scoring years, 13 (16-3)

Raw Score, 62.5 points (all points earned over entire scoring career)

3. Average number of points scored during scoring career, 4.8 (62.5/13)

4. Hypothetical points scored during Missing Years, 14.4 (4.80 x 3)

Actual points scored during Missing Years, 5 (Belgium National Champ, ’43,’45 and Flanders, ’44)

5. Adjustment for points scored during Missing Years, 9.4 points (14.4 - 5)

6. Adjustment, as missed years were during cyclist’s first five years, 7.05 points (.75 x 9.4)

7. Rounded to nearest whole number, 7 points

There, see how easy that was? I’ll release each cyclist’s adjustment formula when I publish each biography, so until then you’ll just have to take my word for each of the final numbers I’ve used in the formula.

Up next, the unveiling of The Virtual Musette’s Top 25 Cyclists of Modern Era.