BīkFit + Grand Tour Stage Win Champions + Top 50 updates
The Team Chef
11 Comments
I'm sorry for being away for so long, but I've been hard at work on another cycling related project - Southern California based BīkFit, a mobile bike fitting service dedicated to road cyclists. In addition to bike fits, we'll also be selling bikes made by some of the world's most prestigious custom frame builders (Tommasini, Zinn, Kish, Naked, RR Velo). Anyway, if you happen to be in the SoCal area, and you'd like to get a comprehensive road bike fit, I'd love to hear from you. Details on our pricing and services can be found at our website: BīkFit.com. You can also find a permanent link located in the left hand column.
Alberto Contador; "El Pistolero" I'll have to admit that after completing The Top 25 Cyclists of the Modern Era, I needed a bit of a break. The project took nearly a year to complete, and its still a long way from being done. The vast majority of the research is finished, but all the rider biographies have yet to be written. At this point, I'm thinking that since this whole thing has grown into something much larger than I'd originally planned, maybe the project is better served by a large coffee table style of book with loads of statistics, race results, photos, and such. I don't know the first thing about undertaking such an endeavor, so if there is anyone in the book publishing industry (are you listening VeloPress) that could give me some guidance, I'd be all ears.
Alessandro "Ale-Jet" PetacchiSince March of this year, when I published the original Top 50 list, there has been some jostling at the low end of the rankings. Both Tom Boonen and Alberto Contador have added to their point totals - "Tommeke" with his win in Paris-Roubaix and "El Pistolero" with his win in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Tour of the Basque Country). Alberto moved up one spot, and now occupies the 47th position, but Tom actually move down one spot to #50.
Since Boonen dropped a spot, that would imply that there is somebody new to the list who is still active and jumped over him. Here's what happened: I made a mistake in assigning the original point totals to Alessandro Petacchi, and it was a big one. "Ale-Jet" is one of only seven cyclists to have won 30 or more Grand Tour stages. He joins all the following legends in the accomplishment with his 44 (and counting) Grand Tour stage victories:
- Fausto Coppi with 31 stage wins (this despite WWII interrupting his career for five years)
- Rik Van Looy with 38
- Edddy Merckx with 65
- Freddy Maertens with 35
- Bernard Hinault with 41
- Mario Cipollini with 57
Freddy MaertensBased on my Significant Lifetime Achievement bonus points (as outlined in Scoring- Part 2), Petacchi was shorted 10 points on my previous list. He has also added to his total by winning this year's Grote Scheldeprijs (Grand Prix de l'Escaut), Giro di Toscana (Tour of Tuscany), and two stages of the Giro. Petacchi now stands at number 45, and could conceivably move up quite a few spots before he retires. My apologies to Ale-Jet and his fans.
I should also mention that Alejandro Valverde made some progress with his wins at both the Volta a Catalunya and Dauphine Libere, and he now stands at #53. They could be the last points Valverde will score for a couple of years, depending on whether or not his suspension in Italy for his Puerto ties is extended elsewhere. I think it safe to say Gilberto Simoni isn't going crack the Top 50 list before the end of his career; I just don't see where he is going to possibly acquire an additional 11 points, as this year's Giro was probably his last chance to grab big points. Lastly, this year's Tour may be the last best chance for Lance Armstrong to take sole possession of 10th place from Felice Gimondi, which Big Tex will do with even a single stage win (which will include the TTT). That said, even should Lance outright win the Tour, he still won't be able to overhaul Franceso Moser in the #9 spot (for a full explanation of race points see Scoring - Part 1).
Anyway, here is the mid-season Top 50 Cyclists of the Modern Era and their point totals (with places 51-57 added, so you can see who's on the bubble). I'll update the list again at the end of the season.
Alejandro Valverde; "The Green Bullet"1. Eddy Merckx 410.5
2. Bernard Hinault 232.5
3. Fausto Coppi 219.5
4. Gino Bartali 213.0
5. Jacques Anquetil 184.0
6. Rik Van Looy 152.0
7. Sean Kelly 146.5
8. Roger De Vlaeminck 139.5
9. Francesco Moser 131.5
10. Felice Gimondi 114.0
11. Lance Armstrong 114.0
12. Louison Bobet 109.5
13. Miguel Indurain 98.0
14. Freddy Maertens 97.5
15. Ferdi Kubler 96.0
16. Joop Zoetemelk 91.5
17. Tony Rominger 89.5
18. Laurent Jalabert 88.5
19. Fiorenzo Magni 87.0
20. Giuseppe Saronni 83.0
21. Erik Zabel 81.0
22. Rik Van Steenbergen 73.5
23. Raymond Poulidor 69.0
24
Gilberto Simoni. Jan Janssen 65.0
25. Greg Lemond 65.0
26. Mario Cipollini 63.5
27. Luis Ocana 59.5
28. Laurent Fignon 58.5
29. Franco Bitossi 56.0
30. Federico Bahamontes 55.5
31. Paolo Bettini 55.0
32. Charly Gaul 53.5
33. Johan Museeuw 53.0
34. Jan Ullrich 52.0
35. Jan Raas 51.0
36. Lucien Van Impe 50.0
37. Moreno Argentin 48.5
38. Stephen Roche 48.5
39. Hugo Koblet 48.0
40. Claudio Chiapucci 48.0
41. Gianni Bugno 47.5
42. Alberic Schotte 46.5
43. Alex Zulle 46.0
44. Michele Bartoli 44.0
45. Alessandro Petacchi 43.0
46. Walter Godefroot 42.5
47. Alberto Contador 42.5
48. Herman Van Springel 41.5
49. Charly Mottet 41.0
50. Tom Boonen 41.0
51. Fred De Bruyne 37.0
52. Vittorio Adorni 36.5
53. Alejandro Valverde 36.0
54. Hennie Kuiper 31.5
55. Marco Pantani 31.0
56. Rudi Altig 30.0
57. Gilberto Simoni 30.0
Photo credits: Alberto Contador, Flikr gallery of Jesus Ezkerra; Alessandro Petacchi, Yahoo News; Freddy Maertens, Flikr gallery of Karolus Linus; Alejandro Valverde, feltet.dk; Gilberto Simoni, Tour-de-france.cz
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Reader Comments (11)
Your dedication to this is amazing. I think that book would be fantastic, and not simply as a coffee table book. It would be wonderful as a history for those who've always followed cycling closely, and wonderful as a primer for those fresh to the sport who are hungry to learn more.
I was wondering (and hoping) that you might do something similar ranking active sprinters,climbers and TTists, each.
Might we see something like that in the future?
Another masterful and incredibly informative piece of work. If you publish it, I'm buying it! And of course, it doesn't hurt that Simoni still stomps that backstabbing little twerp Cunego.
Hi Tom,
I've thought about ranking sprinters, climbers, stage race specialists, etc., but as you might suspect, only from a historical perspective.
It's not that I don't care about the current scene, it's just that any analysis of current riders would require that I stay on top of race results and adjust the rankings far more often than I do for The Top 25/50 project. My kids and work just don't allow for the time I'd need for something like that.
I know that some of the folks over at Podium Cafe, in particular Ursula, love taking on these types of projects. I bet he'd be game...
Racejunkie,
Again, thanks for your kind words. I'll keep everyone posted on any progress I make with the book. I'm not going to do it unless I can go big. It's important that I be able to get my hands on lots of photographs, similar to what was done with Cycling's Golden Age (The Horton Collection/Owen Mulholland).
As for Cunego, he is now five points behind Gibo with 25. Given his age, it's probably just a matter of time before he jumps over the two guys ahead of him, David Rebellin (26 points) and Richard Virenque (27 points). He'd probably get there a lot quicker if he'd quit worrying about GC in in Grand Tours, and focus on stage wins, Classics, and week long stage races. I know your not a big fan of "The Little Prince," but my guess is that he will end up in the Top 50 before the end of his career.
Team Chef, you are so much fairer and more knowledgeable than I that I am truly humbled. At least Simoni's definitely got him beat in the smack-talk competition!
Very cool & unbiased. That was a great deal of work! Being from Canada I wish Steve Bauer had made the list but he "just missed" winning far too many races.
CO, Bauer is one of my favorites, and his valiant ride in the '88 Tour is one of the reasons I became so hooked on this sport. He's a class act, and I would love to go on one of his bike tours one day.
Your work is amazing ! What a like about it is that the 'grand tours' and than especially the Tour de France are not superior to the classical races.In some similar other pointsystems Roger De Vlaeminck doesnt even got in the top 30,what is ridiculous,if you know what palmares he rode ,and that not only in the one day races but also for his results in the grand tours and 'the one week tours'like Tirreno and Tour de Suisse'
You can always discuss about the points given to certain races but in general I like your pointscale.
The only thing I can critisize is that some races ,even they're now important,like for ex.Amstel Gold Race,couldnt not be rode by the riders from the era 40-50 and 60 since the first edition was only rode in 1966.
I would also eliminated the races not held anymore (GP Nations,CH.Zurich...).
Eliminated the Olympic roadrace since its only recent open for pro's.
I should also gave points to the 2th and 3th in the race and even to the first 5 in the big monuments and grand tours.
For example the last World Champion roadrace 5-2-1,5-1-0,5 points.
or Evans 5 ,Kolobnev 2,Rodriguez 1,5,Sanchez 1,Cancellara 0,5.
My prefer goes also to the bare pointsscale ,so without the special adjustment
But again,you can always find something in works like this,its a great piece of work ad I hope you keep updating this website.
Gert,
Thank you, and I appreciate your feedback.
First off, yes, this site will continue to be updated. I think I'll probably do this twice, maybe three times a year. Once Lombardia is finished, I'll be updating the list with all the results since the Giro.
The point scale is obviously not perfect. I really tried to make sure that "newer" races, like Amstel, were balanced out by older races that weren't around anymore. Coppi couldn't score points in Tirreno, but then again, Contador won't be able to rack up points in the Baracchi Trophy. Maybe it balances out in the end...
I didn't want to award points to podium spots, as I was afraid someone with a palmares full of near misses might be higher ranked. I really wanted to place the emphasis on outright victories.
The adjustments are always going to be the chief complaint with this system. Some love the idea, others not so much. This is why I did publish a ranking with just the raw scores; it can be found in the article titled The Top 50 + Dave Brinton Art (it's at the bottom of the post).
Again, thanks for reading.
Really great. Hope to see more from you in the future. Best.