First, what is the modern era? I’m taking it as post Miguel Indurain, and the question of who is the best arises now because the man who was accepted in the top slot, Lance Armstrong, has been stripped of nearly everything he won.
Which throws up another stumbling block. If Armstrong is no longer the best, then anyone else who has been involved with doping since Indurain can’t be considered as his replacement.
So that’s Alberto Contador out for a start.
The next filter is to look at the word ‘best’. I’m taking that to mean that on their day, and at what they are best at, to make the short list a rider has to not just win but make winning look inevitable when you look back and analyse how they did it.
Inevitability is rare, and I reckon that once anyone with a doping conviction is removed only eight riders since Miguel Indurain have had that stamp of inevitability. They are: Paulo Bettini, Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, Cadel Evans, Oscar Freire, Philippe Gilbert and Bradley Wiggins.
Think about Philippe Gilbert and his 2011 Ardennes Classic triple. Think about Tom Boonen in a cobbled classic, sprint or break. Any way his rivals want to cut it, especially last year, if Boonen has the form Boonen will win.
Think Cancellara, at least the Cancellara of a few seasons ago, in a time trial or in a lone break. Think Cav in a bunch sprint. Think Evans winning the 2009 worlds. Think Oscar Freire or Paulo Bettini in a small group at the end of a big race.
And finally there is Bradley Wiggins, he had the air of inevitability in every race he rode in 2012.
But how do you rank all those different riders in order and find the best? First I took out the ultra-specialist. So that’s Mark Cavendish in eighth. He is probably the greatest roadman sprinter of all time.
He’s certainly the fastest sprinter ever, and he will probably set lots of new sprint records, like the most Tour stages in a career or even the most in a single Tour. But so far he’s a sprinter and that’s it. It sounds brutal but it’s true. Still, eighth best of the whole modern era isn’t bad is it?
Next is Oscar Freire. Three world road titles take a lot of winning. Only Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx have done what Freire did, and they are all-time greats. Plus Freire has won Classics and stage races. He’s seventh.
Paulo Bettini takes sixth place. His inevitability didn’t have the dominant trait that others in this list have. Bettini won by having playing his cards better than the rest rather than by ripping their legs off. He was great, but great at being crafty.
Fabian Cancellara did rip his rivals legs off, that’s why he is fifth. Having said that though he has a bit of the specialist about him, not just because he’s a time triallist, but also because his best road race victories are achieved with one tactic, a blistering attack followed by lone break.
Even the Tour de France stage win at Compiegne in 2007 was a lone effort, albeit one where he finished with riders all around him because he had scythed through the people in front of him. His Roubaix and Flanders victories were also executed in the same glorious way.
It’s a fantastic tactic, but if he didn’t make a clean break, like he didn’t when Tom Boonen won the 2008 Roubaix, Boonen will always beat him.
If Roger De Vlaeminck was Mr Paris-Roubaix, Philippe Gilbert is Mr Ardennes Classic. He’s so good at these races he has already reached legendary status, but he sacrificed them in 2012 because he had the chance to win the rainbow jersey.
As soon as he did that his world title win on the Cauberg looked inevitable, and it was achieved with class and authority. And Gilbert is still young, there are still pages of his story to write. He gets fourth but will end up higher.
Third place goes to Cadel Evans, and that’s probably unfair because Evans has the longest career and it stretched back through the darkest doping days. There is no doubt that Evans lost races to doped riders during the first part of his career, a point underlined by the fact that he only began winning the biggest races once the blood passport was introduced.
The inference is that Evans stayed the same while the dopers slowed down because they couldn’t get away with what they’d been doing. Evans achieves his podium position for the races he should have won, as well those he did.
I’m putting Bradley Wiggins in second, but if he has another year like 2012 he will be the number one. This is a look at road racing, so Wiggins track past scores nothing. That means we are looking at one Tour de France podium, fourth elevated to third in 2009, and his Merckx-like 2012.
More than Merckx-like in fact. Not even Eddy Merckx achieved a string of Paris-Nice, Romandie, Dauphine Libere, Tour de France and Olympic time trials in one year. Wiggins winning in 2012 looked inevitable. The only thing that prevents him being number one is that he hasn’t looked inevitable for as long as the winner.
Tom Boonen is the man I judge to be the best pro road racer of the post-Indurain. I know that some will argue that a Tour de France trumps any Classic, or even any number of Classics, but I don’t think it does.
The Tour is the most famous bike race in the world, the biggest, the most prized, but it’s still a race, just like a Classic is. Ok, you have to be good for three weeks in the Tour, but in a Classic you cannot make the slightest mistake.
They are both races, and although more riders take their best form into the Tour each year than do so in any given Classic, there are still only a handful how can win the Tour. It’s the same as for the Classics.
Wiggins’s 2012 Tour win looked inevitable, but so did Boonen’s 2012 Wevelgem, Flanders and Roubaix triple. The thing is, Boonen has been inevitable for much longer.
Wiggins had one stellar season in 2012, Boonen has been like that for ten years. If he’s on form he will win a cobbled Classic, sometimes two, and in 2012 he won all three.
Only one other man has ever done that, Rik Van Looy in 1962, but Boonen has also rivalled Roger De Vlaeminck’s career total of five Paris-Roubaix victories. They are all-time cycling greats and Boonen has equalled them. Wiggins has to do a little more to say that.
So my post Indurain eight is
1. Tom Boonen
2. Bradley Wiggins
3. Cadel Evans
4. Philippe Gilbert
5. Fabian Cancellara
6. Paulo Bettini
7. Oscar Freire
8. Mark Cavendish
Doug
Guest
Yes LA certainly did have a good team (of dopers). And it is possible that BW does too. But it seems unfair to have a go at the guy just because he did well without any other evidence to suggest his success isnt based on lots of hard work.. LA started out as a mid field rider, then after his cancer came back strong faster better with an improved aerobic capacity which just doesnt happen without pharmaceutical assistance. BW on the other hand was an olympic gold medal cyclist.
Punter
Guest
'99% of the generation doped' if this is true then it's still not conclusively correct that Armstrong was the best, just means he had the best drugs, the most advanced, the most sophisticated. This is why drugs should never be allowed, because it stops being about who is the best athlete, but who has the best drug.
Chris Sidwells
Guest
That's a good point Terry, maybe later on we can do other top ten features. Like the ten top people in cycling by looking at qualities of wholeheartedness, team spirit, coming back after adversity, competing with honour.
Chris Sidwells
Guest
Sean, Yes Sastre competed with dignity and was a good rider who didn't win as many races as he should have. I just didn't feel his victories had the inevitability of the others. That attak to win on Alpe d'Huez was amazing, but I've a feeling that it was helped by there being 2 of his team mates with Evans. Maybe it should have been a top ten with Hushovd and Sastre in 9th and 10th.
Terry Whenman
Guest
At the moment, having won three major tours and Olympic gold in 2012 it has to be Wiggo. Debatable criteria. My point is that the "bestest" isn't necessarily the "winningest", could be an untiring domestique, Jens Voigt
sittingbison
Guest
Fight Club :-)
The Duffster
Roar Rookie
I was there too. Funny, I don't remember seeing you. Managed to get to Paris for the final TT and Paris stage last year too. The influx of Brits created an incredible atmosphere and did themselves proud. Can't beat it.
Lee Rodgers
Expert
Cadel in a club? 'Don't step on my freakin' dog!!!! Or yer dead!!!'
Tim Renowden
Expert
That would have been magical. I was on the Champs Elysees a couple of days later, also with goosebumps but shattered that Cadel had come so close and missed out.
Tim C
Guest
I'm in the Boonen / Evans camp too. BW had a great year and a massive 'improvement' on previous years but I still liked Boonen's year better. At 32 and with a lot of the cheats out the way he showed just how good he really is. I reckon if you asked the average cyclist who they'd like to be like it'd be Boonen, or maybe Fabian, Gilbert, Sagan? All round tough guys that do the things us mere mortals dream of. After this years Giro and with Sky splitting their allegiances we'll know where BW rates. Cadel is the journey man. Done it all over 2 disciplines, From Junior WC on a MTB (against Rasmussen etc.) to one dayers, World Champ, nearly a Giro as a new comer, and his Tour efforts. Cav is the best sprinter although I reckon McEwan deserves a mention and comes in second in that category. He knocked Zabel off his perch when he was swapping blood T Mobile style and had all sprinters in his wake. Cav would have taken him at their prime, but he did come along when Robbie was passed his peak. And for those that want to include the PED peddlers I go for Johan Musueew. Lance was the best GC rider but Johan was an animal. The colder and the wetter it was the happier he was. Put LA alongside him before 250km of Belgian farm lanes in the sleet and I know where my money would be - a freaking hard unit, who loved that cold, heavy, numb pain in the quads while chewing grit between his blackened teeth. But back to the point, I can't split Boonen and Cadel but if I was going to a club with one I'd pick Boonen so maybe he just gets the nod :)
The Duffster
Roar Rookie
Great question to pose and I completely agree with your conclusino on Boonen. The cycling calendar is not all about the Tour de France and Boonen has been a multiple of winner of the most important one day races, the races like Paris-Roubaix and Flanders that the real hard men of cycling win. Add in to that rainbow and green jerseys and he's your man. By the way I was on Alpe d'Huez in 2008 when Sastre rode solo to victory on the stage and took the tour away from Evans. Still gives me goose bumps.
Michael
Guest
That's cool. I guess I agree with you and it was just an amazing year I guess. Lots of people felt same way about LA over the years.
Tim Renowden
Expert
I think the reason Sastre was excluded was his lack of dominance. He very rarely bossed a race (apart from Stage 17 in his 2008 TDF win), and his series of high GC finishes in grand tours looks great in hindsight (with dopers removed) but his victories were all very much in the same style - he could only win on the most difficult mountain stages, and he didn't do it that often. I did like him as a rider. There was a film made about CSC a few years back ("Overcoming") and he came across as a very thoughtful, genuine man who had suffered some tragedies in his life and understood what cycling meant to him. I think he'll unfortunately be somewhat tainted by association with some of the teams and riders he rode with during his career. ONCE and CSC don't exactly have the cleanest records.
sittingbison
Guest
Jeebus you cant have a discussion that explicitly excludes dopers without delusional fanbois or interns showing up and being idiotic. I exclude Sir Wiggo from the top 5, maybe even the top ten - its ludicrous to even suggest he is the best rider over the past 20 years. Taking out his 2012 year, he has achieved precisely NOTHING on the road, one of the worst road careers in the peleton. His Grand Tour record stands at 123 124 WD 134 71 3 40 23 WD 3 1.His only wins before 2012 were the Crit Dauphine in 2011 and the Herald Sun Tour in 2009. Not a World Champion on the road. Hardly the stuff of legend. Evans and Tommeke are without doubt the two best riders since Indurain. They cannot really be separated, year in year out domination for a decade in their specific areas of expertise - stage racing and classics. Both are World Champions. Cav needs to win some Classics to get to the top rung. Sastre deserves a mention as stated above, much underrated has from memory 5 TdFs when the dopers are excluded.
sittingbison
Guest
from memory Sean Sastre has 5 and Evans 3 TdF when the dopers are excluded
Aaron
Guest
does laurent jalabert count as post-indurain? which means he remains quite a bit suspicious, but that aside, he was almost as versatile as eddy merckx. when the won the vuelta in '95 he won the points and the mountains jerseys as well. he won milan-san remo, la fleche wallone, san sebastian and lombardia as well as 2 green jerseys & 2 polka dot jerseys at the tour, and before you call him a hopeless schleck-brother-who-wins-grand tours-with-no-TTs winner, he was world TT champ in 1997. the only thing he didnt win was his home grand tour, where he finished 4th WHILE in green. suspicious, yes, but only sean kelly and merckx could surpass him in terms of versatility.
Dirk Westerduin
Guest
"IF Armstrong is no longer the best....." - very good indeed. The expert is not writing: 'Now that....' 'When...' or 'Given the fact that.....'. Armstrong is still the best.
OwenJames
Guest
Does it have to be a man?
Shaun
Guest
Definitely Lance Armstrong...lets face it, 99% of the riders in his generation doped ...even Contador got nabbed for doping. So many of the riders that finished behind Lance even got pinned for doping. So that being settled, Lance was the most successful/dominant rider in a 'level' playing field. Just like I question Lance, I'd questing any top rider who says they didn't dope during that era. Even think of the successful riders since Lance...Contador, F Schleck etc...all got tainted names
Lee Rodgers
Expert
everyone knows it's a Schwinn painted in the Specialized colors... Yeah in my head I go for Evans cos of the Tour win and the ability to also win one-day races, but in my heart it's Boonen. last year at the Tour of Qatar, when we arrived at Doha Airport, many of the teams were arriving at the same time. There we were, my little Continental team with all these World Tour guys, and then Boonen arrived, and even other World Tour guys were nudging each other and saying 'It's Boonen!'! It was incredible. Just how huge he is in his native Belgium is hard to overestimate, he's like Beckham, Warne and Kobe Bryant in one. That he went off the rails a little was forgiven immediately by just about everyone. Top, top rider and a nice guy too.