The Virtual Musette: A Road Cycling Blog

#1 Eddy Merckx at the height of his powers, 1973Loyal readers I have not abandoned you.  I have every intention of continuing to update this site, but I'd be lying if I said it would be much more than a few times a year, at least for the foreseeable future.  The goal is to try to update the Top 25/50 Cyclists of the Modern Era project on the following schedule: after the Spring Classics, after the Giro and Tour, and at the end of the season.    

I do have a couple of book reviews I'll be getting to shortly - Custom Bicycles:  A Passionate Pursuit by Christine Elliott and David Jablonka, and The Competition Bicycle:  A Photographic History by Jan Heine.  Both are excellent coffee table books and would be great choices as gifts for the upcoming holiday season. Stay tuned...(hopefully, full reviews will be out early in December).

For those of you new to this site, the rest of this article is going to make a lot more sense having first familiarized yourself with the scoring system I've developed to rank the greatest riders from the Modern Era.  Scoring, Part 1 can be found here; Scoring, part 2 can be found here, and if you'd like to read every article in the entire series, you can link here.     

So, let's take a look at the end of the year rankings and point totals:
 
1.   Eddy Merckx  410.5
2.   Bernard Hinault 232.5
#7 Sean Kelly in his final year, 19943.   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.  Lance Armstrong  116.5
11.  Felice Gimondi  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.  Jan Janssen  65.0
25.  Greg LeMond  65.0
26.  Mario Cipollini  63.5
27.  Luis Ocana  59.5
28.  Laurent Fignon  58.5
#32 "The Angel of the Mountains," Charly Gaul29.  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.  Alberto Contador  52.0
36.  Jan Raas 51.0
37.  Lucien Van Impe  50.0
38.  Moreno Argentin  48.5
39.  Stephen Roche  48.5
40.  Hugo Koblet  48.0
41.  Claudio Chiapucci  48.0
42.  Gianni Bugno  47.5
43.  Alberic Schotte  46.5
44.  Alex Zulle 46.0
45.  Michele Bartoli  44.0
46.  Alessandro Petacchi  43.0
47.  Walter Godefroot  42.5
48.  Tom Boonen  42.0
49.  Herman Van Springel  41.5
50.  Charly Mottet  41.0

Active Top 50

#9 Francesco Moser, "The Sheriff" (Paris-Roubaix 1979)What's changed since the last list?  First, Lance Armstrong has now taken sole possession of 10th place, 2.5 points ahead of Felice Gimondi, thanks to his 3rd place in this year's Tour.  Even if he hadn't reached the podium, Astana's victory in the Team Time Trial provided the needed half point necessary to move ahead of Gimondi.

So, what would Lance need to do next year in order to overtake both Francesco Moser and Roger De Vlaeminck, who are just ahead of him in the rankings (#9 and #8), but more important, a whopping 15 and 23 points distant.  Well, nothing short of a Tour victory is going to gain him the needed points.  Here's how it could theoretically work: a win in the Tour would give Lance eight more points, but would also give him a huge 15 point bonus for joining the likes of Jacques Anquetil, Eddie Merckx, and Bernard Hinault, all of whom achieved the rare feat of winning eight or more Grand Tours.  Armstrong would then need another half point to get to the #8 spot, so he would also need a stage win to go along with the Tour victory.  Whew.  That's a whole lot of ifs, ands, and maybes, but hey, it could be done.  I should point out that Armstrong could get that same 15 point bonus for winning either the Giro or Vuelta, but since he will be skipping the Giro for the Tour of California (so he says), and there isn't a chance in hell he's going to do the Vuelta after the Tour, it's pretty safe to say that next year's Tour is going to be the only GT in Lance's near future. 

Of course, the biggest mover on the list continues to be Alberto Contador.  With his Tour victory he has now jumped from #47 to #35.  Should he have another big year in 2010, he'll be the first cyclist since Miguel Indurain to string together three 12+ point seasons.  Alberto is also poised to make the jump into the Top 25 at the ripe old age of 27; this after effectively losing his entire first season due to a life threatening cerebral cavernoma.  It also worth considering that #5 Jacques Anquetil. Year unkown.he was prevented from participating in both the 2006 and 2008 Tour de France due to the doping problems surrounding both his teams at the time (Liberty Seguros and Astana).  What happened in '08 actually helped him - Astana's exclusion from that Tour forced Alberto to participate in, and win, both the Giro and Vuelta, and in the process he gained a 12 point bonus for having won all three Grand Tours.  One thing is certain - if he continues to win at his current pace, and he can avoid injury, he should be able to get close to Jacques Anquetil in point totals.  Alberto is primed to go on a point tear the likes we haven't seen since Bernard Hinault.  Enjoy the ride folks, this is history in the making, and it may be an awful long time before we see another cyclist who possesses both the ability and the will to win any stage race entered - spring, summer, or fall. 

Petacchi's point total remains unchanged.  With his switch from LPR to Lampre, he should be at more marquee events next year, and be better supported.  That said, he'll be 36 in January, well past the prime years of a sprinter.  I could see him gather another couple of points before he retires, but his place as one of the greatest sprint specialists in the sport has already been secured.  It will be interesting to see if Mark Cavendish can continue with his winning ways, and maybe one day join some of the other all-time great fast men in the Top 50.

Lastly, Tom Boonen added one more point to his total with his win at the Belgian National Championships in June, beating out Philippe Gilbert. "Tommeke" has now moved up two spots, jumping over both Charly Mottet and Herman Van Springel to occupy position #48. If he can possibly put his "out of competition" troubles behind him, and get back to his prolific winning ways, then he has a good shot of making the Top 25 before the end of his career.  He just turned 29 in October, has been a professional for 7 years, and has been averaging 6 points per year.  He's on pace for an 84 point career, which would put him up there with some of the best ever.      

On the Bubble

So here's what spots 50-65 look like right now:

#54 Vittorio Adorni. Year unknown.51.  Alejandro Valverde  40.0
52.  Oscar Freire  38.5
53.  Fred De Bruyne  37.0
54.  Vittorio Adorni  36.5
55.  Danilo Di Luca  34.0
56.  Hennie Kuiper  31.5
57.  Alexander Vinokourov 31.5
58.  Marco Pantani  31.0
59.  Rudi Altig  30.0
60.  Gilberto Simoni 30.00
61.  Robbie McEwen 27.0
62.  Richard Virenque  27.0
63.  Fabian Cancellara  26.0
64.  Davide Rebellin  26.0
65.  Damiano Cunego  26.0

Unless Alejandro Valverde's suspension for his DNA ties to the Puerto blood bags is extended outside of Italy, he looks poised to make the jump into the Top 50 list.  The points he picked up by winning this year's Vuelta now have him occupying spot #51, just one point away from overtaking Charly Mottet.  Well, maybe. This is a sticky situation, because if CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) rules against "The Green Bullet," the UCI could then move to retroactively extend his ban from racing beyond Italy, and in turn strip him of any victories earned since May 2009 (the date of the original Italian suspension).  Not only could Valverde lose the points from the Vuelta, but also from this year's Dauphine Libere (for a combined total of 7).  Should that happen, Cadel Evans would find himself the recipient of some additional points.  Thank you, UCI.  You've made a fine mess out this one. 

#52 Oscar Freire. Unbelievably, I had forgotten to include Oscar Freire in my original calculations.  He only needs 3 points to make the jump to Top 50, but who knows with Oscar?  He had a rather anonymous season, but he seems to do that sort of thing on a regular basis - long spells without any results, then he comes out of nowhere to capture a major victory.  Injuries have plagued him throughout his career, and had he been healthy for any length of time, I'm sure he would already have made the list.  Anyway, I wouldn't bet against "Oscarito," but sprinters at the age of 34 tend to have fewer and fewer opportunities - just ask Alessandro Petacchi and Robbie McEwen.

Yes, he's back.  Alexander Vinokourov has returned, and he looks to be in pretty decent physical shape, as well.  I wouldn't put it past this guy to land another big victory, or grab some stage wins.  Is he going to make the Top 50?  Not likely. 

In other pleasant developments, Danilo Di Luca is done, along with Davide Rebellin, both with forced early retirements due to their doping violations. Goodbye and good riddance.  I suppose Di Luca could try to return when his suspension is over, but he will be 35 at the time.  Rebellin is 38, so it's safe to say that he is officially through with racing.

As of today, Gilberto Simoni still hasn't signed with a team for next year.  Even if he does, a stage win or two may be about all we'll see from him, and then he'll probably retire after the Giro.

Robbie McEwen is another one of the aging sprinters who had an anonymous, albeit injury plagued, season.  At age 37 Robbie is the oldest among the trio of elder of fast men that includes Freire and Petacchi.  This year was the first since 2005 that the "Pocket Rocket" didn't win Paris-Brussels, breaking his string of four consecutive victories, a record for the prestigious event which saw its first edition held way back in 1893.  At this stage of the game, there's simply not enough time for McEwen to reach Top 50.

#63 Fabian Cancellara. "Sparticus" in action at the '09 Tour of Switzerland.So, along with Valverde and Freire, that leaves Fabian Cancellara and Damiano Cunego as the most likely candidates to move into Top 50 by the end of their careers, as both have decent point totals and are entering their prime years.  Do I think either can make it to the Top 25?  Probably not, since Cance will be 29 next March, has been a professional since 2001, and has scored roughly three points per year on average.  Assuming he rides for another eight seasons, he's on target for a 50 point career.  Now, this could change significantly if he should do something truly remarkable, like win all five of the Monuments and gain a 15 point bonus.  Since "Spartacus" has already won Milan-San Remo, and Paris-Roubaix, I would guess that the next likely Monument victory would come in Flanders.  If he could trim a little weight, and be willing to sacrifice some of his TT power, I bet he could make a run at both Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Lombardia.  Maybe he'll focus on those after he makes his bid for the hour record. 

As for Cunego, he turned 28 in September, has been a professional since 2002, and has also averaged around three points per season.  Like Cancellara, he looks to be on target for a 50 point career, but unlike Fabian, I can't see him in with a shot at all the Monuments, especially Flanders and Roubaix.  Since by his own admission he's no longer a man for the GC in Grand Tours, "The Little Prince" is going to have to win a few more of the Minor Tours (i.e. Tours of the Basque Country, Romandy, or Switzerland) if he's going to have a shot at Top 25.  I just don't see him getting there with stage wins and single day races from here on out.

Valverde, Cancellara, and Cunego all go to illustrate how extremely difficult, and rare, it is to rack up enough points to reach the Top 25.  These are all big champions of today's race scene, and although all of them will more than likely have a few huge seasons ahead of them, it is pretty easy to do the math and realize that it's going to take something very special for even one of these cyclists to reach the Top 25.  

The Best of the Rest

I've had some emails over the past few months asking me about the point totals of some of the other stars of the current peloton.  I don't start actually looking at a cyclist's specific rank until they get close to 30 points, but for what it's worth, here are the point totals for some of today's big names:

Philippe Gilbert. All smiles after capturing the '09 Lombardia.Carlos Sastre  23.5
Denis Menchov  21
Cadel Evans  20.5
Ivan Basso 18.5
Thor Hushovd 16
Mark Cavendish 13
Filippo Pozzato 11.5
Philippe Gilbert 11.5
Andy Schlek 11
Alessandro Ballan 9.5

So, that's the end of season wrap for the Top 25/50 Cyclists of the Modern Era.  Please let me know if there is anyone you think I've overlooked, past or present, as over the last year I've managed to make some pretty big mistakes with both Petacchi and Freire.  Sorry for the confusion, but you can always ask for a refund...

Thanks for tuning in.  

Photo credits:  Eddy Merckx and Sean Kelly, Wiki Commons; Charly Gaul, Memoire du Cyclisme; Francesco Moser, Infostradasports; Jacques Anquetil, Pez/CorVos; Vittorio Adorni, Vittorio Adorni Gran Fondo; Oscar Freire, TopNews.in; Fabian Canellara, CyclingFans/Sirotti; Philippe Gilbert, Telegraph.co.uk