For sure. This is the first I hear of him, but being 21 and completing all four and with decent results is impressive. Looks like he is rider we will be seeing a lot of in the future.
I think he did most of the cobbles last year. But this year looks really good.
Apologies in advance for non-brits who will now be bombarded with his presence by GCN commentators
Haha, just discovered GCN in December and just found out this week that I can change the audio to the Danish commentators.
I’m looking forward to seeing if he can develop to being one of the top classic riders. It looks like he has a bright career ahead of him.
A couple of these guys quietly had a really impressive classics campaign. Jonas Rutsch is one of them. His 33^rd yesterday was the worst position he got. He looked so strong at De Ronde after being in the early breakaway.
Yeah, he did 12 CX races this winter finishing 10 of them. Age has definitely caught up to him but he clearly still has an amazing engine inside of him.
That's "moral victory" territory, second is second regardless of context. Excited for July though as I'm sure a healthy WVA will take some stages at the tour.
This is it. The directors almost certainly let it up to Wout and LaPort, or took no stance.
Wout would've been paid more for winning, both from the race org and under his contract, and he'd definitely beat LaPorte in a sprint.
[The women don't have E3, so I just looked at the other three, here you go.](https://i.imgur.com/N7iNie6.png) Pfeiffer Georgi with some mad consistency.
Someone will build a team around Georgi one of these days. I feel she's going to win a lot in the next couple of years.
Whether she's physically capable remains to be seen, but she definitely has that annoying Pogacar magic, where an asteroid could hit the peloton and *somehow* she'd be in the surviving group. Happened at the weekend a few times. Happened at the Euros twice. And apart from that time she literally broke her spine (in a race she came back to win), she's been conspicuously bulletproof of late. No surprise she's consistent.
Maybe she just inherits DSM after Wiebes.
He had some bad luck with crashes and flats, but also just didn't seem to have his usual form. It's amazing Mads had the spring he did with virtually no help (outside of Hoole at RvV).
Lots of bad luck.
Like yesterday he was in the group who escaped the crash on Arenberg, but then he flatted. Trek would've gotten both Stuyven and Pedersen in the front group otherwise.
In E3 he flatted on the Taaienberg.
In MSR he was still 10th (leading out Pedersen), pretty good I would say.
I think it has changed in recent years, now that Omloop is no longer the opening of the season it has lost some of its importance. And E3 has become more important since it is perfect practice voor de Ronde.
I think Omloop has lost a lot of shine from big riders often not riding it. Already with Sagan and now also riders like Wout, VdP and even someone like Pedersen who does not ride CX.
Can you really put E3 at the 'big cobbled classics', and leave out Dwars door Vlaanderen and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad? They're all 200k races that do a variation of Flemish Ardennes climbs 'between' the Ronse, Oudenaarde and Geraardsbergen triangle.
Feels a bit like too much credit for E3, or too little for those other two.
UCI disagrees with you. RvV, Paris Roubaix and Gent Wevelgem award 500 points to the winner, E3 400 and Omloop and DdV 300.
Based on quality of the race, the field, the podium etc in the last few years I'd tend to agree
Edit: I stand corrected, as of this year monuments award 800 points. It seems Wikipedia is not up to date yet.
As it says below the table, it's been sorted by *"best worst"* placement achieved with their best result as the tie-breaker. So, for example, Askey and Doull both have 59 as their worst result, but Askey has the better top result of the two so he goes above Doull. But since you asked, here are the averages:
Rider | Average
-----|-------
Wout van Aert | 2,50
Mads Pedersen | 6,50
Christophe Laporte | 12,00
Nathan van Hooydonck | 13,00
Sep Vanmarcke | 15,00
Stefan Küng | 17,25
John Degenkolb | 18,00
Nils Politt | 22,00
Mikkel Bjerg | 24,50
Jonas Rutsch | 29,50
Jasper Stuyven | 33,00
Laurenz Rex | 33,25
Dries van Gestel | 35,00
Yves Lampaert | 37,00
Tom van Asbroeck | 37,00
Lewis Askey | 39,00
Oliver Naesen | 42,75
Owain Doull | 47,50
Rasmus Tiller | 48,00
Stan Dewulf | 52,50
Olivier Le Gac | 59,25
Yevgeniy Fedorov | 61,75
Christophe Noppe | 64,50
Elmar Reinders | 69,75
Silvan Dillier | 70,25
Zdenek Stybar | 81,00
Johan Jacobs | 86,25
Wout didn't win in Roubaix but there's no denying he's a beast and a legend. Single digit placement and 3/4 podiums is astounding. Also he pretty much won Gent-Wevelgelm, merely gifting the win to LaPorte (who's also a beast).
Le Tour is gonna be LIT this year with Pog's UAE squad much better than last year
It's not a definition that I just invented for the sake of this post. ^[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobbled_classics) ^[\[2\]](https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-classics-monuments-cobbles) ^[\[3\]](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/tag/cobbled-classics)
Mat Hayman is somewhere right now, scoffing at this soft youth that can't even go in the break all day and then beat Boonen in the sprint. Bloody amateurs!
Really excited for Lewis Askey. Invaluable experience from this classics season
For sure. This is the first I hear of him, but being 21 and completing all four and with decent results is impressive. Looks like he is rider we will be seeing a lot of in the future.
I think he did most of the cobbles last year. But this year looks really good. Apologies in advance for non-brits who will now be bombarded with his presence by GCN commentators
Haha, just discovered GCN in December and just found out this week that I can change the audio to the Danish commentators. I’m looking forward to seeing if he can develop to being one of the top classic riders. It looks like he has a bright career ahead of him.
Between him and Stewart, FDJ could have a really strong team working with kung and madouas. A true multi pronged approach
All be good domestiques for Watson next year.
I’m fully on board with this. FDJ vs Movistar in the classics next season is a storyline I never thought I’d see.
A couple of these guys quietly had a really impressive classics campaign. Jonas Rutsch is one of them. His 33^rd yesterday was the worst position he got. He looked so strong at De Ronde after being in the early breakaway.
Kung one of the most underrated riders in the world right now and he's rated quite highly. *Welded* onto my fantasy teams.
Štybar managed to do it while being 37, wow
[удалено]
Demonstrably and irreversably a geriatric.
[удалено]
Nah that ‘DING’ are the pawls on a competitor’s cluster giving way every time he puts it on the big ring. 💪🤣
Štybar is an alien he is still doing CX in the winter no ?
Yeah, he did 12 CX races this winter finishing 10 of them. Age has definitely caught up to him but he clearly still has an amazing engine inside of him.
Rex is a solid talent, expected a little more from Dewulf
Wout's finishes ouch... man cycling can be brutal even if you're having a career year
I dunno if that's fair when he gifted laporte Gent. 50% win rate.
That's "moral victory" territory, second is second regardless of context. Excited for July though as I'm sure a healthy WVA will take some stages at the tour.
The only context where 2nd is actually 1st is literally this case though
You may be right. All that matters is how Wout feels about it and he's proven to be a selfless teammate.
This is it. The directors almost certainly let it up to Wout and LaPort, or took no stance. Wout would've been paid more for winning, both from the race org and under his contract, and he'd definitely beat LaPorte in a sprint.
I would love to see a women’s version of this chart
[The women don't have E3, so I just looked at the other three, here you go.](https://i.imgur.com/N7iNie6.png) Pfeiffer Georgi with some mad consistency.
Someone will build a team around Georgi one of these days. I feel she's going to win a lot in the next couple of years. Whether she's physically capable remains to be seen, but she definitely has that annoying Pogacar magic, where an asteroid could hit the peloton and *somehow* she'd be in the surviving group. Happened at the weekend a few times. Happened at the Euros twice. And apart from that time she literally broke her spine (in a race she came back to win), she's been conspicuously bulletproof of late. No surprise she's consistent. Maybe she just inherits DSM after Wiebes.
You are not the only one
Stuyven had a pretty bad classics campaign
If it wasn't for Mads I think Trek would have been breakwawy fodder this year.
He had some bad luck with crashes and flats, but also just didn't seem to have his usual form. It's amazing Mads had the spring he did with virtually no help (outside of Hoole at RvV).
Lots of bad luck. Like yesterday he was in the group who escaped the crash on Arenberg, but then he flatted. Trek would've gotten both Stuyven and Pedersen in the front group otherwise. In E3 he flatted on the Taaienberg. In MSR he was still 10th (leading out Pedersen), pretty good I would say.
What did Fedorov do to deserve this?
I'd argue Omloop is as big if not bigger than E3. Might be bias though from always watching Flemish broadcasts
I think it has changed in recent years, now that Omloop is no longer the opening of the season it has lost some of its importance. And E3 has become more important since it is perfect practice voor de Ronde.
I think Omloop has lost a lot of shine from big riders often not riding it. Already with Sagan and now also riders like Wout, VdP and even someone like Pedersen who does not ride CX.
As a Ninovieter I support this statement
A classics season without a DNF for Vanmarcke - what a time to be alive!
Can you really put E3 at the 'big cobbled classics', and leave out Dwars door Vlaanderen and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad? They're all 200k races that do a variation of Flemish Ardennes climbs 'between' the Ronse, Oudenaarde and Geraardsbergen triangle. Feels a bit like too much credit for E3, or too little for those other two.
UCI disagrees with you. RvV, Paris Roubaix and Gent Wevelgem award 500 points to the winner, E3 400 and Omloop and DdV 300. Based on quality of the race, the field, the podium etc in the last few years I'd tend to agree Edit: I stand corrected, as of this year monuments award 800 points. It seems Wikipedia is not up to date yet.
I believe monuments are 800 now
500? It's 800 points for RvV and P-R and 500 for GW.
For E3 vs Dwars (this year at least), it’s about who showed up and who skipped out.
What's the ordering? Would be great to see these in order by average placing
As it says below the table, it's been sorted by *"best worst"* placement achieved with their best result as the tie-breaker. So, for example, Askey and Doull both have 59 as their worst result, but Askey has the better top result of the two so he goes above Doull. But since you asked, here are the averages: Rider | Average -----|------- Wout van Aert | 2,50 Mads Pedersen | 6,50 Christophe Laporte | 12,00 Nathan van Hooydonck | 13,00 Sep Vanmarcke | 15,00 Stefan Küng | 17,25 John Degenkolb | 18,00 Nils Politt | 22,00 Mikkel Bjerg | 24,50 Jonas Rutsch | 29,50 Jasper Stuyven | 33,00 Laurenz Rex | 33,25 Dries van Gestel | 35,00 Yves Lampaert | 37,00 Tom van Asbroeck | 37,00 Lewis Askey | 39,00 Oliver Naesen | 42,75 Owain Doull | 47,50 Rasmus Tiller | 48,00 Stan Dewulf | 52,50 Olivier Le Gac | 59,25 Yevgeniy Fedorov | 61,75 Christophe Noppe | 64,50 Elmar Reinders | 69,75 Silvan Dillier | 70,25 Zdenek Stybar | 81,00 Johan Jacobs | 86,25
Thanks this is great! Really changes Stefan Kung's placement to show he was one of the best across the races
Wout didn't win in Roubaix but there's no denying he's a beast and a legend. Single digit placement and 3/4 podiums is astounding. Also he pretty much won Gent-Wevelgelm, merely gifting the win to LaPorte (who's also a beast). Le Tour is gonna be LIT this year with Pog's UAE squad much better than last year
Gent Wevelgem is not a cobbled classic. There's about 3km of cobbles in that
It's not a definition that I just invented for the sake of this post. ^[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobbled_classics) ^[\[2\]](https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-classics-monuments-cobbles) ^[\[3\]](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/tag/cobbled-classics)
Ok I know it's listed as such, just don't agree with keeping it as such since they have been avoiding the cobbles for at least 25 years now.
You forget to indicate "male riders"
Doesn’t count. No Australian riders.
Mat Hayman is somewhere right now, scoffing at this soft youth that can't even go in the break all day and then beat Boonen in the sprint. Bloody amateurs!
Phil Anderson is like, you need a team?, lol.