Top 10 Pro Cyclists

The Virtual Museutte has produced an authoritative list of the great cyclists of the modern era. Using a certain points scoring system, he came up with a top 25 list here:

I’ll just mention the top 10, but, you can see the rest on his site:

1. Eddy Merckx “The Cannibal”, Belgium (1966-1978) Total points: 410.50
2. Bernard Hinault, “The Badger” France (1975-1986) Total points: 232.50
3. Fausto Coppi, “Il Campionissimo” Italy (1939-1959)Total points: 219.5
4. Gino Bartali, “Il Pio”;”Il Vecchio”   Italy (1935-1954) Total points: 213
5. Jacques Anquetil, France (1954-1969) Total  points: 184
6. Rik Van Looy, Belgium (1953-1969) – Total points: 152
7. Sean Kelly, Ireland (1977-1994)       – Total points: 146.5
8. Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgium (1969-1984) -Total points: 139.5
9. Francesco Moser, Italy (1973-1988) Total points: 131.5
10. Felice Gimondi, Italy (1965-1979)

I don’t think anyone would argue about the greatest cyclist of all time being Eddy Merckx. One thing that stands out is the absence of Lance Armstrong. (Armstrong finished 11th). Despite the Tour de France having the highest weighting ( 8 points) It reflects the fact that Lance Armstrong concentrated on the Tour to the exclusion of other races and so ended up with a lower score.

Personally, I would have given the Tour a higher weighting, but, it’s still an interesting and fairly accurate reflection of the great pro cyclists. You can have endless debates about these kind of things. One thing is for certain you will never get cycling fans to agree on the ultimate top 10. But, this is pretty good.

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