With a history spanning more than 130 years, it is challenging to select a top ten for road cyclists. Even in the last 20 years, cycling has undergone significant change, and the current methodology is far more scientific than in the past, when race victories were frequently recorded in hours rather than seconds.
A range of talents should also be taken into account. Even though it’s considered a sign of dominance to win a three-week grand tour (of Italy, Spain, or France), certain riders, like Mark Cavendish, have amassed an excellent record of victories while never being able to win a grand tour outright.
The fact that any one of the four riders has won the Tour de France five times only serves to highlight their supremacy; they have all also won a number of one-day races and shorter stage events, which further validates their inclusion.
In light of everything mentioned above, RadioTimes.com compiles our ranking of the all-time greatest road cyclists.
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10. British rider Chris Froome
Cyclist Chris Froome wearing blue clothing
Froome Chris. Luc Claessen via Getty Pictures
At one point in 2018, Froome was the reigning champion in all three major tours at once, having won four Tours de France, two Vueltas a España, and one Giro d’Italia. Prior to the 2019 Tour de France, he had an accident that rendered him ineligible for several months.
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Even though he is nearing the conclusion of his professional cycling career at 38 and hasn’t been back to full strength since, he is still the most successful grand tour rider in competition right now.
9. Irishman Sean Kelly
With the exception of the Tour of Flanders, Kelly was the best one-day racer of the 1980s, winning multiple times in all the major classics. In addition, he won the one-week Paris-Nice stage race seven times in a row, as well as the green jersey classification in the Tour de France four times.
Kelly was an innate sprinter who took advantage of the hard circumstances that were common in the early season events. He also had great climbing skills, which helped him win one grand tour event—the Vuelta a España in 1988.
8. Italian Marco Pantani
Pantani, who went under the moniker “The Pirate,” looked like a pirate with a goatee beard, gold earrings, and a bandana. His riding was equally daring; he won the 1998 Tour de France and Giro d’Italia with his fearless climbing and daring descents.
In a time when doping accusations and transgressions were widespread in cycling, his career was marred by them, and he was disqualified from the 1999 Giro d’Italia while in the lead. In 2004, at the age of 34, he overdosed on cocaine and died.
7. Frenchman Jacques Anquetil
In the 1950s and 1960s, Anquetil became the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times and to win each of the three major tours in his career. After gaining the yellow jersey on Stage One, he wore it for the whole 1961 Tour. Similar to Miguel Induráin, his strength was in the time trial phases.
Raymond Poulidor, the grandfather of current star Mathieu van der Poel, was his fiercest competitor. Poulidor never won the Tour de France and always came in second to Anquetil.
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