Cycling leaders don’t always make the front pages of the sports media. Three outstanding athletes who put their names in the cycling hall of fame are Carlos Sastre, Greg van Avermaet, and Andre Greipel.
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Carlos Sastre (Spain)
Carlos Sastre was not just a rider who specialized in the climbs, but a true grand tour mountain rider.
He wasn’t considered a prodigy and didn’t excel in one-day races, but he gradually developed, getting stronger and improving his results as a Grand Tour rider.
Sastre made it to the elite not only by winning the Tour in 2008, but also by his amazing stability in his best years. Between 2006 and 2009, Sastre competed in seven grand tours, never dropping below fourth place in the overall standings. He had one win, four podium finishes, and was fourth twice. And in spite of riding in the shadow of Bjarne Riis, Sastre was never implicated in the doping scandals of the era.
In total, Sastre finished in the top ten times in Grand Tours and six times in the top three. He was particularly successful in the third week of races. Despite the small number of career wins, he has become one of the best ‘general classification riders’ of his time.
Greg van Avermaet (Belgium)
Among Greg van Avermaet’s many wins, three key career achievements are Olympic gold in Rio, victory at Paris-Roubaix in 2017, and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal in 2019.
Some may feel that van Avermaet doesn’t have enough high-profile titles, however, hardly anyone would dispute his status as one of the best one-day riders of the 21st century.
Greg entered cycling’s elite quite early. In 2008, at the age of 23, he won a stage and the sprint classification at the Vuelta. As time went on, he got stronger and more prominent. About 7-8 years ago, the younger Peter Sagan looked much more powerful, but van Avermaet was able to match him and even beat him in some races.
Back home in Belgium, he won almost every cobbled classic except the Ronde van Vlaanderen, where he had no luck. Greg has won twice at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and has also won the E3 Harelbeke and Ghent-Wevelgem once each. Two years in a row, he took first place at Canada’s Grand Prix de Montreal.
Van Avermaet also proved himself at the world’s first cycling race. At the Tour de France, he took two stage wins and spent a full 11 days in the leader’s yellow jersey in 2016-2017.
His victory in Rio was a true miracle. The course seemed too difficult for the Belgian, but on the day he had everything perfect. He showed patience on the climbs and was tactically brilliant. A bit of luck, great form, and strategy earned him gold at the Rio Olympics.
Andre Greipel (Germany)
Andre Greipel is one of the three outstanding pure sprinters of the second decade of the 21st century. Although he is still a long way away from Mark Cavendish’s achievements, many feel he is superior to Marcel Kittel.
Kittel did dominate at the peak of his career, but Greipel has shown far greater longevity, although he didn’t win five stages per grand tour like his younger compatriot.
The rider known by the nickname ‘Gorilla’ won 11 victories at the Tour, seven at the Giro, and four at the Vuelta. In his long career, the German has won 156 victories. Unique was his streak from 2008 to 2017, when he never left a single grand tour without a win; this lasted for 12 supermulti-days.
In 2021, Greipel finally retired from the pro road scene, but has continued racing in World Tour level gravel races ever since.
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