Robyklebt/Petit Singe/Big Donkey riders: Who's the BEST of the first 20 years?

[Robyklebt]

20 years Big Donkey! Or Petit Singe? Or Robyklebt? Or nothing at all since it seems to be 3 guys? A big problem, but if we make it 20 years of user 33, everything should be fine.
Anyway, 20 years, so who was the best rider of this user 33? 20 years, 20 riders, most of them have won the most coveted award in cycling history, the user 33 rider of the year award. One even twice.

And, you noobs all get to decide who it is: See the poll above.
And you get 3 votes, not just one! Ideally:
-1 vote for the BEST!
-1 vote for the BEST from 06-15 or 16-25, depending on who your BEST was, so from a different Robycade/Singecade/Donkeycade! Decade for idiots. Then we also know for sure who was the BEST in the other decade. 3 awards, 20 years, rider of the first decade, rider of the second decade.,
-1 sympathy vote, you might not think he's the best, but you liked him most. That's to avoid people choosing the best on sympathy alone.
No need to use all 3 votes, if you just vote for the best, that's ok, if choice 1 or 2 is also your sympathy vote, no need for the third vote, if you don't care about the best, but only about your own like, you little egomaniac you, then that's ok too. Vote however you like, even if the following the Donkey-rules would be perfect of course.
If there's a draw, or the Donkey thinks it's all wrong he might of course unilaterally declare somebody else the winner... but that's unlikely to happen.

Comments are allowed, even welcome, you can be as toxic as you want, (see you in fairplay threads if you push the right buttons), you can try to emulate the Donkey and be friendly and jovial, whatever you feel like. Share stories that you had with these heroes, complain about missing riders, be in awe of this incredible group of superstars, whatever.

Poll until the 28th of January. Or 29? Whatever it says, time differences are confusing me..should be 28th Not completely sure when I started, thought 27th, but the page says 28th, so let's go with that.

After it's finished, I'll move all the the posts to my main thread, will keep this one active for my stats that right now are buried on page one and I never manage to find them either, get longer and longer, weird posts that I don't update anymore in between (retirements) etc. And discovered researching this stuff here, that having a season overview is useful, right now have some, some not, those that are there take ages to find. All here then. After 20 years I deserve a second thread.

So let's start with the riders, in chronological order, first wanted alphabetical, yes, family name, surname, hoping to inspire Alk to undertake the monumental task of making sorting by family name the standard at c4f, not first name. But well, for the Roby/Singe/Donkeycade voting that would make it complicated, so....

Anton Hasler (Sui) nickname Anton Hasler27.01.06-07.11.06: Pavé rider and time trialist.

Topskills: not known exactly: 4x-85-69-83-70 with 41 reg. 84.4 pavé seems to be the max, thought he was slightly higher, maybe had 1 more TT or one more flat at some point? AT the time the "internal pavé" skill was simply the TT.
3386 points,
13 wins, 1 stage race win, 2 points jerseys.
Rider of the year: 2006
Teamranking: 105 (But different point scale at the time)

Anton started his career with a placement in the sprint... good sprint, best Robyklebt! Well, the sprint result was just sorting by sprint skill at the time...First win in February 06, Ruta del Sol, 3 wins. But what he was and is known for: Pavé! Missed Flanders unfortunately, looking how it all went in hilly pavé races later.. he would have had chances. After that, the first flat pavé race of c4f, test for PR basically, then Paris-Roubaix with 1'26" advantage. Dominating. Schelde and another fantasy-pavé, Rund um Berlin, hilly, Cellini leader, Hasler won. End of July, Hasler on pavé: 7 races, 7 wins. 01.08- Rund um Berlin again. Here the opponents finally clearly rode against Hasler. Right thing to do. And that was too much for Hasler, he couldn't ride alone to lose in the end. So: Beaten. Hilariously by teammate Jakob Jammerlappen. Another defeat vs Tafi later, in October "Pavé champions say good-bye" ... since the heroes of the spring, HASLER above all, but also Kipfer, Vasseur, Henrichs, Tafi, maybe Capdevila? Baroudeur? Anyway, the first 5 had a stage to their name, so the main ones. Ah, those heroes now all 33, close to retirement, so a Tour for them. Hasler: 6th-11th-3rd-6th, so now after 7 wins, also 6 "defeats" in pavé races, but he then finished it off with a dominant 49" win, stage, points jersey and GC. 8 wins on pavé, a pavé stage race, 2 TTs won, 3 other races early in his career (Le Pic des Ardennes??, how did that happen...) Only 3386 points, the points system wasn't the same yet, he probably would have a few more riding with these results riding a few years later. As for his nickname, as soon as the option became available, he contacted us demanding that his nickname be "Anton Hasler". We're not sure he got the concept, but when Anton demands, we (mostly) comply.

Helios Hochuli (Sui)
Topskills: 89-53-76-49-44 with 65 reg (got 89 with the last plus training though... mostly was 88)
10'463 points, 96 races, 109.0 points per race.
10 wins, 3 stage races, 1 points jersey, 2 mountain jerseys and 2 youth jerseys.
Rider of the year 2007 and 2008
Teamranking: 17

In late 07 he won our first "real" stage race, after almost 2 years of trying. Hasler had won the pavé tour, but with his skills that was not really an accomplishment. So Helios winning a stage race in December 07 was big. His form continued into January, 2 more stage races won. His biggest wins the Flèche Wallonne and 2 Giro stages. Best remembered for his Giro, in a way the most interesting Giro I ever rode (even if the sometimes chaotic, but always great maiden edition of 06 in some ways will always be incomparable). Didn't finish a single mountain stage with the favorites. In front or behind. A whole stage in escape too. An offline day cost us time, otherwise we might have really fought for the win. Were close after the Mortirolo stage where we had others in the escape fight already in the GAvia (topform for both Helios and I think also his helper Pucci, who himself was 88 during the Giro, later 89 and actually ended up having more eternal points than Helios). But well, TT, so back to 4th place in the end. But was a great Giro. No TdF ridden that year, so in August Helios retired and let Pucci (89 by then) and Gygax, 88 take over. His 07 win maybe a bit controversial, after all Zhou Kaicheng winning Liège from far far away was possibly the win of the decade (ours, so actually of the game), but after he and Helios' brother Zeus disappointend in the Giro, we rebuilt, and Helios joined. And won us a stage race in December.


Edgar Schmalztorus (Sui) Nickname: Joggeli Rapper
Topskills: 54-61-75-48-92, 37 reg.
7039 points, 263 races, 26.8 points average.
11 wins, 1 points jersey.
Rider of the year 2009
Teamranking: 39

A legend. As much for his rapping, mostly about how Basel is superior to Zürich, as for his sprinting. People thought it was just a marketing move, to sell more CDs (that was still a thing then, really!), but no, he was a serious cyclist. 11 wins. A Giro stage already at 21 years in 08, another one at 33 in 09. His best period was December 08-January 09 where he won 5 of his 11 races and the points jersey at the December Tour.


Yuri Gamov (Ru) Inofficial nickname (GAM OVer)
Top skills: 89-57-77-49-55 with 64 reg (retired with these skills too, had 56 sprint earlier in his career)
12'339 points, 113 races, 109.2 average.
9 wins. 2 stage races, 2 points jerseys, 1 mountain jersey, 1 youth jersey
Rider of the year 2010
Teamranking: 7

The end for Robyklebt. GAM OVer. as FL succinctly put it on the 25.05.2010. And so it was, on 02.06.2010 Petit Singe took over. Why? Because GAM OVer, which is also Gamov's inofficial nickname, wasn't GAM OVer, but then it actually was. Exactly because it wasn't, it became true. So let's talk about his career. Andes, second in GC, 2 stages. Some stuff early in 2010. Tirreno. Stage race win. Wild escape on the mountain stage, time gained, second strike the next day, fitter team than Ticos. Los Ticos beaten. And that is something that didn't happen often. Generally, not Donkey specific, Los Ticos is by far the best manager that c4f has seen. The next day Gaurain probably could have taken both dead Robyklebt and dead Ticos apart, but after being offline on the 2 decisive days before when Roby butchered Los Ticos, he probably thought he wouldn't profit after being off. Appreciated. Classy. That's Gaurain. Next the Flèche, second. The curse of the Flèche, where I failed with the favorite, Group through. Group rode well though, still a big fail. Giro: Gamov and Buonarotti with late form, actually wrong for both, 1 day late, so Gamov, for the final TT instead of the final mountain day, Gavia-Tonale. Goal was: Wait wait wait, then win in the end. And Gamov did it, first over the Mortirolo, with the Ticos Aldeia, eliminating the rest definitely, then sucking on the way to Aprica, (but almost couldn't, the manager was mentally exhausted there, ready to just ride with Ticos and get second, c4f can be hard mentally), then attack, gain a few seconds. Unfit Aldeia the next day., Robyk controls for the first time in the Giro, don't let him get fit, which had another manager losing it, how dare this Robyklebt ride and block my attacks... Then Gamov attacks in the Gavia after siebing the 80-70 helper a bit back, Los Ticos misses the sectrick , big advantage, ah wait for Buonarroti, that was a mistake, cost us time and the stage, he had followers, but at least then they didn't ride in the back... drop Buonarroti, ride alone, get second in teh stage, and rosa. Next day TT, saved it by 1". GIRO WON! Against Ticos. But.. .that was an unconcentrated Ticos, the real, fully motivated one would have won this, easily. Gamov won lots of time on a stage when Ticos went off and somehow had the wrong settings, attack by Donks, Ticos follows with his tempo guy... caught, then he goes off but still has the tempo guy on follow, but not Aldeia. Something like that. Roby of course with mistakes too, Zoncolan, knew didn't have the form, Ticos didn't, (fully concentrated would have I think), Gamov not in safety tempo, Ticos trying to drop the Belgian rider by siebing, then attacks. 30" lost back, just do safety tempo, idiot Roby. And FL then wrote: GAM OVer... But in the last 2 mountain stages. Gamov time! Great win. Because that was the one big goal I had in this game. Purely from the way of riding winning Tirreno was worth more, there Ticos was still there... here at the Giro he was unconcentrated and clearly on his way out. But Giro is Giro! No stage win, didn't matter either. Use my reg in the last 3 days, basically the tactic attempted with Helios, just this time it worked.

And that was it for Robyklebt. Not sure why he became manager anyway, user 33 didn't know the game was so good, oh, let's just name our team robyklebtamkühlschrank... hm, too long, ok, Robyklebt. Damn, 4 years later still here with that completely idiotic name...So seemed a good opportunity to get rid of him. But, he was a pretty impressive climbers manager trainer. 12 climbers, 8 of them starting at 21: 3 89, 1 88, 1 87 3 86. And a guy who joined at 23-1 (training) and 80 who went to 88 too. Maybe we should hand over the team to him again?
From June on it was Petit Singe who took over and finished Gamov's career. Points jersey without stage Dauphiné, then the Tour. 5th in GC, 4 stages, wild Tour, fun, Aix beating Bergwerk by nothing, or by a Gamov-Buonarroti inspired wild x climbs escape by a big climbers group vs BW chasing in the back, with free/Nilk in the picture too, underestimated because nobody knew this newcomer was actually an experienced multi. 0" for Aix vs BW, 12" back Nilk, a very good Lecce at 31" and Gamov fifth at 1'35". But with 4 stages, so that was ok.
Hm, just realized keeping it short might not be one of my strengths, took almost 20 years.

Fabrizio Conti (Ita) Nickname: Fabulous
Top skills: 54-62-46-53-95, 35 reg.
13'599 points, 231 races, 58.9 average.
32 wins, 4 sprint jersey 1 youth jersey.
Rider of the year 2011
Teamranking; 5
8 times rider of the season, co-record.

Joined in August, got the youth jersey and sprint jersey in October in La Franco Belge. 11 wins by mid march, including a Paris-Nice stage. Then Milano Sanremo. Great MSR win we think. Controlled together with our hill sprinter opponent JPS till the Cipressa. Sieb, the team chased, got back JPS (the 2 km or so tempo of Quick irrelevant we think)... Can't get rid of us on the Poggio, Conti wins. Done. Greatest sprinter of all times wins Milano-Sanremo. Fabulous Conti. Next 4 stages in Catalunya. Then the Giro.. at home. We go for GC, sorry Fabulous. A much criticised choice that is still hotly debated in bars in Italy, Kneipen in Germany, especially Berlin, Marzahn, Beize in Switzerland. And Izakazayas in Japan, but there it's mostly a middle aged guy muttering to himself while pretending to be 3 guys. Tour? Yes. 2 wins, points jersey, also thanks to great sitting by Marzahn. Conti won his last race at 34, kept riding till 37, 46-57 and 90 sprint at the end, but wasn't enough to win a stage in the December Tour, the only possible criticism of the greatest December Tour of all times. Yemen. Fabulous Conti, should write down the whole team that gave him Sanremo, but keep it short... but can't not mention Bakhtiyar Sagyrbayuly. 53-89, had 56/55 sprint too, could have tried to go for his own glory at times, but was always at the service of Conti. No Bakhtiyar, Fabulous is not the same. He retired before the Dec tour, that might be why Fabulous ended up empty-handed there. As somebody wrote in the nominations for helper of the year: Surprised Conti even agreed to continue racing after Bakhtiyar retired. (it was only 2 weeks, but still).

Daiken Sekiguchi (Jap)
Top skills: 74-80-78-50-49, 75.2 pavé with 48 reg
6618 points, 249 races 26.6 average. 7 wins
Rider of the year 2013
Teamranking 45

Bought one month before rider of the year 2012, who isn't in this poll, Legrand. See far below, roughly 2 weeks reading I guess. 7 wins, 3 of them in 2012. But it was in 2013 that he overtook Legrand (who still scored more points) by winning first Strade Bianche, and then on the 31st of March RVV. Our one and only win there. Drunk as hell. Could hardly write, well not me, Petit Singe. And gave all the pussies that lost a nice minus vote in fairplay. Drunk, but knowing it, VERY concentrated, while the writing in the chat was horrendous, concentration on the race probably more than usual, with an unusual effort too. And then Sekiguchi wins RVV in a sprint. Hilarious. Weird sprint, but don't ask for details. Some fairplay votes:
2013-03-31 GUDE LAUNE Big Donkey -3 drunken bastard - not fair but funny
2013-03-31 r QUICK Big Donkey 0 lucky.
2013-03-31 Avaya Big Donkey -1 talked so much shit today ôo but gw.
2013-03-31 Coroncina Big Donkey 3 gw
2013-03-31 Big Donkey server di odio -3 I win because I'm roughly 800 times better than you. Thanks sucker
The last one was given to everybody by Petit Singe, not Big Donkey of course.
Daiken got the award because of his March, Strade Bianche and RVV, perfect. Was still a good rider the rest of the time, but March was from another planet (with good alcohol I presume). Other strong candidates for 2013 would have been Villa, winner in Roubaix, Abel Tasman according to my press release at the time was another candidate no big wins, second Lombardia, but with his sprint often there and finally 9 career wins. But Sekiguchi's march made it clear.

Exactly 1 year after Sekiguchi's Flanders win, Petit Singe was ousted in some sort of coup, and Big Donkey, the last (provisionally last?) one of the holy trinity took over. And what a year he had. 3 riders of 2014 are in this poll. All 3 still bought by Petit Singe though, who like that should get a lot of credit for his scouting and training. Even if one of the riders won more despite his training...

Zhores Kopelyan (Blr)
Top skills: 84-53-79-49-47, 46 reg
5365 points, 63 races 85.2 average.
1 win, 1 stage race won
No rider of the year won
Teamranking: 63

Horrible training, slim palmares, what is he doing here? Well, he won our first Tour de France. Due to his training, he didn't get to start at the Giro, Tour, who cares, he can ride that. Groselj, Giroleader 14 had retired (6th in teamranking 9 wins, 7 times 2nd-3rd in stage races, but only Andes won, not enough for here, he failed when it counted, Giro, 3rd, Flèche second, etc. etc.) So Kopelyan for the Tour. And won. Only thing of note he had done before was win a stage in Down Under and finishing third in GC. And ok, help Groselj win the Andes maybe. But then the Tour. Pavé stage, loses time, then a hilly stage where Kostukias, 82-70-77-48-49 with 59 reg attacked.. a classic from another team there, Kopelyan only climber to be clever enough to follow. Huge advantage, with his flat Kopelyan is sure to be dropped. So Donkey rides full power in the back, with best climber Black Star and maybe others. Deal, OL says no Kostukias attack or following of the classic, if I stop behind and work on orange and downhill km in front. Deal. 82 vs 84, ok, now I try to win it. And did. OL made it easy, he had the tour won, but assumed he could win it in the chat while winning more stages on the road. Daily attacks, sometimes with Kostukias himself, "Donkey don't chase me, I only want the stage" once he realized that wouldn't work he tried to influence the stage hunters: "Black star, don't help the Donkey". How somebody can be dumb enough to think he's going to convince anybody is still a mystery. Anyway, Donkey rode his thing, did what he had to do, chased escaping OLs, especially the ones in a yellow jersey, dropped that one whenever he could, and in the end got yellow. Which he never would have gotten if OL had ridden defensively, instead of wanting additional stages. OL who then made it personal by crossing the fairplay-line when after losing yellow he tried to coach a newcomer, (until then he only tried to get him out of tempo, even on stages he later actually won) to get yellow from me. And then was surprised when I finally retaliated in the chat after that incident and after the Tour, until then I had just ridden a good solid race with Kopelyan, winning the Tour. A very consequential win for c4f, it ended (open ended really) with races being deleted while they were being ridden...But that is not Kopelyan's fault, he did what he had to do, he won a not very enjoyable Tour, thanks to a very toxic opponent. Both, not very enjoyable and Kopelyan winning, thanks to OL. a simple defensive tactic would have given Kostukias the win, including spectators chat with people like Alk and FL, everybody but OL agreed on that. Only he "knew" that Kopelyan was going to win it anyway. As he did.

Michael Creek (Aus)
Top skills: 50-65-53-58-95, 42 reg
8205 points, 173 races, 47.4 average
14 wins, 1 points jersey.
Didn't win rider of the year.
Ranking; 29

95 sprinter with only 14 wins. No wonder he didn't win the rider of the year award... Creek was frustration pure. Although that wasn't his fault. We have a top sprinter, and the sprint system changed, and from the start it was horrible to ride with a 95 sprinter. No train? You have 95, you ride, all day. Others with train attack (and then win in the end), because well, you ahve 95! And then because now the sprint was live, people saw who was in the wheel, oh, 95? He's not winning from MY wheel, that will teach him. Ok, bring a train. And then you ride alone most of the time. Completely alone. And can't hold it. Under the old sprint system Creek would have won lots more. Like this? 14 wins, that's it. Sounds like a failure this Creek. No. First, one of the few riders I remember the name that I used when I used to make races against myself, being different guys home from school, Creek was a sprinter that won quite a lot. And... 14 wins, but, but! Quality: Paris-Nice stage, Giro stage and the maglia ciclamino, a Tour stage, Brussels and then Paris-Tours!!!! Our first win, and what a win. There is something about Paris-Tours, Paris-Tours wins just make me incredibly happy, Toulet this year too, Gabel a while back less, was a small group, much less fun, but Creek's win. Months and months of frustration gone. PARIS-TOURS. My train, Topal-Ghazali and Creek. With train, so... ride alone. NO, SM of all people, SM, the guy that hardly cooperated under the old system, the guy that drove me crazy at times by having me ride triple what he did when I had a 1 or 2 points stronger sprinter, he of all people cooperated fully the whole race. And then with the train it was actually easy in the end. Too easy, yes, SM really shouldn't have cooperated that well, but after months and months of riding for a top sprinter nonstop, with ok, but not excellent return (it got better, after a while people understood that trainless 95 was far from guaranteed to win, that sacrificing a potential second place in the sprint just to be 7th but the guy on your wheel not winning maybe wasn't worth it) I didn't give a fuck. Creek won. For this alone he deserved the rider of the year award, but didn't get it. Too few wins (but why, see above) and other strong candidates. But he fully deserves to be in this poll, he showed that Petit Singe had an incredibly good hand in choosing sprinters. Managed by Donkey, but bought and trained by Petit Singe. And Creek basically completed Conti's palmares. Giro stage and ciclamino. And Paris-Tours. Great, underrated and often forgotten sprinter. But not forgotten by the Donkey.

Gaston Lajeunesse (Can)
Top skills: 76-75-72-48-61, 41 reg.
7665 points, 151 races, 50.8 average.
7 wins
Rider of the year: 2014
Team ranking 32

Bought one month after Creek, November 13, He was the rider that denied Creek his rider of the year award. How? Early August 2014, Gaston is a winless 30 year old rider, 73-75-72 with 61 sprint, On the 29th after training to be 75-75 he wins a fantasy race. 2 days later Plouay. Oh! He can do something! September, 3 wins, Montréal among them, plus 2nd in Tre Valli, 3rd in Québec.October? Lombardia. Our first and only win in Lombardia. And unlike Flanders, we actually like the Giro di Lombardia! But regularly fail, not Lajeunesse though. But that was the end of Lajeunesse's magic 40 days. 6 wins in 40 days, then reverted to his former unsuccessful self, although he added a 7th 2 months later in the Dec tour. That was enough to be a deserved rider of the year 24, Lombardia, 2 more classics. Outstanding. And his opponents for the rider of the year award where quite a few. Creek. mentioned above. Tabakov winning Roubaix, in a not too boring manner. And winning the pavé stage in the Tour de France. Kopelyan for winning our first Tour, see above too. And Bochini won Amstel from an escape, our first and only win there too, but that really is only a box ticked, Amstel? Shit race! Escape win the only decent way to win it. So, impressive Lajeunesse, 40 day of heavenly bliss, enough to beat the strong crop of 14!

Vinicius Dourado (Bra)
Top skills: 86-59-76-52-46 with 55 reg
9975 points, 91 races, 109.6 average.
4 wins, 1 stage race win
Rider of the year 2015
Teamranking 19

Won the Flèche, our second win there, was necessary after repeated failures. There. Second in the Giro with one stage, second in Romandie with another stage, won the Tour de Suisse. His 4th win was in 2014, when he won a stage in the Andes. Short an concise! Other candidates for the rider of the year 2015 would have been Ghazali, who sensationally won Milano-Sanremo in a super-chaotic sprint, and Joao Peixe who won the December Tour, our first win there. But in the end Dourado's consistency was clearly worth more.

Riders from 06-15 finished, if possible vote for one of those, see "rules" above
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Riders from 16-25 below, one vote for those too. And an additional favorite vote possible

Ingemar Wassberg (Sve)
Topskills: 86-58-76-48-49, 55 reg.
8315 points, 94 races, 88.5 average,
6 wins, 1 stage race, 1 points jersey.
Rider of the year 2016
Teamranking: 27

2016, our worst year. 2015 we had no money, team to expensive, 425k for 9 riders, took us forever until we finally managed to buy a cheap rider, Cheik Faye, after 2 or even 3 months waiting to have enough, barely over a million. The team suffered from this setback in 2016 of course, only 17 wins, plus a TTT, 2 stage races on the other hand was ok. Our worst season, not that we don't have other bad ones, but that was the worst. And Wassberg our best rider. A Giro stage, a Tour stage, 3 Dauphiné stages and the GC and points jersey there there. 7th in the GC in the Giro, our worst result, 5th in the Tour, there we had worse. 9 of the 17 wins that year were his, so he deserves his place in this poll. Barely.

Evaristo Zipoli (Ita)01.07.2016-04.08.2017 climber

Topskills: 89-60-66-51-47 with 57 reg
17'551 points, 98 races, 179.1 points per races
14 wins 5 stage race wins, 1 points, mountain and youth jersey each.
Rider of the year 2017
Teamranking: 2

He started his career with a white jersey in the Tour de l'Ain, won the Andes with a stage, Down Under with 2 stages, the Giro with 1 stage and the mountain jersey, Tour de Suisse with 4 stages and the points jersey and finally the Tour de France with 4 stages. Double! For the rest, placements, 2nd Paris-Nice, once again, 2" it was finally. 3rd Flèche, lightyears behind an easily controllable escape, of all our Flèche failures, the worst. 2nd LBL, Milano-Torino and Montréal. His TdF win maybe our best, Liquigas double beaten early, Kanuk from Tukh fights quite well longer than I was comfortable with. Nice Tour. My best Tour win I'd say. The Giro win on the other hand... decisive attack, classics ahead, nobody reacts, nobody blocks, I go with 2 climbers, only one guy follows Uppdal, the second climber, Giro won. The rest, doing nothing, never trying to win.. and Rasmussen banned for doping (or multi-accounting) during the Giro didn't help making Zipoli's win there great either. But with the Giro-Tour double, surely one of the greats in the history of the team. With 179.1 points per race clearly the leader in that category, the next rider has only 151.3 8 times rider of the season, like Conti, so that's another record, even if a shared one.

Lotfi Zafzaf (Mar)
Top skills: 90-60-75-50-48, 48 reg
17'098 points, 113 races, 151.3 average,
22 wins, 9 stage races won, 1 points jersey
Rider of the year 2018
Teamranking: 3

Our first and so far only 90 climber. 83 at 23, then sensational 87 at 24, 88 at 25, then up to 90 at 27, third training at 27. By then he had already won Milano-Torino and the Andes, with 2 stages. Plus 2 stages in the December Tour, 3rd in GC. His 90 climber life started badly, second in Down Under, despite winning the Willunga stage. But then, from February on, he was unbeaten. Won every race he started. 2 unimportant ones in February. March: Tirreno-Catalunya double. April: Pais Vasco, Flèche, Liège, Romandie. May: Giro. June: Dauphiné. Only rider in the history of c4f to win all the cat 4 1 week races that he could ride. Tirreno-Catalunya, Pais Vasco-Romandie, Dauphiné. How that works with form...calculate yourself. Catalunya was ok, Caius Aeschlimann, a rider that probably would have appeared in this poll if he was leader, 87-51-81-50-45 with 54 reg, had form there. Pais Vasco with Liège form, that was a miracle. Flèche-Liège double, starting our winning streak at the Flèche, 4 wins in a row 18-21. The Giro. 90 with 87 helper, we were too strong, it was boring, was impossible to lose. No real opponents, in the end we rode the attacking stage we had planned for stage 20 anyway in the offensive, resulted in Aeschlimann getting second in GC. 6 stages, only 2 for Zafzaf, 3 for Aeschlimann, after Zafzaf had won 2, we started gifting stages to Aeschlimann. Nice to win the Giro, more than nice, but it was rather boring. We rate winning those 5 1 week races higher than the Giro win, there was more opposition, although that sometimes collapsed too, especially Rasmussen in Pais Vasco, he had 2 riders that I thought would beat me, somehow sabotaged both, that after being uncomfortably close in Tirreno (if I remember correctly) Dauphiné, down to 89 in the first training at 33, Liquigas finally finds the guts to face Zafzaf, but fails. Zafzaf still unbeaten since February. But Donkey, 89 with 34, why not the Tour? 5 1 week races, the royal flush, why not the double, that is more important? Yeah why... easy. Tired of winning. After Zipoli the next nonstop winner? Tired of riding for Zafzaf, tired of always winning. Also scared of losing now. Very. Unbeaten since February 8 stages races, 2 classics, 13 stages along the way, Tirreno points jersey, even won the Moroccan national championships in March... no, don't want to risk losing now. Dauphiné was his last race (well, was forced to start in the Moroccan NC I guess, we don't count that. Enough is enough. Riding the tour, even not winning it, he would easily overtake Zipoli in points, but.. again, now afraid of losing and at the same time tired of winning, Lotfi was forced to retire. And he was actually ok with it. Let Caius have some fun in the Tour, after all the help he was for Zafzaf until then. (ah, there was pavé in the Tour I think, that's why I was so scared of losing maybe, even if his pavé skill was ok, 57, and even with more downtraining he could expect to win time in the mountains) Just was enough. Or was it because of Kadyrkhanov? Dec Tour and Down Under winner, later TdF winner, the guy that had beaten Zafzaf twice... no, we weren't scared of him in Italy, why then in France (because of Pavé, Donkey, you Donkey) And Caius did have fun in the Tour, 4 stages and the mountain jersey, 7 GT stage wins is all he won, but that's enough. Back to Lotfi Zafzaf, overall he got 22 wins (including the NC it seems), 9 stage races, by far the most in our team, Zipoli and Eiffel next with 5.

Hisashi Matsuyama (Jap)
Top skills: 86-55-73-49-54, 65 reg
9884 points, 83 races 119.1 average
6 wins 1 stage race, 1 mountain jersey
Rider of the year 2019
Ranking: 20

Impressed by Matsushita, the 50-85 flat guy with 65 reg, bought in March 18 , to ride and ride for Zafzaf, which he did and even won 2 races later in his career, including a Paris-Nice stage, the Donkey looked to Japan, and ended up with a Japanese team full of pine trees. (Matsu=pine tree) The Matsuyama-brothers among them, and unsurprisingly they were climbers (yama=mountain, actually it was surprising how well there names reflected their skills, Matsukaze, wind, so sprint, Matsuishi, stone, so pavé, Matsubara plain, so flat star, Matsushita means under the pine tree, that one was a bit off, the guy never took any breaks under any trees, but for the rest, incredible coindicences). Hisashi, the younger turned out to be more successful. Faster training, at 86 early, older brother Hiroshi reached that later too, but only shortly before the Giro, by then Hisashi with a bit better flat and much better sprint had established himself as leader. Both 65 reg btw. Anyway, HIsashi, 2nd in Giro and Tour, 2 Giro stages, Catalunya GC with a stage, the Flèche.

Fabio Antinori(Ita)
Top skills: 88-56-78-49-46 with 54
11'525 points, 98 races, 117.6 average
13 wins, 2 stage races 1 points jersey, 1 mountain jersey
Rider of the year 2020
Ranking: 12

Villalba, off-season classic his first win, ours too in that race. Then won the January Tour, 4 Ciudades de Colombia. RKL Tour, but actually not very good, good concept, but one HC stage was just too hard. A stage in Paris-Nice, the Flèche... then the Giro: Second place vs Neumann, 90 climber with 57 or 58 reg. No chance, tried, got 2 stages, but Neumann just too strong. TdS, good, GC won, 1 stage, mountain jersey and points jersey. The Tour... interesting duel vs Barrientos of Liquigas. Both with just one climber, which made it one of the more interesting Tours. Antinori with TdS form in June, Barrientos with TdF form, the difference is all there. But of course without that early timeloss the whole race would have been different, can't just say with better form there Antinori would have won it. 3 stages, 7" missing for yellow in the end. Good season overall 2020, we did the first triple second. Giro-Tour-Vuelta. Larios, with maybe the teams best ever GC performance got within 13" of Neumann, the same overdoped German that beat Antinori in the Giro. Not 90 anymore, but 88. TT. Part of the race. Yes... then make it bonifications. Part of the race too. We know, still, we rode much better than Neumann. Bogarin winning Sanremo, Lafargue Roubaix. But back to Antinori, 5 GC stages, 2 second places, TdS, then finished his career with a win in the Flèche Jurassienne, came back into the calender for a one off edition in 2020 in August.

Tim Eiffel (Fra) 01.07.20-13.09.21 Climber

Topskills: 84-64-79-62-56
18'044 points, 132 races, 136.7 average points per race,
9 wins, 5 stage race wins, 2 green jerseys, 2 classics
Rider of the year 2021
Teamranking: 1

U24 title in Imola at 23 his first success. Something we didn't even know it seems, or forgot. Training, 84, we hoped for a bit more, but ok, starting at 70 is like a 87 that starts at 73. So ok. Flat good and important, +8, so overall good training. His big successes came in 2021, Strade Bianche, Tirreno, Romandie, Giro, Tour de Suisse and Tour de France. Like Zipoli, just less stage wins. And topped off with a nice win in San Sebastian, his second classic. He has the most points in the history of the team. Sprint jersey in Pais Vasco, where Faye won the GC and Tour de Suisse. 9 wins, his sprint helped, but with only 84 mountain most often he was not sprinting for wins, still managed to win stages in Tirreno (1), TdS (2) and the Tour (3!) 2 big regrets, not winning Lombardia in 2020, lower flat killed him in the sprint vs a free classic and the way the Giro was won, in the final TT he won way more than he should have vs the dominant climber from fantasticos. Somehow it looked like fantasticos threw the win away on purpose, and the suspicion that Tim Eiffel used some of his Liechtenstein connections to pay fantasticos off persists to this day.

Moritz Gabel (Sui)
Top skills: 50-72-71-50-86, 74.7 pavé, with 41 reg
6656 points, 203 races 32.8 average 21 wins
Rider of the year 2022
Team ranking: 44

The third our our sprint trifecta, Messerli (55-64-66-51-57, 16 wins)-Löffel (66-71-56-50-81, 25 wins, 1 stage race) and Gabel. All three profited a lot from the low number of teams at the time, but that's not their fault, the guys to blame are the ones that weren't here. First win at 26, a Vuelta stage, a bit late, but at least something important, and of course Messerli in flat races was still leader until then. Then, Paris-Tours, with his pavé the logical choice to have that as his great goal, he delivered. 6 teams, not many but still a race. One month later gave us our first in in the GP Canyon de Chelly. 2022, good start to the season, 8 wins by mid march. Milano-Sanremo? Make it 9. He managed the double, Sanremo-Tours, ok, Tours-Sanremo in his case. Perfection for a sprinter. Then copying Fabulous Conti a bit, went on a winning spree in Catalunya, 3 stages. And finally won Dwars Door Vlaanderen. 13 wins in 3 months, he's unstoppable. Also 33, starting to slow down, Fast, result-wise. Very stoppable suddenly. Only 4 more wins 6 seasons, could hope for more until 36 or so. Not Gabel, his wins were at 34, 37m 38 and 3938-60 with still 77 sprint at that point.. A 2 man race, but he beat Ganna, one of the greats in the history of c4f sprint, so counts.

Guillaume Payot (Fra)
Top skills 89-58-75-51-45 with 52 reg
11,'979 points 95 races 126.1 average
10 wins 2 stage race wins 1 youth jersey
Ranking 9

First race, first win, San Sebastian 2022. 22 years old, impressive. As long as nobody mentions it was a 3 team race... 3rd and youth jersey in the Vuelta. (7 teams)Won Villalba next, off-season classic, then Down Under including a stage. Tirreno, with a stage, the Flèche, then the Giro... second. 89 mountain, excellent, his opponent Volta, 86 with 59 TT proved to be easily stronger. 71 km of TT just too much finally. 1'55" back. minimal gain in mountains vs big loss in TTs. Only 1 stage as well. TdS then with 2 stages, 3rd in GC, then we decided to ride the Tour without Payot. 34, but still good, but we wanted to try to defend his San Sebastian title, all for that. He failed, but won his finaly race the day after, Getxo. The second climber that year, Urs Steiner, then completed our triple second for that year, second in both Tour and Vuelta. But despite failing in his biggest goal, Giro, Payot still was the best rider that season, Tirreno, Flèche, a deserved rider of the year.

Excelino Marquez Nickname El Magnifico
Top skills: 88-58-77-50-53 with 52
16'823 points 124 races 135.7 average
22 wins 2 stage races 2 points jerseys, 1 mountain jersey 1 youth jersey
Didn't win rider of the year
Ranking 4

Youth jersey in the Vuelta, 3rd in Lombardia, Villalba, then dominated the December Tour. No opponent at all there, even riding badly the Donkey duo Marquez Garcia never risked not winning it. 4 stages, GC and mountain jersey. Next important appointment. Paris-Nice. Still waiting for that second win, 4 second places, some of them very close, maybe Marquez can do it? No. 2nd again. 2" missing. Despite winning 5 stages, he couldn't beat Wörns, the Allrad TT monster, who had gained 1'46" in the TTT. Many attempts to win it with attacks from far in the last stage this time tried it a bit differently, but failed anyway. But well, Marquez already had all the possible luck winning stages, eveything worked perfectly, couldn't ask for more luck. 2" missing in Nice. Skill, maybe, luck no. 2" missing in Nice. On to the Giro, this time vs the next overtrained AAD, Krausz, we didn't even try to go for GC. Stage hunting the one and only goal. Won 4 stages and still got second in GC. Next, TdS, and here we thought we can beat Krausz maybe. Up to 88 too by then, but with the sprint advantage, and only 5 km flat TT, second one mountain TT.Can work. Well, not if we ride the 5 km prologue the way Marquez did. 26" lost to Krausz. instead of putting the tempo up to 100% somebody just put the risk to high.... Ok, so stages it is, stage 3, 4, 5, 6, no wait. No stage 6. Topform, thought Krausz too, pretty sure he had, wanted to win time, not only bonifications for once... so let him attack, hoping to get him back with more energy. Didn't, beaten by 1". And beaten by Wingelaar the next day, somehow Krausz that day lost 10", but was irrelevant. Just the mountain TT coming, 26" lost, 29"back in GC. With the prologue ridden decently can be close, still Krausz favorite, but again the race changes. TT man, TT needs concentration.
On to the Tour, interesting 3 way fight. Sullivan 86 with 53 TT but little reg vs Tarabesh, Giro winner with now 87 and Marquez 88. Mostly Tarabesh&Marquez together vs CC, but since they were so close together... couldn't really do much either trying not to let the other get an advantage. Sullivan early form, time gain in TT, and strong in the Pyrenees, just couldn't be dropped decisively. Alpes too, minimal gains always. Marquez winning 2 stages, advantage over Tarabesh, Tarabesh then winning the 20st, 15" between the 2. Finally yellow for Marquez, Tarabesh at 15", Sullivan at 17". Advantage Sullivan 53, Tarabesh 50, Marquez 49? Sullivan didn't have it, went to deep the day before, losing yellow demotivated him too. Out. After 10 of 34 km Tarabesh already had 7" back. And with the climb there, had seemed rather pro Marquez. Downhill equal, climb +1 Marquez. After 20km only 10", Marquez back? After 26 km it's at 14", ok, 8 km to go, 1" to defend, that's it. But with 5km to go Marquez is back to 12"... he's in it! Last 5 km: 13"-15"-14"-15". 1 km to go 0" difference in GC, Tarabesh better in points, 1 more TT... 13" Marquez did it! 2". Tour win. risk high, low, changing, the 2" lost were high, so were the 2" gained... Pure luck! No no, Marquez said. Remember Paris-Nice? "2" missing in Nice". Marquez left them there on purpose (he claims), picked them up now, TdF finish in Nice after all. And the lesson from Switzerland: "TT needs concentration". Was all planned. Says el Magnifico, we think it was pure luck. Marquez then finished his career where he started it. San Sebastian, 10th on his debut, 9th in his last race. Thanks to the Tour of course Rider of the Year. No, wait, despite winning the Tour, 22 races, no. 4 by points in the team he didn't!

André Chassot (Sui) Nickname André5000
Top skills: 48-68-69-48-90, 42reg
7807 points 184 races 42.4 average
14 wins, 1 points jersey.
Rider of the year 2024
Ranking 31
Yes, André5000 was good enough to beat Marquez for rider of the year 2024. The fourth sprinter in this list, the third to win Sanremo. First win at 26, the day before Sanremo, good training, he then won Milano-Sanremo as well. After a fantasy race in April, one of only 2 cat. 1 wins in his career the Giro. And 2 stages. Very important for the team, it was the first Giro stage win by one of our sprinters since Michael Creek in 2014. And we usually brought our sprinters. Ok, he was also our first 90 sprinter since Creek, frustration in 2014 led us to just go for weaker sprinters after that. But enormously important, we tried and tried, never won a stage, Chassot did it. Twice. And the same at the Tour, where we had managed sprinter wins more regularly, so less important, still nice to have 2 Tour stages in your palmares. Between the GTs, Brussels, another important win, cat 4. 2 wins and sprint jersey in Poland, then in January 25 finished the winning part of his career off with a stage Down Under. 14 wins, less than Marquez as a sprinter, but Sanremo combined with the 4 GT stages, with double, triple weight to the Giro ones and Brussels, yeah, rider of the year

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That leaves us with 2 riders who won the rider of the year award, but aren't in this poll. Ok, technically 1, but we just had our team intern vote for 25 and unofficially know the rider of the year 2025

Nicolas Legrand (Sui)
Top skill 74-80-68-49-52 , 45 reg
7187 points, 267 races, 26.9 average. 5 wins.
Rider of the year 2012
Teamranking 36
5 wins, a Tour stage as a 23 year old. Not much more. Excellent early training, far ahead of Sekiguchi who was rider of the year one year later. Reached 74-80 at 26. Sekiguchi, one year older was 68-79 at the time. 53-73 start for Legrand 56-71 for Sekiguchi. Who then trained to 74-80 at 32 by taking the final mountain. One big reason for Legrand 2012 was that it was thanks to him that we won the Andes with Trapani. And that we didn't ride the Giro, were unconvincing in the Tour GC So while the rider of the season was somehow doubtful, it wasn't a wrong decision, got us some success in France, decisive vs Bergwerk in the Andes. Together with Sekiguchi a very strong classic duo, although without sprint.

Wakara Ganabarr
Top skills: 59-80-71-51-66, with 79.1 pavé and 47 reg
Still active
Rider of the year 2025

Pavé, bought for Roubaix. Flanders. But also Omloop and E3, 2 races we never won. Original leader Fortuny, but why not try with a guy with sprint, all 4 races need sprint, but especially the hilly ones we think. And for Omloop we never really had that profile, Alighieri, but at the time the profile was still different. So Ganambarr, first attempt, Omloop, 80 flat, we hoped for more, but have time for the 3 other races, 57 mountain, maybe too little for RVV, but Omloop might be ok... we'll see. It worked, brilliant hidden croc tactic by Gurruwiwi, then the sprint, slow train, but train, Ganambarr wins. E3? Ganambarr wins again, this time from the wheel of Dagestan. Perfect. Wakara-mania in Donkey-circles. RVV: Dropped, comes back, sprint... and here the architect of Ganambarr's success failed. Badly. Twice. Gurruwiwi, as he told us later overthought it, while actually not thinking. Train? The slow one again, yes. But no, Gurruwiwi thought, now everybody knows it, Omloop was a surprise, here we have all on our backwheel. Yes, what's the problem, they then block themselves, the guy in the wheel is the strongest, best position, he waits. The ones further back can't go early because the guy in their wheel then overtake them. That would have been the easy argument to allay his concerns. Train, right decision. But no, First mistake. Second one, go on a guy that was in the escape all day... Gurruwiwi my man, what where you doing. 4th place with that dumb sprint decisions.. train was right. Win not guaranteed, it never is, but that just was the most promising tactic there. But well... actually. OMloop won, E3 won, 2 races that were missing, E3 not always ridden, OMloop failed a thousand times. Those 2 in the end more important to us than Flanders for the second time. So ok, good race, bad sprint, threw our chances away in the end, but we've had worse. Some Flèche editions... AFter that sadly we forgot Ganambarr a bit. He also lost motivation, 59-80 his best skills, +10 climbing, that's ok, +11 flat is on the low end of what's acceptable. So not much riding, if, not really for him. He did his job. Baykali Gurruwiwi, the magician tactician basically left the team too, part time, we didn't see him often. We kind of remembered Gurruwiwi for the Vuelta, since then he's been riding more again, we gave him more responsabilities too, but too late, getting older. Co leader in Paris-Tours, but was for Toulet finally, 6th for him. Few races after Roubaix, where he clearly was too weak, no Giro, no Tour, no Dauphiné... we could have used him more. But he did what he was bought for, so... all fine in the end.

Other riders missing from our internal eternal top 10:

6 Primoz Groselj: PN and TdS stage win biggest success..
8 Omar Fahrny: 3 wins not enough to be here. Even if his Dec Tour, Yemen, was great. Epic ride!
10 Rakhat Momyshuly 5 youth jerseys, Tour mountain jersey with Alpe d'Huez, 3 TdS stages, 1 PN stage, not bad at all, but not enough.

Ok, vote away!

Probably full of mistakes and false info, being pissed refrained from rereading this now... as I had originally planned. Corrections welcome

[team fl]

Happy Birthday!

As I've never experienced Anton Hasler myself, only heared the legends, I've chosen the following riders:

- Edgar Schmalztorus: "The Joggeli Rapper! This motherfucker just can't be denied in this decision!" - Raffael Kämpfer
- Yuri Gamov: "GAM OVer " - unkown source from Liechtenstein
- Tim Eiffel: "best name ever" - Gustave Eiffel

Honorable mention: Vitor Vittoria: "The most underwhelming performance during a Giro stage." - Louis Thuilliez

[cataracs]

For me, Leonardo Alighieri is the best rider of the team and game!

so I'd have to throw a sympathy vote for somebody here

[Tukhtahuaev]

Marquez gets the sympathy vote for his TdF efforts. But Gamov clearly the best overall, even if I have never seen him race

[Bear]

I tried to vote for Gamov three times. True legend.