1. T.Fontaine
2. L. Neumann
3. J. Jefferson
4. C. Pellissier
5. L. Hediger
Fontaine no comment, don't know anything except that he wins all the time, but never rode against him or saw him, not going to stay awake or wake up to see Fontaine in the middle of the night
But I promise I'll stay up when he threatens to reach 40'000 points.
Neumann: Giro and Vuelta winner, yes 'only' in the afternoon. Rather weak groups both times, true. His Giro team could have done the job against stronger opponents too, against those that were there he finally got a convincing win that was never really in danger. Vuelta he had a weaker team and basically won despite his own manager, that just shows how good he is, it was all Lutz winning! TdF? He couldn't ride that, not his fault.
11 stage races in 2020, Giro-Vuelta, Paris Nice, Pais Vasco, TdS the important ones.
24 stage wins in 2020, no imporant 1 day race though. Reached 30'000+ points in his career, in a normal year he would be a rather clear rider of the year.
Jefferson:
37 wins in 2020. 2 Giro and Tour stages each. And 3 PN stages plus a Dauphiné stage. But it's the 5 points jerseys that give him the third place here finally, especially 3, PN, Giro, TdF. And of course getting the second highest amount of wins ever at c4f! Like Neumann, in a normal year he would be a likely rider of the year, but with Fontaine....
Pellissier, 25 wins in 2020. RVV, Hamburg, Bretagne, Montreal, DDV and Brabant. 6 classics, strong. Pretty sure nobody has more this year, and very likely high up in the all time classic wins classification too. In addition 3 stages at the Giro and Tour each. TdS stage next in importance.
Hediger: Points jersey in the 3 GTs as the second option in the team, main focus was on GC. And that's really the reason he's in here, Giro one win, points jersey, Tour no win, points jersey, Vuelta 3 wins, points jersey, that in itself to me wouldn't be enough to be my fifth choice here. And in addition to that he only has a Catalunya stage that is really worth mentioning. Nothing in classics. But doing that with a strong GT leader in his team is impressive, even if the team itself of course was ridiculously expensive.
Of course other riders missing, one obvious one Florian Kutti, but somehow all his successes are almost overshadowed by him losing the Vuelta.... And there was another one I considered, ,but somehow managed to already forgot who...
