Remco Evenepoel is the most successful one-day race rider in modern history - Belgian wins almost one third of every monument and World Championship he starts
Cycling
Modern cycling has seen the rise of new stars which are expected to contest with the sport's legends results-wise, and one of them is Remco Evenepoel. Despite being a rider very well fit for the stage-races, he has actually become modern cycling's most efficient winner in the one-day races.
This is a statistic explained by Twitter user @NaichacaCycling who has taken a dive into the win rate of the sport's best since the 1990's. This does not include for example Eddy Merckx who has in the past ruled the sport, but out of the last decades it is possible to see that Evenepoel has won 30% of every Monument, World Championship or Olympic Games event that he's started as an Elite rider.
He has in fact only started five monuments ,but two were the 2022 and 2023 Liège-Bastogne-Liège which he's won. Evenepoel has also won the road race and time-trial World Championships in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Although it is not included, he also carries in his palmarès three victories at the Clásica San Sebastián, stage victories in the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España - the latter which he's also won the GC, and many others. At a fresh 24 years of age, the Belgian already has over 50 victories in his palmarès - an impressive achievement for any rider, but specially for a non-sprinter.
Evenepoel is not isolated at the top of this statistic however, both Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel have won 27.8% of theirs respectively. Pogacar at 25 is a Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Flanders and triple Il Lombardia winner; whilst van der Poel is the reigning World Champion, Paris-Roubaix, Milano-Sanremo and double Tour of Flanders winner - besides his six world titles in cyclocross.
Read also
This is a nice statistic but feels a little bit like a searched and found metric to make a point, in this case that Remco is the greatest. Small samples always provide surprising results. Statistically is 3 out of 10 more exceptional than 5 out of 18? Why not include the 10 biggest races, (because then Pogacar will be above 30% and above Remco?) And then we do want to mention that he won the timetrial WC but can't include it in the metric because then his score goes down. Same with all his other wins. He is an impressive cyclist and will cycle the majority of his seasons with the rainbow band on his sleeve, but these attempts to enlarge his aura are pathetic.
Agreed but please explain one thing. Why does his score go down by adding one win and one race or are you implying that in order to add that win the number of races that would have to get added is more than 3?
Peak Remco vs Pog vs MVDP hasn't happened. We will see that in 2024. Pog went to MVDP territory in Flanders and defeated him. Thats why Pog is better than MVDP.
Why is RvV MVDP territory, what territory is Milan-San Remo? You base better on 1 race? Who is more suited to what kind of one day race? We’ll have a better idea after 2024 maybe but firstly, I think it’s way too early to define who’s better and secondly you, and most others forget that by the time pundits get round to comparing these guys (and RE, JV, PR, WVA) to see who did best on the road, MVDP already had a whole winter season of wins in the legs. Anyway, they are not always comparable as in tours one will excel in mountains whilst the other often has lead-out obligations in sprints.
Ok guys, luckily there are not so many Remcoholics so I don’t risk upsetting too many people when I state the obvious. If Remco would search out a few more one day races against either Pogaçar or Van der Poel, his stats would take a hit. Head to head he loses out against P and he’s been lucky to almost always been able to avoid VDP (who had mitigating incidents for WC and Olympics like crashes and arrests), only meeting 8 times in 6 years. Funnily enough, all 3 started their elite career at the same time. Also, sorry but Remco has a relatively relaxed winter season, I doubt he’d win as much in the Classics or on the road if he’d be « handicapped » by VDP’s load of Cyclocrosses, and lets not forget his stats for this season then. I am not saying RE is not a fantastic rider but he’s no better than those other 2 yet and might never be.
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Yawn! There were no ther top class sprinters there so he better have won! Let me know when he beats Jasper or Merlier or Milan!frieders309-04-2025
- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025