McEwen - An All-Time Great?

by Cosmo on Jul 7, 2006 1:10 PM EDT

Last time Cycle Sport spat out a "greatest sprinters of all time list" was in February 2002, and unsurprisingly, Robbie McEwen was not on it. With only a single, three-year-old TdF stage win and a handful of Netherlands Tour credits to his name, as this article at Eurosport points out, things were not looking so rosy for the Australian in 2001.

Of course, we all know what happened then: the upset of Stuart O'Grady and Erik Zabel to take the Green Shirt at the '02 Tour, another maillot vert in '04 (despite some broken vertebrae) three stage wins in '05, and another trio thus far this season. All told, 11 Tour stages, a spattering of Giro wins, plus a handful of victories at smaller stage races.

However, there are plenty of criticisms to be leveled against the Aussie. Certainly, his wild, devil-may-care style has resulted in more than a few relegations, hand gestures and post-race comments. Also, unlike Tom Boonen, whose season-long win total is comprised generally of events at cycling's highest levels, Robbie's victory count is often padded by pre-season Australian events, which (not to say that they're easy) offer a somewhat lower level of competition.

In fact, while McEwen is unquestionably among the best at the Giro and Tour, he's seldom seen on the podium at any other high profile events. Robbie's other great contemporary, Alessandro Petacchi, has taken wins at everything from San Remo to the Vuelta, with multiple victories at all three Grand Tours during the same season.

So my question is this: were Cycle Sport to revise their Top 10 list tomorrow, would de Kangeroe van Brackel make the cut? For comparison, a pre-San Remo, pre-World Champion, pre-All-Time Giro Stages record Mario Cipollini rated only 9th, and Barry Hoban objected to his being on the list at all. Erik Zabel, meanwhile, at the very height of his dominance, was awarded 3rd, with extra kudos from Hoban for his unwillingness to abandon.

Poll

Is Robbie McEwen Among the Top 10 Sprinters of All-Time?

Yes

5 votes

No

14 votes

Not Sure

2 votes

21 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Distinction

is in the "All-Time" I think. certainly he is now but if you put him side by side with past greats the answer is not so clear. Another big consideration is team support. In order to do well at the larger events you have to have a team that can organize and lead out your sprint. Petacchi has enjoyed great support from what I have seen. While I have limited experience to call upon I would think that if you used the qualifier of "The Top 10 Sprinters of All-Time, who used the other guy's leadout train" then he would be very close to the top.

by Clydesdale on Jul 7, 2006 1:49 PM EDT reply actions

Too high a bar

And not having been around to witness all time, it's hard for me to say. Still, he possesses a certain greatness that you can only appreciate by watching. The number of victories and his statistics in general are on par with, say, Abdujaparov, right? In other words, BFD. But the manner in which he wins, and the guys he beats, are what show how amazing he is. There's tremendous flair in being the guy who thrives in chaos, in constantly coming from the back of the bunch and winding through all the way to victory. He wins on guts, guile, and an incredible (if brief) top-end burst. He's the anti-Petacchi, and I'm impressed by Petacchi when he gets started at 250 meters and goes home untouched, but rarely does McEwen win without causing me to say "where the fuck did he come from?"

So, for the sport, he may be short of all-time great, but as entertainment, he's WAAAY up there.

by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 7, 2006 2:21 PM EDT reply actions

Robbie, is right around 100 wins

give or take. All of his wins are stages or one day smaller races (He's cleaned up in the JTDU). He's never won a classic, a semi-classic or World Championship. Sorry, you just can't say.. Cipo, JaJa, Zabel, Kelly and Robbie in the same breath...

by Mr Van P on Jul 7, 2006 2:31 PM EDT reply actions

Agree...

I'd say Robbie has trouble even cracking the "Top 10" contemporary list, and the idea of the Pimpernel belonging in the "Top 10 of All Time" grows fairly distant when you start adding in the great "classics sprinters" of even just the postwar era (Van Looy, Maertens, De Vlaeminck, etc).

Without classics wins, it's hard for me to put him atop much of a mountain...

by TCWriter on Jul 7, 2006 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions

You probably

could put a mountain on top of him and he would still show up shooting through the riders for a top 3.

by Clydesdale on Jul 7, 2006 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not sure DeVlaeminck

was on Cycle Sport's list. Probably because of his miserable (2 wins) Grand Tour record outside the Giro. Certainly VanLooy was on there (tied for 1st with Maertens) though riders of his generation are hard to sort out by today's standards. And you can seriously name 10 sprinters better than Robbie McEwen racing right now? I get 2 (Boonen, Petacchi).

-Cosmo http://cyclocosm.com

by Cosmo on Jul 7, 2006 4:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Good points, but...

McEwen does have a few semi-classic wins here and there (Paris-Brussels for example). And the Abdu comparison is ludicrous. The Uzbekh has 54 wins to his name, McEwen has 135, as of last year.

The comparison to Jalabert is an interesting one, for as far as Tour stages go, McEwen dominates the Frenchman (11 wins to 4, and at most half of those in group gallops). Jalabert's record is amazing at the Vuelta (7 wins in 1994, 5 wins 1995), but again, not all sprint victories. Though his versatility as a rider is almost unparalelled (only Merckx and he can claim the Grand Tour trifecta), I don't have Jaja on my list of all-time great sprinters.

Personally, I don't think you really need a huge classics win to claim a place among the greats. It's nice to have, but Freddy Maertens (for example) never won a monument. Indeed, the recently altered format of Amstel Gold now makes it so "sprinters" have less and less chance to be "classics riders" as well. As it stands, Gent-Wevelgem, Paris-Tours and Milan-San Remo are really the only classics most effective Grand Tour sprinters can hope to win. If Robbie can take one of those three races, he'll make my list for sure.

-Cosmo http://cyclocosm.com

by Cosmo on Jul 7, 2006 3:50 PM EDT up reply actions

I didn't

make the original comparison to Abdu at all (didn't mention him), but a word in his defense; he does have three TdF points jerseys and is among a small handful of riders (I can only think of three in the modern era) to win the points compettition at all three Grand Tours.

And since the original question revolved around "All Time Great sprinters" and not great "Grand Tour" sprinters (a relatively new designation), then yes, I'd say he'd have to compile a few classics wins to gain consideration.

Finally, no offense, but I have to call 'bullshit' on the Maertens comparison. Freddy won two world championships, placed second in Flanders and LBL, and won a big handful of minor classics (not to mention 13 wins at ONE Vuelta). McEwen's not remotely in Maertens' class.

Nor does he belong in the same column with riders like Kelly or Zabel (and a host of other older riders I could name).

He's the fastest right now, but he's not even in my "Top 3" list of great contemporary GT sprinters, and nowhere near my list of "All Time" great sprinters...

by TCWriter on Jul 7, 2006 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions

JaJa was a sprinter

before his horrific crash in stage 1 of the Tour in '94. He is one of those riders that you can't really put a label on. He won stage races, green and polka dots. Pure sprinter? Maybe not in the Petacchi sense, but anyone that was ever in a break away with him, knew they were racing for second. He had some afterburners too...

by Mr Van P on Jul 7, 2006 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions