Breakdown: Going through the end-of-season statical rankings to determine who was actually the best rider of the 2022 season. Spencer Martin runs through who are the top men, who has moved up, who needs to bounce back and he looks back at the big races of 2022.
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Robot Remco
With so much chatter bouncing around concerning the rise of the seemingly unbeatable racing robot that is Remco Evenepoel, and the perceived decline of Tadej Pogačar during the 2022 season, I wanted to step back and take a truly objective look at the end-of-season rankings (points and wins) in an attempt to put the cumulative performances of the top riders into context and, most importantly, discern who actually had the best rider of the 2022 pro cycling season.
To start things off, let’s take a look at the top 20 riders in the UCI and PCS Points, along with win rankings, and go through a few takeaways.
Top Spot for Tadej Pogačar – But no Tour win
Top 20 UCI Rider Points Rankings
For the second straight year, Tadej Pogačar took the top spot in the UCI points rankings, along with finishing in the top two for the third consecutive season.
- This shows an almost absurd combination of consistency and result-getting from a rider who can almost seemingly shift between challenging at the biggest GC and one-day races.
Top 20 Rider PCS Rankings
In the Pro Cycling Stats points rankings (which I consider to be a far superior and consistent year-over-year measure of a rider’s performance), like UCI point rankings, Pogačar also gets the top spot for the second-consecutive year and his third-straight top two finish.
- The difference between Mads Pedersen and Arnaud Die Lie’s UCI and PCS point ranking positions (Pedersen was 20th in the UCI but 6th in the PCS while Die Lie was 6th in the UCI but 13th in the PCS rankings) shows that while Die Lie technically had a larger jump in PCS ranking position (648) than Pedersen, the PCS points system correctly shows that Pedersen achieved results at bigger and more competitive races than Die Lie
- Pedersen’s jump to 6th place, which increased his finishing position from 2021 by a stunning 59 places, shows just how spectacular his season was.
Pogačar didn’t get it all his own way
Top 20 Wins Rankings
While finishing atop the UCI and PCS point rankings for two straight seasons is impressive, especially for a GC contender, Pogačar’s brilliance only comes into full focus when we look at the list of the top 20 race winners from the 2022 season (riders from outside the first two divisions have been filtered out). After tying with Wout van Aert and Primoz Roglic for 1st in 2021, the 23-year-old superstar became the first Tour de France winner to win an outright ‘win title’ since Bernard Hinault in 1981.
While a sprinter nearly always takes the ‘win title,’ it is extremely impressive and notable that the top two spots in both 2021 and 2022 rankings have been taken by grand tour riders (2021: Roglic & Pogačar, 2022: Pogacar & Evenepoel).
This shows the absurd level of talent and versatility that the sport’s top GC riders possess and confirms that the days of the delineated specialists are further eroding, and the age of the all-around world beaters are here to stay.
Van Aert was stunning as always
Comparing Top Three: Pogačar vs Evenepoel vs Van Aert
Pogačar’s 2022 Highlights:
UCI Point Rank: 1st
PCS Point Rank: 1st
Wins: 16 (12 WT wins)
Grand Tour: 2nd overall @ Tour de France, 3x Stage Wins (TdF)
One-Week: 1st @ Tirreno–Adriatico (WT)
Monument Top Tens: 1st @ Il Lombardia, 4th @ Tour of Flanders, 5th @ Milano-Sanremo
Other Notable WT Wins: 1st @ Strade Bianche, 1st @ GP Montreal, 1st @ UAE Tour
Notable non-WT Wins: 1st @ Tre Valli Varesine
Evenepoel’s 2022 Highlights:
UCI Points Rank: 3rd
PCS Point Rank: 3rd
Wins: 15 (6 WT wins)
Grand Tour: 1st @ Vuelta a Espana, 2x Stage Wins (Vuelta)
One-Week: 1st @ Tour of Norway, 1st @ Volta ao Algarve
Monument Top Tens: 1st @ Liège-Bastogne-Liège
Other Notable WT Wins: 1st @ San Sebastian, 1st @ World Championships (RR)
Notable non-WT Wins: 1x Tour de Suisse Stage, 1x National Championship (TT)
Van Aert’s 2022 Highlights:
UCI Points Rank: 2nd
PCS Point Rank: 2nd
Wins: 9 (9 WT wins)
Grand Tour: 3x Stage Wins (TdF)
One-Week: 2x Critérium du Dauphiné Stage Win, 1x Paris-Nice Stage Win
Monument Top Tens: 2nd @ Paris-Roubaix, 3rd @ Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 8th @ Milano-Sanremo
Other Notable WT Wins: 1st @ E3, 1st @ Bretagne Classic, 1st @ Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
Notable non-WT Wins: N/A
Looking at the stats above, it becomes clear that despite Van Aert’s incredibly strong season that netted him an impressive nine WorldTour wins, three Tour de France stage wins, and three Monument top tens, the title for ‘best rider of the year’ lies with either Tadej Pogačar or Remco Evenepoel due to their combination of raw wins along with overall results in grand tours.
Pogačar isn’t unbeatable
So, Who Was Better Between Pogačar & Evenepoel
By pulling out their highlights and comparing them side-by-side, it immediately becomes obvious that both riders had great seasons and won at a truly astonishing clip for two of the biggest grand tour GC contenders currently in the sport.
2022 Highlights: Pogačar vs Evenepoel
Wins: 16 vs 15
WT Wins: 12 vs 9
Grand Tours: 2nd @ Tour (3x stage wins) vs 1st @ Vuelta (2x stage wins)
Monuments: 1st @ Il Lombardia vs 1st @ Liege
Other Major one-day wins: 1st @ Strade Bianche vs 1st @ San Sebastian
World Championships: 19th place vs 1st place
On paper, despite Pogačar taking both the season-long points and win title, Evenepoel almost certainly has the claim to the ‘better’ season due to a near 100% strike rate on his major goals (Liege, Vuelta & World Championships) and the fact that in addition to winning the only grand tour he entered, he is quite literally the champion of the world. In addition, Evenepoel became the first rider to win a world road race title and grand tour in the same season in 33 years (Greg Lemond won the Tour & World’s RR in 1989).
However, if we dig deeper and put a premium on higher quality WorldTour wins, along with adding a healthy dose of subjectivity to this, the answer is less clear. For example, we can’t compare winning the Tour and Vuelta as though they are equally difficult and/or important, and a decent argument could be made that finishing 2nd overall at the Tour could be considered equally, or more, impressive than winning the Vuelta.
But, since these counterarguments are largely theoretically, and the BTP methodology is to err on the side of rewarding wins at major races (and not penalizing Evenepoel for Pogacar deciding not to race the Vuelta) I have to give the crown of 2022 to Evenepoel while still acknowledging Pogacar’s extremely strong season (i.e., winning the PCS/UCI points race and becoming the 1st Tour winner to take the ‘win title’ in 41 years).
Verdict: Remco Evenepoel due to winning a grand tour (Vuelta), Monument (Liege), and World Road Race title.
Remco Evenepoel had a stunning end of season
Riders Who Took a Leap in 2022:
Jonas Vingegaard
- It seems hard to believe, but the Tour de France winner didn’t make my top three riders of the season. However, this is more of a testament to the extremely high level of competition in pro cycling than an indictment of the 25-year-old Dane. After all, 2022 saw him win the biggest race on the calendar, along with racking up his second-straight podium finish. And most impressively, he never looked under pressure during his winning Tour campaign and weathered all of Pogacar’s attacks with an impressive amount of poise.
- And considering he has really only been dropped in the mountains by Pogacar on a single stage through two seasons (stage 8 of 2021), I fully expect Vingegaard to be a major force for both Evenepoel and Pogačar to overcome in 2023.
A leap into yellow for Jonas Vingegaard
Mads Pedersen
- Outside of jumping all the way to 6th in the PCS point rankings, the 26-year-old Dane emerged as a top-class race winner over the second half of the season (1x Tour stage, 3x Vuelta stage + points jersey).
- Pedersen’s leveling up as a stage winner makes me believe he can come into 2023 as a tier 1 one-day classics contender, especially with Wout van Aert struggling to parlay his talents into consistent major one-day wins and Mathieu van der Poel appearing to hit a rough patch in 2022.
A jump up for Mads Pedersen
Arnaud de Lie
- The 20-year-old Belgian has yet to win a WorldTour race, but in just his first year as a professional rider, he finished a shocking 6th in the UCI point rankings, 13th in the PCS rankings, and racked up nine wins.
- Assuming his Lotto team starts to slowly introduce him to bigger and bigger races in 2023, watch out for the young sprinter to emerge as a true stage win superstar going forward.
Arnaud de Lie – Coming on nicely
Riders in Need of a Bounce Back in 2023
Mathieu van der Poel
- It might be absurd to even suggest that a rider who won a Monument (Tour of Flanders) had a poor season, but it was clear, especially at the Tour de France, that Mathieu van der Poel, the darling of 2021, was not at the same level in 2022.
- By nearly every metric (wins: 8 vs 5, PCS points ranking: 17 vs 10, and general relevancy) his 2022 was well below the standard he set in 2021. But the most notable letdown to me was his complete disappearing act at the Tour de France. When combined with his self-sabotage at the world championships, he will have an uphill battle in 2023 to prove he can climb back up the mountain to regain his true superstar status.
MvdP – Maybe not his best season
Primož Roglič
- The veteran Slovenian had both his grand tour campaigns cut short due to crashes (Tour and Vuelta), which makes it difficult to read anything into his declining wins and points rankings from 2021 to 2022, but even before his crash at the Tour, he appeared slightly off his usual world-destroying form at his one-week stage race targets (no Dauphine stage win, 8th overall at Basque Country).
- This may have been part of a strategy to save his best form for the Tour, but the fact that he will be 32-year-old heading into the 2023 season means there is a very real chance that we have already seen peak Roglic and will now see him plateau, or slightly decline, while his younger competition continues to improve.
A crashing season for Primož Roglič
Julian Alaphilippe
- The double World Champion is another rider whose crash-marred 2022 significantly dinged his results, which makes it difficult to truly judge his disappointing season. But, if we pull back further, there has been a clear decline in the 30-year-old’s performance since 2019 (I realize this could be seen as an absurd statement since he won both world titles after 2019).
- He might have won two World road race titles since 2020, but there has been a clear decline in his ability to convert podium placings into wins (if anything, the world titles have camouflaged this decline).
- 2022: 2 wins (7 podiums)
- 2021: 4 wins (14 podiums)
- 2020: 3 wins (7 podiums)
- 2019: 12 wins (19 podium)
- 2018: 12 wins (19 podiums)
- This isn’t to say Alaphilippe will cease to be a productive and exciting rider anytime soon, but it should give his QuickStep team pause when deciding whether to work to set up Alaphilippe for reduced sprint finishes at major races.
Julian Alaphilippe – The world titles have camouflaged this decline
2022 Major Races in Review
Monuments & Winners:
Milano-Sanremo: Matej Mohorič
Tour of Flanders: Mathieu van der Poel
Paris-Roubaix: Dylan Van Baarle
Liège–Bastogne–Liège: Remco Evenepoel
Il Lombardia: Tadej Pogačar.
Dylan Van Baarle – The star of Roubaix
Grand Tours:
Giro d’Italia: Jai Hindley
Tour de France: Jonas Vingegaard
Vuelta a Espana: Remco Evenepoel.
Pink for Jai Hindley
World Championships:
Road Race: Remco Evenepoel
Time Trial: Tobias Foss.
Tobias Foss – A surprise TT World champion?
After a member-only breakdown of 2023 Tour de France route reveal, I will jump into the full BTP off-season content schedule of weekly transfer analysis (what the heck is going on with B&B and Mark Cavendish) and 2023 BTP NET Team Projects. Become a paying BTP subscriber to unlock all of this content.
What will 2023 bring?
# Spencer Martin is the author of the cycling-analysis newsletter Beyond the Peloton that breaks down the nuances of each race and answers big picture questions surrounding team and rider performance. Sign up now to get full access to all the available content and race breakdowns. #
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