The Classics Campaigns : The Ratings #3

The classics are for many riders the first and sometimes even biggest goals of the season. With the Liège-Bastogne-Liège behind us, it's time to rate the riders who finished their classic campaign this Sunday and will take a well deserved period of rest now. Ratings are based on the expectations that are common about the certain riders. How higher the expectations, how better you have to perform to get a high rating. 

Tadej Pogacar 10/10

5 World Tour classics, 3 victories and never worse then 4th in the other ones. Not many words are needed to justify this rating. No matter if it was the Poggio, Oude Kwaremont or Mur d'Huy, Pogacar always fought for the victory. Being the most all round rider that we saw in classics for years and the first Tour de France winner in decades who has been so succesful in the Flemish cobble races. Problably only a crash kept him from completing the Ardennes triple. Everything he did turned into magic. 

 Kasia Niewiadoma 7/10

It's been a typical Spring for Niewiadoma. Always around the top 5 or top 10 but never really coming closing to the victory. She never underperforms but she also doesn't have that extra to really come close to a victory. A good campaign for Niewiadoma but she couldn't really set that step forward that many people expected a few years ago, and with a new talented generation already coming, she'll face even more opponents in the future to fight for those results.

 Tom Pidcock 7/10

Seven might be a low rating for a winner of the Strade Bianche but it still seems that many people expected more when Pidcock announced that he would skip the Cyclocross Worlds to focus on the classics. He had some bad luck with a crash in Tirreno-Adriatico but not with an impact that it should necessarily have a very negative effect on his Spring campaign. His performances in Flanders were poor. In the Ardennes he did well but he never could show that he made a big step forward since last season against the best in the peloton. Good but nothing more then that.

Annemiek van Vleuten 6/10

For a rider at the age of 40, all results have been exceptional but if we compare with last year, a podium spot should have been possible for a good Van Vleuten. She was anonymous in the Flemish classics and only in Liège she had an impact in the final. Not a memorable last Spring for the Worldchampion but also not a shame on her age.

Demi Vollering 10/10

The rider that got most out of her Spring campaign, especially thanks to her strong team. In the Strade Bianche, Kopecky picked her up, in the Amstel, that same Kopecky paralyzed the bunch behind her. Also in the other races, SD Worx was present everywhere but Vollering had to deal more with oppenents herself. Vollering got the maximum out her Spring campaign. Having more of her strong team mates in the other teams instead would problably have made her winning less but she took the most out of these circumstances.

Elisa Longo Borghini 8/10

After a Covid-infection that paused her to take a pause, Elisa Longo Borghini came back stronger then many expected. 3th in Flanders, Runner-up in a sprint in Liège. Despite the supremacy of SD Worx, she still managed to take a dominant role in the finals herself and put herself on the same level as most of them. For a monument hunter like her, a Spring without victories might be unstatisfying but she did 

Part 1 :  https://cyclingbottle.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-classics-campaigns-ratings-part-1.html

Part 2 :  https://cyclingbottle.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-classics-campaigns-ratings-2.html