Belgian far ahead of Freire and Cancellara using former system
It’s entirely hypothetical, but Philippe Gilbert’s domination of the Classics is such that he would have been the clear winner of the old World Cup standings. The French website Velochrono has calculated the standings based on the old points/events system, which was in place until 2004, and it proves that the Belgian was simply streets ahead of his rivals when it came to single-day events.
The GP of Zurich is no longer run, but using Milano-Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, the Amstel Gold Race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Hew Cyclassics (now called the Vattenfall Cyclassics), the Clasica San Sebastian, Paris-Tours and the Tour of Lombardy as the basis for the calculation, Gilbert would have clocked up an impressive 310 points.
This is almost 50% more than the 212 amassed by Oscar Freire (Rabobank) and the 209 scored by Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank). Tom Boonen (Quick Step, 176), Alexandre Vinkourov (Astana, 170) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions, 136) compete the top six.
Like Freire (Milano-Sanremo and Paris-Tour) and Cancellara (Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders), Gilbert took two events, topping the podium with a superb finishing burst in the Amstel Gold Race and a dominant solo win in Lombardy. However those wins were accompanied by a number of other top placings, including third in both the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and ninth in Milano-Sanremo.
Gilbert has developed into probably the best one-day rider in cycling, and might have won the world championships had the course been a little tougher. He unleashed an impressive attack on the last lap, but was caught on the downhill/flat run-in to the finish.
Other notable placings in Velochrono’s calculated table are top Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions, 7th), and the best Briton Roger Hammond (Cervélo Test Team, 15th). The top French rider was Yoann Offredo (FDJ) in 20th.
Gilbert finished third in the UCI’s world rankings, which also include Grand Tours and stage races. He’s said that a future aim is to target a high overall finish in a three week Tour, thus potentially giving him enough points to end the year as the world’s top rider. At this point in time, being the top Classic rider is a fine distinction in itself.