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Who is the best British male road rider of all-time?
Cycling Weekly has devised a ranking system to try to answer the question once for all.
Our list will no doubt create controversy because many British cycling fans are divided. Is Mark Cavendish the greatest Briton, or should it be Robert Millar? Or Bradley Wiggins or Tom Simpson?
Last year we unveiled our all-time list of British pro winners, a league table of riders ranked according to the number of top professional race victories they've achieved.
As many readers pointed out, ranking purely by wins isn't necessarily the best system to determine who's the greatest. Cavendish easily tops the league, but Simpson won many of the very biggest one-day races in the world. And is Robert Millar, with just 16 victories, still a better stage racer than Wiggins, with his Tour de France win?
So, we've spent ages devising a points system that is weighted towards rewarding success in the biggest and most prestigious races.
And we've recognised the importance of wearing the leader's jersey in a grand tour or winning the king of the mountains or points competitions by awarding points for these achievements too.
Then we scoured the record books for every result that counts towards our list since racing resumed after World War Two, and we've come up with Cycling Weekly's All-Time British Ranking.
Let the debate commence.
CYCLING WEEKLY'S ALL-TIME RANKING
Last update May 16 2013. Ranking will be updated regularly.
1 Mark Cavendish 2,970 points
Pro: 2007-present
2 Robert Millar 2,900 points
Pro: 1980-95
3 Tom Simpson 2,545 points
Pro: 1958-1967
4 Bradley Wiggins 2,205 points
Pro: 2002-present
5 Chris Boardman 1,965 points
Pro: 1993-2000
6 David Millar 1,565 points *
Pro: 1997-present
7 Barry Hoban 1,455 points
Pro: 1962-1981
8 Chris Froome 1,040 points
Pro: 2007-present
9 Michael Wright 800 points
Pro: 1962-1976
10 Max Sciandri 675 points **
Pro: raced as a British rider 1995-2004
11 Sean Yates 635 points
Pro: 1982-1996
12 Brian Robinson 605 points
Pro: 1952-1963
13 Malcolm Elliott 380 points
Pro: 1984-1997
14 Roger Hammond 235 points
Pro: 1998-2011
15 Jeremy Hunt 230 points
Pro: 1996-2012
16 Ben Swift 180 points
Pro: 2007-present
17 Ian Stannard 165 points
Pro: 2007-present
18 Geraint Thomas 160 points
Pro: 2006-present
19 Vin Denson 155 points
Pro: 1959-1969
20 Alan Ramsbottom 150 points
Pro: 1961-1966
21= Graham Jones 120 points
Pro: 1979-1988
21= Paul Sherwen 120 points
Pro: 1978-1987
22 Steve Cummings 105 points
Pro: 2005-present
* David Millar: Points for results that were stripped after admitting he had doped are not included (for example world time trial championship 2003).
** Max Sciandri: Only points scored from 1995 onwards, when Sciandri took out a British racing licence, are included.
Scroll down to see how the points have been allocated
ANALYSING CW'S RANKING
When Mark Cavendish won the sixth stage of the 2013 Giro d'Italia he moved to the top of our ranking, taking over the lead from Robert Millar. Though - as a pure sprinter - he will never win a Grand Tour it is the sheer number of his wins that impresses.
Cavendish has also rewritten the British cycling history books. He is the first British rider to win four stages in a single Tour de France (2008) and has since won six in one edition of the Tour (2009), taken the Tour's green jersey (2011) and road race World Championship title (2011).
Scotland's Robert Millar, who is ninth in the table of British pro winners, with 16 victories, is second in the ranking. In 16 years as a professional (1980-1995), Millar was one of the finest climbers in the peloton.
Millar finished on the podium at the Giro d'Italia (second in 1987) and the Vuelta a Espana (second in 1985 and 1986). Millar's fourth place in the 1984 Tour de France was the highest by a British rider at that point. That year he also won the polka-dot jersey as king of the mountains.
That Millar is one of Britain's greatest ever stage racers is in little doubt. But it wasn't just in the grand tours that Millar excelled. He also won the Dauphiné Libéré (1990) and Tour of Catalonia (1985). His best one-day performances were sixth in the World Road Race Championships in Barcelona in 1984, and third in the 1988 Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Tom Simpson also deserves to be recognised as one of the greatest Britons, and while the Millar's grand tour performances give him the edge in our ranking, there is no doubt Simpson's palmares is stronger.
In the 1960s he won the world professional road race title and three of the one-day races universally recognised as the monuments of cycling - Milan-San Remo, the Tour of Flanders and the Tour of Lombardy. Add to that a sixth-place finish in the Tour de France and a string of other top ten finishes in the Classics.
Bradley Wiggins' transformation from Olympic gold-medal winning track rider to Grand Tour contender first came to the fore in the 2009 Tour de France, where he equalled Robert Millar's record in fourth overall. Wiggins' result was later upgraded to third after Lance Armstrong's results were wiped from the record books for doping. Crashing out of the 2011 Tour, Wiggins subsequently recovered to take third in the Vuelta behind Chris Froome in second.
Then in 2012 it all came right for Wiggins, winning Paris-Nice, Criterium du Dauphine and Tour de Romandie on his way to becoming the first British rider to win the Tour de France overall. Olympic gold followed in the time trial.
Many fans still consider Chris Boardman to have been a time trial specialist with very few other strings to his bow, but a closer examination of his career shows that to be an unfair assessment.
Yes, the great majority of Boardman's 41 wins were achieved in time trial stages, and he never made an impression on the general classification of the Tour de France or the one-day Classics. But he did finish second and fifth overall in the Dauphiné Libéré and third in Paris-Nice, results which are sometimes overlooked.
In 2012 everything went to plan for Wiggins, starting off with overall wins in the Tour de Romandie, Paris-Nice and Criterium du Dauphiné. Wiggins and Team Sky went on to dominate the Tour de France from beginning to end with Wiggins becoming the first British rider to take the overall win.
What our ranking doesn't take into account is Wiggins' success on the track. With six Olympic track medals, three of them gold, it's hard to argue against Wiggins being Britain's greatest all-round cyclist.
Along with Cavendish and Wiggins, David Millar and Chris Froome are the only other currently active riders in the top ten. Millar's first Tour de France stage win came in 2000, and his last in 2012. He has led all three Grand Tours, and won stages in each.
Froome is currently in eighth after two Grand Tour overall second places in the 2011 Vuelta a Espana and 2012 Tour de France, plus time trial bronze at the 2012 Olympic Games and fourth in the 2012 Vuelta.
In seventh place is Barry Hoban, who clocked up a lot of points by winning eight stages of the Tour de France and Ghent-Wevelgem but was also third in the Tour's green jersey competition one year, as well as third in Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Michael Wright, who was British born but lived most of his life in Belgium, is usually considered a sprinter and Classics rider, but he was also fifth overall in the 1969 Vuelta a Espana.
In eighth place is Max Sciandri who switched nationality from Italian to British in the mid-1990s and had a good record in one-day races. Some may be surprised to see Sean Yates, who was considered to be a domestique, so high, but he had a long career spanning 15 seasons and won some big races. Among his victories were stages of the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana and Paris-Nice, as well as the Tour of Belgium's overall title. He was also second at Ghent-Wevelgem, behind Gerrit Solleveld in 1988, and fifth in Paris-Roubaix.
Brian Robinson can be seen as one of the pioneers of British cycling. He went to France and made an impact in the 1950s, paving the way for the Simpson generation to try to make a living in the sport. Robinson was a respected team worker, but he won too, most notably the Dauphiné Libéré in 1961 and a stage in the Tour de France. He was also third in the 1957 Milan-San Remo, at the time a truly jaw-dropping achievement.
POINTS-SCORING SYSTEM
TOUR DE FRANCE
Overall top 20 score: 250, 225, 200, 180, 160, 150, 140, 130, 120, 110, 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20
Stages, top three score: 50, 10, 5
Final KOM and points competition, top three score: 50, 10, 5
Bonus for each day in leader's jersey: 25
Bonus for completing the Tour, but finishing outside top 20: 10
GIRO D'ITALIA & VUELTA A ESPANA
Overall top 15 score: 200, 175, 150, 130, 110, 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10
Stages, winner scores: 30
Final KOM and points competition, winner scores: 30
Bonus for each day in leader's jersey: 15
Bonus for completing the race, but finishing outside top 15: 5
CATEGORY A STAGE RACES
Paris-Nice, Dauphiné Libéré, Tour of Switzerland
Overall top five score: 110, 75, 60, 40, 20
Stages, winner scores: 20
CATEGORY B STAGE RACES
Tirreno-Adriatico, Criterium International, Tour of the Basque Country, Tour of Romandie, Tour of Catalonia, Tour of Germany, Midi Libre (defunct), Tour of Beijing, Tour Down Under, Tour of Poland
Overall top three score: 60, 40, 20
Stages, winner scores: 15
CATEGORY C STAGE RACES
includes, Tour of California, Four Days of Dunkirk, Eneco Tour, Tour of Belgium, Tour of Portugal
Overall, top three score: 40, 20, 10
Stages, winner scores: 10
CATEGORY D STAGE RACES
All other stage races
Overall, winner scores: 10
Stages, winner scores: 5
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, OLYMPIC GAMES, MONUMENTS
World Championship road race and time trial, elite era Olympic Games road race and time trial (1996-present), Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tour of Lombardy
Top 15 score: 200, 150, 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5
CATEGORY A ONE-DAY RACES
Ghent-Wevelgem, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Tours
Top 10 score: 110, 75, 60, 50, 40, 30, 25, 15, 10, 5
CATEGORY B ONE-DAY RACES
Het Volk, Vattenfalls Cyclassics, San Sebastian Classic, GP Plouay, E3 Harelbeke, Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec, Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, British World Cup (defunct), GP Americas (defunct), GP des Nations (defunct)
Top three score: 60, 40, 20
CATEGORY C ONE-DAY RACES
Including Scheldeprijs, Henninger Turm, Giro del Lazio, Paris-Brussels, Milan-Turin
Top three score: 40, 20, 10
CATEGORY D ONE-DAY RACES
All other one-day races, including British National RR and TT Championships
Winner scores: 10
Related links
The all-time list of British pro winners
Reader comments
Add your comments
Dick Phillips
June 18 21:29
How can you call this an all time ranking of British Pro riders, when it is restricted to roadmen, and is only post-1945? Nothing wrong with the concept, but the title contradicrts the content..
Mike Revill
June 22 20:28
On actual results the rankings seem fair enough .People forget how consistent Robert Millar was over his career. No disrespect to Chris Boardman his achievements were fantastic,especially for a clean rider, however i think Barry Hoban should be ranked higher but that's only my opinion. Regarding Mark Cavendish the world is his oyster, an awesome career ahead of him.
Stirlo
August 07 15:35
I cna't wrk out where Wiggins has won 160 points, at least before this year's Tour. If he really had 160, comine diwth the 185 he picked up in France, that takes him to 12th already. And he will rise quickly on this ranking system. A few more top 10s in the Tour and he'll be right up there.Would be nice to see an update of these rankings.
Tim
July 27 14:40
This is excellent CW but please can we have the same for the women? Thank you.
Baz
July 27 14:50
Very interesting; just the thing for a winter's evening. Of more pressing importance, whether we like it or not, are the Pro Tour points which largely determine how many riders we can send to the Worlds. The latest UCI rankings (yes, I know, we all hate the UCI but they run the show) have us way down the list with far fewer points than post-tour last year and by far the majority of points we do have are courtesy of just two riders - Cav, of course, mainly for his five tour stage wins and Roger Hammond for his impressive early season classics campaign. Come on, guys, a few more points or there'll only be two riders to form a train (assuming anybody can be persuaded to play that role).
Janh1
July 27 16:27
British male rider of all time shouldn't exclude the trackstars... Hate to think of Sir Chris Hoy not even being considered.
Ken Evans
July 27 19:13
The length of a career is an indication of the quality of the rider. Tommy Simpson, Max Sciandri, and David Millar, are the most complete all around riders listed. No mention is made if the results were dope tested, or obtained before good tests were available or made.
Simon Yates
July 28 12:22
It seems unfair to limit this to the road only, with the notable exceptions of Obree, Hoy, Pendleton etc.
Andy
July 28 13:13
What about the Vuelta?
Garry Hendry
February 21 11:18
Whether by design or by factual reality the outcome is pretty much what most people would have expected with Robert Millar and Tom Simpson coming out on top, and rightly so. Robert Millar, but for a couple of pieces of misfortune and niavety, could have been head and shoulders above everyone else. Chris Boardman being so high up the table was a bit of a suprise to me, respect due. The other thing that is worth taking into consideration is awarding points (somehow) for supporting others in winning i.e. domestique duties. That would put Robert Millar further ahead and without doubt push Sean Yates and David Millar further up the table as well as recognising some of the other unsung riders. You 'have' to judge track separately and it's easier, it's all about wins e.g. World / Olympic medals.
David
May 29 22:07
Would be nice to see an update of this. By my calculations Geraint Thomas now has 120 points depending on how one or two races are classified. David Millar must be closing on Hoban too.
Dave
June 14 13:00
The top 2 are correct definately, you only have to think what Simpson achieved and against the likes of Anquetil etc, Roberts' list of performances is incredible when you look at it, remember this is the rider who as an amateur turned up at the British Road Race championships with the jersey he won the previous year so confident was he of winning a second time. I was privileged to follow him for the last lap in the I.O.M when he won the British Pro championship and it was a master class in riding. Regarding Chris Boardman I was once asked by a retired Dutch Pro why we in the UK were so negative about him as in this guys opinion Boardman was grossly under rated and if his team required a change of focus from his forte then he could have applied himself and won some of the one day classics.
David
June 29 03:10
So I guess I miss-categorised some of Thomas' rides. We know he has 25 points from two Tour and one Giro finish. 30 points for 10th in Flanders, 10 for the national road race and 10 for second in a tour stage. So that's 75. That leaves the Rundfahrt and perhaps second in Dwars de Vlaaderen. If they were both category C races (tour and one-day respectively) then Thomas would have another 60 points and be on the list. If they were both D races, he's just be at 85. Be interested to know, personally I think they should both be Cs, or at least the Vlaaderen which is a semi-classic. Either way, it won't be too long before he makes the list, and Ben Swift can't be far off either. I think he's scored 60 points just this year assuming the Tour Down under is a C race which it ought to be given its world tour status.
Bobby
August 04 14:57
I wondered why the stage/jersey winners in the Giro/Vuelta are valued so low. In the TdF and all the other categories points for between 4 and just over 5 stage wins equal the winners points whereas for the Giro/Vuelta it takes almost 7 stages. Robert Millar's KOM jersey in the Giro is worth 60% of the points awarded for the TdF Polka Dot jersey whereas the winner of the Giro/Vuelta is given 80% of the points for the TdF winner. Mark Cavendish's performance this year with 5 stage wins and the Green Jersey is worth 20% more than the winner. Yet if he performed the same feat in the Giro/Vuelta he would only get the same points as the runner up. Surely this is inconsistant and either the Giro/Vuelta stage/jersey wins be increased to 40 points or the overall winners points reduced to 150.
Ochre Jersey
September 01 10:15
The Tour Down Under is worth as many UCI Pro-Tour points as the Paris-Nice, so perhaps it should be ranked Category A! I'm hoping Wiggins can make history and win the Vuelta after his TDF crash. Cadel's made history as first Australian TDF winner, and Cav first Green winner. Chris Hoy is undoubtably Britain's greatest ever track cyclist, but the title 'Pro' is misleading, as this is road cycling only.
Dave
September 15 19:45
Looks like Froome should now be on the list. I think he has 235 points, 220 just from the Vuelta (175 for second, 30 for a stage and 15 for a day in red). And Wiggo is now up to 8th I think. Exciting times.
J Dunn
September 26 10:19
There is a slight bias against Grand Tour stage wins in this calculation - 50 points per win sounds fair but Cavendish deserves a special bonus of at least 50 for winning so many of them so fast. He is. after all, one of the top stage winners in Le Tour of all time - that consistency takes some doing and seems under-rewarded.
paul
September 26 11:08
Cant work out why Dave Millar's had his results scrubbed off when Simpson was clearly "on-it" yet isn't regarded as a cheat? At least cycling is cleaner (not totally clean) and that we can be fairly certain that the Sky riders at least, are clean. Is it a coincidence that countries like GB and France, with the most stringent doping regulations, are now doing so well? And that the powerhouses, like Italy, are not? Brilliant to see GB doing so well, amazing rise up the ranks, Bejing 2008 finally comes to fruition on the Pro scene.
David
October 08 14:47
It would be interesting to know what category some of the more modern pro tour races fall into. The Tour down Under and the Tour of Beijing for example. In terms of UCI status they ought to be As but I would think C or perhaps B would be more realistic?
JD
February 21 18:06
Good list - got it about right I'd say. The golden generation should use it as motivation to climb higher in their own careers
Neil
April 30 18:23
I hate to set the cat amongst the pigeons here but should Tom Simpson even be on this list? The elephant sitting in the corner is his cheating; he was a notorious drug user. I hate to speak ill of the dead but it is well documented by his team mates just how many "preparations" he used to take before and during races not to mention the cocktail that lead to his death. Every one of his victories is tainted.
df
May 08 17:35
what betting, cav will be top by the end of the season. as long as he rides clear of ferrari. lol
df
May 29 14:56
could you also do a seperate list for active riders.
Geoff Waters, Durban, South Africs
June 10 16:45
You have airbrushed track cyclists out of British cycling history. Reg who, you ask? Maybe its because today's Brit bikie has been thoroughly brainwashed into believing Italo-French propaganda. How can EU pro road racing ever exemplify the individualistic British bulldog spirit?
PeterLB
June 10 18:58
Geoff, how on earth can anyone rank road riders against track riders? It would be meaningless. They are completely different sports.
Geoff Waters, Durban, SA
June 11 03:55
PeterLB has a (debatable) point. Maybe the fault lies in the unqualified title. Alternatively, change/refine the criteria (no. of world titles; national titles; years in the sport...). The likes of Cav, Wiggins,Hoban and Simpson all began their careers as trackmen and oscillate(d) between the two. Did their becoming primarily pro roadmen mean that they became a totally different species? Whatever...thanks for the stimulating debate. Incidentally, since the pro-amateur distinction in cycling ceased in the 1990s are you not discussing an extinct species?
Sandi
June 11 14:38
Come on guys, Brad had a 4th too! - Let's just sit back and watch him shoot up your rankings now - or better still, go over and cheer him on...........
Ian
June 17 20:08
Robert Millar should be No.1.Only Brit to win a proper race,a major tour.When Brad wins TDF,then he'll be no.1.Otherwise,why categorise?Shows we're desperate for results...
Max
June 18 10:12
I know this is subjective and difficult to do, but then you are the experts, there is something that you haven't taken into account is the notoriety of the rider and his effect on public opinion. Even though times were very different. Here, Simpson and Cavendish are way ahead of Robert Millar.
Stirlo
July 22 01:30
I think Wiggins pending victory in LeTour demonstrates that winning that event is undervalued in the scoring system above. At this point, I think there can little doubt that Wiggins should be in the top 2, and probably should be joined by Cav, given his monument, World championship and 22 Tour stages. 250 for a win, which is only 50 more than a World time trial title for example is very low. The 25 points a day for each yellow jersey compensates a little but the value of the yellow jersey depends on when you where it. If you won the prologue and then wore the jersey for ten days but then dropped to 50th, you'd have as many points as if you took the lead on the final time trial and won the Tour. Clearly that is not right, and the fact that Boardman remains above Wiggins is good evidence of that problem.
Jafidler
July 22 23:34
Seeing Robert Millar win in the mountains will remain my favourite memory in British Tour history because of the style, and the quality of opposition, but to see Brad take the yellow jersey is a monumental event that stands above everything
Stirlo
August 31 17:17
I think Steve Cummings must have moved onto the list today. By my calculations he has 125 points. Great effort Steve!
KJ
September 04 08:35
I reckon Ben Swift also now has 125 points (5 15 point stage wins, 1 10 point stage win, 3 5 point stage wins, 1 10 point GC, plus finishes in Tour and Giro)
Stirlo
September 07 15:27
Good spot KJ. I actually think he has more than that. I think you are missing teh 20 points for third in GC in the Tour Down under.
KJ
September 12 09:46
Yes Stirlo you're right! Plus another 5 now for finishing the Vuelta.
KC
October 31 12:57
Should Wiggins points increase by 20 with his new TDF 2009 3rd placing?
Stirlo
January 27 16:35
So now Thomas should certainly be on there having gained 35 points down under which puts him on a minimum of 120. But then Cummings and Swift are still missing too.
Stirlo
February 19 17:33
Great to see Swift, Thomas and Cummings acknowledged, though I can't work out where those exact scores come from for the life of me. Both Thomas and Swift are higher than I thought they'd be (given that Thomas was not listed before at all) and Cummings DEFINITELY has more than 105. I don't think that 11th in the Olympic TT should be worth 25 points, but that's what the scoring system says. When you add in a Vuelta stage win, a host of finishes in Grand Tour and a few stage and one-day wins along the way, it adds up to at least 125, and probably more depending on categorisation.
Rupert
March 25 10:30
Well done in creating controversy Cycling Weekly I like your style ! but come on it should be the following 1st Bradley Wiggins because he won the Tour de France ! ! 2nd Robert Miller because he won the Mountain Jersey in the Tour de France 3rd Mark Cavendish because he is the best road sprinter the uk has ever had. 4th Reg Harris 4th Tom Simpson 5th Barry Hoban 6th Andy Wilkinson for breaking the 12 hour time trial record 7th George Pilkington Mills for winning the Bordeaux-Paris race in 1891 8th Ray Booty For his ride in 1956 100 miles in 3hr 58min 28sec 9th Bert Harris 10th James Moore for being the winner of the first official bike race in the world 1868 I may of gone off topic here as I am not sure all of these were professional. Can we now work out who the best female racer from the uk is, I will start you off :- 1st Beryl Burton 2nd
KJ
April 06 15:07
Cav should get 20 for second at Scheldeprijs Also Ian Stannard should be on the list - he has 120 points just from Milan Sanremo and his fourth at Paris Tours. Plus other points
stirlo
May 10 02:42
spot on KJ. I think Stannard has 155 points. Nice to see Cav finally on top. I think he deserves it, At least until Wiggins fills out his resume a bit. In all honesty though winning the Tour should carry more points than 250.