Welcome back to the Lancer Reu cycling podcast for our first awards show of the year, the best sprinter awards for the men.

Pretty straightforward number one spot, but there's a very difficult discussion to be had to fill out the top three or top five we've had.

I think a continuance of the changing of a theme with sprinters and how teams.

Yeah, sort of prepare their teams or construct their teams for the major grand tools will we see a reversal of that next year will go through what criteria we want to see when grading the best sprinter talk about how we think the lead outs have changed this year in the last couple of years and then go through some of the major sprinters before picking our top five or three benji's got a list of 12 I don't go down that far to be honest, but yeah, it's been an interesting year, Benji.

And I think well, it's clear that Alpasin and Philipsin, you know, they dominated and with growth as well.

And also.

Do you think grown a vegan? Is there a general theme with grown a vegan yackups and under performing or are they all merely or even or as a individual reasons for all this.

I think there's individual reasons like for example, Marlier and a coin not going towards a ground tour, for example, that will impact what level of victories they can achieve in a season, because for example, if they both arrive at the delta instead of the park or that they had throughout the year, then they might have won a stage at a ground tour this year, which would also add to the prestige of their victories, but I feel like there's individual stories combined with the factor that.

I believe versatility is more and more important and I know you believe that as well, because we've had it about that a few times on this podcast so far and that hinders writers like yackups and who have a harder time getting over a hill compared to a gross who has a pretty good time getting over a hill.

Yeah, he needs those and they've sent into the right races to to achieve those is also writers who can't get over a hill, but a good in other ways like Merlier who you know, he can't climb, but to reflect on us, he made the breakaway and he was able to pull there,

brought up on a shoulder praise, classic style races, he's good at well, so it's indicated some ability with that as well. So even if sprinters are the big burly pure sprinters, some of them are good in other ways, you and often or has been good in Milan, San Remo, and there's other guys who are that's what their bread and butter is like to Lee, but they really struggle with positioning in the big bunch sprint. So there's a lot of different types of sprinters will sort of go into that now. What are the criteria we're looking for, Benji? Where does it?

Because I wouldn't call Aaron Burrua sprinter, I would almost call some of the Corbin strong is really on the board line too, he's good in other ways. So what are we looking at for from a sprinter, I guess, first of all, this top end speed as well, that's like, to me, that's not even number one actually, but that's one factor is top end speed. If you put this right in position, how fast are they? It's pretty important.

I think that's pretty important. And you mentioned already there, put this right in position, but also the positioning of the rider himself, because it's not always a fold of the lead out that a rider is not in position, they might be very easy to bully out of position in a sprint, they might just not follow the right riders, not make the right decisions of, we see a lead out dropping there, and I get blocked. Oops, stuff like that happens. And some sprinters are not prepared for that. There's one sprinter in specific that I looked at the last few days that

around the roundabout sat in the middle of the group behind a random, I just air lead out and in that occasion, he got pushed backward. So that matters for individual riders as well. Competition, I reckon matters combined with success, because like success is important. I'd rather have a sprinter that wins five ground to her stages, then someone who's a better sprinter in terms of power in terms of being able to, I don't know, position themselves, but can't get over hill and there for as competitive in 99% of the season.

That's something that matters in my opinion as well. So success matters, but on the opposite end of that, the competition that you fight against, that you sprint against, in those sprints, in those victories, for example, also matters to me, right? As in, if you beat Consani, it's not as valuable to me as if you beat the middle ear in a head on sprint.

That is true. And sort of the tour of France is the ultimate testing ground right where all the best sprinters are there, all the teams with sprinters want them to win a stage of the tour, all the best lead answer in theory there, and it's the highest level, the highest stakes, and if you win that, it's kind of all these factors coming into one, but there is also.

Are you able to win from February to October?

It looks an obviously was, but that's also a factor and do you have the fitness and the capability to go to the well to do a second ground to a lot grows, did, and yeah, the start list in the sprinters was as is typical, this is not a secret.

This has been the case for a long time, the worst of all the ground tours, or even of any world to a state, any world to stage race, frankly.

But everyone knows that in advance, everyone can see the parkour in advance. So I don't, yeah, you have to say, okay, he's not beating the best there, but you have to turn up as well, and there has to be some credit for that as well. So they're the factors speed positioning competition that they beat overall success and versatility, which is sort of hills technical parkour, bad weather, et cetera, et cetera, heat called whatever.

And lead out as well as a factor in that, how did that kind of is in positioning, but how do they perform without a lead out? How do they perform with an average lead out, which, you know, maybe Sam Bennett gets a knock in that respect and all of Koi, I think, get some credit in that respect, because sometimes all Milano is a big example, I guess credit in that respect. Yeah, he wins as the lead out. Yeah, he is his own lead out.

Same with the total about Jeffrey soup, but what have you seen with the lead outs this year you and watched all the sprints back there really isn't.

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