At the end of the season it's always a good time to have a look at the statistics. A cycling season in digits and tables of course reflects the number of stage or race wins, the number of kilometers and the number of race days.

In this article you'll find some of these statistics, thanks to an article in the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad but most of all thanks to the very useful web site Cycling Quotient Ranking.

The biggest number of victories

Individual ranking

The ranking which is probably the most top of mind is of course the one based on number of stage or race wins and this season this ranking is led, as usual and without any surprise, by the sprinters.

This is the top 10 of this ranking:

• 1/ Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) - 23 victories
  2/ André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) - 20 victories
  3/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) - 13 victories
  4/ José Rujano (Gobernación del Zulia) - 12 victories
  5/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) - 11 victories
      Valentin Iglinskiy - 11 victories
      Alberto Contador (Astana) - 11 victories
      Mattia Gavazzi (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli) - 11 victories
  9/ Jimmy Casper (Besson Chaussures-Sojasun) - 10 victories
      Krzysztof Jezowski (CCC Polsat Polkowice) - 10 victories
      Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes-Ballan) - 10 victories

The top 3 is thus completely taken by riders from the Columbia-HTC team.

Last year (2008) the result was quite similar at the top of this ranking, with less victories however:

• 1/ Mark Cavendish (Team High Road/Team Columbia) - 17 victories
  2/ Tom Boonen (QuickStep) - 15 victories
  3/ André Greipel (Team High Road/Team Columbia) - 14 victories

Team ranking - UCI ProTour teams

If we take a look at this ranking but this time by team -only for the UCI ProTour teams- we get to the following ranking:

• 01/ Columbia-HTC - 85 victories (28 times second and 32 times third)
  02/ Saxo Bank - 44 victories (38 times second and 30 times third)
  03/ Garmin-Slipstream - 29 victories (38 times second and 22 times third)
  04/ Rabobank - 26 victories (29 times second and 29 times third)
  05/ Katusha - 24 victories (36 times second and 14 times third)
  06/ QuickStep - 24 victories (29 times second and 26 times third)
  07/ Caisse d'Epargne - 23 victories (22 times second and 17 times third)
  08/ Astana - 21 victories (19 times second and 13 times third)
  09/ Française des Jeux - 18 victories (18 times second and 20 times third)
  10/ Liquigas - 17 victories (20 times second and 20 times third)
  11/ Lampre-NGC - 17 victories (12 times second and 23 times third)
  12/ Cofidis, le crédit en ligne - 15 victories (11 times second and 11 times third)
  13/ Bbox Bouygues Telecom - 13 victories (14 times second and 11 times third)
  14/ Silence-Lotto - 12 victories (19 times second and 16 times third)
  15/ Milram - 8 victories (6 times second and 16 times third)
  16/ Euskaltel Euskadi - 6 victories (11 times second and 14 times third)
  17/ AG2R La Mondiale - 5 victories (6 times second and 13 times third)
  18/ Fuji-Servetto - 4 victories (2 times second and 3 times third)

There again the Columbia-HTC team is far from the others in 2009.

Per country

Finally, the same ranking per country gives the following top 5:

• 1/ France - 153 victories
  2/ Italy - 144 victories
  3/ Spain - 109 victories
  4/ Germany - 86 victories
  5/ Belgium - 70 victories

When we take the same ranking per country but this time not in terms of number of victories, but in a numeric ranking according to the rules for the attribution of points in the CQ Ranking, we get the following result:

• 1/ Espagne - 11.555 points
  2/ Italy - 9.994 points
  3/ Germany - 7.451 points
  4/ Australia - 7.240 points
  5/ Belgium - 7.149 points

France is on the sixth place with 6.763 points using this ranking.

The biggest number of race days

A rider's season is composed of a certain number of race days, completed by training and rest days.

Looking at the ranking of riders by number of race days we see that the top 3 is completely composed of Belgian riders, all from the same team: Silence-Lotto. When you see that the number three is no one else than Philippe Gilbert it's easy to realise that making many race days still allows to be in good shape at the end of the season ... it all depends on the rider: some of them prefere doing a light programme and focusing on some races in which they want to be in top shape while others want to do as many races as possible.

Here's the top 10 of the ranking by number of race days:

• 1/ Olivier Kaisen (Silence-Lotto) - 103 days
  2/ Christophe Brandt (Silence-Lotto) - 102 days
  3/ Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) - 97 days
  4/ Fredrik Kessiakoff (Fuji-Servetto) - 96 days
      Brian Vandborg (Liquigas) - 96 days
      Mathieu Sprick (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) - 96 days
  7/ Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) - 94 days
      Bert Grabsch (Columbia-HTC) - 94 days
      Matteo Tosatto (QuickStep) - 94 days
  10/ Christian Knees (Milram) - 93 days
      Julian Dean (Garmin-Slipstream) - 93 days

Het Nieuwsblad asked Marc Sergeant, manager of the Silence-Lotto team, what he thought of this top 3.

He answered: It's our culture. When a Belgian rider doesn't participate in any race for two weeks he wonders what's happening. I don't think this is the right reaction: we do too many races. That doesn't mean that those who are at the top of this list had bad performances, the best example is Philippe Gilbert. But for others, like Van Avermaet, it was a bit too much in 2009.

That's why we will participate less in small foreign races: Bessèges, Grosseto, Coppi e Bartali, ... this will allow us to create free time for some team training camps and more rest in the season. That's part of modern cycling. Look for example what Boasson Hagen does: in 2009 I've seen him for the first time at Ghent-Wevelgem. But that didn't stop him from winning that race.

The biggest number of race kilometers

A similar ranking is the one of the riders who've done the biggest number of race kilometers (only races or stages which the rider finished have been counted here). In this ranking of course almost the same riders appear and with Johnny Hoogerland's third place we see that making many race kilometers can be beneficial for a rider who always wants to attack like he does:

• 1/ Christophe Brandt (Silence-Lotto) - 16.641,2 km
  2/ Olivier Kaisen (Silence-Lotto) - 16.348,5 km
  3/ Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team) - 16.105,3 km
  4/ Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) - 15.987,8 km
  5/ Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) - 15.320,0 km
  6/ Fredrik Kessiakoff (Fuji-Servetto) - 15.299,1 km
  7/ Matteo Tosatto (QuickStep) - 15.220,1 km
  8/ Serguei Klimov (Katusha) - 14.920,7 km
  9/ Nikita Eskov (Katusha) - 14.903,3 km
  10/ Christian Knees (Milram) - 14.869,7 km

The CQ Ranking

General individual classification

CQ Ranking uses a table for the distribution of points which is similar to the one used up until 2004 by the UCI for its ranking of riders (ranking which disappeared in 2005 with the creation of the UCI ProTour). This table allows riders to get points when they are among the best ranked in any of their races, with the number of points being more or less important depending of the importance of the race. The current table is available here.

Based on this table, here's the top 10 of the individual ranking of riders for 2009:

• 1/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - 2482 points
  2/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 2271 points
  3/ Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) - 1895 points
  4/ Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) - 1733 points
  5/ Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) - 1720 points
  6/ Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia-HTC) - 1611 points
  7/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - 1536 points
  8/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) - 1516 points
  9/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) - 1434 points
  10/ André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) - 1391 points
• As a comparison, here's the top 5 of the UCI World Ranking:
  1/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 527 points
  2/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - 483 points
  3/ Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) - 357 points
  4/ Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) - 334 points
  5/ Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) - 333 points
  
  The full UCI World Ranking is available here on the UCI website and the detailed list of points attributed in the different races here (PDF file).

General classification by team

Based on the same table we can rank the riders by taking the sum of the points of all riders of each of the teams. The top 10 of this ranking is as follows:

• 1/ Columbia - HTC - 12820 points
  2/ Saxo Bank - 12406 points
  3/ Rabobank - 9682 points
  4/ Caisse d'Epargne - 8943 points
  5/ Quick Step - 8675 points
  6/ Astana - 8071 points
  7/ Liquigas - 7870 points
  8/ Cervélo Test Team - 7826 points
  9/ Silence - Lotto - 7814 points
  10/ Team Katusha - 6794 points
• As a comparison, the UCI World Ranking gives the following top 5 for the ranking by teams:
  1/ Astana - 1.100 points
  2/ Caisse d'Epargne - 1.048 points
  3/ Columbia-HTC - 957 points
  4/ Saxo Bank - 946 points
  5/ Liquigas - 923 points

Best climber

The title of this ranking is maybe not the right one because this ranking doesn't necessary reflect the order of best climbers of the year. Indeed, it ranks the riders by number of points won in mountain stages. This means that a good climber whose target is the general classification of a stage race more than the stage victory on one or more stages gets a lower ranking than a rider who fully focuses on stage victories in mountain stages. Here's the top 5 of this ranking:

• 1/ Danilo di Luca (LPR Brakes-Ballan) - 295 points
  2/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 252 points
  3/ Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) - 239 points
  4/ Damiano Cunego (Lampre-NGC) - 225 points
  5/ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) - 215 points

Best sprinter

By taking only the points of the CQ Ranking which were won on races or stages which ended in a sprint, we get a good idea of who's the best sprinter this year. Not really surprisingly Columbia-HTC's rocket man, Mark Cavendish, is leading this list, just before his German team mate André Greipel.

• 1/ Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) - 1066 points
  2/ André Greipel (Columbia-HTC) - 930 points
  3/ Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) - 868 points
  4/ Alessandro Petacchi (LPR Brakes-Ballan) - 548 points
  5/ Kenny van Hummel (Skil Shimano) - 501 points

Best time trial rider

When we only take the points of the CQ Ranking which were won on stages which were done as an individual time trial we get the top 5 of time trial specialists. Spartacus is leading this list, far ahead of number two, the winner of the Tour de France 2009.

• 1/ Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) - 636 points
  2/ Alberto Contador (Astana) - 360 points
  3/ Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC) - 268 points
  4/ Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream)- 259 points
  5/ Gustav Erik Larsson (Saxo Bank) - 231 points

> The full rankings based on the CQ Ranking are available here.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Cycling general (except Tour de France)

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