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Tadej Pogacar is voted most favorite rider by you, our visitors, in the PCS favorite 500 ranking. He was included into 63% of the 7591 lists submitted. Runner-up is Mathieu van der Poel and in third place is the winner of the previous two editions Wout van Aert. 

Figure 1. Favorite500 ranking in 2023.

Looking at the top-10 we find that Alberto Contador is the first retired rider in the list, slightly before Alejandro Valverde. 

Figure 2. Highest climbers in ranking.

Gino Mäder is on top of the list sorted by most positions gained. The rider from Bahrain Victorious who tragically died after a crash in the Tour de Suisse is still in the harts of many fans. 

Figure 3. The number of riders active in decade in the favorite top 500 up to now.

The favorite 500 is about your favorite riders from all time. The above barchart shows the number of riders in the favorite 500 active in a decade. 

Figure 4. The favorite500 ranking of only riders that are at least 5 years retired from professional cycling.

It is logical that the ranking is biased towards riders that are still active, they simply get a lot of airtime. The above ranking includes only riders that are retired for at least 5 years. Alberto Contador is included into 31% of the list. Long time opponents Cancellara and Boonen received almost an equal amount of votes, same as Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich. 

Figure 5. Voters age for Tadej Pogacar

When we take a look at the age of voters that voted for Tadej Pogacar, we see a rather steady image with younger riders voting more frequently. Of all voters 50 years and older, 45% included Eddy Merckx in their list. 

Figure 6. Voters age for Eddy Merckx

We want to thank you all for submitting your list in the Favorite500 and want to wish you the best wishes for the new year.