These are the 12 cyclists that should be among the 100 best athletes of the 21st century

The communication giant ESPN has updated his project Sports Century in which he intends to prepare a list with the 100 best athletes of this century. It is a mixed classification, shared between men and women, and subjective, since it is formed based on the votes of 70,000 followers. The only required criteria is to assess the sports merits achieved as of January 1, 2000.

It is evident that the ranking has a marked influence by the American audience, since 56 of the 100 athletes are Americans. In addition, the bulky presence of sports representatives of little acceptance beyond their borders, such as baseball, ice hockey or football.

The list leads the swimmer Michael Phelps, followed by the tennis player Serena Williams and by Leo Messiclosing the podium. In addition, there are five Spanish representatives on the list, four of them soccer players: Rafael Nadal, Aitana Bonmatí, Alexia Putellas, Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández.

However, as usual in this type of listing, the controversy has come for the presence of some athletes and, above all, by the absence of other great figures. In the case at hand, it is surprising to verify that There is not a single cyclist in the ranking, Either route, Mountain Bike, or any other modality. The less strange that the screening of the 100 best athletes of the 21st century has not passed, no athlete of the world's hardest sport in the world.

Thus, with the aim of claiming the sport of the bicycle, we have broken down a small list with 12 cyclists that we believe could be part of this ranking, and a summary of its sports merits. We have excluded triathletes, a sport that does not have representatives and that, in our opinion, should be very present in this list.

Alberto Contador

Road cycling

Winner of 2 Tour de France, 2 Tour of Italy and 3 return to Spain.

Chris Froome

Road cycling

Winner of 4 tour of France, 1 Tour of Italy and 2 return to Spain.

Peter Sagan

Road cycling

3 times world champion (consecutive), European champion, 1 Paris-Roubaix, 1 Flanders Tour, 7 times Green Mailot of the Tour de France.

Óscar Freire

Road cycling

2 times World Champion, 3 Milan-San Remo.

Tadej Pogacar

Road cycling

81 victories as a professional, winner of 3 Tour de France and 1 Tour of Italy. 1 Flanders Tour, 2 Lieja Lieja, 3 Lombardy and an Olympic bronze.

Alejandro Valverde

Road cycling

133 VICTORIAS AS PROFESSIONAL, Route World Champion, 1 Tour of Spain, 4 times winner of the Lieja – Bastaña Lieja, record of victories in the Vallea arrow (5).

Mathieu van der Poel

Road cycling, cyclocross, Mountain Bike

Route World Champion, 1 Milan San Remo, 3 Flanders Tour, 2 Paris-Roubaix, 6 times CX World Champion, 3 times CX European champion, European Cross country champion.