Last man standing

Has a rider ever won a race with no teammates?

I received a question last week on Twitter from Mr. Cyrus Monk. For the past couple of years he was riding for Q36.5. This year he’s moved down a level and is riding for the catchily named FNIX-SCOM-Hengxiang team, for whom he recently finished 7th at the Tour of Hainan, three places above 48-year old Oscar Sevilla.

If you’re thinking you recognise the name Cyrus Monk but it isn’t because of anything he did on a bicycle, it’s probably because you’re remembering this incredible original composition of his lamenting the loss of GCN.

Monk’s question was about riders who have won races when most of their teammates have dropped out:

This, I admit, is an extremely difficult thing to figure out. I imagine for short stage races, it must happen relatively regularly. Especially if the final day is a time trial or a stage with a mountain top finish and all the GC guys are already up the road and there’s no real incentive for teammates to finish, other than to finish.

However I do have answers to this question in the realm of Grand Tours. Of course, teams didn’t always exist in Grand Tours. Riders were expected to take care of themselves for the entire duration. In fact, accepting help or even drafting behind other riders was, once upon a time, all forbidden.

Post-war, the concept of teams settled down and eventually would all end up having equal number of riders which wasn’t always the case. Since that time, the Tour de France has been won twice by riders who only had three teammates left.

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