Mark Cavendish tops pro cycling’s Twitter ‘general classification’

When it comes to social media, Mark Cavendish is at the top of his game. The British sprint star has the most followers to top the list of 784 pro riders from the WorldTour and Pro Continental-level who have Twitter accounts.

The Twitter data was collated by TB Pro Cycling, and lists all riders from the 18 WorldTour and 23 Professional Continental-level teams who have a Twitter account.

As of October 21, when the data was collated, Cavendish (Dimension Data) had 1,283,449 followers on the social media platform.

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Cavendish is only one of three currently active riders with over one million Twitter followers. Spanish Grand Tour rider Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) has 1,196,308 followers with current Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) having 1,179,961.

There is then quite a drop after the ‘big three’, with Colombian Nairo Quintana (Movistar) in fourth spot with just over 700k followers, followed by compatriot Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac) with 590k followers.

British Twitter favourite Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) – who Cycling Weekly readers voted as their favourite tweeter in 2015 – is 11th in the list, with 287k followers.

Last on the table is Polish rider Patryk Stosz (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) with 20 followers.

Pro cycling’s most popular Twitter users (top 50)

Posn	Rider	Country	Team	Twitter Total
1	Mark Cavendish	UK	Team Dimension Data	1,283,449
2	Alberto Contador	Spain	Tinkoff	1,196,308
3	Christopher Froome	UK	Team Sky	1,179,961
4	Nairo Quintana	Colombia	Movistar	701,707
5	Rigoberto Uran	Colombia	Cannondale-Drapac	590,465
6	Peter Sagan	Slovakia	Tinkoff	538,465
7	Fabian Cancellara	Switzerland	Trek-Segafredo	493,075
8	Vincenzo Nibali	Italy	Astana	469,523
9	Alejandro Valverde	Spain	Movistar	294,661
10	Geraint Thomas	UK	Team Sky	287,473
11	Tom Boonen	Belgium	Etixx – Quick-Step	251,488
12	Frank Schleck	Luxembourg	Trek-Segafredo	225,404
13	Joaquim Rodriguez	Spain	Team Katusha	225,321
14	Marcel Kittel	Germany	Etixx – Quick-Step	195,500
15	Philippe Gilbert	Belgium	BMC	175,303
16	Andrey Amador	Costa Rica	Movistar	140,343
17	Taylor Phinney	USA	BMC	134,209
18	Tony Martin	Germany	Etixx – Quick-Step	133,496
19	Andre Greipel	Germany	Lotto-Soudal	133,349
20	Mark Renshaw	Australia	Team Dimension Data	128,631
21	Bauke Mollema	Netherlands	Trek-Segafredo	119,448
22	Simon Gerrans	Australia	Orica-Bike Exchange	116,715
23	Michael Rogers	Australia	Tinkoff	113,581
24	Nicolas Roche	Ireland	Team Sky	110,166
25	Ryder Hesjedal	Canada	Trek-Segafredo	109,532
26	Laurens Ten Dam	Netherlands	Giant-Alpecin	108,380
27	Robert Gesink	Netherlands	LottoNL Jumbo	108,191
28	Esteban Chavez	Colombia	Orica-Bike Exchange	106,403
29	Richie Porte	Australia	BMC	105,741
30	Tom Dumoulin	Netherlands	Giant-Alpecin	97,496
31	Ben Swift	UK	Team Sky	96,272
32	Lars Boom	Netherlands	Astana	93,736
33	Daniel Martin	Ireland	Etixx – Quick-Step	93,656
34	Winner Ancona	Colombia	Movistar	91,342
35	Niki Terpstra	Netherlands	Etixx – Quick-Step	91,277
36	Zdenek Stybar	Czech Republic	Etixx – Quick-Step	84,501
37	Michal Kwiatkowski	Poland	Team Sky	82,556
38	Matthew Goss	Australia	One-Pro Cycling	81,765
39	Greg Van Avermaert	Belgium	BMC	73,468
40	Jarlinso Pantano	Colombia	IAM Cycling	72,529
41	Peter Kennaugh	UK	Team Sky	70,275
42	Alex Dowsett	UK	Movistar	70,176
43	Adam Hansen	Australia	Lotto-Soudal	70,007
44	Roman Kreuziger	Czech Republic	Tinkoff	66,735
45	Thibaut Pinot	France	FDJ	65,757
46	Bernard Eisel	Austria	Team Dimension Data	64,820
47	Yukiya Arashiro	Japan	Lampre-Merdia	64,465
48	Femlyuki Beppu	Japan	Trek-Segafredo	63,546
49	Rui Costa	Portugal	Lampre-Merdia	63,462
50	Syvain Chavanel	France	Direct Energie	60,354

Stats supplied by TB Pro Cycling. The information was true and correct at October 21 2016 (after the UCI Road Cycling World Championships – the end of the 2015/2016 professional road cycling season)