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.
>>> Tweets of the week: Mark Cavendish, Alex Dowsett, Tom Dumoulin and more
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)
