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

British sprinter Mark Cavendish has the most Twitter followers, and tops the list of 784 riders from the WorldTour and Pro Continental level

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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)