Did Froome make my top 10 list of Tour de France riders?

These are 10 of my favourite Tour de France cyclists. No particular order or discipline (sprints or climbing etc), the only qualification is that I have to have seen them in my era of cycle watching (either live or on telly).

So sorry, no Merckx, Hinault, Anquetil etc and I make no apologies for leaving out the Sky trio of Wiggins, Thomas and Froome. No Armstrong either for obvious reasons.

'I would never advocate doping and was one of the first to point the finger at Lance Armstrong (except nobody was listening!) but unfortunately there isn't a button that can make what happened in that era right again.'

1) Marco Pantani – known as Elefantino or Il Pirata. In 1998 Pantani won both the Tour and Giro, but it was his aggressive riding on mountain stages that won him a place in the hearts of cycling fans everywhere. That sudden burst of acceleration that would rip up the remains of the peloton on the higher climbs was what cycling should be all about. Forget team plans or trains (a la US Postal and Team Sky), his style of racing was all about mano a mano, drawing his opponents away from the security of the peloton and daring them to fight for victory on his terms. His ride up Alpe D'Huez in 1997 still remains the fastest in history and can be watched in all its glory several times over on YouTube – I suggest you do it. He was a character in a sport that thrives on its characters. I loved his fury after Lance Armstrong appeared to hand Pantani victory on Mont Ventoux in 2000. The fact he died so young, albeit after his cycling career had ended, is one of the biggest tragedies in sport.

2) Mark Cavendish – the Manx Missile or Cav. What Cavendish has achieved in winning 30 individual Tour stages – with only Eddie Merckx ahead of him on 34 – is unbelievable, especially as most of it was achieved without being part of the formidable Sky machine. I know Cavendish came up through the Brailsford-led British cycling revolution but most of what he did in his career was on his own terms. His small stature and low position on the bike meant few riders could follow in his slipstream, but it was those bursts of acceleration in the final 200 metres of a stage that would quite literally get those hairs standing up on the back of your neck. He always seemed to start the Tour slowly to the point that the press would start openly questioning whether he was the cyclist of past years and almost always he would answer them with ever greater accomplishments, sometimes winning four or even five stages. Two finishes in particular stand out – one when he slalomed his way through a decimated peloton to grab an implausible victory at the end and one on the Champs Elysees when his margin of victory was almost embarrassing. He's been left out of this year's Tour by Team Dimension Data. Will he be back? Who knows? But he's been written off plenty of times before, so why not?

3) Jan Ullrich – Not everyone's cup of tea, especially after his 2013 admission of past doping but then who didn't in that era. My most thrilling Tour de France memory is of Ullrich chasing Pantani up Alpe D'Huez in 1997 with Richard Virenque following close behind. Pantani's time for the climb is still the fastest in history. Of course the knockers will say that all three were doping but it won't erase the memories I have of that amazing day. I would never advocate doping and was one of the first to point the finger at Armstrong (except nobody was listening!) but unfortunately there isn't a button that can make what happened in that era right again. My abiding memory of Ullrich is not a Tour de France one but one of him cycling to victory at the Sydney 2000 Olympics road race when he and his Germany teammate Andreas Kloden rode off the front of the peloton. The road race at the Olympics is normally a bit of a lottery but on this day the best rider won with a truly dominant performance. Remember Armstrong finished 13th in the same race!

4) Andy Schleck – a rangy, graceful rider who perhaps never quite reached the heights in terms of achievement at the Tour that his talent merited. Schleck first came to my attention with a brilliant second in the Giro in 2007 when he was just 22. His battles with Alberto Contador in the Tour de France lit up the race in the post-Armstrong era and were the stuff of legend. Certainly at the time he was the only rider who could live with Contador and my mind often goes back to that moment on Stage 15 in 2010 when Schleck's chain slipped as he went on the attack against the Spaniard, who then went on to reclaim the yellow jersey with a gap of 39 seconds. It seems like such a small moment now, but back then it felt like bad luck had conspired against the Luxembourger. Many people, me included, felt Contador was wrong to capitalise on Schleck's misfortune. That Schleck was subsequently plagued with a knee injury and retired so young is one of my biggest disappointments in more than 30 years of watching the sport.

5) Stephen Roche – Roche's epic victory in the Tour in 1987 was the first Tour I ever watched. Back then the highlights were shown every night on Channel 4 with that incomparable duo Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen in the commentary box (and a young Gary Imlach doing the summarising). Roche's battle with the Spanish climber Pedro Delgado is my favourite memory from all the Tours I have watched, especially that miraculous recovery on the stage to La Plagne, when everyone, even Liggett, seemed to have written him off. Find a clip on YouTube, it's well worth watching. That year, of course, was Roche's annus mirabilis as he had already won the Giro D'Italia and went on to win the world road race title. The Irishman may not have achieved the multiple victories of some of the better-known Tour de France champions but the guts he showed on that Tour are a reminder of what cycling at the highest level should be all about.

6) Miguel Indurain – Big Mig. The Banesto rider was the first big champion of my era of Tour de France watching. Sure Greg Lemond had won three tours, but I only saw two of those, plus Indurain, like Merckx and Anquetil, won it five times. The first time I noticed him was in the 1990 Tour (Lemond's third win) when he was nominally a domestique riding for Delgado. What became embarrassingly obvious as the Tour wore on was that Indurain was infinitely superior to his team leader in every discipline. Not only was he second overall to Raul Alcala in the time trial on Stage 7 but he also took the Stage 16, the mountain stage to Luz Ardiden. Had he not lost buckets of time serving Delgado its possible he would have won in 1990, giving him a total of six Tour wins (in succession) surpassing everyone except the disgraced Armstrong. From 1991-1996, Indurain's Tour dominance was unquestioned. His methods of victory - winning the time trials and following the wheels of his rivals in the mountains – may have seemed boring but he was the boss in every respect. And to be able to live with the best climbers, when at 6ft 1ins he was no lightweight, just shows what an incomparable athlete he was.

7) Richard Virenque – probably my most controversial choice as Virenque was a central figure in the Festina affair that first brought the doping issue in cycling to the world's attention. But as a rider and a tactician on the mountain stages he was almost non pareil. He probably didn't have the all round talent that could have won him the Tour as a whole but he knew how to make the best of his abilities – hence he won seven King of the Mountains titles and seven individual stages. But more than that he also knew how to be a showman, playing up to the fact that he was the darling of the French fans on the roadside. Not only was he part of that incredible Alpe D'Huez stage that I was able to witness in 1997, he was a part of many unforgettable battles in the mountains with the likes of Pantani and Ullrich. He may not have had the burst of speed of a Julian Alaphilippe, but he had a racing head on him that was certainly the modern rider's equal.

8) Alberto Contador – The bete noire of Andy Schleck. Like Pantani, the young Contador liked to tear up the race with a burst of speed in the mountains. Unlike Pantani he did not always get away at the first attempt but his style of riding always made for exciting racing as soon as the road went uphill. Like many riders tarred with the brush of drugs suspicion, Contador has many critics in the press and elsewhere but no one can doubt his bravery or his ability to take the battle to the other riders at crucial moments. Quite frankly, if you put the drugs aspect to one side, the Tour can always do with more riders like Contador and Pantani. And hopefully we will continue to see that in the coming generation of Giulio Ciccones and Julian Alaphilippes.

9) Peter Sagan – Sagan, who looks to be a shoo-in again for the Green Jersey, is a beast on a bike. A great sprinter, a puncheur, a rouleur, a descender, a generous teammate, he has everything a man with his muscular physique could possibly have. The winner of 12 individual Tour de France stages and counting, Sagan appears to be heading for his seventh Green Jersey in Paris. On his day he is capable of getting over some awesome climbs, making him a dangerous rival in almost any situation. Already he has two victories at this year's Tour, including one on Stage 5 when he had to negotiate two category 2 climbs and one category 3 climb in the final 60 kilometres. What makes him a particular favourite with the fans are his colourful celebrations after his victories and his offbeat interviews at the end of races. In an era when people worry about the lack of character in sport, Sagan makes a refreshing change. A one-off in every way.

10) Joachim Rodriguez – Purito. I just love the legend around his nickname – that while out training Purito would ride past his teammates pretending to puff on a cigar (he was that much better than them!). Rodriguez, who was of the same generation as Contador and Alejandro Valverde, is one of my favourite Spanish climbers of all time. He may not have achieved as much in the Tour de France as his talents merited, preferring to concentrate instead on the Vuelta, but he still enlivened any stage that went uphill. In fact the tougher the climb the better he became. In total he won three individual Tour de France stages and finished third overall in 2014. It shouldn't be forgotten he finished 7th overall in 2010 (when he also finished 3rd in the Vuelta) and 7th again in 2016 when he was never really rated as a GC contender. He also wore the King of the Mountains' polkadot jersey from time to time.

One for the future: Julian Alaphilippe – easily the most exciting rider of the current generation of Tour de France riders. It remains to be seen if Alaphilippe can keep the Yellow Jersey that he currently wears all the way to Paris, but if he doesn't there's a good chance he will some time in the future. Still only 27, Alaphilippe has won three individual stages of the Tour in the last two years and this year's race still has a long way to go. A brilliant descender and ascender who can also sprint at the end, he has lit up this year's race with his willingness to attack from a long way out. Whether he keeps the jersey or not, barring accidents, you can guarantee he has a lot more to offer this year's race. Certainly the reaction he and Thibaut Pinot got from the fans on the roadside as he chased down Thomas De Gendt on Saturday's brilliant stage into St Etienne suggests the whole of France certainly hopes so.

Chris Froome failed to make my top 10 Tour de France riders of the last 30 years