Tadej Pogačar celebrates winning Stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia
Tadej Pogačar has consolidated his position at the top of the Road Code Ranking after his latest displays of dominance in the Giro d’Italia.
In the past six days of racing, the Slovenian superstar earned almost 400 points in the overall ranking - his spectacular Stage 15 victory in Livigno giving him half of that total - while he also picked up a sizeable amount by finishing second in Stage 14’s time trial on the shores of Lake Garda.
With only two other riders in the top 10 competing at the moment – Tim Merlier and Jonathan Milan, the former’s recent two Giro victories moving him from ninth to seventh – Pogačar has moved clear of his team-mate Juan Ayuso, who was leading the Road Code Ranking before the season’s first Grand Tour began.
Since his win at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April, Pogačar has also led the Climb ranking, and he is now more than 1,000 points ahead of Lotto Dstny’s Maxim Van Gils in second place. Given that Van Gils is only racing the Tour de Suisse before the Tour de France, it would take a mammoth result – a handful of stage wins and the overall title, for example – for the Belgian to replace Pogačar as the world’s top-ranked climber before the Tour starts in Florence.
One rider who is threatening to force his way into the Climb ranking’s podium spots is Romain Bardet. The Frenchman has been active in the Italian mountains, a second and fourth in the past week rewarding him with 250 points that slingshot the Team dsm-firmenich PostNL rider from 16th to eighth. If he continues attacking, he has a good chance of replacing BORA - hansgrohe’s Aleksandr Vlasov in third.
Courtesy of the aforementioned Milan’s double success in the second week of the Giro, which earned him 400 points, the Italian sprinter had moved ahead of Pogačar in the Grand Tour ranking. As a reminder, the Grand Tour rankings are a reflection of the best-performing riders in a three-week race, not their results in the general classification.
Pogačar’s Stage 15 triumph in Livigno, however, meant that he displaced Milan at the summit and although Milan will harbour realistic expectations of winning another two stages, Pogačar would remain at the top of the pile if he goes on to win the race.
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Other noticeable movers include Olav Kooij, dropping from fourth to seventh as a result of his race withdrawal, while three INEOS Grenadiers riders advanced up the Grand Tour standings: Geraint Thomas, currently in second in the battle for pink, moved to fifth from seventh; live-wire Jhonatan Narváez has had his attacking style rewarded by jumping from fifth to fourth (he was third after Stage 13); and time trial supremo Filippo Ganna progressed from 17th to 8th after his win against the clock on Stage 14.
That victory also meant that Ganna also takes the lead in the Individual Time Trial (ITT) ranking, but it’s his high-flying teammate Thymen Arensman who has muscled his way into the top 10 in the most spectacular fashion. The Dutchman sat 64th in the ITT ranking at the start of the Giro, an 11th and 12th place at the Tour de Romandie and Volta ao Algarve earning him only minor points, but finishes of fourth and third in the Giro’s two ITTs means that he is now the eighth-best time-triallist this season.
Jonathan Milan is hot on Tadej Pogačar’s heels in the Grand Tour ranking after his three Giro d’Italia stage wins so far
Wondering where Pogačar is in the ITT ranking? Fourth on 350 points, 200 shy of Ganna. So, yes, proof there is something the UAE Team Emirates rider doesn’t dominate. You may be even more shocked to read, then, that there’s also another category that the 25-year-old isn’t leading, that of the Stage Races - and here’s why.
The trio of three-week Grand Tours do not contribute towards the Stage Races ranking; instead, only one-week and shorter races apply. Because Pogačar only raced one stage race before the Giro, March’s Volta a Catalunya, he wasn’t able to accrue enough points even to settle inside the top 10. Instead, it’s Ayuso again who leads the category, owing to the fact that the young Spaniard has raced four different stage races this season.
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Four of the Giro’s final six stages are reserved for the climbing specialists, but the current closest battle in the sub-categories is in the Sprint ranking. Milan’s two wins have already moved him ahead of Jasper Philipsen and into second and the Italian is now just five points behind Tim Merlier. With Milan in much better form than the Belgian and having a comfortable lead in the race for the Maglia Ciclamino, he will be expecting to overtake the Soudal Quick-Step man in the Giro’s final two sprint stages.
Away from the Giro, DECATHLON AG2R LA MONDIALE TEAM’S Sam Bennett scored four victories at last week’s six-day Four Days of Dunkirk (confusing, we know), but because the sprint field was comparatively weak compared to WorldTour races, the Irishman only collected 428 points for his success, the same amount that a rider could earn by winning two Giro stages and finishing 10th another day. As ever with the Road Code Ranking, it’s not the race you win that earns you the big points, but who you beat.