Remco Evenepoel won the Stage 7 individual time trial at the Tour de France (Getty Images)
The Road Code Ranking is a unique way of classifying the best-performing riders over a cycling season, based on the quality of the start list and the race. Alongside the overall ranking, there are six sub-rankings to determine who is the best sprinter, climber, time-triallist, one-day rider, stage racer and Grand Tour rider.
Remco Evenepoel is now the No 1 rider in the Individual Time Trial classification of the Road Code Ranking, while an impressive opening week at the Tour de France has also moved the Soudal Quick-Step rider up to second in the overall ranking.
The Belgian, 24, won Stage 7’s 25.3km individual time trial to cut some of his 45-second deficit to race leader Tadej Pogačar and put a good chunk of time into his other rivals for the yellow jersey. As a result, he collected 250 points and jumped from third to first in the Individual Time Trial ranking, replacing Filippo Ganna at the summit, despite the INEOS Grenadiers rider earning 35 points for finishing second in the Tour of Austria prologue. Pogačar’s second place in the Tour’s first ITT saw him rewarded with 190 points, moving him from fifth to third.
Pogačar gained more than 600 points in the first nine days of the Tour, 250 coming after winning Stage 4 in Valloire. It means he has now strengthened his lead in the Road Code Ranking to more than 2,500 points, but his UAE Team Emirates team-mate Juan Ayuso is no longer in second. Instead, it’s Evenepoel, courtesy of gaining 590 points during the first half of the Tour.
Entering the overall top 10 is Jasper Philipsen, up to 6th from 12th. The Alpecin-Deceuninck rider has also moved from third to second in the Sprint ranking, twice picking up 190 points for finishing second in two stages. He is 240 points (the equivalent of a Tour stage win that is so far proving harder than he had hoped to achieve) shy of overtaking Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) as the best-ranked sprinter.
The big mover in the Sprint classification was Intermarché-Wanty’s Biniam Girmay. The Eritrean earned 800 points for his two historic stage wins and two ninth places, moving him from 16th to the fifth-best sprinter so far this season. Dylan Groenewegen, Stage 6’s victor, jumped two places to seventh, but he is more than 600 points adrift of Lidl-Trek’s Mads Pedersen in fourth.
In the Climb category, points were only available on Stages 1, 2 and 4 and unsurprisingly the sub-category’s leader, Pogačar strengthened his advantage over Lotto Dstny’s Maxim Van Gils by 400 points. Evenepoel picked up almost 300 points and moved from fifth to third, but the category won’t get too much of a shake-up until the Tour reaches the Pyrenees and the Alps.
Watch: Road Code Ranking explained
The most prolific riders at the Giro d’Italia continue to occupy the Grand Tour top 10, although Biniam Girmay and Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) are new entrants, in ninth and 10th respectively. Girmay sits on 920 points and if he continues to win sprint stages and wins the Tour’s green jersey, he will find himself in an even higher position in the Grand Tour ranking.
Overtaking Pogačar at the summit, though, looks nigh-on impossible. The Slovenian added 600 points to his tally in the past week, and now leads Dani Martínez (Red Bull – BORA - hansgrohe) in second-place by almost 2,000 points. Because more points are available in the Tour than in the Giro – a stage win at the Tour is worth 50 more points, for example – the Grand Tour classification will look a lot different in two weeks’ time.
Evenepoel is currently Pogačar’s closest contender at the Tour and while he will back himself to remain at the head of the Individual Time Trial ranking, he knows that superseding Pogačar in the Road Code Ranking and its Climb and Grand Tour sub-categories is probably out of reach for 2024.