By Chris Marshall-Bell
Road Code Rider Ranking System: It’s not the race you win, it’s who you beat
As predicted before the race even got under way, Tadej Pogačar has a commanding lead in the Giro d’Italia on its first rest day and the UAE Team Emirates rider has subsequently shot to the top of the Road Code Grand Tour ranking.
The new classification system and its various sub-categories position a rider based on the quality of competition they’re up against.
So while a race might be part of the WorldTour calendar, unless there is sufficient talent on the start line, the points gained from winning would be less than a race not part of the WorldTour but which attracts an impressive array of superstars.
Similarly, a rider’s own position fluctuates depending on their status and who they outperform. Pogačar winning a stage of the Giro gives him a minor incremental difference, but Movistar Team’s Pelayo Sánchez triumphing on Stage 6 provided him with a big boost. Conversely, if Pogačar – unlikely as it is – was to finish way down the results in a forthcoming Giro mountain stage that was won by a VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè rider who hasn’t raced many top-tier races to date, Pogačar would take a big hit.
The idea behind the Ranking is to give a fairer and more comprehensible representation of who is performing well and where. A few seasons ago, Lotto Dstny’s Arnaud De Lie won six 1.1 races – the lowest-ranked UCI events – but because they were against comparatively weaker opposition, those wins wouldn’t have been as valuable as taking two stage wins in a WorldTour event against elite rivals.
Cycling, as we know, is more than just about who is smiling on the winner’s podium come the end of an arduous stage race and the Road Code Ranking have seven different sub-categories to give fans a better understanding of who’s performing well in a variety of different types of races.
We haven’t gone daft and imagined a parallel world where the leader of the points classification is now trying to win mountain stages à la Wout van Aert at the 2022 Tour de France
Unsurprisingly given that he won the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, Mathieu van der Poel is leading the One-day Races classification, and Pogačar the Climb category.
As a result of his stranglehold on the Giro which already includes three wins, Pogačar sits comfortably at the top of the Grand Tour category. Will he stay there for the remainder of the season? Well, with the Giro-Tour double looking on, you’d be a fool to bet him against – or be called Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel or Primož Roglič.
The Grand Tour ranking is not to be confused with determining who the best GC rider is. Yes, BORA-hansgrohe’s Dani Martínez, who sits second overall at the Giro, is placed highly in the Grand Tour ranking in third, but it’s Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan who sits second.
We haven’t gone daft and imagined a parallel world where the leader of the points classification is now trying to win mountain stages à la Wout van Aert at the 2022 Tour de France, but in fact it is a representation of what the Grand Tour rankings mean: principally, the best-performing riders in all stages of cycling’s trio of three-week races.
So because Milan has taken a stage win, earning him a cushty 200 points and twice finished second in the Giro’s opening nine stages, he has amassed a greater number of points than Martínez who is without a stage win.
For that same reason, stage nine victor Olav Kooij is fourth in the Grand Tour standings, three places above Geraint Thomas of INEOS Grenadiers who currently occupies third spot in the Giro. A podium finish at the Giro would give Thomas a good wallop of points, but he’s yet to snatch the double-century of points that come with winning a stage of the Giro.
As with all the categories, riders will continuously move up and down all season – well, in Pogačar’s case he’ll probably just further entrench his lead – and unless Milan wins several more Giro stages and then repeats the feat at either the Tour de France or Vuelta a España, he’s highly unlikely to remain second. But a few more stage wins in the Giro, and he could supersede Tim Merlier at the summit of the Sprint classification, currently sitting 390 points behind the Belgian who has won eight races to Milan’s four in 2024.
At the start of the Corsa Rosa, it was one of the other UAE GC riders, Juan Ayuso, who was topping the all-encompassing Road Code Ranking, courtesy of a successful Spring which brought with it the overall title – and a txapela, of course – at the Itzulia Basque Country, a time trial stage win and second on GC at Tirreno-Adriatico, as well as victory at the one-day Faun-Ardeche Classic against a strong cast of riders.
But with Ayuso currently not racing and a thirsty Pogačar trying to win pretty much every single stage of the Giro, the Slovenian has overhauled the young Spaniard at the top of the rankings. Due to the Giro being the only big race taking place in May, competing riders will continue to reorder the seven rankings, and Filippo Ganna will be fancied to overtake Ayuso at the top of the Individual Time Trial sub-ranking after stage 14’s test against the clock.
It’s going to take a mammoth effort from someone, however, to dislodge Pogačar at the top of the Grand Tour and Road Code Ranking.