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Tadej Pogacar has spent the last two weeks crushing the dreams and hopes of his rivals, so it is very much in keeping with the theme of this Tour de France that he may also have just crushed the dreams and the hopes of cycling fans who took advantage of the nearest race. and the most absorbing battle for the King of the Mountains that we have seen in years.
From stage 8, the first alpine day, Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious), Nairo Quintana (Arkéa-Samsic) and Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) compete for the climbing points. On the first category 1 climb of the entire Tour, the Côte de Mont-Saxonnex, Poels was first at the top, then Quintana, then Woods; at the end of the day at Le Grand-Bornand, the Dutchman wore the polka-dot jersey, Woods second and Quintana third.
Quintana’s strong race at Tignes saw him take the lead and he wore the jersey for five days before Woods took it with an aggressive day on stage 14. And on the Ventoux stage, the Jumbo-Visma rider’s solo Wout van Aert saw the victory winning enough points to enter the contention, although Poels has been wearing the jersey since that day.
All four scored points on the big stage to Andorra, and as the peloton envisioned today’s huge day, crossing the Col de Peyresourde and the Col de Val Louron-Azet and finishing at the top of the Col du Portet, Poels led with 74 points, Woods second of 66, and Quintana and Van Aert tied for 64.
However, in one day, Pogacar made himself the favorite for the jersey. If he did not score any points on the first ascent of the day and one on the second, winning the stage and taking 40 points at the top, he is in second place in the competition. Poels leads with 78, the Slovenian has 67, Quintana and Woods have 66 and Van Aert 64.
Until this point in the Tour, it didn’t look like Pogacar had aimed at the mountain ranking. He scored one point for his second place on the Côte de Mûr-de-Bretagne during stage 2, and eight points for passing the Col de la Colombière in second position. He scored 16 points on Mont Ventoux. And before the Portet stage, that was it.
Although there are a few cat 4 climbs scattered throughout the race from here to Paris, the two big climbs of stage 18 should settle the competition. The peloton will compete in the Col du Tourmalet and the climb to Luz Ardiden, both out of category. The system will give the top eight riders climb points. The distribution is 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-2 on the Tourmalet and 40-30-24-20-16-12-8-4 (double points) at Luz Ardiden.
Many scenarios can arise. Overall, if any of the Poels, Quintana, Woods and Van Aert can get into the breakaway, they can still win the competition by scoring on the Tourmalet and also in Luz Ardiden. If they score on the Tourmalet but Pogacar can compete again at the finish of the stage, as he did at the Col du Portet, then the Slovenian will overtake everyone. In the less likely case where a breakaway not containing any of the mountain ranking competitors stays clear and wins all the points, Poels is the favorite to win.
So far, Poels has scored points on 15 climbs, including nine Category 1 or HC classified climbs. Quintana scored on 10 climbs, eight of which were Category 1 or higher. Woods scored on 14 climbs, including seven cat 1 and over. Van Aert took advantage of a similar situation in Pogacar, with 40 of his points on Mont Ventoux, but he scored on four other first class climbs. Pogacar scored on six climbs, including three unique points.
The question is, what is the King of the Mountains contest for? Of course, on the surface, it’s about finding the best climber on the Tour. However, you can also argue that it is more complicated than that. Usually, the rider who wins the Tour is the best climber. The last time that wasn’t true was in 2012, when you could perhaps tell runner-up Chris Froome was climbing better than winner Bradley Wiggins. But Wiggins was definitely the second best. We could save a lot of bureaucracy by simply handing the polka dot jersey to the winner of the Tour on the Champs-Elysees every year.
However, the King of the Mountains is actually a points competition, organized in the climbs. Since climbs occur almost every day on the Tour, it is designed to reward the rider who scores the most points on those climbs. The problem is that a few times, especially in the 2000s, runners target small climbs outside of large mountain ranges, rack up dozens of points in escapes, and don’t need to be able to climb the escapes at all. great mountains. The organizers responded by reducing the points available on climbs, especially cat 4 and cat 3. They also generally double the number of points on big climbs that come either at the top, or at least very late in the day. , so that the GC riders can compete for the points.
However, there is a happy medium between the two extremes, and the Tour organizers may have skewed the points system too much in favor of GC riders. The competition has been revamped to avoid a repeat of Anthony Charteau’s victory in 2010, but Quintana, Poels and Woods all finished in the top 10 of the Grand Tours (and in Quintana’s case, won two).
The most important things for the mountain ranking is that it is an exciting competition and that it has a deserving winner. No one can deny that Pogacar is the best climber on the Tour – and with the points system designed as it is, he deserves to earn it. However, the competition was much more exciting when three riders (four including Van Aert on the Andorra stage) competed in the climbs and competed for the breakaways.
All kinds of solutions have been proposed to animate the King of the Mountain ranking, from timing the climbs in the form of segments (which would automatically cause the Tour winner to take the ranking) to changing the points system. The result of stage 18 in Luz Ardiden can tell us if these changes are necessary.
Edward Pickering is the editor of Procycling magazine.
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