SANTA CRUZ (Canary Islands, Spain) – It happens that on a typical evening in the Canary Islands Alberto Contador receives an award from the Cabildo de Tenerife for his career achievements. A career full of successes, many of which were built right on this island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean… on Teide, of course.
As often happens, these moments are also ideal for reflection, even if you're dodging fans asking for a selfie or authorities tugging at Contador's jacket. What reflections? Those on the UCI rankings, for example.
Misleading ranking?
Taking a look at the ranking of the first 10-15 places of the UCI individual ranking, this seems to be clearly unbalanced in favor of men in stage races and Grand Tours. Perhaps also because a couple of years ago the allocation of points was revised. You will remember, for example, that Lotto did not come to the Tour of Italy and he collected, with small one-day races in Belgium, more points than those who were in the Giro d'Italia.
In reality, according to Contador, the issue is quite different. "Let's take a good look at this ranking," Contador says while observing it. "For me, it's not true that there are stage racers in the top 15. Let's take away pogacar, who wins both the classics and the Grand Tours, but for me Pidcock is not a Grand Tour man, even if he was on the podium at the Vuelta. The same goes for Remco. And then there are also Van der Poel and Pedersen... who are certainly not general classification men.
In fact our supposition was born precisely from the presence, in this ranking, of the only two pure classic "beasts": people who win a lot, like Mathieu van der Poel, and people who win a little less but are very present as Mads pedersenIt is therefore logical to think that this ranking is the prerogative of men in stage races.
| ATHLETE | POINTS |
| 1 – Tadej Pogacar | 11.680 |
| 2 – Jonas Vingegaard | 5.944,14 |
| 3 – Isaac Del Toro | 5.664 |
| 4 – Mads Pedersen | 5.074,45 |
| 5 – Joao Almeida | 4.331,07 |
| 6 – Remco Evenepoel | 4.118 |
| 7 – Thomas Pidcock | 3.904,38 |
| 8 – Mathieu Van der Poel | 3.838 |
| 9 – Oscar Onley | 2.910 |
| 10 – Wout Van Aert | 2.908 |
| 11 – Arnaud De Lie | 2.781 |
| 12 – Giulio Ciccone | 2.752,88 |
| 13 – Ben Healy | 2.742 |
| 14 – Juan Ayuso | 2.602,5 |
| 15 – Florian Lipowitz | 2.552 |
The Almeida “case”
«For me – continues Contador – a true stage race man is Joao almeida, maybe even Vingegaard. Joao practically only does stage races: the week-long ones and the Grand Tours. He should be compared with him. Joao, however, wins certain races. If I remember correctly, he won the Tour de Suisse and collects a lot of points. And in fact he is between Pedersen and Van der Poel in the standings."
Except for Pogacar, who is an exception and has practically double the points of the second-placed player, Vingegaard, the Madrid native makes sense.
Van der Poel has raced very little overall: in total he has only put together 41 days of racing. (15 of which at Tour de France), but he won a lot, especially in the first part of the season, when among other things he won the Milan-Sanremo, the Roubaix and then the stage and yellow jersey at the Tour, collecting important points.
Pedersen, for his part, won a little less, but he was super present: 74 days of racing, two Grand Tours. In the Giro d'Italia alone, Mads took home over 1.000 points, including stages and the cyclamen jersey. And here's another question: Pedersen isn't a general classification man, but he's scored his points in the Grand Tours. The situation, in short, is much more complicated.
«But I could also say Del Toro – Contador continues – Isaac, it's true that he reached the podium at the Giro, but we can't consider him a rider exclusively for Grand Tours either. How many Italian classics has he won only in the final stages of the season? And how many points has he scored? They're tough, true... but they're still one-day races.
«Another consideration must be made: if someone is doing very well, he is capable of bringing home a lot of points in a month. even though he's not a Grand Tour man. And if that month coincides with the big Monument classics, which pay out very well, he finds himself high up in the rankings."
Before Pogacar…
"Two major classics pay off almost as much as a good placing in a Grand Tour, and certainly more than a week-long stage race. So for me, the real stage race man in the standings is Almeida."
We point out to him that once upon a time the winner was Alejandro Valverde. «But Alejandro – replies Contador – won the classics and placed well in the Grand Tours. I won this classification, if I remember correctly, only in 2009, but I won practically the entire Tour de France, including it. In 2008, however, when I won both the Giro and the Vuelta, I didn't succeed", as if to reiterate once again that it is not true that there are only specialists in the Grand Tours ahead.
Alberto continues to peek at the rankings and names. He whispers about Onley, Ciccone… and continues to repeat that in his opinion they are not men only for the Grand Tours. Then he goes up on stage and gets the applause of Tenerife.
