Comprehensive Climbers Ranking

[Mayomaniac]

A lot of criticism of RB Bora for pacing the first part. Was it a fake pace or was the climb paced hard from the bottom (seems likely given the fast ascent)?

The theory on italian tv was that they hoped to drop Piganzoli and Kuss, so that they could play the numbers game vs an isolated Vingegaard and take turns attacking.

 

[Pozzovivo]

Copy from my post in another thread about Bernal:

'His power meter probably read slightly high, but it is not impossible (especially if he weighs below 60kg). I have him at 5.88 w/kg and Vingegaard at 6.38 w/kg, so a 0.5 w/kg difference.

I think he also mentioned that it was his best 40 minute power, which is hard to believe. His record (in race) should probably be from Zoncolan 2021 (6.14 w/kg for 40 minutes).'


Up to 6 w/kg yesterday is possible for Bernal, especially as he was dropped early and was apparently alone for a lot of the climb. Maybe the effects of the crosswind were also a bit worse than I considered. (Then my calc would be bit low for everyone)

The first and easiest explanation is always the powermeter in these cases. And as Red Rick says, he also does not have many good 40 minute efforts besides Zoncolan in his career. Maybe Gamoniteiru from 2021, but that was a 50 minute effort.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2055763833369591945

View: https://x.com/Watts2Win/status/2055763833369591945?s=20

 

[Peyresourde]

A lot of criticism of RB Bora for pacing the first part. Was it a fake pace or was the climb paced hard from the bottom (seems likely given the fast ascent)?

At the end of the day it is a minor thing, but it just shows they don't really know what to do. I did not calculate segements for this climb, but they were not fake pacing (which would also not be smart).


Just pure theory: I think Vingegaard might have actually stopped his attack pace if Pellizzari could have held on a few more hundred meters. This might have been possible with a slower Visma pace at the bottom (Campenaerts was not on a good day) and sheltering Pellizzari a bit better.
Pellizzari would have dropped later anyway, but then the gaps on the whole climb would have been smaller and both Redbull guys might have only lost 40 seconds.

Their goal should just be to limit losses as best as possible until the third week and then reassess. And attacking Vingegaard before is also possible, but not on a steep HC mountain top finish, rather on easier stages.

 

[Pozzovivo]

At the end of the day it is a minor thing, but it just shows they don't really know what to do. I did not calculate segements for this climb, but they were not fake pacing (which would also not be smart).


Just pure theory: I think Vingegaard might have actually stopped his attack pace if Pellizzari could have held on a few more hundred meters. This might have been possible with a slower Visma pace at the bottom (Campenaerts was not on a good day) and sheltering Pellizzari a bit better.
Pellizzari would have dropped later anyway, but then the gaps on the whole climb would have been smaller and both Redbull guys might have only lost 40 seconds.

Their goal should just be to limit losses as best as possible until the third week and then reassess. And attacking Vingegaard before is also possible, but not on a steep HC mountain top finish, rather on easier stages.

I agree that the smart thing to do is to keep it close and maybe try something in the third week when half the field is out of GC anyway. There is no plan or pace that can put Vingegaard in trouble at any point. He's so much better than them at absolutely everyhing.

I think a fake pace would be smart - as getting 2nd and 3rd should be the goal. Hard pacing on Blockhaus is giving Gall the edge. He's flying on monster climbs. Put pressure on him anywhere else.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I agree that the smart thing to do is to keep it close and maybe try something in the third week when half the field is out of GC anyway. There is no plan or pace that can put Vingegaard in trouble at any point. He's so much better than them at absolutely everyhing. Ignore him.

I think a fake pace would be smart - as getting 2nd and 3rd should be the goal. Hard pacing on Blockhaus is giving Gall the edge. He's flying on monster climbs. Put pressure on him anywhere else.

The stage being long and the weather being bad also helped Gall, who is an attrition climber.

 

[Peyresourde]

I agree that the smart thing to do is to keep it close and maybe try something in the third week when half the field is out of GC anyway. There is no plan or pace that can put Vingegaard in trouble at any point. He's so much better than them at absolutely everyhing. Ignore him.

I think a fake pace would be smart - as getting 2nd and 3rd should be the goal. Hard pacing on Blockhaus is giving Gall the edge. He's flying on monster climbs. Put pressure on him anywhere else.

That plan is fine if they are going for the podium. But then they could also try for stage wins, e.g. on a stage like yesterday and gain time on Gall as well.


If they are trying for the win it could be smart to keep Gall close to Vingegaard. Gall is quite aggressive and might attack early later, forcing Vingegaard to respond and waste some energy. They also should not stop pacing in a situation like Blockhaus with Hindley sitting on O'Connor.

If Vingegaard is at his normal level, it won't matter, but maybe if he is slightly ill or something later.
Of course, these are very theoretical Chris Horner tactics. In reality their biggest chance to win is being second and Vingegaard crashing out.

 

[Pozzovivo]

The stage being long and the weather being bad also helped Gall, who is an attrition climber.

Sure, may give him the edge against Pellizzari in particular. Hindlay is similar to Gall in many ways imo.

 

[Pozzovivo]

Btw, the ranking, index numbers, and methodology seem too well done not to be shared more widely. Have you published this, or other work on cycling and climbing performances anywhere else, @Peyresourde ? I learn a lot from your posts.

 

[Peyresourde]

Btw, the ranking, index numbers, and methodology seem too well done not to be shared more widely. Have you published this, or other work on cycling and climbing performances anywhere else, @Peyresourde ? I learn a lot from your posts.

Thanks. I have not published my numbers anywhere else yet and I don't plan to in the short term, but it may be possible in the future of course.

 

[Peyresourde]

For today's climb I had some trouble determining the exact starting elevation, it is always a bit difficult when they are crossing a creek/ravine on the flank of a mountain. The gaps were much bigger than expected, some riders clearly underperformed (especially the Redbull riders).

Jonas Vingegaard | 80 (+3): 6.85 W/kg for 14:12 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2026)
Felix Gall | 79 (+3): 6.81 W/kg for 14:24 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2026)

Gilberto Simoni | 68 (+4): 6.46 W/kg for 15:10 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2004)


The Indexes are lower than yesterday, but it was a very good performance especially by Gall who was quite close in level to Vingegaard. They were not necessarily worse than on Blockhaus (even if the Index is lower), but I have to build in some 'safety margin' for these kind of finishes.

For comparison, on Tagliacozzo last year which was a bit similar, Ayuso had only a 61 Index.

 

[Red Rick]

For today's climb I had some trouble determining the exact starting elevation, it is always a bit difficult when they are crossing a creek/ravine on the flank of a mountain. The gaps were much bigger than expected, some riders clearly underperformed (especially the Redbull riders).

Jonas Vingegaard | 80 (+3): 6.85 W/kg for 14:12 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2026)
Felix Gall | 79 (+3): 6.81 W/kg for 14:24 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2026)

Gilberto Simoni | 68 (+4): 6.46 W/kg for 15:10 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2004)


The Indexes are lower than yesterday, but it was a very good performance especially by Gall who was quite close in level to Vingegaard. They were not necessarily worse than on Blockhaus (even if the Index is lower), but I have to build in some 'safety margin' for these kind of finishes.

For comparison, on Tagliacozzo last year which was a bit similar, Ayuso had only a 61 Index.

Tagliacozzo had 0 downhill sections so I expect that makes a lot of difference. Also the hard part was only half as long.

 

[Pozzovivo]

For today's climb I had some trouble determining the exact starting elevation, it is always a bit difficult when they are crossing a creek/ravine on the flank of a mountain. The gaps were much bigger than expected, some riders clearly underperformed (especially the Redbull riders).

Jonas Vingegaard | 80 (+3): 6.85 W/kg for 14:12 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2026)
Felix Gall | 79 (+3): 6.81 W/kg for 14:24 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2026)

Gilberto Simoni | 68 (+4): 6.46 W/kg for 15:10 on Corno alle Scale (Giro 2004)


The Indexes are lower than yesterday, but it was a very good performance especially by Gall who was quite close in level to Vingegaard. They were not necessarily worse than on Blockhaus (even if the Index is lower), but I have to build in some 'safety margin' for these kind of finishes.

For comparison, on Tagliacozzo last year which was a bit similar, Ayuso had only a 61 Index.

Big gaps behind also confirm a serious performance by Gall/JV!

But Pellizzari is clearly ill. Was hanging at the back of the pack all day. Strange behaviour. Big disappointment for him, RBBH, and his fans.

 

[Peyresourde]

Big gaps behind also confirm a serious performance by Gall/JV!

But Pellizzari is clearly ill. Was hanging at the back of the pack all day. Strange behaviour. Big disappointment for him, RBBH, and his fans.

Yeah, Pellizzari must be ill. The gaps are surprisingly big, but the fact that Piganzoli and Arensman were the next guys indicates that several riders underperformed (lack of recovery or hard start on the flat reducing performances for some).

Another similar finish was Leysin in Romandie this year, were both Pogacar and Lipowitz had a 78 Index.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Big gaps behind also confirm a serious performance by Gall/JV!

But Pellizzari is clearly ill. Was hanging at the back of the pack all day. Strange behaviour. Big disappointment for him, RBBH, and his fans.

Could be a chance he has mistimed his form curve, if you look at the races last year he was average/good at his GT prep races (Burgos and Catalunya) then rode into the races to be excellent in week 3.

This time he has been flying all year with a few more race days than the norm, then dumped everything into trying to follow on Blockhaus early so is on catchup energy-wise here.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Very hard to compare performances of yesterday and today (longer climb, very long stage) to today (much shorter climb, shorter stage). So many differences here. It seems that both Vingegaard and Gall are a level above the rest and it's the most important thing and it hasn't changed since yesterday. Obviously Gall's performances are absolutely spectacular (for his career) while Vingo's are kinda expected (given his past results). Nobody saw it coming before the race. At least until the TT Vingo has had a worthy rival, let's see what happens tomorrow.

 

[Red Rick]

Wonder if the W/kg look way different if you only take the last 2.7kg

 

[Peyresourde]

Wonder if the W/kg look way different if you only take the last 2.7kg

Probably 7.1+ w/kg, but I have not calculated it.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Yeah, Pellizzari must be ill. The gaps are surprisingly big, but the fact that Piganzoli and Arensman were the next guys indicates that several riders underperformed (lack of recovery or hard start on the flat reducing performances for some).

Gaps were quite big indeed but the last 5.5 km of this stage climbed 470 m and were ridden intensively so it wasn't an easy climb. Maybe some guys paid more for yesterday's huge stage.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Gaps were quite big indeed but the last 5.5 km of this stage climbed 470 m and were ridden intensively so it wasn't an easy climb. Maybe some guys paid more for yesterday's huge stage.

The huge stage was two days ago

 

[YavorD]

@Peyresourde It could be too much to ask for, if so I'm sorry, but since you're updating the climbing performances on a regular basis, are you able to put at least the top 2026 performances on a single post (possibly by edititng the first post or something)?

This could help people keep track of the consistency or shape movement of each rider much easier.


Thanks for your great efforts anyway.

 

[Peyresourde]

After his great start to the Giro and considering that he is currently the best 'pure climber' in the world, I decided to add Felix Gall to the climbers list in the OP. Even though he is not tiny, he is already on top of the tiny climbers tier, ahead of rider like Adam Yates, Lipowitz and Landa.

If he keeps his form for the next 2 weeks, he might even be able to overtake Almeida.

I also edited the other rankings, though there were only very minor changes. Most notably, I lowered the performances on PdB by 0.01-0.02 w/kg (after redoing the calc for the 57th time)

@Peyresourde It could be too much to ask for, if so I'm sorry, but since you're updating the climbing performances on a regular basis, are you able to put at least the top 2026 performances on a single post (possibly by edititng the first post or something)?

This could help people keep track of the consistency or shape movement of each rider much easier.


Thanks for your great efforts anyway.

That is actually a good idea, I will probably post something later.

 

[Peyresourde]

As requested, here are the top climbing performances of 2026 so far. I excluded classic/hill type efforts like La Redoute and Cipressa for this list. Non-winning efforts are in italic.


1 | Paul Seixas | 92 (-3): 7.19 W/kg for 16:26 on Saint Romain de Lerps (Faun Ardeche 2026)
2 | Jonas Vingegaard | 90 (+2): 6.39 W/kg for 39:04 on Blockhaus (Giro 2026)
3 | Felix Gall | 88 (+2): 6.34 W/kg for 39:17 on Blockhaus (Giro 2026)
4 | Tadej Pogacar | 87 (0): 6.78 W/kg for 21:31 on Jaunpass (Romandie 2026)
5 | Paul Seixas | 86 (-4): 6.75 W/kg for 24:56 on Aralar (Basque Country 2026)

6 | Antonio Tiberi | 85 (-3): 6.73 W/kg for 24:01 on Jebel Mobrah (UAE 2026)
7 | Jai Hindley | 82 (+2): 6.17 W/kg for 40:06 on Blockhaus (Giro 2026)
8 | Giulio Pellizzari | 82 (+2): 6.16 W/kg for 40:09 on Blockhaus (Giro 2026)
9 | Ben O'Connor | 82 (+2): 6.16 W/kg for 40:09 on Blockhaus (Giro 2026)
10 | Isaac Del Toro | 81 (-6): 6.65 W/kg for 25:11 on Jebel Hafeet (UAE 2026)

11 | Jonas Vingegaard | 81 (+4): 6.13 W/kg for 38:25 on Coll de Pal (Catalunya 2026)
12 | Florian Lipowitz | 81 (0): 6.63 W/kg for 21:47 on Jaunpass (Romandie 2026)
13 | Isaac Del Toro | 81 (-3): 6.63 W/kg for 24:16 on Jebel Mobrah (UAE 2026)


I will put this list in the OP and update it there frome time to time.

 

[SafeBet]

The huge stage was two days ago

They had no real recovery in the following stage though, riding a very fast pace on the flat for a hundred kms before tackling the hilly part. The accumulated fatigue must have had an impact on some performances, which are otherwise hard to explain.

 

[mithro]

just as a curiosity, aSLP guy has Jonas and Tadej efforts swapped, 629 vs 640. Looking forward to what Decathlon is cooking for TDF.

 

[Peyresourde]

just as a curiosity, aSLP guy has Jonas and Tadej efforts swapped, 629 vs 640. Looking forward to what Decathlon is cooking for TDF.

Jaunpass is at a slightly higher average altitude than Blockhaus, but I also consider other factors like stage hardness and approach.

And there are always slight differences in the calculated watts. Na1chaca's numbers are ~0.05-0.1 w/kg higher than mine on average, but he was quite low on Blockhaus. Maybe he assumed more of a tailwind than I did.