Despite reading this forum for several years, I have never posted anything until now. Judging from the discussions, many posters are interested in comparing climbers and climbing performances. How much better than the rest is Pogacar really? Who is the better climber between Evenepoel, Roglic and Almeida? (Spoiler: it is quite close according to my data). Are perfomances now better than in the 90s?
Over the last months, I have compiled over 2000 climbing performances from the 1950s until now. To make them easily comparable, I used 3 steps:
1) Calculating the Watt/kg . I use the formula provided by James Martin et al and 60kg standard weight like Lanternerouge. Of course I have tried to era-adjust parameters like CDA, CRR and equipment weight as best as possible, but there is always a margin of error.
2) Based on the W/kg and the time, I assign a raw Index for each performance. An Index of 100 equals an extremely strong performance (currently the Top 24 all time are over 100). E.g. 7 W/Kg for 25 minutes or 6.66 W/Kg for 40 minutes would equal a 100 Index.
1 Point difference equals 0.025 W/kg, so 4 Points = 0.1 W/kg and 10 Points = 0.25 W/kg.
If you want to think in trendlines, the purple trendline on Lanternerouge.com is around a 95 Index, while the red trendline would be 85 (0.25 W/kg less).
3)Then I adjust the raw Index for the following factors: Stage Hardness (170km and 3000m elevation gain before climb would be around average), Altitude, Approach to the climb (are you climbing already before the segment or is the approach a false flat downhill?), regularity, follow-up (is it a mountain-top finish or still 50 km to the finish) and weather (plus points for rain and temperatures over 30 °C in the valley). Overall, I try to adjust for most relevant factors, but rather too little than too much.
Example 1: Pogacar in Tirreno Adriatico 2021 pushed 6.45 W/kg for 36:06 on Prati di Tivo. (Wout van Aert also did his best ever W/kg there) An extremley impressive performance for 2021 standards, it equals a raw performance Index of 89. But the stage before was easy (-2), the approach is basically 25km without having to pedal (-3), the climb is very regular and has a very clear start and finish (-2), and also slighly low altitude (-1).
So the final Index would be 81 (-8). A good performance (equal to Chris Froome's PB), but nothing super special as the time gaps on the climb also indicate.
Example 2: Farrapona, Vuelta 2014 Stage 16. Probably the best performance of Froome and post-ban Contador, but in pure W/kg nothing special: Contador 6.59 W/kg for 17:43, Froome 6,58 W/kg for 17:58 (less draft) --> raw Index 74 for both. Adjustment : Altitude (+3), Stage Hardness (+2), Approach (+3), Regularity (-1). Final Index 81 (+7). The time gaps are big for a relativley short climb and this performance was also not beaten on the same climb recently in the 2025 Vuelta, showing that it was very good.
Fun fact: Biggest adjustments: (-14) for some pure time trials and (+28) for Claudio Chiappucci, 1992 Tour de France Stage 13 to Sestriere.
Disclaimer: I also include some very short efforts and shallower climbs like Cipressa. Of course, the uncertainty for these efforts is much higher, but they are too intersting not to include. Also, because the adjustments are linear and not percentage-based, they do not work 100% perfectly for very short and very long efforts. (Adjustments too low or too high respectively).
I only consider performances as they happened on the road, please no Clinic talk here.
I plan to publish 3 lists here, but I will not post everything at once to encourage a nice discussion. I welcome feedback, guesses, questions or tips .
1) Top 24 Performances of all time (Every performance of 100 or higher + some honourable mentions. You will see that the top 25 are heavily occupied by 2 famous riders)
18 | Tadej Pogacar | 102 (+1): 7.79 W/kg for 8:57 on Cipressa (MSR 2025)
19 | Marco Pantani | 101 (-6): 6.91 W/kg for 36:20 on Piancavallo (Giro 1998 Stage 14)
20 | Evgeni Berzin | 101 (-2): 8.45 W/kg for 4:46 on Santuario de Oro (Euskal Bizikleta 1995 Stage 2) (very uncertain)
21 | Santiago Perez | 101 (+5): 7.20 W/kg for 16:25 on Navacerrada (Vuelta 2004 Stage 20)
22 | Tadej Pogacar | 100 (-1): 8.62 W/kg for 3:59 on La Redoute (LBL 2025)
23 | Tadej Pogacar | 100 (0): 8.56 W/kg for 4:07 on La Redoute (LBL 2024) (very strong headwind)
24 | Tadej Pogacar | 100 (+4): 6.77 W/kg for 30:20 on Sormano (Il Lombardia 2024)
HM | Tadej Pogacar | 99 (+1): 6.71 W/kg for 35:09 on Hautacam (Tour 2025 Stage 12)
HM | Alberto Contador | 98 (+1): 7.07 W/kg for 20:40 on Verbier (Tour 2009 Stage 15)
HM | Lance Armstrong | 98 (+5): 6.53 W/kg for 38:03 on Alpe d'Huez (Tour 2001 Stage 10)
HM | Ivan Basso | 97 (-5): 6.62 W/kg for 46:16 on Monte Bondone (Giro 2006 Stage 15)
2) Top 50 climbers of all time based on a weighted average of their top 10 performances (The best performances is worth roughly 2.5 times more than the 10th)
3) Best performance per year since 1986 (and a few individual years before where I have good data).
Notes: I have been inspired mainly be lanternerouge.com, watts2win.eu, chronoswatts.com and climbing-records.com. I calculated all the Watts myself, but the segment data is often from these and other sources, so I would like to credit them. As I did a lot of this work manually, there will be some mistakes and of course no method can be perfect. I also have not video studied every second of every climb, so things like drafting, wind etc. are always estimates that lead to uncertainties. That said, I hope to give a basis for discussions and hopefully a new standard with which to compare climbing performances. Also, if anyone wants to know how good a specific performance (of their favourite rider) was, I will gladly answer these questions.
Over the last months, I have compiled over 2000 climbing performances from the 1950s until now. To make them easily comparable, I used 3 steps:
1) Calculating the Watt/kg . I use the formula provided by James Martin et al and 60kg standard weight like Lanternerouge. Of course I have tried to era-adjust parameters like CDA, CRR and equipment weight as best as possible, but there is always a margin of error.
2) Based on the W/kg and the time, I assign a raw Index for each performance. An Index of 100 equals an extremely strong performance (currently the Top 24 all time are over 100). E.g. 7 W/Kg for 25 minutes or 6.66 W/Kg for 40 minutes would equal a 100 Index.
1 Point difference equals 0.025 W/kg, so 4 Points = 0.1 W/kg and 10 Points = 0.25 W/kg.
If you want to think in trendlines, the purple trendline on Lanternerouge.com is around a 95 Index, while the red trendline would be 85 (0.25 W/kg less).
3)Then I adjust the raw Index for the following factors: Stage Hardness (170km and 3000m elevation gain before climb would be around average), Altitude, Approach to the climb (are you climbing already before the segment or is the approach a false flat downhill?), regularity, follow-up (is it a mountain-top finish or still 50 km to the finish) and weather (plus points for rain and temperatures over 30 °C in the valley). Overall, I try to adjust for most relevant factors, but rather too little than too much.
Example 1: Pogacar in Tirreno Adriatico 2021 pushed 6.45 W/kg for 36:06 on Prati di Tivo. (Wout van Aert also did his best ever W/kg there) An extremley impressive performance for 2021 standards, it equals a raw performance Index of 89. But the stage before was easy (-2), the approach is basically 25km without having to pedal (-3), the climb is very regular and has a very clear start and finish (-2), and also slighly low altitude (-1).
So the final Index would be 81 (-8). A good performance (equal to Chris Froome's PB), but nothing super special as the time gaps on the climb also indicate.
Example 2: Farrapona, Vuelta 2014 Stage 16. Probably the best performance of Froome and post-ban Contador, but in pure W/kg nothing special: Contador 6.59 W/kg for 17:43, Froome 6,58 W/kg for 17:58 (less draft) --> raw Index 74 for both. Adjustment : Altitude (+3), Stage Hardness (+2), Approach (+3), Regularity (-1). Final Index 81 (+7). The time gaps are big for a relativley short climb and this performance was also not beaten on the same climb recently in the 2025 Vuelta, showing that it was very good.
Fun fact: Biggest adjustments: (-14) for some pure time trials and (+28) for Claudio Chiappucci, 1992 Tour de France Stage 13 to Sestriere.
Disclaimer: I also include some very short efforts and shallower climbs like Cipressa. Of course, the uncertainty for these efforts is much higher, but they are too intersting not to include. Also, because the adjustments are linear and not percentage-based, they do not work 100% perfectly for very short and very long efforts. (Adjustments too low or too high respectively).
I only consider performances as they happened on the road, please no Clinic talk here.
I plan to publish 3 lists here, but I will not post everything at once to encourage a nice discussion. I welcome feedback, guesses, questions or tips .
1) Top 24 Performances of all time (Every performance of 100 or higher + some honourable mentions. You will see that the top 25 are heavily occupied by 2 famous riders)
18 | Tadej Pogacar | 102 (+1): 7.79 W/kg for 8:57 on Cipressa (MSR 2025)
19 | Marco Pantani | 101 (-6): 6.91 W/kg for 36:20 on Piancavallo (Giro 1998 Stage 14)
20 | Evgeni Berzin | 101 (-2): 8.45 W/kg for 4:46 on Santuario de Oro (Euskal Bizikleta 1995 Stage 2) (very uncertain)
21 | Santiago Perez | 101 (+5): 7.20 W/kg for 16:25 on Navacerrada (Vuelta 2004 Stage 20)
22 | Tadej Pogacar | 100 (-1): 8.62 W/kg for 3:59 on La Redoute (LBL 2025)
23 | Tadej Pogacar | 100 (0): 8.56 W/kg for 4:07 on La Redoute (LBL 2024) (very strong headwind)
24 | Tadej Pogacar | 100 (+4): 6.77 W/kg for 30:20 on Sormano (Il Lombardia 2024)
HM | Tadej Pogacar | 99 (+1): 6.71 W/kg for 35:09 on Hautacam (Tour 2025 Stage 12)
HM | Alberto Contador | 98 (+1): 7.07 W/kg for 20:40 on Verbier (Tour 2009 Stage 15)
HM | Lance Armstrong | 98 (+5): 6.53 W/kg for 38:03 on Alpe d'Huez (Tour 2001 Stage 10)
HM | Ivan Basso | 97 (-5): 6.62 W/kg for 46:16 on Monte Bondone (Giro 2006 Stage 15)
2) Top 50 climbers of all time based on a weighted average of their top 10 performances (The best performances is worth roughly 2.5 times more than the 10th)
3) Best performance per year since 1986 (and a few individual years before where I have good data).
Notes: I have been inspired mainly be lanternerouge.com, watts2win.eu, chronoswatts.com and climbing-records.com. I calculated all the Watts myself, but the segment data is often from these and other sources, so I would like to credit them. As I did a lot of this work manually, there will be some mistakes and of course no method can be perfect. I also have not video studied every second of every climb, so things like drafting, wind etc. are always estimates that lead to uncertainties. That said, I hope to give a basis for discussions and hopefully a new standard with which to compare climbing performances. Also, if anyone wants to know how good a specific performance (of their favourite rider) was, I will gladly answer these questions.
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