Comprehensive Climbers Ranking

[Red Rick]

Who are those Giro monsters that you think Yates needs to up his level significantly to beat? There's Vingegaard, there's Almeida (but he clearly had fitness/health problems so being at his best is far from certain, Yates will be a co-leader). Yates should be at least on par with other strong guys making him a strong podium candidate.

What reason is there to assume he should be a podium candidate in 2026.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

What reason is there to assume he should be a podium candidate in 2026.

I'm referring to the general level of Giro competition. It will be low and Yates has a decent form and a lot of experience. I think he should be among the candidates for the 3rd place but it also depends on how well Almeida recovers. BTW wasn't Simon "washed up" before last years win?

 

[Netserk]

Who are those Giro monsters that you think Yates needs to up his level significantly to beat?

geesus

I'm referring to the general level of Giro competition. It will be low

stronger than last year

probably the strongest this decade at least

edit : 2023 was arguably stronger

 

[Krzysztof_O]

geesus

stronger than last year

Sure, there's Vingegaard. Other than that, I don't know: If Almeida doesn't reach his best the 2nd and 3rd place will be more open and yes, Yates has a shot.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

I almost forgot what this thread is about.

 

[Peyresourde]

Who are those Giro monsters that you think Yates needs to up his level significantly to beat? There's Vingegaard, there's Almeida (but he clearly had fitness/health problems so being at his best is far from certain, Yates will be a co-leader). Yates should be at least on par with other strong guys making him a strong podium candidate.

Almeida if fit. Then I would also rate Pellizzari, Arensman and Gall higher.
There are also several other riders I would rate similarly like Storer, Hindley, Carapaz, maybe Landa.

Of course, if Yates returns to his 23/24 summer level he would be a podium favourite, but I have not seen an indication of that yet.

 

[Peyresourde]

For the stage today I expected a bit more (good conditions for high watts/kg with an easy approach), especially from Pellizzari. Nevertheless congrats for his win.
Finn is also showing signs of life.

Gulio Pellizzari | 70 (-7): 6.74 W/kg for 16:17 on Martelltal (bottom part) (Alps 2026)



The last weeks, there has been no standout performance except for Seixas on stage 2 of the Basque Country. Everything else has been between the high 60s and mid 70s, overall not better than the spring level of the early 2020s at all.


[The best performance of last week has actually not been mentioned yet by me:

Matthew Riccitello | 74 (0): 6.96 W/kg for 11:00 on Mont Poupet (Jura Tour 2026)

Riccitello seems to be a very similar type of rider to Adam Yates who showed a comparable level in Gran Camino.]

 

[Brullnux]

Pellizzari said he felt tired going into the final climb. Maybe a post-altitude camp hangover or if it was harder than it looked, not sure

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

Pozzovivo the best climber over 40 of all time?
With all due respect to Horner 😂

 

[Peyresourde]

Pozzovivo the best climber over 40 of all time?
With all due respect to Horner 😂

Maybe third after Horner and Valverde.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Pozzovivo the best climber over 40 of all time?
With all due respect to Horner 😂

Come on, grandpa Horner beat peak Nibali in La Vuelta'2013. He's the GOAT for guys 40+.
He would've won the Tour in 2023 had he continued for another decade.

 

[Coppi-Bartali]

Ion Izagirre is on Horner's growth curve, he cannot retire.

 

[Peyresourde]

For LBL today, the numbers are extremely high as Pogacar was really pushed by Seixas and had to go all out. The difference to the rest was absolutely crazy insane.

Keep in mind that the Indexes are somewhat arbitrary for such short climbs as I do not have that much of a database for this length of effort. When I set those, I tried to be careful (Historically, Berzin in Euskal Bizikleta 1995 was the only rider ever who had a really high number on a sub 5 minute climb. Other than that, barely anyone has even cracked 80)


When you see the gaps today, I think the high numbers are justified. Pogacar beat his record on Redoute by 10 seconds and also beat the all-time record on Roche aux Faucons after that effort.

Tadej Pogacar | 109 (-1): 8.93 W/kg for 3:49 on La Redoute (LBL 2026)
Paul Seixas | 101 (-1): 8.72 W/kg for 3:49 on La Redoute (LBL 2026)

Tadej Pogacar | 85 (+7): 8.24 W/kg for 3:32 on Roche aux Faucons (LBL 2026)



Pogacar may have even pushed more than I calculated (I was careful with the headwind). I also did not do a higher adjustment for prior race hardness even though it was raced much faster than last year.
Crazy that Seixas could follow and a really ominous sign for the future (for everyone else). Of course, this short effort is not 1 to 1 comparable to an Alpine climb, but there is still a good correlation normally.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

@Peyresourde

Thanks for this update. It basically confirms what I thought when I saw this gigantic gap on Redoute (worthy of a longer climb): Pogacar's attack was thermonuclear but Seixas answer equally impressive (Pogacar confirmed in an interview that he went very deep on this climb, I think deeper than he had to in the previous 2 years). It really looked to me like the king and the future king battling it out today.

 

[Red Rick]

Race was primarily harder before they even hit the middle climbing section, it looked very chill in the section before La Redoute, so I'd expect the best guys to be fully recovering there.

Also the leadout was faster and there was actually incentive to go to the max on La Redoute.

 

[Peyresourde]

Race was primarily harder before they even hit the middle climbing section, it looked very chill in the section before La Redoute, so I'd expect the best guys to be fully recovering there.

Also the leadout was faster and there was actually incentive to go to the max on La Redoute.

Yes, the leadout this year was the main difference, the last 2 years they went quite slow in the first part of Redoute.

I am not surprised that Pogacar could do 10 seconds faster than last year (better leadout and trying harder), but Seixas is really amazingly strong.

 

[Netserk]

so muaddib was better today than pogi on any non itt mtf in the tour last year

 

[vappa]

Yes, the leadout this year was the main difference, the last 2 years they went quite slow in the first part of Redoute.

I am not surprised that Pogacar could do 10 seconds faster than last year (better leadout and trying harder), but Seixas is really amazingly strong.

To me, at the top of RaF, it looked like Pogacar could repeat that effort in 15 minutes and Seixas was already 25s behind. Still has work to do

 

[Netserk]

btw have you analysed rampe saint hilaire from stage 4 in the tour last year ?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1942618543637553346

View: https://x.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1942618543637553346

 

[Peyresourde]

@Netserk Yes, it was by far the best ever 2 minute effort in my database. But at that length, the Index is really a pure guessing game as I don't have much to compare it to.

Tadej Pogacar | 96 (-2): 10.11 W/kg for 1:57 on Rampe Saint Hilaire (Tour de France 2025)
Jonas Vingegaard | 90 (-2): 9.97 W/kg for 1:57 on Rampe Saint Hilaire (Tour de France 2025)

 

[Red Rick]

btw have you analysed rampe saint hilaire from stage 4 in the tour last year ?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1942618543637553346

View: https://x.com/ammattipyoraily/status/1942618543637553346

It came to my mind cause it was a super short climb with a big gap like this.

 

[Netserk]

the steep part of montjuic is similar

@Devil's Elbow's measurements of the catalunya circuit

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Another race and yet another w/kg contest.....A physical contest and not a cycling contest......All boring......Climbing is the most over rated metric in cycling.......I'm sorry, but being an excellent climber shouldn't mean you're a great cyclist. Sadly, too many of the great races are biased towards climbing.......

 

[Peyresourde]

the steep part of montjuic is similar

@Devil's Elbow's measurements of the catalunya circuit

That is true, but I chose not to analyze Montjuic (yet). Calculating 2 minute efforts is really not fun. Even tenths of a second and half a meter in elevation difference is important for this duration, so I do not like to do it.

Another race and yet another w/kg contest.....A physical contest and not a cycling contest......All boring......Climbing is the most over rated metric in cycling.......I'm sorry, but being an excellent climber shouldn't mean you're a great cyclist. Sadly, too many of the great races are biased towards climbing.......

W/kg is the most important metric for cyclists. You can call that unfortunate, but it is reality. The other options are flat races with a sprint, which is even more boring. The only exception is Roubaix, but you can't do cobbles in every race.

 

[Netserk]

That is true, but I chose not to analyze Montjuic (yet). Calculating 2 minute efforts is really not fun. Even tenths of a second and half a meter in elevation difference is important for this duration, so I do not like to do it.

the tour de france circuit is at least more forgiving in that regard

after today i expect pogi to go on the second lap