The Combined Jersey

[chiocciolis_calves]

Bring it back.

 

[Red Rick]

Don't

 

[hrotha]

Please don't oh god no.

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

Quite possibly the best looking jersey of all time.

 

[RedheadDane]

Any pics, for us younguns?

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

Any pics, for us younguns?

 

[StephenC2020]

Oh my......

 

[WildspokeJoe]

I've always been a fan of it reappearing especially recently. Sagan is the perfect poster child for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France

 

[PremierAndrew]

Fwiw, there's much more point of having the combination jersey in the Tour than in the Vuelta, given the points classification already is a combined jersey effectively at the Vuelta

 

[ferryman]

Re: Re:

Any pics, for us younguns?

Is that JFB? Think so not but convinced!

 

[Katabatic]

They might as well literally show the Frankenstein-esque sutures and stitching, or at least represent them aesthetically on the jersey. It would be more interesting that way.

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

Any pics, for us younguns?

Is that JFB? Think so not but convinced!

It's definitely JFB.

 

[GuyIncognito]

As jerseys go I know of a doozy that's sure to confuse a few people. Let me see if I can find it

 

[tobydawq]

I don't think it beats the blue jersey with yellow fish which was the points jersey of the Vuelta a while back...

 

[GuyIncognito]

Damn, I can't find it anywhere.

Back in the mid 2000s, at one point somebody (Menchov?) led two classifications of the Vuelta but not the combination. So he got to wear a special jersey. Again, not the combination jersey but and honest-to-god mixed half-and-half jersey.

The Vuelta had some weird jerseys back then. Anybody remember the fish jersey? (At this point anybody who didn't follow the sport then is going "....what? fish jersey?"

edit: ah, I see someone else mentioned it while I was typing

 

[Katabatic]

I think I remember the half and half jersey that you're referring to.

It surprises me that organisations don't hire artists to give decent combination jersey renditions. It would certainly lend a much better aesthetic than haphazardly thrown together mixes.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

I've always been a fan of it reappearing especially recently. Sagan is the perfect poster child for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France

Except that Sagan has no chance in hell of winning this. Valverde has it in the bag.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

I've always been a fan of it reappearing especially recently. Sagan is the perfect poster child for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France

Except that Sagan has no chance in hell of winning this. Valverde has it in the bag.

Yeah, Sagan does well in the points classification only. He would be nowhere in the combination classification.
For the record, last year's would've been

1st Froome 28
2nd Clement 37
3rd Majka 38
4th Pantano 39
5th Bardet 43
---

Sagan 154

Best sprinter would be Matthews with 110
And as Sagan himself recently said, he wouldn't do anywhere near as well in his occasional attempts at climbing (see Tirreno stage 6) if he didn't have the luxury of soft pedalling with the peloton in previous days while the GC guys are busting a lung.

 

[Brullnux]

Yeah but I reckon valverde will try harder for the green and polka dot jerseys should such a combination jersey exist

 

[benzwire]

Hinault in the jersey, Alpe d'Huez 1986. I used to have that jersey when I was a junior. I loved it. I eventually had Greg LeMond sign it and it hangs in my office.

 

[WildspokeJoe]

Re: Re:

I've always been a fan of it reappearing especially recently. Sagan is the perfect poster child for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France

Except that Sagan has no chance in hell of winning this. Valverde has it in the bag.

I like your Valverde pick. Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate. If they ever brought it back, I think they should revise it. Most of the guys who won it in the past were strictly GC guys. Would be nice is someone like Gilbert or GVA had a shot at it.

 

[Kwibus]

I'd love to see that ugly jersey back. Would be awesome!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

I've always been a fan of it reappearing especially recently. Sagan is the perfect poster child for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combination_classification_in_the_Tour_de_France

Except that Sagan has no chance in hell of winning this. Valverde has it in the bag.

I like your Valverde pick. Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate. If they ever brought it back, I think they should revise it. Most of the guys who won it in the past were strictly GC guys. Would be nice is someone like Gilbert or GVA had a shot at it.

You can't really mess with the format of the Combinada though, because of how it's calculated. It's lowest score wins, not highest. You could only play with the Combinada by changing the formats of the secondary classifications; at present the huge weighting of the GPM towards MTFs at the Tour means the likes of Gilbert, GVA or Sagan could never contend; notwithstanding that the GC is one of the elements and therefore a rider would need to be at a decent level in that to not lose out by default to somebody who, with the current points weighting, is likely to be high in both GC and GPM by Paris, especially with crappy stage designs and Unipuerto MTFs that with ASO's current system lead to GC guys winning the classification by default like Froome did in 2015.

Where the jersey could work is currently impossible; the current ruling of there being only four major jerseys at WT races prevents it. That would be the reintroduction of the maillot rouge, the metas volantes jersey. The likes of Contador and Quintana may get some points in intermediates but only maybe once or twice in the race, while somebody like Froome, who in each Tour he's won has controlled the race from the second weekend on, would have no reason to even score points for that classification. However, it would necessitate killing off a few things to make it work - you couldn't just not give a jersey for the intermediates, because then it would go the way of the minor categories at the Giro that few even know about let alone care for; it would then seem entirely random when it affected the combinada. You can't really go the 'other' way of defining it - race numbers - though, as red race numbers are already an established Tour tradition of their own in respect of the Prix de la Combativité. And at the very least introducing two new jersey classifications would almost certainly result in destroying the white jersey for best young rider to make room. Because if you don't and just treat it as GC, points and GPM, we can just look at the Vuelta, where until the recent MTF-fetishizing editions, for year upon year the GC winner also won the combinada without fuss, so it became a jersey to tell you who was placed 2nd on GC in all but name.

 

[Netserk]

You could change the format to one where the points (both KOM and regular points) translate to time bonuses (for the combination classification only).

 

[chiocciolis_calves]

Re:

Please don't oh god no.

Let me see if I understand this: you have a photo of the god-awful Mapei jersey as your avatar, but the combined jersey is out?