Combativity Chaos: Giro D'Italia Week 1 Edition.

Rogers
May 15, 2023
4 min read

The Combativity in Grand Tours is always an interesting debate among cycling fans and with how the Giro D'Italia is currently doing it is insane. It's a popularity vote between four riders who we all question why they were selected.

We have six methods that make sense to me.

We use the traditional method of the longest-surviving breakaway rider.
The most attacking rider who impacted the race. This rider who be a rider who tried to attack the race the most or could be a long-range attack from the GC group.
We look at the success of the Intermediate/KOM sprints. For this, we are awarding 5 points for 1st, 3 points for 2nd and 1 point for 3rd.
We combine Intermediate and KOM sprints together. This skews the competition towards KOM jersey, though.
The Intermediate and KOM sprint winner is the only thing that matters.
Count of times a rider scored points in Intermediate or KOM sprints.

Looking at this year's Giro, we have had seven road stages (two ITTs). The official Combativity Award has gone to the following:

Stage 1: Rudy Molard
Stage 2: Paul Lapeira
Stage 3: Veljko Stonjic
Stage 4: Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier
Stage 5: Stefano Gandin
Stage 6: Simon Clarke
Stage 7: Henok Mulubrhan
Stage 8: Ben Healy
Stage 9: Geraint Thomas

Method 1, which is the longest surviving breakaway rider, would have:

Stage 2: Paul Lapeira / Thomas Champion / Mattia Bais
Stage 3: Veljko Stonjic
Stage 4: Aurelein Paret-Peintre / Andreas Leknessund
Stage 5: Samiele Zoccarato
Stage 6: Simon Clarke / Alexandro Di Marchi
Stage 7: Davide Bais / Karel Vacek / Simone Petilli
Stage 8: Ben Healy

Method 2, which is the most attacking rider, would have been:

Stage 2: Thomas Champion
Stage 3: Flippo Zana (on behalf of Michael Matthews)
Stage 4: Ben Healy / Brandon McNulty
Stage 5: Samiele Zoccarato
Stage 6: Simon Clarke / Alexandro Di Marchi
Stage 7: Davide Bais / Karel Vacek / Simone Petilli
Stage 8: Ben Healy

Method 3, which is the Intermediate/KOM sprint reward, would have been:

Stage 1: Tao Geoghegan Hart (5 points)
Stage 2: Paul Lapeira (11)
Stage 3: Thibaut Pinot (10)
Stage 4: Vincenzo Albanese (9)
Stage 5: Stefano Gandin (12)
Stage 6: Simon Clarke (12)
Stage 7: Davide Bais (25)
Stage 8: Ben Healy (15)

Method 4, which combines the Points and KOM jersey, would have been:

Stage 1: Tao Geoghegan Hart (3 points)
Stage 2: Paul Lapeira (12)
Stage 3: Thibaut Pinot (12)
Stage 4: Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (31)
Stage 5: Samuele Zoccarato (19)
Stage 6: Francesco Gavazzi (26)
Stage 7: Davide Bais (88)
Stage 8: Ben Healy (28)

Method 5, which is 1 point for winning an Intermediate or KOM sprint, would have been:

Stage 1: Tao Geoghegan Hart (1 win)
Stage 2: Paul Lapeira (on tie-break over Stefano Gandin) (2)
Stage 3: Thibaut Pinot (2)
Stage 4: Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (on tie-break over Aurélien Paret-Peintre) (1)
Stage 5: Francesco Gavazzi (2)
Stage 6: Francesco Gavazzi (on tie-break) (1)
Stage 7: Davide Bais (5)
Stage 8: Ben Healy (3)

Method 6, which is 1 point for winning an Intermediate or KOM sprint, would have been:

Stage 1: Tao Geoghegan Hart (on tie-break) (1 Sprint)
Stage 2: Paul Lapeira (on tie-break) (4)
Stage 3: Thibaut Pinot (on tie-break) (2)
Stage 4: Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (on tie-break) (4)
Stage 5: Samuele Zoccarato (on tie-break) (4)
Stage 6: Francesco Gavazzi (on tie-break) (4)
Stage 7: Davide Bais (on tie-break) (5)
Stage 8: Ben Healy (4)

Plenty of other methods are, in theory, possible, too, including looking at most attacks. Ben Healy and Brandon McNulty both attacked countless times on Stage 4, but there is no public count for the number of attacks. However, we could do that with broadcast footage of Grand Tours being wall-to-wall coverage. (Perhaps something I can do if I find time before the end of the Giro, but Stage 4 taking 80km makes that a long task).

I look at the lists above, and I prefer the classification Method 2 gives on a stage-by-stage basis. I've not split the breakaway if they get caught / sprint for victory yet and I'm sure others have opinions on the matter, but this is about a preliminary look at how the Combativity Jersey could be done.

Methods Five and Six are more suited to overall classifications because otherwise, they will most likely always require a tie-break.

But it is interesting to note that the results I prefer are the ones for which I have no hard data for. I think that makes sense because attacking shouldn't be about numbers but instinct and fun. Perhaps if I do the attack count, then that would align well with Method 2 - but until then its pure passion.

If we look at a combined Week 1, Davide Bais is the clear winner according to Methods Three and Four. Method Five sees Bais (5) edging out Pinot (4) and Gaudin (4) for most wins, with Method Six seeing Pinot (8) beating Champion (8) on a tie-break with Mads Pedersen (7) just behind.

For overall tracking, I'm a believer in Method Six (count of Intermediate/KOM sprints) because it equalises the playing field. Attacking riding should be celebrated and encouraged on all terrain, not just the Cima Coppi or the Queen stage(s).

So Congratulations to Thibaut Pinot, who won my Combativity Award for Week 1!

We can also do the same thing for teams!

Using Method Three (3 points for 1st, 2 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd), we have: