What Is The Green Jersey In The Vuelta
Recently, these other classifications have used jerseys more like those used at the Tour de France, with the points leader using a green jersey, and the King of the Mountains using a polka dot jersey (albeit blue-on-white rather than red-on-white as at the Tour). The daily winner wears a green number bib the following stage. At the end of the Vuelta, a jury decides the top three riders for the “Most Combative Rider of La Vuelta”, with a public vote deciding the victor.
Dan Martin grabs third and gets stint in Vuelta green jersey Irish rider says wind made for a nervy day on the route down to Lekunberri Wed, Oct 21, 2020, 18:59. Primoz Roglic in. Vuelta Espana 2017 Green Jersey and all products of Santini, vuelta espana, are available for immediate delivery on All4Cycling. Original products at favorable prices and prompt shipments. An Irish rider in a green jersey at a Grand Tour has become a familiar sight this year and tomorrow it will be the turn of Dan Martin to wear the the iconic colours of the points classification.
The first ever points classification was held in 1945. However, it was in 1963 that the Vuelta introduced a scoring system for this competition that’s similar to what we have today.
Unlike with the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia where the points competition is based on sprints both intermediary and at the finish of flat stages, the Vuelta’s competition is based on where a rider finishes at the end of the stage and any intermediate sprints along the way.
Furthermore, there are points awarded on mountain stages as well. This is a big difference between the Vuelta and the other two Grand Tours. It’s also why there’s a strong correlation between the points classification winner and the overall Vuelta race winner.
Vuelta a Espana betting sites have released their odds for the points classification. Let’s take a closer look at this competition, identify the best betting options, and predict who will win the green jersey.
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Previous Points Classification Winners
Sean Kelly, Laurent Jalabert and Alejandro Valverde hold the record for the most all time wins of this competition with four apiece. Primoz Roglic won this competition in 2019 and returns to this year’s Vuelta to defend his overall crown.
The following is a list of previous winners dating back to 2010:
- Mark Cavendish in 2010
- Bauke Mollema in 2011
- Alejandro Valverde in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018
- John Degenkolb in 2014
- Favio Felline in 2016
- Chris Froome in 2017
- Primoz Roglic in 2019
Vuelta a Espana Betting Odds
The following cycling betting odds are courtesy of BetOnline:
- Primoz Roglic (+175)
- Sam Bennett (+250)
- Alejandro Valverde (+400)
- Tom Dumoulin (+1000)
- Pascal Ackermann (+1200)
- Thibaut Pinot (+1800)
- Magnus Cort Nielsen (+2000)
- Alexander Vlasov (+2500)
- Jasper Philpsen (+2500)
- Richard Carapaz(+2500)
- Alex Aranburu (+2800)
- Chris Froome (+2800)
- Enric Mas Nicolau (+4000)
- Michael Woods(+4000)
- Ivan Sosa (+5000)
- Sepp Kuss (+5000)
- Matteo Moschetti (+6600)
- Dan Martin (+8000)
Roglic puts Tour de France loss behind him as Vuelta a España defence begins.
Jumbo-Visma head to Spain with stacked team #vuelta2020https://t.co/swGfJPBnRJpic.twitter.com/oqhSjGbXnr
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Top Choices for the Green Jersey Competition
Based on the cyclists in this year’s Vuelta a Espana, the following riders are the best choices to win this year’s Points Classification:
Primoz Roglic (+175)
Last year, Roglic took this competition by 19 points over Tadej Pogacar. Roglic’s finishes on the mountain stages helped him beat out sprinters like Sam Bennett who was 21 points behind.
Roglic would go on to win last year’s red jersey competition as well. Furthermore, he’s the betting favorite to win the Vuelta a Espana this year. You have to like Roglic’s chances of sweeping the red and green jerseys once again.
Sam Bennett (+250)
Sam Bennett is the best of the sprinters to take the field for the Vuelta. He ended Peter Sagan’s green jersey reign at the Tour de France and is now looking to capture his first Vuelta points classification.
Bennett has only competed in two races since the TDF, so his legs should be fresh. The only concern is how Bennett will do in the six mountain stages.
Expect Bennett to take all of the intermediate sprint points that he can get, in order to compete for the overall win in this competition.
Valverde: We have to race the Vuelta a España like a series of Classics.
Movistar leader warns 'this can be lost from day one'https://t.co/vl5A2K8Siepic.twitter.com/prZhY0FlDc
— Cyclingnews.com (@Cyclingnewsfeed) October 19, 2020
Alejandro Valverde (+400)
As mentioned, Alejandro Valverde has won this competition four times. His latest victory came in 2018, but he also has four runner ups and three third place results. That gives Valverde 11 Top 3 results in this points competition.
Despite being 40 years of age, Valverde finished 4th last year in this competition and has raced well in 2020 so far. He was 12th at the Tour de France and 8th in the World Championships road race.
You can never count out Valverde in the Vuelta especially when it comes to the green jersey.
Tom Dumoulin (+1000)
Dumoulin is the second overall betting favorite to win the Vuelta a Espana. So, it’s not a surprise that he’s one of the favorites for the points classification as well.
Dumoulin will follow the same path to victory in this competition that Valverde and Roglic have perfected over the last few years.
That path is to finish high on the mountain stages and not too far back in the sprint finishes. The one concern for Dumoulin is that he will be racing for his leader Primoz Roglic, so be cautious if you are looking at “Tommy D.” to win this competition.
Pascal Ackermann (+1200)
The German rider is one of the top contenders to compete with Sam Bennett when it comes to the sprints. He’s looked strong in sprint finishes over the few races that he’s competed in.
At the BickBank Tour, Ackermann was 3rd in the first two stages. However, it was at Tirreno-Adriatico where Ackerman won that event’s points classification.
The biggest concern is he will have to beat out Sam Bennett to have a shot at winning this competition. As of now, I don’t see that happening.
Richard Carapaz (+2500)
Carapaz comes into this year’s Vuelta as the leader of Team INEOS. He has a strong supporting cast that features the return of Chris Froome.
Carapaz has raced well this year with a 13th in the Tour de France and a 2nd in the mountains classification. Since this year’s Vuelta has numerous mountain stages, Carapaz could really take advantage of these summits and contend for this points competition.
Additionally, I believe that the 2019 Giro d’Italia winner will be a contender for the overall race win. Carapaz offers the best betting value to win the points classification as he’s a favorite to land on the podium by time it’s all said and done.
Who Will Win the Points Classification?
My top four candidates to win this competition are: Roglic, Valverde, Carapaz and Bennett.
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What Is The Green Jersey In The Vuelta Results
However, with the number of mountain stages, the poor weather, and the peaks that these riders have to climb, I like Roglic or Carapaz to win the points classification. Since we can only pick one, I’m taking Roglic to win this competition and the overall race as well.
There are four jerseys in the Vuelta a España: red, green, blue polka dot and white. Unlike the Tour which has been trying to engineer the points allocation to provide distinct winners the Vuelta sees a big correlation where the leader in one competition is likely to be leading another competition and possibly all four at the same time.
As well as the jerseys, here’s a look at the cash prizes available in the race.
Red: the maillot rojo is awarded to the overall leader. It was orange when the Vuelta was launched in 1935 and switched to white for a year in 1941 but went back to orange. In 1955 race organisers switched it yellow, borrowing from the notoriety of the Tour de France and it stayed yellow until 1999 with one orange exception in 1977. In more recent times it has been gold but in 2010 red jersey was adopted. It is sponsored by Carrefour, a French supermarket.
The Vuelta offers time bonuses with 10 seconds for a stage winner, 6 seconds for second place and 4 seconds for third place. Each intermediate sprint offers 6-4-2 seconds as well.
Green: the points jersey but not necessarily the property of the sprinters. Points are awarded at the finish line and at intermediate points in the stage and the rider with the most points wears the jersey.
- Finish line: 25-20-16-14-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 points for the first 15 riders
- Intermediate sprints: 4-2-1 points for the first three riders
Note that unlike the Tour de France, an equal amount of points are awarded in the mountains as on the flat. With the high number of summit finishes it means there’s a correlation between the overall classification and the points jersey. There’s a good example from 2012 when sprinter John Degenkolb won five stages but only finished fourth in the points competition with Alejandro Valverde well ahead. It is sponsored by a government recycling agency.
What Is The Green Jersey In The Vuelta Season
Polka dot: also known as the “King of the Mountains” jersey, this is similar to the Tour de France jersey, only with blue dots. Points are awarded at the top of categorised climbs and mountain passes. Whilst the Tour has five categories going from 4th cat climb to hors catégorie the Vuelta sticks to three categories. However there are exceptions where summit finishes offer more points. Also, like the Giro’s Cima Coppa prize, the highest climb of the Vuelta sees extra points awarded and the Cima Alberto Fernandez prize. This will be the Port d’Envalira which might be the highest climb but it’s not the hardest of the Vuelta being a large and wide road and a major transport artery for the principality of Andorra. It is sponsored by Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, the Spanish state lottery.
- Cima Alberto Fernandez (Port de Envalira, Stage 14) : 20-15-10-6-4-2 for the first six riders
- Summit Finishes: 15-10-6-4-2 for the first five riders
- Category 1 climbs: 15-10-6-4-2 for the first five riders
- Category 2: 5-3-1 points respectively
- Category 3: 3-2-1 points
White: Tour connoisseurs should not confuse this with the white jersey from July. Instead this is for the “combined classification” and is awarded to the rider with the best position in all three of the above classifications: overall, mountains and points. It is calculated by the ranking in each classification. For example a rider who is 3rd overall, 5th on points and 8th on mountains has 16 points (3+5+8=16) and a rider 9th on GC, 4th on points and 2rd in the mountains has 15 points (9+4+2=15) and the rider with the lowest score wins. It is sponsored by Fertibibera, an agricultural products company.
Note there’s no best young rider competition and UCI rules limit a stage race to four jerseys in order to avoid confusing the public with too many in-race competitions.
The Jerseys and The Racing
The Tour de France agonises over the allocation of points for its green and polka dot jerseys. There’s a tension between rewarding the points jersey to the fastest sprinter and the best points gather, if only because folklore insists green is for sprinters. Similarly the mountains competition has seen many points changes to alter the outcome with summit finishes getting big rewards in a bid to thwart plucky raiders and instead reward the more obvious climbers.
But the Vuelta is less concerned with trying to engineer the outcomes. Again 2012 offers a good example where Alejandro Valverde finished second overall, won the points jersey and this helped him win the combined jersey too. In other words the racing should see riders aiming for stage wins and the overall classification rather than trying to bag a particular jersey.
Other Prizes
There’s also a daily “most combative” prize awarded every day to the rider who has attacked the most or tried the hardest. A subjective prize, it is awarded by a jury instead of using points.
There’s also the team general classification which is calculated on the basis of the sum of the three best individual times from each team in each stage ridden. For example if Riders A, B and C are a team’s best finishers on a stage, their times are added together for team’s overall standing. The next day Riders X, Y and Z are the best finishers and their cumulative time for the stage is added to the team’s time for the previous stage. In other words it’s not based on a team’s best three riders on GC but best three of a team each day.
The Prizes
- Each day there’s €11,000 for the stage winner, €5,500 for second place and a decreasing scale down to a modest €360 for 20th place.
- For the final overall classification in Madrid, first place brings €112,000, €57,000 for second place, €30,000 for third place and then down to €3,800 for 20th place.
There are other pots of money available in the race:
- €160 a day to whoever wears the red jersey, €95 for the points and mountain jersey holders, €70 for the combined jersey
- €13,000 for the final winner of the polka dot jersey
- €11,000 for the final winner of the green jersey
- There’s also money for the first three in the intermediate sprint and for getting mountain points too
- The highest point – the Port d’Envalira – sees the Alberto Fernandez prize attributed with €1,520 for first place
- And many other micro payments for the most combative rider, the leading team each day and more.
Green Jersey In Vuelta
In summary that’s €1,057,890 in prizes. It seems to be up €410 from the prize pot of €1,057,480 last year.