Carapaz named 2026 Tour de France Super Combativity Award winner
Richard Carapaz has been named the winner of the 2026 Tour de France Super Combativity Award after animating multiple mountain stages, taking two stage wins and securing the polka dot jersey. Mads Pedersen had earlier won the fan vote, but the jury's verdict tipped the balance to the Ecuadorian.
Make us your Google favourite
The Tour de France organisers announced an 11 rider shortlist following stage 20, recognising those who had shaped the race through breakaways, aggressive racing and a willingness to attack.
Carapaz's Tour de France was defined by the Alps. The Ecuadorian animated several mountain stages, took two stage wins and secured the polka dot jersey on the queen stage to Alpe d'Huez, when he went in the breakaway and led over the Col de la Croix de Fer, Col du Télégraphe, Col du Galibier and Col de Sarenne to take the mountains classification with a day to spare.
Mads Pedersen had been the fan vote winner, having spent three weeks at the front of the race for Lidl-Trek. The Dane won a stage, sealed the green jersey and joined multiple breakaways across all three weeks. H
is fighting spirit was particularly evident in the final mountain stages, where he continued to race aggressively despite the demanding terrain.
The final winner was determined by combining the jury's verdict with the result of the public vote. Pedersen took the fan vote earlier in the day, but the Ecuadorian's mountain heroics and his double stage win in the Alps pushed him ahead of the Dane in the jury's decision.
The 11 nominees
| Nominee | Team |
|---|---|
Mads Pedersen | Lidl-Trek |
Quinn Simmons | Lidl-Trek |
Richard Carapaz | EF Education-EasyPost |
Alex Baudin | EF Education-EasyPost |
Egan Bernal | INEOS Grenadiers |
Valentin Paret-Peintre | Soudal Quick-Step |
Mauro Schmid | Team Jayco AlUla |
Tobias Halland Johannessen | Uno-X Mobility |
Pablo Castrillo | Movistar Team |
Baptiste Veistroffer | Lotto-Intermarché |
Jordan Jegat | TotalEnergies |
Factor: Your Ticket to the Tour
Factor Bikes is a high-performance bicycle manufacturer and engineering-first brand, building the fastest UCI-legal racing bikes in the world. We design, prototype, and manufacture our frames in-house, enabling unmatched speed of innovation and uncompromising control over performance.
