The 1981 Tour de France marked the last time the winner of the general classification also won the combativity award.

[3] At the end of the 1956 Tour de France, André Darrigade was named the most attacking cyclist.

[5] The cyclist did not have to finish the race; for example, in 1971, Luis Ocaña crashed out while wearing the yellow jersey on the Col de Menté in stage 14, and in 1972, Cyrille Guimard wore the green jersey in second place overall when he withdrew, but both were still given the combativity award.

In a system that was implemented in 2003, a jury of eight specialists in cycling selected the most combative cyclist of each stage (excluding time trials), with the classification for most distance in breakaway groups only part of the decision.

[9][7] At the end of the Tour de France, a "super-combativity award" is given to the most combative cyclist of the race.