Peter Sagan confirmed as 2016 WorldTour champion after Il Lombardia
Sagan had almost certainly won the individual ranking before the final event of the UCI WorldTour on Saturday
Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) has confirmed his title of the year’s most consistent rider in the WorldTour after winning the individual ranking in the UCI competition.
The final event of the 2o16 WorldTour, Il Lombardia, concluded on Saturday with a win by Esteban Chaves and sealed the rankings for the Slovakian despite not riding the Italian Classic.
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Mathematically, only Vuelta a España winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar) could have surpassed Sagan if he’d decided to ride Il Lombardia and win it, which he did not after concluding his season at the Vuelta.
WorldTour points are awarded for one-day race, tour stage and stage race overall finishing positions for counting events.
The amount of points awarded depends on the ranking of the event. For example, winning the Tour de France overall gives a rider twice as many points as winning the Eneco Tour overall.
It’s Sagan’s first WorldTour rankings victory and is his reward for a remarkable season as world champion, which saw him perform incredibly consistently and take victory in the likes of the Tour of Flanders and Ghent-Wevelgem in the Classics, as well as three stages and the points classification at the Tour de France.
Winner of the previous two editions of the WorldTour Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) finished in fourth behind Sagan, Quintana and Chris Froome (Team Sky) after taking points for his sixth place finish in Lombardy.
His Movistar team once again took the honours in the team ranking; the fourth consecutive occasion the Spanish squad has ended the season on top.
Dimension Data finished well adrift at the bottom of the ranking of the 18 teams with 290 points to the next team IAM Cycling on 418. That could have implications for the African team’s place in the 2017 WorldTour as the UCI begins next year with just 17 places available in it’s top tier.
Movistar took the honours in the team ranking once again (Watson)
Spain expectedly finished on top in the nations classification; the fifth consecutive time that has happened and the seventh win in total. Aside from Spain, only Italy has won an edition of the WorldTour since it’s introduction in 2009.
Great Britain finished in third place, well behind Colombia in second and winners Spain.
The WorldTour winners are presented in front of an audience at the UCI Gala in Abu Dhabi in October, where awards are handed out to riders and staff.
UCI WorldTour Ranking 2016
1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff 669 points
2. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar 609 points
3. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 564 points
4. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar 436 points
5. Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing 420 points
6. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff 428 points
7. Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing 394 points
8. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale 374 points
9. Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep 280 points
10. Jon Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar 270 points
Other
30. Adam Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 144 points
36. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 121 points
37. Ian Stannard (GBr) Team Sky 120 points
50. Simon Yates (GBr) Orica-BikeExchange 101 points
53. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky 92 points
66. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 80 points
84. Luke Rowe (GBr) Team Sky 50 points
97. Steve Cummings (GBr) Dimension Data 38 points
171. Alex Dowsett (GBr) Movistar 7 points
216. Adam Blythe (GBr) Tinkoff 2 points
Team ranking
1. Movistar 1471 points
2. Tinkoff 1361 points
3. Team Sky 1187 points
4. BMC Racing 1128 points
5. Orica-BikeExchange 909 points
Nation ranking
1. Spain 1475 points
2. Colombia 1446 points
3. Great Britain 1050 points
4. France 1024 points
5. Belgium 1003 points