Can anyone stop Peter Sagan? The Slovak powerhouse has continued what is shaping up to be his best-ever season by taking three stage wins at the Tour de France, and continuing his lead at the top of the UCI WorldTour rankings.
Prior to the Tour, it looked as though Sagan may lose his top spot to one of the Tour’s podium contenders, but the world champion enjoyed his best-ever Tour to amass even more WorldTour points.
Sagan now has 445 points when you combine his Tour stage wins with victory in the Tour of Flanders and Ghent-Wevelgem, plus second places at Tirreno-Adriatico and E3 Harelbeke.
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Nairo Quintana (Movistar) moves up to second place in the WorldTour ranking behind Sagan, despite having a difficult Tour de France in which he finished third overall. Quintana was already high up in the ranking after winning the Tour de Romandie and Volta a Catalunya.
Tour de France winner Chris Froome (Sky) elevated himself up to third place after scoring a huge 260 points at the Tour de France for winning and claiming two stages, plus other high stage finish positions. Froome had already won the Critérium du Dauphiné.
Chris Froome, Sky and Great Britain all moved up the WorldTour rankings after the Tour de France
Tour runner-up Romain Bardet (Ag2r) also moves up the ranking significantly, jumping from 20th place to sixth.
With both Froome and Quintana saying that they made also ride in the Vuelta a España in September there is a chance that it could be one of these two riders that finally topples Sagan from the WorldTour lead.
Despite Sagan’s position at the top of the individual ranking, Tinkoff slip to second place in the team ranking. Movistar move up to first, with Sky moving from fourth to third after the Tour de France.
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Spain continues to be the top nation in the ranking, ahead of Colombia in second and France in third. Froome’s Tour win puts Great Britain back up to fourth.
The next counting event in the WorldTour is the one-day Clasica San Sebastian in Spain on Saturday, July 30.
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.
Megan Guarnier (Beols-Dolmans) of the USA leads the Women’s WorldTour ranking ahead of British team-mate and world champion Lizzie Armistead. The next round of the Women’s WorldTour will be the Prudential RideLondon Grand Prix on Sunday, July 31.
UCI WorldTour Ranking 2016 (as at Sunday, July 24)
1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff 445 points
2. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar 407 points
3. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 396 points
4. Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing 394 points
5. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff 337 points
6. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale 314 points
7. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar 307 points
8. Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx-QuickStep 280 points
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana 241 points
10. Jon Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar 240 points
Team ranking
1. Movistar 1102 points
2. Tinkoff 1046 points
3. Team Sky 1019 points
4. BMC Racing 881 points
5. Etixx-QuickStep 734 points
Nation ranking
1. Spain 1185 points
2. Colombia 1015 points
3. France 941 points
4. Great Britain 873 points
5. Australia 647 points
