Spain and Movistar strengthen nation and team leads
Image 1 of 4
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo)(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The Movistar team time trials(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
The podium of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) and Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Sharp(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The completion of the third and final grand tour of the season, the Vuelta a España, along with two Canadian one-day races has seen a reshuffle in the individual WorldTour rankings.
With his third career Vuelta win, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) has jumped back to top step of the individual WorldTour rankings for the third time this season with 620 points. The 170 points for his overall victory was enough for Contador to dispose compatriot Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) from top spot.
Despite finishing in third place overall, Valverde is 14 points in arrears to Contador with the Giro di Lombardia and Tour of Beijing the only two reaming WorldTour races to come in 2014. Valverde had led the standings since taking victory at the Clásica de San Sebastián.
Simon Gerrans was the first leader of the standings this season courtesy of his third Tour Down Under win in January and by claiming the 100th and 101st victories for Orica-GreenEdge at the GP de Québec and GP de Montréal, the Australian has moved up to third place overall on 478 points.
Rounding out the top five are the two other grand tours winners of 2014 with Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) on 392 points and Giro d'Italia winer Nairo Quintana (Movistar) on 346 points.
The performances of Valverde and Quintana have give Movistar a commanding lead in the team classification with Tinkoff-Saxo almost 200 points behind the Spanish team. Movistar are on 1250 points and Tinkoff-Saxo on 1066 points, are the only two teams to have broken the 100 point barrier but with 200 points awarded to the winner of the Team time trial at the World Championships, a late change in the standings is possible. Although Movistar look poised to take home the best ranked team award for the second year running.
As the best ranked nation of the last two seasons, Spain is all but assured of making it three years in row with a huge tally of 1716 points. Italy in second place on the rankings has accumulated 1060 points With France third on 987 points.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
In 2012, Spain was the top ranked nation with 1889 points with Great Britain second on 1163 points. Last season it was a familiar story with Spain again top on 1890 points and Italy a distant second on 1082 points.
The UCI World Championships take place in Ponferrada, Spain from September 21-28. The Giro di Lombardia is held on October 5, and the Tour of Beijing from October 10-14.
