It's the last day of the first racing month of the 2023 season, and the latest UCI rankings have just been published, with Intermarché-Circus-Wanty the top men's team in what they're hailing as a historic moment.
FDJ-Suez are the top women's team after a storming start in Australia, although the women's season has yet to hit Europe and yet to truly get going.
Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) are the top-ranked riders, despite not racing so far this year. That's because the individual World Ranking is based on a 12-month rolling points system.
On top of that, Amanda Spratt tops the Women's WorldTour ranking, a separate season-only ranking for WorldTour races, giving the Australian the purple series leader's jersey.
It's still early in the season and many of the top riders - even some of the top teams on the women's side - have yet to start racing. However, the early action at the likes of the Tour Down Under and Challenge Mallorca have set the tone and introduced some sense of narrative.
In that respect, Intermarché-Circus-Wanty are still on the rise after punching far above their weight in 2022. The Belgian team looked like they didn't belong when they ascended to the WorldTour with CCC's old licence in 2021, but now look like one of the best-run teams in cycling, mixing Biniam Girmay's star quality with contributions from others across the board.
So far in 2023, they have already amassed 1330 points, with three wins on the board already. Kobe Goosens struck twice in Mallorca, with new signing Rui Costa making it three from five on the Spanish island, while Girmay was on the podium in the other two. Meanwhile, in Australia, Hugo Page was second in the Cadel Evans race after some stage top 10's at Tour Down Under, where Sven Erik Bystrøm was seventh overall.
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"This 31st of January 2023 is a very special moment for our project! For the first time in its history, our team is in the lead of the UCI World Ranking. It is an extraordinary achievement which we never thought would be possible," said CEO Jean-François Bourlart.
"I'm thinking of all people involved since the launch of the amateur club VC Ath since 1974 to reach this remarkable milestone today. It is a fantastic reward for the team of 105 devoted people, both riders and staff, working day and night. We are incredibly proud of this achievement, even though this position is only provisional. We stay humble and continue to work hard for the future of our project, whilst enjoying this historical moment to the fullest."
Intermarché now sit above UAE Team Emirates, whose overall victory at the Tour Down Under through Jay Vine accounts for most of their 1151 points.
In third place are Jayco-AlUla, who targeted the Australian summer with Simon Yates and Michael Matthews, although they're yet to count the points of sprinter Dylan Groenwegen who won on his season debut a the Saudi Tour and has more opportunities this week.
Soudal-QuickStep and Ineos Grenadiers round out the top five, while the two squads who were relegated from the WorldTour at the end of last season are both in the top 10 - Israel-Premier Tech in sixth and Lotto-Dstny in eighth. Jumbo-Visma, who won a stage of the Tour Down Under through Rohan Dennis, weren't racing at Challenge Mallorca or Vuelta a San Juan and find themselves way down in 28th place.
In the individual ranking, which is a rolling tally of points accrued in the 12 months up to the latest ranking date, Pogačar is still on top, with his total of points from 2022 effectively still intact. He leads Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel, with Sergio Higuita climbing to 10th the only change at the top after a month of racing.
FDJ the top women's team as Spratt takes WorldTour lead
On the women's side, FDJ-Suez lead the teams' World Ranking after a dominant stint in Australia, with Grace Brown winning the national time trial title and then a stage and the overall of the Tour Down Under. Meanwhile, new signing and former e-racer Loes Adegeest made a storming debut in sport's top tier with victory at the Cadel Evans race.
In second place are Trek-Segafredo, on 998 points to FDJ's 1208. A constant nearly-woman behind the FDJ pair, Amanda Spratt's runner-up finishes at TDU and Cadel's make up the lion's share of Trek's points, which are topped up by Brodie Chapman's national road race victory.
In third place on 847 points, and climbing two places from last week are Human Powered Health, who started the season as one of the teams in the relegation conversation but made a good start to putting that right through and Nina Buijsman and Henrietta Christie.
In the individual World Ranking, Van Vleuten is still streets ahead after winning the Giro, Tour, Vuelta and world title in 2022, with Brown the only one of the top 10 to have raced this year.
The women also have a separate, standalone WorldTour ranking comprising only the top-tier races each season. FDJ-Suez top that after winning both events - Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans - with Trek-Segafredo second and EF-Tibco-SVB third.
It's Spratt who tops the individual WorldTour ranking, moving ahead of Brown after her runner-up finish in the Cadel Evans race. The winner there, Adegeest, rises 11 places to third.
However, it's not worth reading too much into the women's rankings at this point as only six of the 15 WorldTour teams have started racing. Next week's inaugural UAE Tour, which is a WorldTour event, will have a deeper field.
Patrick is a freelance sports writer and editor. He’s an NCTJ-accredited journalist with a bachelor’s degree in modern languages (French and Spanish). Patrick worked full-time at Cyclingnews for eight years between 2015 and 2023, latterly as Deputy Editor.
