Davide Rebellin continues to lead the ProTour, but after abandoning the Giro d'Italia before the start of Stage 11 with no stage wins, his lead is under serious threat from current third place in the rankings, Danilo Di Luca, who is only 57 points behind and is currently leading the Giro while also taking two stages thus far. A podium finish this Sunday is a virtual certainty for 'the killer' barring accident, illness or injury.
The ProTour has definitely been kind to Di Luca in the past, the inaugural winner of the series in 2005, won two stages and finished fourth overall in the 2005 Giro. This year with victory in Liege-Bastogne-Liege and an even stronger Giro so far, may very well be a repeat of that story.
The Tour of Catalonia, which was won by Vladimir Karpets, did very little to change the overall standings. In fact they were the first points the Russian scored this year and place him 13th overall. The first 12 places remain unchanged, with Euskaltel's Samuel Sanchez of Spain the only rider in the top 20 to score points, 3 for his Stage 7 victory, in Catalonia.
The Teams ranking remains in the hands of by Bjarne Riis' Danish CSC squad, with the French squad Ag2R moving up the rankings from fifth to third courtesy of the strong performance of John Gadret in Catalonia.
Other teams moving in the rankings are Saunier Duval moving from sixth to fourth, while the Dutch squad, Rabobank, slide from third to sixth despite their leader Denis Menchov's mountain top stage win in Andorra and third place overall in Catalonia. After 12 of the 27 races five teams are with in 40 points of the lead.
In the Nations ranking, Italy continues to lead with 40 points advantage over second placed Spain, with Australia trailing in third a further 101 points behind.
For the full ProTour standings, click here.
