Nibali moves to second on WorldTour rankings after Giro victory

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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana Pro Team) secured the most important victory of his career on Sunday, as the 28-year-old Italian triumphed in the Giro d’Italia ahead of Colombian Rigoberto Urán (Sky ProCycling) and Australian Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team). And in the WorldTour classification, Nibali has made huge gains as well.

Only Classics star Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack Leopard) remains ahead of Nibali in the WorldTour after the Italian’s Giro d’Italia win, in which he also took two stages. Now second overall in the rankings, Nibali’s second Grand Tour win after the 2010 Vuelta a España is not the only factor behind his improvement in the WorldTour standings. This year Nibali has also taken the overall victory in the Tirreno-Adriatico for a second year running, where he claimed 106 points. Now, after the Giro d’Italia, he has increased his total to 322 points, while Cancellara, who did not race the Italian Grand Tour, remains on top with 351.

Apart from Nibali, who gained 18 places thanks to the Giro, the other new arrival in the top four of the WorldTour is Colombian Carlos Alberto Betancur (AG2R La Mondiale), winner of the Best Young Rider’s classification in the Giro and fifth overall. After placing well in the Vuelta al País Vasco and in the Ardennes Classics, Betancur is now fourth behind Cancellara, Nibali, and Peter Sagan (Cannondale Pro Cycling), trailing the Slovakian by 57 points and pushing Liege-Bastogne-Liege winner Dan Martin (Garmin Sharp) down to fifth place.

The final new entry in the top-10 of the WorldTour is Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida), fourth in the Giro d’Italia and now in eighth place on the individual classification with 213 points.

While Urán’s podium placing in the Giro d’Italia is the first ever for Colombia in the Italian race, one other major knock-on effect - together with Betancur’s fifth place - is to help propel the South American nation to its first ever lead in the UCI WorldTour. Previously second, Colombia has now moved into the top spot on the nations standings ahead of Italy with 766 points to Italy’s 720, while Spain - previously leaders - have dropped to third overall with 707. Great Britain, previously third, now slides to fourth, while Australia, in large part thanks to Evans, moves up from tenth to fifth.

The teams classification, meanwhile, is relatively stable, with no changes in the top four spots overall as Team Sky, with 865 points, still leads with a solid advantage. The British squad has, in fact, considerably improved its margin over Russia's Katusha from 86 points to 184, although Katusha’s lead on Spanish outfit Movistar - the winners of four stages in the Giro - has shrunk by over a third, from 129 points to 79.

The most significant advance, unsurprisingly, is for Nibali’s Astana team up five places to sixth overall, while Lampre-Merida has gained two spots to move into the top ten.

The next event on the WorldTour calendar is the French stage race Critérium du Dauphiné, taking place June 2-9.