Quick Step finally registers after Boonen’s Wevelgem win
Matt Goss (HTC-Highroad) has hung on to his lead in the overall International Cycling Union (UCI) World Ranking by a slender point. The Milano-Sanremo winner failed to finish yesterday’s Gent-Wevelgem race, suffering from a cold, and so remains on 203 points; second placed Michele Scarponi’s runner-up finish in the Volta a Catalunya nets him an extra 84 points, which give the Italian a new total of 202.
Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) is the only other member of last week’s top ten to score this time, with the 20 points for his eighth in Catalunya consolidating his third place. The big movers at the top of the rankings are Catalunya winner Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard), who rises up to fifth, and third place Dan Martin (Garmin-Cervélo), who enters the classification in 16th.
Classics rivals Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) and Tom Boonen (Quick Step) illustrate the importance of choosing your Flemish semi-classic wisely if you want to feature in the World rankings. Cancellara’s E3-Prijs victory is worthless in terms of WorldTour points, and he slips from seventh to ninth. Conversely, Boonen’s Gent-Wevelgem win was worth 80 points, entering the Belgian into the classification in 12th.
Boonen’s victory was the first source of points for the Quick Step team, which is of course why his plans to ride the E3 instead were changed at the last minute.
HTC and Australia still lead the way in team and country rankings
Thanks to Goss and Martin’s presence at the top of the individual rankings the HTC-Highroad team retains its top spot. Lampre-ISD rises to second place by virtue of Scarponi’s Catalunya result, although the blue-fuchsia team is under pressure from Garmin-Cervélo, which rises from ninth to third thanks to Dan Martin.
The two teams to lose out to Lampre-ISD and Garmin-Cervélo’s rise are Rabobank, whose riders failed to score this week, and BMC Racing, which relies heavily on Evans’ points; although had Greg Van Avermaet had more luck at the end of some of the big races in the last week the red and black team might well be higher up.
The only major change to the national rankings is Spain’s rise from seventh to fourth, thanks to Contador’s Catalunya win; Boonen’s Wevelgem victory also lifts Belgium into the top five.
UCI World Ranking March 28, 2011
1. (1) Matt Goss (Aus) HTC-Highroad 203pts
2. (2) Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-ISD 202
3. (3) Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 128
4. (4) Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad 108
5. (-) Alberto Contador (Spa) Saxo Bank-SunGard 106
6. (5) Cameron Meyer (Aus) Garmin-Cervélo 106
7. (14) Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 92
8. (6) Andreas Klöden (Ger) RadioShack 88
9. (7) Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Leopard Trek 86
10. (8) Philippe Gilbert (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto 86
…
12. (-) Tom Boonen (Bel) Quick Step 80
16. (-) Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin-Cervélo 72
Team ranking
1. (1) HTC-Highroad (USA) 371
2. (6) Lampre-ISD (Ita) 249
3. (9) Garmin-Cervélo (USA) 247
4. (4) RadioShack (USA) 231
5, (5) Team Sky (GBr) 228
National ranking
1. (1) Australia 517
2. (2) Italy 485
3. (3) Germany 276
4. (7) Spain 272
5. (6) Belgium 198