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Simon Yates Moves to the Top of the UCI WorldTour Rankings

By Monica Buck

The Mitchelton-Scott pro gained 1,230 points thanks to his 10 days in the red jersey and managed to overtake Peter Sagan in the lead, if only by 80 points. Meanwhile, Alejandro Valverde moved up to third place after taking two stage wins at the Vuelta.

Both Yates and Sagan are likely to end their season at the Road World Championships in Innsbruck next week. Their results don’t matter in this instance, as the race does not contribute points to the WorldTour rankings. Valverde might try to go for Il Lombardia and potentially collect some points in the Tour of Turkey. But it is unlikely that he’ll top Yates.

“To see Simon at the top of the WorldTour rankings is testament to a lot of hard work and incredible results this season. As a team, we are especially proud of the fact he is ‘home grown’. We saw him as a talent when we signed him as a neo-pro in 2014, but to witness how far he has come and how quickly he has achieved such success is incredible,” said Shayne Bannan, Mitchelton-Scott’s general manager.

“Not only have we enjoyed a fantastic three weeks of racing, winning our first ever men’s Grand Tour, but we now lead the UCI WorldTour in both the men and women’s rankings,” he added, reminding Annemiek van Vleuten’s success as well.

Is Mitchelton-Scott the team to threaten Sky next season? We already can’t wait to find out.

UCI WorldTour ranking (Individual Men)

1 Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 3,072 points
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 2,992
3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar 2,539
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky 2,534.25
5 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing 2442.14
6 Elia Viviani (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 2399
7 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb 2,393.19
8 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Quick-Step Floors 2,161.12
9 Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky 1,956.68
10 Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Team Sunweb 1975.62