Valverde takes over WorldTour lead

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) surged to the lead in the overall WorldTour rankings thanks to his solo victory in the Clásica San Sebástian on Saturday.

The Spaniard leaped over the previous individual ranking leader Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and the Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali (Astana).

Valverde, now with 462 points, holds a 55 point lead on Contador, while Nibali is 70 points behind, but denied being fuelled by anger for having missed out on a podium place in the Tour de France.

"It was not really like I was holding a big grudge, because I've shown how I can do all year long," Valverde said. "It's just that it was a bad end to my Tour, not being able to achieve the podium goal after coming so close.

"The only thing we could do was race on full steam ahead like I always do when I put on a bib number. San Sebastián is a race I really like, even more with this route. It's my second victory here, plus two other podiums. Ten wins already this season, now on top of the WorldTour... I can only be happy."

Valverde has been on the top of the podium all year, starting with the Vuelta a Andalucia/Ruta del Sol, in which he won three stages and the overall in February. He followed that with wins in the Vuelta Murcia and Roma Maxima in March, and the GP Miguel Indurain and La Flèche Wallonne in April, and the Spanish national time trial title in June.

Other movers were Bauke Mollema (Belkin) who rose to 11th from 19th in the rankings thanks to his second place in San Sebastian. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), third in San Sebastian, climbed to 23rd from 35th.

Spain and Movistar kept their top placings on the nations and team rankings, respectively.

UCI WorldTour rankings as of August 2, 2014