Bernal climbs WorldTour rankings as Peter Sagan remains in control

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Egan Bernal (Team Sky) has soared up the WorldTour rankings after claiming overall victory at the Tour of California last week. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) failed to win a stage in California, for the first time in his career, but maintained a healthy lead in the standings with his closest rivals not racing at present.

The top six remain the same, but Bernal enjoyed an 18-place jump up the standings into seventh place thanks to his win over home favourite Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) in California. Despite Van Garderen taking the race lead in the stage 4 time trial, Bernal beat the American rider by 1:25 thanks to a triumphant solo victory at South Lake Tahoe.

The Tour of California is Bernal’s first overall WorldTour win and adds to the neo-pro’s time trial success at the Tour de Romandie last month, where he finished second overall. He also took a large haul of points at the start of the year with sixth overall at the Tour Down Under. Bernal had been on course to finish second at the Volta a Catalunya, until a crash on the final stage forced him to abandon.

Fourth place California finisher Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) also enjoyed a large jump up the rankings after his injury layoff. He moved up to 36th place, while his teammate Caleb Ewan moved into the top 30 despite being unable to take a stage win. The Tour of California was Van Garderen’s first serious haul of WorldTour points this season, with just 34 to his name prior to the race. His second place was only enough to move him into 58th place in the WorldTour standings.

In the team competition, Quick-Step Floors remain well clear at the top, with added assistance from Fernando Gaviria’s three stage wins in California. The Belgian outfit are more than 2,700 points ahead of the second place team Bora-Hansgrohe. Mitchelton-Scott stay in third place while BMC Racing move up a spot to overtake Movistar for fourth place. Team Sky also enjoyed a two-place bump into sixth thanks to Bernal’s win.

WorldTour rankings as of May 21, 2018