Boonen continues to lead WorldTour rankings after final Spring Classic

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Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) continues to lead the UCI WorldTour rankings after Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana) clinched an impressive solo triumph in the final Spring Classic of 2012, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but the gaps are beginning to close at the top of the table on the 31-year-old Belgian.

At Liège, Iglinskiy launched a late counter-attack behind lone breakaway rider Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) that proved far more profitable than the 31-year-old Kazakh had anticipated. Rather than ‘just’ claiming the second place result that he had thought was the best possible outcome, Iglinskiy caught and passed Nibali on the long ascent to the finish at Ans.

As a result, Kazakhstan now has its third Liège-Bastogne-Liège victory in the last seven years. It was also Astana’s second Classic win in a week after Enrico Gasparotto captured the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday - before finishing third at Liège behind Iglinskiy and Nibali.

Boonen did not compete in the Ardennes Classics and his points total remains unchanged at 366. Nibali, however, jumped from sixth to second with 272 points while Sammy Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), seventh at Liège, moved into third place with 252 points.

Nibali’s strong performance, coupled with Gasparotto’s continuing strong run of results, has at least partly enabled Italy to close the gap on Spain in the nations ranking. While Spain remains in the number one spot with 881 points, Italy has closed the gap and moved into second place at 765 points. Belgium, meanwhile, dropped a spot and holds third place at 674 points after earning a mere four points in the last major Spring Classic

As for the UCI WorldTour's teams ranking, Nibali’s strong performance has had a clear impact. Liquigas-Cannondale could not overtake Omega Pharma-Quick Step in the number one slot at 547 points, but with 80 extra points in the bag the Italian team has at least ousted Katusha from the second place in the rankings and trails the Belgian team by 33 points.

However, the biggest mover in the teams ranking is undoubtedly Astana, who with first and third at Liège, not to mention 14th for another Astana rider, Croatia's Robert Kiserlovski, has now made it into fourth place overall. The 152 points earned at Liège gives the team 408 points and moved them from eighth to fourth.

Now that Liège-Bastogne-Liège has brought down the curtain on the 2012 Spring Classics season, the WorldTour turns its attention to stage racing, starting with the Tour de Romandie in Switzerland, beginning today, April 24, and concluding on April 29.