Following his overall victory in the Santos Tour Down Under, GreenEdge's Simon Gerrans became the first leader of the UCI's WorldTour individual rankings.
Gerrans leads runner-up Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) by 19 points, with fellow podium finisher Tiago Machado (RadioShack-Nissan) in third, 15 further points back.
Thanks to the presence of both Machado and Jan Bakelants in the top five on general classification, the RadioShack-Nissan team kicked off the season at the top of the team rankings.
The Luxembourg squad leads Movistar by 7 points, with GreenEdge one point behind.
Strong performances by the home riders, who placed five riders in the points - Gerrans, Sky's Michael Rogers, Rabobank's Michael Matthews and Mark Renshaw and GreenEdge's Robbie McEwen - put Australia atop the nations rankings ahead of Spain and Portugal.
The WorldTour now takes a six-week hiatus before resuming at Paris-Nice on March 4.
WorldTour standings as of January 22, 2012
| 1 | Simon Gerrans (Aus) Greenedge Cycling Team | 106 | pts |
| 2 | Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team | 87 | Row 1 - Cell 3 |
| 3 | Tiago Machado (Por) Radioshack-Nissan | 72 | Row 2 - Cell 3 |
| 4 | Michael Rogers (Aus) Sky Procycling | 61 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
| 5 | Jan Bakelants (Bel) Radioshack-Nissan | 40 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
| 6 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling | 34 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
| 7 | Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Movistar Team | 20 | Row 6 - Cell 3 |
| 8 | André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team | 18 | Row 7 - Cell 3 |
| 9 | Michael Matthews (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team | 15 | Row 8 - Cell 3 |
| 10 | Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-Big Mat | 7 | Row 9 - Cell 3 |
| 11 | Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Katusha Team | 6 | Row 10 - Cell 3 |
| 12 | Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre - ISD | 6 | Row 11 - Cell 3 |
| 13 | Mark Renshaw (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team | 5 | Row 12 - Cell 3 |
| 14 | Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Katusha Team | 4 | Row 13 - Cell 3 |
| 15 | Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Omega Pharma-Quickstep | 4 | Row 14 - Cell 3 |
| 16 | Daniele Bennati (Ita) Radioshack-Nissan | 3 | Row 15 - Cell 3 |
| 17 | Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Movistar Team | 1 | Row 16 - Cell 3 |
| 18 | Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale | 1 | Row 17 - Cell 3 |
| 19 | Robbie McEwen (Aus) Greenedge Cycling Team | 1 | Row 18 - Cell 3 |
| 1 | Radioshack-Nissan | 115 | pts |
| 2 | Movistar Team | 108 | Row 1 - Cell 3 |
| 3 | Greenedge Cycling Team | 107 | Row 2 - Cell 3 |
| 4 | Sky Procycling | 95 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
| 5 | Rabobank Cycling Team | 20 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
| 6 | Lotto Belisol Team | 18 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
| 7 | Katusha Team | 10 | Row 6 - Cell 3 |
| 8 | FDJ-Big Mat | 7 | Row 7 - Cell 3 |
| 9 | Lampre - ISD | 6 | Row 8 - Cell 3 |
| 10 | Omega Pharma-Quickstep | 4 | Row 9 - Cell 3 |
| 11 | Liquigas-Cannondale | 1 | Row 10 - Cell 3 |
| 1 | Australia | 188 | pts |
| 2 | Spain | 114 | Row 1 - Cell 3 |
| 3 | Portugal | 72 | Row 2 - Cell 3 |
| 4 | Belgium | 40 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
| 5 | Norway | 34 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
| 6 | Germany | 22 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
| 7 | Italy | 10 | Row 6 - Cell 3 |
| 8 | Belarus | 7 | Row 7 - Cell 3 |
| 9 | Russia | 4 | Row 8 - Cell 3 |
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