Goss heads UCI WorldTour rankings after Milan-San Remo triumph

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Matt Goss’ (HTC-Highroad) Milan-San Remo victory has seen him take a commanding lead at the head of the UCI WorldTour rankings. The Australian inherits the top spot from fellow countryman Cadel Evans (BMC) and teammate Tony Martin (HTC-Highroad), winners of Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice respectively.

Goss has been a hugely consistent performer in WorldTour events in 2011 and that regularity is reflected by the ample margin of his lead. As well as picking up 100 points for winning Milan-San Remo, Goss took stage wins the Santos Tour Down Under and Paris-Nice to bring his total to 203.

Michele Scarponi’s (Lampre-ISD) strong showings at Milan-San Remo and Tirreno-Adriatico see him move up to second in the standings, albeit 85 points behind Goss. Evans and Martin remained locked together in joint 3rd place, while Tour Down Under winner Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervélo) lies in 5th.

It looks as though Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) and Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) will be difficult to separate throughout the spring, and the duo head north for the cobbled classics level on 86 points apiece.

With WorldTour points up for grabs at both Gent-Wevelgem and the Volta a Catalunya in the next seven days, there may well be a significant shake up in the rankings in the coming week, but given his current form, Matt Goss has every reason to be confident of building on his lead in Belgium.

Goss’ HTC-Highroad squad have a healthy advantage at the top of the team standings, well clear of the early season’s other dominant force, Rabobank. BMC’s leaders Evans and Alessandro Ballan have contributed handsomely to their team’s third place in the standings, while RadioShack lie in 4th.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Quick Step remain the only of the eighteen ProTeams to have failed to pick up a single WorldTour ranking point so far in 2011, while Saxo Bank-SunGard’s reliance on Alberto Contador so far is reflected by its 17th place in the standings.

Not surprisingly, given the exploits of Goss, Evans and Meyer at WorldTour level, Australia stand top of the national rankings, ahead of Italy. Great Britain currently lie in 4th place, and will be hoping to maintain a position in the top ten in order to ensure that Mark Cavendish will have a full complement of support at the world championships in Copenhagen.

The top ten nations in the UCI WorldTour rankings on August 15 are entitled to field nine riders at the Worlds.

WorldTour rankings after Milan-San Remo