IG Pro Cycling Index: Wiggins is world's best rider
Tour de France victory catapults Briton into first place
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) is the new leader of the IG Pro Cycling Index after his emphatic victory at the 2012 Tour de France.
Wiggins scored 1200 points for winning the Tour de France, 120 points for each of his stage victories and 15 points for every day he wore the yellow jersey. That boosted his points total to a massive 5259 and lifts him from fourth to first place. He moved past Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and now leads the Index by 931 points.
Sagan is now second in the IG Pro Cycling Index after his own hugely successful Tour de France. The talented Slovakian celebrated his three stage wins with three different victory salutes and went on to dominate the green jersey points competition, becoming the youngest ever rider to pull on the green jersey on the final podium in Paris.
Sagan has a total of 4328 points. Rodriguez dropped from first place to third and now has 4320 points, with Boonen fourth with 4267 points. Neither of those two riders raced in the Tour.
Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali - a teammate of Sagan at Liquigas - climbed from ninth to sixth after his third place overall in the Tour, and Wiggins' teammate Chris Froome’s second place overall and two stage victories lifted him from 28th to ninth place. He was one of the biggest revelations of this year's race.
The IG Pro Cycling Index is a continuous 12-month rolling index, so each rider’s position changes as they score points and lose points from the year before.
2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans (BMC) slipped from sixth to 23rd after his points total was updated following this year's race. His young teammate Tejay Van Garderen moved up the Index from 73rd to 40th thanks to his fifth place overall in the Tour.
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Stat of the week: Peter Sagan may only be 22 but the IG Pro Cycling Index stats reveal he has already raced 99 days so far this season, covering a total of 16,399km.
Current Top 20 Riders
1 B Wiggins (GBR) - Sky Procycling
2 P Sagan (Svk) - Liquigas-Cannondale
3 J Rodriguez (Esp) - Katusha
4 T Boonen (Bel) - Omega Pharma-QuickStep
5 M Cavendish (GBR) - Sky Procycling
6 V Nibali (Ita) - Liquigas-Cannondale
7 E Boasson Hagen (Nor) - Sky Procycling
8 P Gilbert (Bel) - BMC
9 C Froome (GBR) - Sky Procycling
10 A Greipel (Ger) - Lotto-Belisol
11 F Cancellara (Sui) - RadioShack-Nissan
12 S Gerrans (Aus) - Orica-GreenEdge
13 G Van Avermaet (Bel) - BMC
14 D Moreno (Esp) - Katusha
15 T Martin (Ger) - Omega Pharma-QuickStep
16 T Voeckler (Fra) - Europcar
17 R Costa (Por) - Movistar
18 S Sanchez (Esp) - Euskaltel-Euskadi
19 M Moser (Ita) - Liquigas-Cannondale
20 R Hesjedal (Can) - Garmin-Sharp
For full tables and statistics from the IG Pro Cycling Index click here
About the IG Markets Index
The IG Pro Cycling Index is a 12-month rolling ranking system designed answer the question “Who is the best cyclist in the world?” We teamed up with sports data experts Opta to create a comprehensive cycling ranking system that was based on an entirely new formula. We source results from the 120 top international road races throughout the season. Races are ranked by our expert panel, based on their prestige and their importance to cycling fans and put into four tiers in three different categories.
The IG Pro Cycling Index has a number of features that make it unique: Races are tiered depending on history, importance and calibre of field rather than UCI Class. So winning the Tour of Beijing will not give you the same points as winning Paris-Nice or the Dauphiné. Wins carry much greater weight and are rewarded more than placings. Bonus points are awarded for multiple victories in the top races, winning the most prestigious stages at the Grand Tours or winning multiple classics.
