Nibali debuts at third on WorldTour standings after Tirreno victory

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Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) has earned a second straight triumph in Tirreno-Adriatico, Italy’s second biggest stage race, that has seen the Italian move straight into third place overall on the WorldTour rankings. Ahead of Nibali are the two respective winners of Paris-Nice and the Santos Tour Down Under, Richie Porte (Sky) and Blanco Pro Cycling Team’s Tom Jelte Slagter.

As might be expected, the differences between the three victors of the first three week-long WorldTour stage races of 2013 is minimal. Porte, with 113 points, is just two points up on Slagter, while Nibali is a further five points behind in third

The Italian’s victory in Tirreno-Adriatico was hard-earned in the extreme. Chris Froome (Sky ProCycling) seemed to gain a solid advantage on the race’s one mountain top finish, but Nibali then turned the tables in impressive style by distancing both Froome and third placed Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) in Monday’s ultra-challenging parcours through the waterlogged climbs of Port Sant’Empidio.

The final stage, a short individual race against the clock in San Benedetto del Tronto, was won by time trial world champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), the second stage victory for his squad in Tirreno-Adriatico after they won the opening team time trial.

While the WorldTour's individual classification remains tightly packed together, the biggest impact of the “Race Between Two Seas” has been in the nations and teams classifications. Spain remains in control of the nations standings, but their advantage of a mere seven points over the Netherlands post Paris-Nice has now stretched to 112 points over the new runner-up, the United States - 309 to 197 points. The Netherlands drops to third with 182 points with Italy and the United Kingdom, in large part thanks to Nibali and Froome, moving up to fourth and fifth respectively.

Spain now has the first three-digit gap in any classification of the 2013 WorldTour and is now well on course to top the overall standings for the second straight year.

The same goes for the 2012 teams ranking winner, Sky Procycling, who like Spain have hugely reinforced their overall lead in Tirreno-Adriatico. Just 35 points ahead of Blanco Pro Cycling Team after Paris-Nice, Sky now has more than tripled that advantage to lead the Dutch squad with a total of 279 points to 162.

If Sky is distancing the Dutch from the top spot, at the same time the new third-ranked team, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, has both jumped six places in one fell swoop and reduced the margin between second and third overall from 64 points post Paris-Nice to a comparatively minor 34 points.

The next WorldTour event to be contested is the first one-day event on the calendar and the first Monument of the 2013 season: Italy's Milano-Sanremo. While defending champion Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) recently dropped out of Paris-Nice due to health issues, his teammate and 2011 Milano-Sanremo champion Matt Goss has shown good form with a stage victory at Tirreno-Adriatico. Another rider who starred at Tirreno-Adriatico, Slovakian champion Peter Sagan (Cannondale), jumped to the top of the favourites list for the Italian monument with two stage wins in Italy, one in a field sprint and the other on a taxing penultimate stage from a breakaway containing eventual overall winner Vincenzo Nibali and stage 5 winner Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).