Peter Sagan and Valverde climb WorldTour rankings

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After a busy week of WorldTour racing, it is all change at the top of the men’s standings. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has jumped from sixth to the top of the individual men's WorldTour rankings after claiming his third Volta a Catalunya title, while Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) also surged up the rankings from 14th to second thanks to his win at Gent-Wevelgem.

Valverde won two stages on his way to overall success at Catalunya, putting him to the top of the unofficial victory list too, with eight to his name already. Valverde went into the final stage with a slim 16-second advantage over Team Sky’s Egan Bernal, but his victory was all but sealed when Bernal crashed in the final kilometres. Movistar went on to dominate the podium, with Nairo Quintana taking second, while Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) edged out Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) for the final podium spot.

Sagan rose to second in WorldTour individual standings thanks to his win on Sunday. After a disappointing E3 Harelbeke on Friday, Sagan looked in much better form at Gent-Wevelgem. The World Champion played a quiet, tactical game on the road to Wevelgem, with his teammate Marcus Burghardt putting himself off the front to distract attention from his team leader. Sagan then launched his sprint early to beat a distraught Elia Viviani (Quick-Step Floors) to the line.

After leading the WorldTour individual rankings since his Tour Down Under win in January, Daryl Impey slipped to third place. Indeed, the top ten was shaken up, with Viviani and Arnaud Demare (FDJ) climbing to fourth and fifth respectively. Strade Bianche winner Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal) slipped four places to sixth place, while victory on the final stage victory and fourth place overall at Catalunya helped Simon Yates move up two spots to seventh. Marc Soler (Movistar), Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) round out the top 10.

Despite missing out on the victory at Gent-Wevelgem, Quick-Step Floors domination in the Classics has seen the Belgian squad move above Mitchelton-Scott in the team rankings. It’s a close-run thing, however, with just 23 points separating the two teams. Meanwhile, Movistar jumped up four places to third following their success in Catalunya.

WorldTour rankings