Pogacar and Van Vleuten top of the world: 2021 rankings round-up

Tadej Pogačar and Annemiek van Vleuten were the number-one ranked riders of the 2021 season, with Deceuninck-QuickStep and SD Worx the most successful teams. 

With all UCI-classified races for 2021 now complete, the rankings for 2021 as a whole are effectively complete. The UCI’s World Ranking, which gradually replaced the old WorldTour ranking, works on a 52-week rolling basis, whereby riders add to their tallies but continuously lose the points they scored 12 months ago. 

After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the rescheduling of the 2020 season into November, the latest published rankings feature results solely from 2021 and can therefore effectively be read as an end-of-season ranking. 

Pogačar tops the men’s World Ranking, way out in front of runner-up Wout van Aert and Primož Roglič. 

With victories at the Tour de France, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Il Lombardia among his tally of 13 for the season, the Slovenian amassed a whopping 5363 points. That makes him the most successful rider in the history of the World Ranking, which admittedly is only seven years old, as he beat Peter Sagan’s 2016 tally of 5,359 by a mere four points. 

Alejandro Valverde is the only other rider to ever break the 5000-point barrier, with 5090 in 2015, although the points allocation for various races has since been tweaked, making direct comparisons difficult. 

Either way, Pogačar's Grand Tour title and Monument double see him end the season almost 1,000 points clear of second-placed Van Aert, who won three stages at the Tour de France, Amstel Gold Race, and Gent-Wevelgem among his 13 victories. The third rider who claimed 13 wins in 2021, Roglič, is third on the ranking with 3,924 points, having won the Vuelta a España for the third time straight. 

Julian Alaphilippe, who bagged 600 points with his second successive World Championships road race title in Belgium, is in fourth place, overhauling Giro d’Italia champion Egan Bernal on 2,576 points. Rounding out the top 10 are Sonny Colbrelli, Mathieu van der Poel, Adam Yates, João Almeida, and Richard Carapaz.

On the women’s side, Van Vleuten ends the year at the top of the rankings for the third time in her career after 2017 and 2018. 

In her debut season with Movistar, the Dutchwoman won the Tour of Flanders, the Olympic Games time trial, and Challenge by La Vuelta among 12 high-quality victories. She also bolstered her total with 10 finishes on the lower steps of the podium, taking her to 5,053 points. 

As with Pogacar, Van Vleuten’s lead at the top of the standings is utterly convincing, with second place going to Elisa Longo Borghini on 3,485 points. The Italian champion had one of the best seasons of her career and amassed a wealth of points in the Classics, winning Trofeo Binda and GP Plouay and finishing on the podium at Paris-Roubaix, Liège-Bastogne-LIège, Strade Bianche, and La Flèche Wallonne. 

Marianne Vos, winner of Gent-Wevelgem, Amstel Gold Race, and two stages of the Giro d’Italia, is a close third on 3,378 points, but also had her share of near misses, with second place at Paris-Roubaix, World Championships, and Trofeo Binda.

The fight for the podium is close, with breakout Dutch star Demi Vollering, winner of Liège, trailing by just 35 points in fourth, while last year’s top-ranked rider, Anna van der Breggen, places fifth in the final season of her career that saw her win the Giro d’Italia, La Flèche Wallonne, and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The rest of the top-10 is rounded out by Marlen Reusser, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Lotte Kopecky, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, and Lisa Brennauer. 

Unlike the men, the fixed WorldTour ranking, which solely covers WorldTour events, is still in place for the women, with Van Vleuten topping that one as well. The main difference is Vollering is up in second, ahead of Longo Borghini and Vos.

Teams

As well as individual riders, the UCI World Ranking also covers teams, and Deceuninck-QuickStep ended the season on the top step. 

The Belgian team have consistently been the team with the most race wins over the past decade, and their tally of 65 this year helped them to top spot with 15,641 points. Having topped the ranking when it was introduced in 2019, they lost the crown to Jumbo-Visma last year but are now back on top. 

It was a nail-biter, however. Ineos Grenadiers led the way for much of the season and Deceuninck-QuickStep only toppled them in the dying embers of the campaign. 

At the end of September, the British team were in the lead but a strong end to the year, including the Italian Classics where Fausto Masnada was runner-up at Il Lombardia, snatched it for them. In the end, Ineos trailed by 643 points. 

Jumbo-Visma are no longer in top spot but end the year on the podium with 12914 points after the exploits of Roglič and an Aert. It’s interesting to not that, while Ineos and Jumbo had their tallies bolstered by Grand Tour victories, Deceuninck-QuickStep relied much less on overall stage race success, but rather on sheer volume of wins in individual stages and one-day races. 

Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates and Colbrelli’s Bahrain Victorious round out the top-five, while sixth place goes to Alpecin-Fenix, a remarkable feat given they are a second division ProTeam. As a result, they have once again earned automatic invites to all WorldTour races next year. 

Arkéa-Samsic are the other ProTeam to finish ahead of some WorldTour teams, placing 17th ahead of Lotto Soudal, BikeExchange, Qhubeka-NextHash, and Team DSM, who are the bottom-ranked WorldTour outfit with just 3,887 points. 

On the women’s side, SD Worx end the year in pole position. The Dutch squad was a steady presence at the top of women’s cycling for many years but were bettered by the relatively new Trek-Segafredo women’s squad last year.

They were the top two teams again this year, but it wasn’t really a close contest, as SD Worx amassed 12,389 points, more than 3000 more than Trek-Segafredo. 

This was largely down to depth. Longo Borghini was the highest ranked of the two squads for Trek, but SD Worx could boast five of the 25 top-ranked riders of the season. 

Van Vleuten almost single-handedly propelled Movistar into third place, although the contribution of Emma Norsgaard – winner of five races including two stages and the overall at Festival Elsy Jacobs – can’t be forgotten. 

There are more than 2,500 points back to the rest of a top-10 that’s more closely packed, with Team DSM pushing Ale BTC Ljubljana into fourth place, while Canyon-Sram, Liv Racing, FDJ, Jumbo-Visma, and BikeExchange round out the top 10.

The other rankings

In terms of nations, Belgium - thanks to Van Aert but also the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Jasper Philipsen, Jaserp Stuyven and Tim Merlier - end the year as the most successful. Slovenia, powered by Pogacar and Roglic but also Matej Mohoric, are second, followed by France, Italy, and Great Britain.

Unsurprisingly, the Netherlands once again topped the women’s nations rankings. With such an enormous share of the world’s best riders, including Van Vleuten, Vos, Van der Breggen, and Vollering, they are way out in front on 16147 points. That’s almost double the tally of second-placed Italy, while Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland round out the top five. 

As well as the headline categories, the UCI’s system comprises several other rankings. As part of the men’s World Ranking, there are separate categories for stage races and one-day races. 

With more points on offer to the winner of the Tour de France than any other race, Pogacar tops the stage race ranking on 3423 points. It wasn’t just the Tour, though. Pogacar won four of the five stage races he entered: UAE Tour, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour of Slovenia, and Tour de France. At the only one he didn’t win, Itzulia Basque Country, he was on the podium. 

Roglic, who won Itzulia as well as the Vuelta, is second on 2499 points. He only entered four stage races, crashing to 15th while in the lead at Paris-Nice before crashing out of the Tour de France altogether.

Given the weighting towards Grand Tour wins, it’s unsurprising that Giro champion Egan Bernal sits in third place on 2187 points, although he made two three-week appearances and bolstered his total with sixth at the Vuelta. Joao Almeida and Jonas Vingegaard round out the top five. 

As for the one-day sphere, Van Aert is the clear winner, despite not landing a Monument or Olympic or world title. As well as his wins at Gent-Wevelgem, Amstel Gold, and the Belgian national road race, he was fourth at Strade Bianche, third at Milan-San Remo, sixth at Tour of Flanders, second at Brabantse Pijl, second in the Olympics road race, and seventh at Paris-Roubaix.

Van Aert ended up on 3016 points, 500 clear of world champion Alaphilippe, who also won his third Flèche Wallonne and placed second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche. Pogacar’s Monument double took him to third place, just ahead of Strade Bianche winner and Flanders runner-up Van der Poel, while the top-five was rounded out by Roubaix champion Colbrelli. 

The UCI also runs various Continental Tours, with the individual ranking essentially comprising the best-placed riders from each continent in the World ranking. Pogacar, therefore, tops the Europe Tour, Bernal tops the America Tour, Alexey Lutsenko tops the Asia Tour, Biniam Girmay tops the Africa Tour and Richie Porte tops the Oceania Tour. 

Finally, 21-year-old New Zealander Niamh Fisher-Black (SD Worx) tops the ranking for best young rider in the Women’s WorldTour.

Individual World Rankings in full