Porte new leader of WorldTour after Paris-Nice victory

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Sky Procycling’s second victory in as many years in Paris-Nice, thanks to Australia's Richie Porte, sees the British team return to the number one spot for the UCI WorldTour teams, with Porte crowned the new leader of the individual ranking.

Australia’s first ever victory in the "Course au Soleil" - the Race to the Sun - came after Porte seized the overall lead on the race’s one mountain summit finish at the Montagne de Lure on Friday. He then followed the example of Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins, the 2012 Paris-Nice champion, by taking the final time trial at Paris-Nice, reinforcing his now definitive advantage in the overall classification.

Porte’s win and two stage victories enables him to become the new UCI WorldTour leader, albeit by a margin of just two points over the previous number one, Santos Tour Down Under champion Tom Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team). Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), second in the final time trial at Paris-Nice and second overall after Porte ousted him from the Paris-Nice lead on Friday, is third in the UCI WorldTour’s classification.

The WorldTour individual rankings will surely undergo another major change at the end of Tirreno-Adriatico, the third WorldTour event of the 2013 season, which concludes on Tuesday. Only then will a clear series of early front runners emerge.

One team that seems to be continuing exactly where it left off in 2012 is Team Sky. Classified number one in the world at the end of last season, the British team is back in the top spot after just two races.

That Sky has amassed 192 points so early in the year is an indication that the team has hit the ground running, and they are already 35 points clear of closest pursuers and former leaders, Blanco Pro Cycling Team.

A familiar name - Spain - is once again at the top of the nations classification, just as it was for most of 2012. However, the margin between Spain and second-placed Netherlands of just seven points by no means a secure distance. The United States had two riders finish in the top four at Paris-Nice, Andrew Talansky, 2nd, and Tejay van Garderen (BMC), 4th, and as a result vaults from 12th to third on the nations standings. France moves up from 10th to fourth on the nations standings largely based on the results of Jean-Christophe Péraud (AG2R La Mondiale) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) at Paris-Nice.

After Tirreno-Adriatico provides the next big shift in the classification on Tuesday, the WorldTour’s first one-day race of 2013, Milano-Sanremo, sees the sprinters and Classics specialists move to the fore ahead of the stage race specialists like Porte and Talansky. Victory for Marcel Kittel (Team Argos-Shimano) in one of the early sprints of Paris-Nice bodes well for the German if Italy’s top Classic comes down to a bunch gallop. Meanwhile Sylvain Chavanel’s win on the Promenade des Anglais on the closing weekend of Paris-Nice could be a good omen for the veteran Frenchman when he reaches the Via Roma in Sanremo - just a few kilometres further east up the coastline - next Sunday.