Rodriguez challenges Wiggins for WorldTour lead

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After two heartbreaking near-victories in Grand Tours this season, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) is closing in on the top of the WorldTour individual rankings. After placing third overall in the Vuelta a España, the Spaniard sits just nine points behind leader and Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins (Sky).

Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) is a distant third, nearly 200 points behind Wiggins, following his victory in Paris-Brussels on Saturday. Giro di Padania winner Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is a further ten points behind in fourth.

The biggest movers of the week were Vuelta champion Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff), who rocketed up the standings to 10th overall with 280 points.

Also rising fast was Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp), who surged to 29th from 53rd thanks to his seventh place overall in the Vuelta.

Christopher Froome (Sky) finished just off the podium in the Vuelta, but his fourth place overall helped to move Great Britain into the second spot in the nations rankings over Italy. Spain still leads by a large margin. In the team rankings, Sky is head and shoulders above the rest, a whopping 491 points ahead of Katusha, with Liquigas-Cannondale next in line.

Other movers include two riders whose Vuelta results pushed them up 82 places: Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-ISD), who finished in 15th overall and to 135th and sprinter Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ-BigMat) who failed to finish the race but placed well in a number of sprint stages. He now sits in 142nd place.

Benat Intxausti (Movistar) narrowly made the top 10 in the Vuelta, and moved up 75 places into 79th overall in the WorldTour rankings.

WorldTour standings as of September 9, 2012