Simon Yates surpasses Peter Sagan to top UCI WorldTour rankings

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With his victory in the Vuelta a Espana, Mitchelton-Scott's Simon Yates overtook Peter Sagan to move into the lead of the UCI WorldTour rankings.

The Briton racked up a whopping 1230 points thanks to his stage win on Les Praeres and his 10 days in the red leader's jersey. The results came on top of his tally from the Giro d'Italia, which he led for 13 days and won two stages, and his stage win and second place overall in the Tour de Pologne. Earlier in the season, Yates won a stage in Paris-Nice and in the Volta a Catalunya, and finished second and fourth overall, respectively.

Although Yates pushed Sagan to second in the WorldTour rankings, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in third, the world champion continues to lead the World rankings, which include all UCI-ranked results, over Quick-Step Floors' Julian Alaphilippe and Elia Viviani. Sagan failed to win a stage at the Vuelta a Espana but won Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix in the spring and then three stages at the Tour de France. 

Shayne Bannan, Mitchelton-Scott's general manager lauded Yates' accomplishments.

"To see Simon at the top of the WorldTour rankings is testament to a lot of hard work and incredible results this season. As a team, we are especially proud of the fact he is 'home grown'. We saw him as a talent when we signed him as a neo-pro in 2014, but to witness how far he has come and how quickly he has achieved such success is incredible," Bannan said.

"Not only have we enjoyed a fantastic three weeks of racing, winning our first ever men's Grand Tour, but we now lead the UCI WorldTour in both the men and women's rankings."

Mitchelton-Scott's Annemiek van Vleuten leads both the UCI Women's WorldTour and the UCI World Rankings.

"2018 has been a fantastic season for both our men and women's teams and to have riders leading the WorldTour in both categories is a great acknowledgement of how consistent our riders have been throughout the year," Bannan said.

Quick-Step Floors, with its huge tally of victories this season, holds a sizeable lead in the teams rankings, with Team Sky in second and Bora-Hansgrohe narrowly ahead of Mitchelton-Scott in third.

The UCI Americas Tour wrapped up with the Colorado Classic, and Gavin Mannion finished atop the rankings thanks to his overall victory in that race. His UnitedHealthcare squad also finished the season as the top-ranked team.

UCI WorldTour Rankings as of September 16, 2018