USA gets six for Richmond World Championship men's road race

The UCI finalized the rankings for the Continental tour classifications on Tuesday, sealing the selections for the UCI Road World Championship elite men's road race. The top 10 nations in the WorldTour rankings automatically earned nine-man teams for the race, giving Spain, Great Britain, Colombia, Italy, France, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic full complements.

Defending champion Michal Kwiatkowski missed out on a full team as Poland was outside the top 10 in the WorldTour and Europe Tour rankings. He is will only have five teammates.

The United States narrowly met the requirement for a six-man team: as host country it was guaranteed six as long as it was in the top five nations of the UCI America Tour. However, before the Tour of Utah, it was sixth behind Brazil. While the performances of Utah overall winner Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Garmin) and third placed Brent Bookwalter (BMC) did not count toward that classification, the USA instead relied on stage winners Kiel Reijnen, Eric Young and Logan Owen to push them into fifth, just 42.5 points ahead of Brazil. Since Colombia, the number one ranked team, already qualified by being in the top 10 of the WorldTour, Brazil jumped into the rankings and gets three riders.

Slovenia, Ukraine, Russia, Denmark, Poland and Norway will have six riders, while Austria, Belarus, Portugal, Turkey, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia and Ireland have three from their Europe Tour rankings.

Thanks to having a rider in the top 100 of the WorldTour individual rankings, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Slovakia and Costa Rica will have three riders, giving favourite Peter Sagan at least two lead-out men.

Latvia earned a single spot thanks to Gatis Smukulis' two points in the WorldTour. Azerbaijan, Greece, Romania and Serbia earned one spot each thanks to having riders in the top 200 in the Europe Tour.

The international ambitions of the African riders on MTN-Qhubeka and other teams hurt countries like Eritrea, who fell out of the top of the African Tour. Algeria will have six riders, Morocco and South Africa earned three spots, while Mekseb Debesay's fourth place on the Africa Continental circuit gives Eritrea at least one rider, likely Daniel Teklehaimanot, who held the Tour de France mountains jersey. Tunisia also earned one place.

Canada, which has suffered in previous years, earned six spots thanks to its strong performance in the America Tour. Venezuela also took six, while Argentina and Brazil took three. Chile, Ecuador and Guatemala earned one spot each.

In the Asia Tour, Iran topped the list with six, while Kazakhstan, Japan and Korea earned three spots.

Oceania's New Zealand gets three riders.

Tomas Nilsson contributed to this report.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Top 10 WorldTour Teams
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Spain9
2Great Britain9
3Colombia9
4Italy9
5France9
6Australia9
7Netherlands9
8Belgium9
9Germany9
10Czech Republic9
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualified Nations by the UCI Africa Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Algeria6
2Morroco3
3South Africa3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualified Nations by the UCI America Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Canada6
2Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela6
3Argentina3
4United States of America6
5Brazil3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualified Nations by the UCI Asia Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Islamic Republic of Iran6
2Kazakhstan3
3Japan3
4Republic of Korea3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualified Nations by the UCI Europe Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Slovenia6
2Ukraine6
3Russian Federation6
4Denmark6
5Poland6
6Norway6
7Austria3
8Belarus3
9Portugal3
10Turkey3
11Lithuania3
12Estonia3
13Croatia3
14Ireland3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualified Nations by the UCI Oceania Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1New Zealand3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Qualified Countries by the UCI Individual UCI WorldTour ranking:
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Switzerland3
2Slovakia3
3Costa Rica3
4Luxembourg3
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Nations which have one rider in the individual UCI WorldTour ranking:
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Latvia1
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Africa Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Tunisia1
2Eritrea1
Swipe to scroll horizontally
America Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Ecuador1
2Chili1
3Guatemala1
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Europe Tour
#Rider Name (Country) TeamPlaces
1Azerbaijan1
2Greece1
3Romania1
4Serbia1

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1