Vakoc, Van Avermaet climb UCI World Rankings

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Although Tour Down Under winner Simon Gerrans continues to lead the new UCI World Rankings thanks to his victory in the only WorldTour race so far this season, the latest batch of race winners have climbed up the ladder to threaten the Orica-GreenEdge rider's lead. Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) went from 43rd to ninth in the rankings, while Jasper Stuyven's win in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne propelled him from an anonymous 416th to 25th overall.

Dual winner this weekend, Petr Vakoc (Etixx-Quickstep) moved into fourth after taking the Drome Classic and Classic Sud Ardèche.

Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) moved into third overall thanks to a second place in Gran Premio Città di Lugano behind Sonny Cobrelli, who moved into 10th.

Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) moved back into the top 10 thanks to a second place in Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, now in sixth behind Sergio Henao (Sky).

The UCI World Ranking is intended to be calculated on a 12-month moving window of results, but until next season it is based only on results from January 1, 2016.

On the women's side, Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv) continues to enjoy the lead of an actual rolling ranking system over world champion Lizzie Armitstead, who leapfrogged Jolien D'Hoore thanks to her win in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

Vakoc leads the UCI Europe Tour, while African Continental Champion Issak Tesfom Okubamariam leads his continental tour. Dayer Quintana (Movistar) heads up the UCI America Tour rankings, Peter Kennaugh (Sky) leads the Oceania Tour and Asian champion King Lok Cheung kept his lead in the Asia Tour.

Rankings as of February 28, 2016