Valverde up to second on WorldTour standings

Following his La Flèche Wallonne victory and second place at Amstel Gold Race, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has moved up to second place on WorldTour standings behind Team Sky's Richie Porte. Valverde's two recent WorldTour performances have also elevated Spain to within one point of Australia on the national standings while Etixx-Quick Step retains its lead of the team standings.

Porte, who has lead the standings since Paris-Nice, has amassed 303 points from the three WorldTour events he has raced in 2015 and currently leads the Giro del Trentino. The 80 points on offer for the winner of Flèche Wallonne elevated Valverde to one point ahead of Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) along with the 60 points he earned from Amstel Gold Race. Valverde will have the opportunity to further move up the standings on Sunday with 100 points for the winner of Liège–Bastogne–Liège.

In fourth place on the standings is the dual monument winner of the early-season, John Degenkolb, on 232 points with Michał Kwiatkowski rounding out the top five on 195 points.

With Kwiatkowski's Amstel Gold Race victory and Julian Alaphilippe's second place at La Flèche Wallonne, Etixx-Quick Step have accumulated 699 points with Team Sky the closest challengers on 643 points. Team Katusha (585) and Movistar (563) are the only other teams to have cracked the 500 points barrier with Cannondale-Garmin still bottom of the 17 teams with 17 points. IAM Cycling, LottoNL-Jumbo and FDJ are the three other teams who are yet to reach 100 points.

Australia continues its lead of the nation standings which it has enjoyed since the beginning of the season at the Tour Down Under with a tally of 638 points. Spain, one point behind, is the only other nation with more than 500 points with almost 200 points separating them from Colombia (442 points) in third place. The Netherlands are fourth on 435 points with Belgium, Italy and Great Britain following them on the standings.

The next WorldTour event is the 101st edition of Liège–Bastogne–Liège while the Tour of Romandie stage race starts two days later.

WorldTour standings