Van Avermaet and Van der Breggen crowned 2017 WorldTour champions

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Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) and Anna van der Breggen (Boels Dolmans) were officially crowned winners of the UCI WorldTour and Women's WorldTour, respectively, at the UCI Gala in China on Tuesday.

The ceremony, established last year, took place after the final stage of the Tour of Guangxi, the final event of the 2017 men's WorldTour calendar.

Van Avermaet, who won Paris-Roubaix, E3 Harelbeke, Gent-Wevelgem and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this spring, already had top spot sewn up as early as September. Although he didn't ride Guangxi, he – unlike runner-up Chris Froome (Sky) and third-placed Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) – made the trip to China for the gala.

"I'm really proud to stand here and have this trophy in my hands," said the Belgian.

As well as the victories in the spring, Van Avermaet also finished runner-up at the Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche, while later in the season he finished second at the GP de Québec, fourth overall at the BinckBank Tour, and recorded top 10's at the Clásica San Sebastián, Bretagne Classic and GP de Montréal.

He ended the year on 3582 points, with Froome – who won the Tour de France and Vuelta a España – second on 3452, and Dumoulin – who won the Giro d'Italia and BinckBank Tour – third on 2545. World champion Peter Sagan was fourth with 2544.

"It means a lot," said Van Avermaet. "It covers the whole year from the start to the end and it covers all races, so there are many contenders, like Froome, Dumoulin and Sagan. It's really hard to win this classification, and I'm really proud to have done it this year.

"I was really happy that they put some extra classics into the WorldTour because otherwise it would be almost impossible for me to win."

Van der Breggen was also in attendance to collect her trophy as winner of the second edition of the Women's WorldTour. The inaugural edition in 2016 was won by her teammate Megan Guarnier.

Like her fellow Olympic champion Van Avermaet, the Dutchwoman's success was rooted in the spring as she completed a stunning 'Ardennes triple', winning the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège in the space of a week. She went on to pair it with stage race success, winning both the Amgen Women's Race and the Giro Rosa and finishing runner-up at the Boels Rental Ladies Tour.

"I'm really proud of the season I had. To be able to win the races I won was great, and I'm really thankful I can do that and enjoy this sport," said Van der Breggen.

The Dutchwoman ended the year on 1016 points, 27 ahead of compatriot Annemiek van Vleueten, winner of La Course and the Boels Rentals Ladies Tour. Katarzyna Niewiadoma, overall victor at the Women's Tour, claimed 856 points to finish third, as she had behind Van der Breggen in all three Ardennes Classics.

"Sitting on the table with those two talented girls is great, and I hope women's cycling will develop more and more with these girls and other girls. I'm proud I'm able to win beautiful races and to win this prize means a lot to me," said Van der Breggen. "A lot of girls are getting stronger and stronger. That's only a good thing, it shows women's cycling is developing really fast at the moment, and that's great to see."

Teams

The WorldTour rankings also include team classifications, and it was Van der Breggen's Boels Dolmans team who walked off with the women's trophy. The Dutch squad, thanks primarily to the success of the Olympic Champion, ended up on 3368 points, with Sunweb on 3050 and Orica-Scott on 2705.

"I think we have really good riders, and in the beginning of the season we were the best team in the UCI ranking and in the end we are the same," said team director Bram Sevens. "That's a big compliment to my riders."

On the men's side, it was Team Sky who topped the rankings thanks to Froome's Tour-Vuelta double. Quick-Step Floors may have won the most WorldTour races this season with 30 to Sky's 18, but Froome's haul for winning the general classifications of two Grand Tours helped them shade it by 12806 points to 12652.

"We've been banging on the door for long time. This year we really looked at the last part of the season, and succeeded," said Team Sky DS Brett Lancaster.

"We're all in this together, even guys leaving the team next year went all the way to tine end. We're over the moon. We'll take this back to our camp next week and present it on Thursday night at our end of year party."

Final 2017 WorldTour rankings