Katusha have moved to the top of the UCI WorldTour team rankings on the back of Simon Špilak’s overall victory at the Tour de Suisse, while Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) remains at the head of the individual standings.
Špilak claimed the Tour de Suisse thanks to a strong showing in the final time trial, and his win is the latest in a long run of WorldTour-level success for the Katusha this season. Ilnur Zakarin already took overall victory at the Tour de Romandie (ahead of Spilak), Joaquim Rodríguez won the Tour of the Basque Country and Luca Paolini triumphed at Gent-Wevelgem, while Alexander Kristoff’s 18 victories so far in 2015 include the Tour of Flanders and stages of Paris-Nice and the Tour de Suisse.
Team Sky drop to second place in the standings, though Geraint Thomas’ second place finish at the Tour de Suisse means that they lie just 25 points behind Katusha. Etixx-QuickStep remain in third place, ahead of Movistar. IAM Cycling remain rooted to the bottom of the standings as the team failed to pick any WorldTour points in its home race.
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The Tour de Suisse had no impact on the top of the individual standings as the first four riders in the rankings did not participate. Valverde is still top on 350 points, while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) remains in second place on 307 as there were no WorldTour points on offer at the Route du Sud, which he won on Sunday. Richie Porte (Sky) lies in third place ahead of Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida).
The biggest mover of the week was Špilak, whose haul of points from the Tour de Suisse sees him climb from 16th to 5th in the WorldTour standings. Thomas jumps from 12th to 6th, while a stage win was not enough to prevent Kristoff from dropping two places to 8th.
Thanks largely to Valverde, Contador and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) – 7th on 252 points – Spain holds a seemingly insurmountable lead at the head of the country standings. Spain’s total of 1138 points is almost double the haul of second-placed Australia, while Great Britain lies in third place on 629 points.
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