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Monday, July 27, 2009 Contador now leads UCI World Ranking by VeloNation Press at 7:11 AM EST   comments Categories: Pro Cycling, Press Release   Spain’s Alberto Contador of the Astana team is the new leader of the UCI World Ranking after winning the Tour de France. Contador emerged to win his second yellow jersey after three intense and spectacular weeks of racing. He won two stages during the race, proving he was the strongest in the mountains and time trial, and went on to beat Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck of the Saxo Bank team by four minutes and 11 seconds. Lance Armstrong of the Astana team finished third, 5’24’’ behind Contador, on the Tour de France podium in his remarkable comeback season. 26 year-old Contador scored 264 points at the Tour de France, giving him a total of 527 points in the latest UCI World Ranking. He has also scored points in the Paris-Nice, Vuelta al Pais Vasco and Dauphine Libere stage races, confirming his talents for multi-day racing. As expected, the Tour de France created other important changes in the UCI World Ranking. Andy Schleck scored 172 points during the Tour and is now second in the individual UCI World Ranking with 334 points. Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Team Columbia-HTC) moved up to third overall thanks to winning six stages. Former leader Alejandro Valverde of the Caisse d’Epargne team is now fourth with 295 points and the Czech Republic’s Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) is fifth after finishing ninth overall. Contador has now won the Tour de France twice since 2007. He also won the 2008 Giro d’Italia and Vuelta Espana. “I am really happy. It was an especially difficult Tour for me but that’s why I am able to enjoy the victory all the more,” he said. “This Tour was very difficult as you could see and although it sometimes seems easy on television it wasn’t because of other factors. I will enjoy this second Tour win as if it was a double victory.” Astana in first position Thanks to such a dominant performance in the Tour de France, Astana now leads the UCI Team World Ranking. The Kazakhstan team has a total of 1082 points. That is more than 200 points more than second placed Team Saxo Bank, who has a total 863 points. Team Columbia-HTC is third in the UCI Team World Ranking with 750 points and the Liquigas team is fourth with 740 points. Spain still leading Contador’s success has further boosted Spain’s position in the UCI Nations World Ranking. Spain leads with 1334 points, ahead of Italy with 910 points and Australia with 706 points. The UCI World Ranking will next be updated after the Clasica San Sebastian held on August 1, the one-day UCI ProTour race held in the Basque Country region of northern Spain. Just after is the seven-stage Tour of Poland that is also part of the UCI ProTour. The race starts in Warsaw on August 2 and ends in Krakow on August 8.       comments Follow @Pro_Cycling Tweet Subscribe via RSS or daily email Contact the editor about this article