Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Astana has topped the final standings of the UCI’s World Calendar rankings for 2009, despite not having barely ridden a race since July.
Contador’s second Tour win provided the lion’s share of his points, but victory in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, second place at the Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré and fourth at Paris-Nice and helped him pip compatriot Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) into second place. Valverde beat Contador in the Dauphiné and won the Vuelta a España, but the Spanish Tour carries fewer points than the French one.
Olympic Champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) completes an all-Spanish top three after his second places in the Vuelta and the Giro di Lombardia, as well as Pais Vasco and the Ardennes classics. Tour runner-up Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) was fourth, with World Champion Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) in fifth.
The World Calendar is made up of an amalgamation of all the races in the UCI’s ProTour (including such races as the Tour Down Under, the Ronde van Vlaanderen and the Eneco Tour) and those under the so-called Historic Calendar (including the Tours de France, Spain and Italy, Paris-Roubaix and last Saturday’s Giro di Lombardia).
Strong performances in the Grand Tours from Contador’s teammates Lance Armstrong (12th in the Giro d’Italia, 3rd in the Tour de France), Andreas Klöden (6th in the Tour), Levi Leipheimer (6th in the Giro) as well as a powerful return from suspension for Alexandre Vinokourov also earned Astana victory in the team classificaton. Once again it was Valverde’s Caisse d’Epargne team that finished in the runner-up position; Labiano Unzue’s French-sponsored Spanish team can only reflect on what might have been had his number one rider not been banned from racing in Italy.
Multiple stage victories from Mark Cavendish, André Griepel and Edvald Boasson Hagen helped Team Columbia-HTC into third place in the standings.
Final Individual World Ranking
1. Alberto Contador (AST) 527 points
2. Alejandro Valverde 483
3. Samuel Sanchez 357
4. Andy Schleck 334
5. Cadel Evans 333
6. Edvald Boasson Hagen 322
7. Roman Kreuziger 319
8. Mark Cavendish 304
9. Philippe Gilbert 295
10.Robert Gesink 266
Final Teams World Ranking
1. Team Astana 1100 points
2. Caisse d’Epargne 1048
3. Team Columbia 957