Having collected an additional 85 points last month thanks to his stage win in the Settimana Ciclista Lombarda, Italian national champion Giovanni Visconti has further extended his clear lead in the UCI’s Europe Tour, and looks guaranteed to top the title for the third year running.
The Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli rider was second and sixth on stages plus second overall in the Giro di Padania, and also collected a stage win in the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda. He has now on a total of 636 points, 61 ahead of the Belarusian FDJ rider Yauheni Hutarovich and 126 in front of Davide Rebellin (Miche).
Hutarovich moved from fourth to second by finishing sixth in the GP de Fourmies / La Voix du Nord, fifth in the Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen and sixth in the Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen.
Rebellin had previously been second but despite netting third in the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda and fifth in the Giro di Padania, he was overtaken by Hutarovich.
Tour de France star Thomas Voeckler is in fourth place, the Europcar rider getting no points for his efforts in France as the UCI’s rules don’t allow Pro Continental riders earn any points in WorldTour events. Skil Shimano rider Marcel Kittel is fifth on 476 points, but will have added to that total when the next version of the rankings is calculated. He won yesterday’s 1.1-ranked Sparkassen Münsterland Giro, clocking up his 15th win of the year.
The final Europe Tour ranking will be calculated after the 1.1-ranked Chrono des Nations on October 16th.
This will likely be the final year that Visconti disputes the competition as the 28 year old is moving to Team Movistar in 2012. The Spanish squad is currently one of those with a WorldTour licence, and is aiming to retain it heading into next year.
Other rankings:
On the subject of teams, FDJ is well ahead of its closest rivals Skil-Shimano and Colnago-CSF in the squads’ ranking. It has amassed 2463.1 points thus far this year, over a thousand points ahead of Skil-Shimano’s 1431 and Colnago’s 1407.
Saur-Sojasun and Cofidis are fourth and fifth.
Meanwhile Italy is almost as dominant in the countries’ standings. Visconti’s country has racked up 3782.2 points, almost 700 ahead of France. The Netherlands is a massive 1,706 points further back in third.
Few points-scoring opportunities remain, with the next big-scoring races being the 1.HC trio of Saturday’s Giro dell'Emilia, Sunday’s Paris-Tours and then the Giro del Piemonte in nine days’ time. Come the Chrono des Nations, Visconti, FDJ and Italy will be labelled this year’s Europe Tour champions.